Apathetic Noir: Why I Love 1998’s ‘Zero Effect’

By Sean Tuohy

"A person can't escape their nature."—Daryl Zero

The pop culture landscape is teeming with overlooked movies. We all have that movie that we think is underrated or an actor or actress performance that no one took seriously. These are small, personal gems that you want share with the world at large, but that get you nothing but blank stares from unenlightened coworkers.

One of my favorites is a 1990s post-noir film that bleeds Generation X apathy: “Zero Efect.” The 1998 mystery thriller doesn’t play by modern mystery thriller rules. Writer/director Jake Kasdan, son of Lawrence Kasden, penned a tight, well-thought-out caper that would have made Lew Archer and Phillip Marlow stand up and cheer.

The movie follows the world's most private detective Daryl Zero and his partner Steve Arlo as they help find a blackmail artist in Portland. Zero is brought to life by Bill Pullman, who designs a character you learn to love slowly over the course of the movie. He’s a man driven by his work; skilled, resourceful, one of a kind. But Zero possesses no social graces and can be nearly impossible to be around. Somehow Arlo is able to keep the oddball hero on track, despite the issues that it causes with his relationship with his girlfriend. Arlo is played by Ben Stiller, who brings all his trademarks to the role, but with a little something extra. Stiller plays Arlo like a real person. He gets annoyed and frustrated with Zero and his crazy ways, but at the same time respects Zero's skills. The two have a very brotherly relationship, allowing the love they hold for one another to stay under the surface. The pair has great dialogue that bounces off one another and flows with ease.

"I'll shoot you. Really, I will. I have a gun and everything."—Steve Arlo

Now, I will say that Monk had a similar plot line: a detective who can barely operate in the real world, but with the help of a grounded partner he always solves the case. Well, Zero Effect took it a step further and made Zero a very difficult person to like. He snaps and lashes out at others and in one scene talks about how he has stayed awake for three days because of methamphetamines. Zero "lives" in closed off apartment from the world in a mess of paperwork and trash. He believes people listen to phone calls and that "they" are out there. I have no idea who "they" are, nor does Zero, but he believes in them. This over-the-top character produces some great comic moments, and “Zero Effect” as a whole is filled with great one liners that make you chuckle.

Kasden must be a fan of noir mystery because it shows in the movie. Scenes scream noir with shadows and the fanatic lighting. The script was well planned out because every step falls on the right spot.

Why was this movie so unknown? I'm not too sure. It wasn't a blockbuster, nor was it a Shane Black-style bang bang noir thriller. It was a small indie movie that told a compact, but layered story. I want to see more Darryl Zero in a television show or a book series. I would follow him and Arlo for years to come.

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From Protestors to Yuppies: How the Hippy Generation Sold Out and is Now Candy Crushing Our Country

From this to "corporations are people too!"

By Daniel Ford and Dave Pezza

I didn’t mean to poke the bear.

I usually get people going consciously. I’ve been in the mood to read/listen to something really rant-y and sassy all week, but I didn’t knowingly cause Dave Pezza to type so fast and angrily that his keyboard cracked from the pressure on Thursday morning. It started innocently enough. We were trading jokes back and forth about a variety of topics—free trade, the GM bailout, our generation—when I sent this reply:

“My father’s generation protested their brains out. We’ve got Occupy Wall Street.”

Well.

That’s really all Dave needed to get fired up.

I more or less sat back and watched as Dave proceeded to melt my computer screen. By the time you read this, he may or may not be protesting somewhere. You’ve been warned.

Dave Pezza Unleashed

Your father’s generation had something to give a shit about, we don’t.

However, they took all that away from us and then became the very people they were fighting against. Our generation has to fight a war of abstracts, not policy. And we don’t have the means to do so, mainly because we have been convinced that we are not capable of thinking and contributing unless we are 25, have had at least four years of college education, and have amassed enough debt to keep the banks happy. Last time I checked, an 18-year-old was a legal adult. Maybe we should spend less time protecting our “children” and more time culminating our young adults.

If you really consider the modern college system, it’s basically a system of generating money and a way to keep a generation of young adults financially dependent on the banking system. All the while, our ideas and experiences are degraded to juvenile notions when most of our parents’ generation was married with budding careers and children by the age of an average college senior.

(Daniel: “Um, is your keyboard on fire?” Dave: “Quite possibly.”)

I have a very strong and pissed off opinion about our parent’s generation. They have screwed up royally and refuse to admit to it. Don’t get me wrong, every generation has had hardships. But at least past generations recognized the impediments in their way. Ours is too distracted by bullshit like social media and inane, paltry complaints like Occupy Wall Street.

Just food for thought: The yuppies that our parent’s generation became are just now screwing us. Just one example is that we can’t own homes because they illegally decided that they were going to destroy the housing market. After working with a real-estate attorney for nine months and taking Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and US Bank to court for very obvious, but legally vague, widespread fraud, I have little to no respect for the opinions of older people who call my generation lazy. They could not have uttered a more ignorant statement in regards to the present economic conditions, and they are doing a grave injustice to the ideas that should have been passed down to them from their parents, who were one of the greatest generations of Americans in our short history.

(Daniel: “This is the best part of my day…and the saddest. My editor mind: ‘How can I compile this into a rant post?’” Dave: “Haha well I’m full of this shit, so if you need more, just poke the bear.” Daniel (to himself): “I’m willfully poking Dave with a stick at this point.”)

Point in case: NPR is running a profile on Candy Crush right now. There is a “gaming expert” literally explaining what Candy Crush is.

Holy damn.

I think, ultimately, people from the prior generation realized that getting money and improving their lives through the economic boom of the 1990s was far easier and more convenient than sticking to their ideals. Essentially, they got lazy. It just became way easier for them to stop giving a shit and ride out the system they thought they created. Little did they know that their whole "system" was just poising the country for the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. They all just sat back and thought, "Wow look how right and justified we were."

Wrong.

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