Zero Day

Rewatch watch for tonight. Didn’t know movie brainrot could really make me do it, but I have now seen “Zero Day” a second time just 9 days after the first. We’ll see if a third rewatch occurs just yet: this film is wholly compelling. (If watching this alongside the post-viewing commentary counts, I have since seen “Zero Day” 4 times 😭) As with any rewatch, seeing “Zero Day” a second time let me make connections to it’s symbolism, foreshadowing, plot, dialogue, etc., far better than the first time… considering I was just seeing it freshly. Like: I think I forgot halfway through my first watch that the camera was actually Andre’s, not Cal’s, which I assume is a neat way for director Ben Coccio to explain any differences in the footage graphics (wherein an interview he said he used a Sony Mini DV Camera for filming/“Andre’s camera” and a cheap Digital 8 camera for experimentation with the actors/“Cal’s camera” or the “Prom night camera”, etc).  Also, another thing to say, specifically about the character of Cal: I recognize now that, while initially portrayed as a moping, suicide-ideating depressive, and the “follower” in the Andre-Cal army, Cal is really not that at all—he’s just as volatile and misanthropic as Andre is, especially in how callously he treats the mission plan compared to his cerebral partner. Cal may be even worse, considering how gleefully he hides his tracks, like in the graveyard scene with Rachel: with Ben Coccio even saying in the post viewing commentary that Cal is practically “playing with her.” I think this scene reiterates Coccio’s overarching point that shooters like Cal and Andre do so because of their self-supposed superiority over others. Plus, I believe Cal finds it funny Rachel believes so insistently in his normalcy and innocence apart from the “violent” Andre, because he knows the truth—and because he knows “better”, and feels he is better; more intelligent, more knowing than how simply and blindly she operates. In Cal’s words, he and Andre “see more than you do.” Continuing on the Andre-Cal topic: something I failed mention in my first watch review was how neat I find Ben Coccio’s decision not to clarify the intimate nature of Cal and Andre’s relationship. He states in an interview that their more than friendship but less than lovers-esque tension served as a catalyst for their violence—and, if it had been diffused through a kiss or any act of affection at all, Zero Day wouldn’t occur. The unarticulated nature of their love fuels their violence, is a provocation of the act, and to communicate it would be to eliminate the momentum, and send it all crashing down. Specifically, Coccio says that if they did kiss, they wouldn’t go through with attacking the school and killing themselves—rather, they’d want to “explore each other’s bodies for an hour or two.” Something about that complexity is wildly gripping to me: the love they fostered saved them — from being devoured by suffering, life’s banality, the dread of school mundanity, etc., the list can go on with endless speculation from me — Andre even saying “I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if we hadn’t been friends”, but it just as well killed them, propelling them too far off the edge and into that dreadful, dangerous realm where they conjured their idea. How adept I find “Zero Day”, to demonstrate this concept so engrossingly to me; to demonstrate the idea that such love could cause violence; how, in Cal’s words, he and Andre didn’t need to say a word about the shooting because it “was already there” — symbolic of their love and the plan; to convey how none of this had to happen, but it did, and it would have always lead there. Maybe I’m just thinking too much about this film.  “Zero Day” is a film of proficient accomplishment to me, especially on that $20K budget, and I applaud Ben Coccio once again for the riveting narrative conveyed in such a small, 92-minute package. I applaud, also, the informative (and funny) post-viewing commentary from Ben Coccio, Andre Keuck, and Cal Robertson; the “Making Of” montage from Keuck and Robertson; and the happy-go-lucky “Cross Carving” DVD extra from Coccio that reads like a silly carpenter commercial—ironically in light of the heavy subject matter “Zero Day” touches upon. For that, we say thank you! Ben Coccio0️⃣