Sensitive and restless Johannes is accepted to an elite school in Tallinn and expects life to go uphill. Instead, he becomes the victim of mental abuse by his classmates. In search of recognition, he goes to his old Lasnamäe friends, who spend their time doing drugs, hanging around, and partying, rather than focusing on schoolwork. At home, Johannes must deal with his mother’s deteriorating mental health. As the tension grows, he finds himself at zero point, where he must completely reset his life to build it up from scratch.
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A decent boy with a terrible background and a terrible company goes to a new school where the group dynamics and the high academic expectations crush him further. On top of it all, a famous band leader steals his lyrics and puts them in his new album without crediting him.From that point you could only go up, states the conclusion of the flick. But in reality - sadly, no. In a similar situation most people don't start to "reform themselves", as the annotation cheerfully goes, cause they just don't have the proper reforming material on their disposal. They only have their trauma and confusion, and anger.Of course the protagonist would have dreamed of a happy ending like the one we have here, as would anyone in his shoes. But does it actually give hope or obliterate that forever? Imagine you could relate to the character; imagine you are or you were in his position. Now imagine someone told you you could simply "reform"! Yeah, take a few deep breaths through your broken nose and just start over! Oh, and after you do that, be prepared that everyone will suddenly start acting as cooperative as hell. My ass!!
Being aware that I am not a member of target audience here, I am also aware that Estonian films have become more interesting; we have always had good performers, but most scripts were "domestic" and/or subject to ideology. The current century has brought a new breath of air into Estonian cinema and I am glad to announce that Nullpunkt is a good example of a mix of convincing plot, realistic characters and distinct performers (casting). 25-years-old Märt Pius is persuasive and realistic as 18- years-old Johannes and the background and situations he meets with are part of modern society in Estonia as well - social exclusion, stratification, drug use, cliquishness and many other largely negative phenomena the youth has to come across and deal with in a way or another. Even if you win, there are consequences, so the victories are often Pyrrhic... As for other performances, they are all at least good, although I saw more joint dynamism in "older" characters, all performed by acclaimed Estonian actors, in spite of the role scale. Some Johannes' classmates seemed a bit sketchy, their inclusion was not always grounded, although it provided some wide scope and view. So, a good youth film, apparently easily to identify with - for the younger generation. For me, the last words of Johannes were a bit odd and out of context, but then - see my first words of my review... :)
Even thou movie was not based on true story it could totally be it as things that happened in the movie do happen in real life on daily basis. You can always choose how to respond. Main actor was a strong and persistent individual. So go and watch what did he do and what happens next. It is a movie but you can learn from those mistakes. Suitable for everybody from 12 to seniors. I give it almost a perfect score. I did notice that some things were too short (good movie is always too short) comparing to real life. More details means that runtime would extend way over 2 hours and that is not what everybody wants. Also no tears. That is also nice.
