The film settles tediously into the largely one-note groove of are-they-or-aren’t-they (secretly eating, that is), in a narrative game of withholding information that feels oddly dated.

Hausner is clearly talented, and I’m all for a film without easy answers. But I wish this one was less insistently opaque.

Hausner's new film, "Club Zero," is an intense entry in her exploration of ideas run amok, of fantasy overtaking reality to the degree that reality itself is called into question.

The film's calculating design - Martin Gschlacht's static camerawork, the monotone dialogue delivery, and Markus Binder's splendidly antic score - helps paper over any cracks.