The original score for Killing Zoe was composed by Tom Hadju and Andy Milburn, collectively known as Tomandandy. The duo also wrote the score for Going All the Way (1997).

Reviews

"Killing Zoe isn't a pretty film; there's nobody and nothing nice about it. It's the ugliness here that grabs your attention, the sheer sliminess of these people who live and do their (illegal) jobs under the radar of the legitimate world (in what Eric calls, "the real Paris") that makes this movie so demanding of attention. Within five minutes, you'll be as hooked on these people as they are on white powder. There's not one weak performance here." - Laurie Edwards (Culture Dose.net, September 2002)

"The actors are left to indulge every possible brand of moody flamboyance, the better to suggest that these empty events have a core. More bleakly stylish than really affecting, the performances here are limited by the shallow underpinnings of the story.... Gary Kemp of "The Krays" emerges as the most tortured and compelling of the secondary hoods. Mr. Anglade, a furiously anarchic presence, breathes disturbing life into the spectacle of Eric's disintegration. A ravaged, potentially symbolic decline, it's a spectacle that should have offered something better than cheap thrills." - Janet Maslin (New York Times)

"There's also the embarrassing spectacle of gang member Gary Kemp chewing his lines with a cor-blimey accent." Ian Nathan (Empire magazine February 1995)

"Avary's picture is the personification of what Tarantino's work is so often accused of: all style and no substance. The only real innovation in the script is the European locale...Safecracker Zed (the constantly ill-at-ease, Eric Stoltz) is lured to Paris by his old French friend Eric (Jean-Hughes Anglade), to take part in the 'perfect' bank robbery. Unfortunately for Zed, Eric's crew (which includes an objectionable Englishman, played to perfection by Gary Kemp) are a highly unprofessional rabble, who unwisely decide to undertake a marathon heroin binge the night before the job." Ian Johnston (Popcorn.co.uk)

"Ultimately, the greatest fault with Killing Zoe may lie in Avary's ambition. In trying to do too much (crime film, love story, psychological thriller, and dissection of an alienated generation) with a ninety-minute motion picture, his focus becomes blurred. Regardless, with a style that alternately recalls John Woo and Sam Peckinpah, and a tone that is nihilistic in the extreme, he has created a movie that, while obviously flawed, isn't easily forgotten." James Berardinelli (1994 Colossus.net)

"The acting in this film is excellent and while you might not like characters, you've got to appreciate the effort shown by the cast here." Mark Girdler (DVD Post.com)

" "Killing Zoe" looks exactly like the first feature of a guy who grew up devouring videos, who loves movies, and who jumped at the chance to make one. When his producer found an empty bank building (in Los Angeles, where much of the film was actually shot), Avary naturally said, hey! let's make a heist movie! If you look at it like that - as an action-packed bloodbath mostly shot on a few sets with a low budget and hard-working actors - "Killing Zoe" is commendable. Like an earlier generation that started with 1960s exploitation pictures (Coppola, Scorsese, Hopper, De Palma, Nicholson), Avary is getting his foot in the door." - Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times, September 1994)

Reviews are copyright of their source. No copyright infringement is intended.

Quotes

"They are a bunch of mavericks...I think that's part of the nature of being a heroin addict -- you tend to lose all normal social contacts. They all want to become rich, certainly Oliver does, and I think it's more for the buzz of doing it, living on the edge, trying to make something exciting out of their lives." - Gary Kemp (Press Kit)

"I have always liked European cinema and, originally, I was going to make this for $200,000 on 16mm black and white. So I decided to write a movie with a lot of French language and use subtitles, and them make it a violent action picture... For the most part, I wanted to write an extreme example of what my generation is about - people who are living for the moment. I know there are optimists out there, those who are trying to make things better, but it's the momentum of a diseased culture that's difficult to stop. At the same time, [Killing Zoe] is still kind of a comedy. You really have to look at the craziness for its comic value." - Roger Avary, writer and director (Press Kit)