The Zero Theorem, Cinemas across London

British cinema maverick Terry Gilliam has called his latest film a "Brazil for 2013" and the finale to what he sees as a coherent sci-fi satire trilogy which includes Brazil and Twelve Monkeys.

Indeed, much of it looks and sounds similar to his 1985 masterpiece. It’s set in a dystopian, corporate, bureaucratised future, somewhere between a tech haven and a tech nightmare, and centres on a lonely, emotionally repressed computer nerd, played by Christoph Waltz. Hailed as Terry Gilliam’s best film since Brazil, The Zero Theorem might just make up for the director’s recent string of unfortunate flops. 

“Quirky” is an understatement. Made on a tight budget, the production team learnt that limitation really is the mother of invention. Intricate, eclectic set and costume design has always been a key feature of Gilliam’s films and the set here would make Cirque du Soleil foam with jealousy. Antique telephones are effortlessly littered around a room that looks like the inside of a Nintendo, in a dilapidated church.

No less eccentric are the characters populating the retro-futuristic spaces of the film. Tilda Swinton plays a rapping psychiatrist; Ben Whishaw is a corporate drone; Mélanie Thierry takes on the role of sexy spy; and Matt Damon, the mysterious management figure, dons flamboyant suits that camouflage him among curtains. The all-star cast are clearly having a lot of fun and their exuberance sustains an already, quite literally, electric visual collage.