I feel like a broken record when I talk about how bad this month is for seeing movies. I wish to see and write about movies that are coming out that week, but I’ve exhausted about all of my options with films like FOUNDER’S DAY and MEAN GIRLS (the musical). There is some upcoming stuff, but the last couple of weeks have been nothing to be excited about.

I almost declined seeing a movie at all this week, but my friend who accepted my invite to the theaters said we should go see this anyways - for one, because it is apparently a good movie, two, because I claimed that I would see a movie every week this year, and three, because I purchased the tickets already. And it turns out if you purchase tickets to a movie at Regal, if it is within a 60-minute window of the showtime, you can no longer refund it.

Also, I am going to be referring to the person who attended the showing of ZONE OF INTEREST as "my friend" because he or she preferred to not be referenced by name in this review because, reasons (it's a she BTW). I brought it up later, asking if I could mention that they (she) had some things to say about it, but they (she) said no. And then they (she) said sure, it was fine, but the indecisive nature and hesitation in the response made me annoyed, so I have decided to passively reference them (her) because, reasons. So sadly, no images to accommpany this review. Next week I will see something with somebody more willing to participate. If you are a woman who wants to see a movie on Regal Tuesday, feel free to e-mail me.

I do think I’m going to have to get the Unlimited Pass, although the Tuesday theme is cool, and it gives me a specific day to look forward to.

Somebody also recently asked me if I would review a movie at Metrograph - I am going to say no to this idea, because if I have to sit in one of those seats again, I believe I may dissipate into ashes and dust from the discomfort.

Which sadly brings me back to the movie in review this week.

ZONE OF INTEREST is a historical drama film (according to Wikipedia) that takes place in Auschwitz. It doesn’t give dates necessarily on when EXACTLY it takes place, but I only know of like, one thing that happened historically in Auschwitz.

Written by Jonathan Glazer, which during the opening credits I thought meant Jon Glazer the funny actor from GIRLS. I thought, what an interesting career pivot to write about a concentration camp commandant and his family as they live on the outskirts of said camp. By outskirts, I mean on the other site of the barbed-wire fence. In the very backyard of respected Nazi commander Rudolph Hoss is THE Auschwitz camp - throughout the film are understated - no, mundane - scenes - his children playing in the backyard, the dog sneaking human food from off the picnic table, normal slice-of-life stuff for a Nazi commander and his fam. You hear gunfire and explosions, and screams of what we can only assume are prisoners of said camp, being sent to the furnace.

Anyways, it wasn’t THE Jon Glazer, but rather Jonathan Glazer, who I know from UNDER THE SKIN, which I saw at some point - it had a lot of dicks and some titties, IIRC... I digress, back to the holocaust movie.

We follow Rudolph and his family living a fortunate - if not a little mundane, as I said before (with the exception of the holocaust happening on the opposite side of the fence) - life, in a beautiful home, with a beautiful garden, huge sexy dog, and kids, who seem to have problems... Like one of them seems to be stupid and retarded, which I don't know what Glazer's point is here - I'm not a theme detective here, people. That's what my friend was supposed to be here for, but they (she), again, opted out of being included in this review.

Hedric, Rudolph's wife, is played by Sandra Hüller, who was the wife in Anatomy of a Fall, another movie people liked. Her 2023 seemed to kick ass playing scary mother types. I really liked her in that. I loved her in this, too, as much as I could ever love the the wife of a concentration camp inspector. After the movie, my friend said that the theme was centered around the banality of evil - Hüller creates that central vibe the most. Her life is, in spite of things, stable. Her mother visits, she has gossipy exhanges with her friends, makes fun of French people, and asks her husband to try finding chocolate within the concentration camps.

All this is played, in a Jonathan Glazer - not Jon Glazer, again - kind of way, with atmospheric effects in the visual and audio departments, sometimes to the films detriment, IMHO. For instance, we get the title card in the beginning of the movie, and after, we get around two minutes of a black screen with indiscernible sounds coming in the background. I get it - the mundanity of evil and everything - but to put it in the beginning feels directorially ignorant, like... “Yeah, this is gonna be a heavy movie.” It's hard to articulate, but I assume he was trying to make me feel something by doing this, but instead it pissed me off, and gave me more time in the theaters to wonder why my friend was so against being included in the review. Was she embarassed or something? I knew already she was going to be unwilling to get her photo taken, because she's said several times prior that she hates seeing pictures of herself. And if I know anything about me, it's that I'm not going to ask somebody for something if I'm 80 percent sure they're going to say no.

The central conflict of the film is Rudolph getting promoted to a higher position as a Nazi type guy - before it was local, but now it's on a much larger scale, forcing him to relocate, much to the dismay of his wife, who has staked their current home as their forever home. Before he moves, he makes a few phone calls, has sexual relations with prisoners (off-camera) and washes his dick and balls (somewhat on-camera). There isn't really on-screen violence, but it is constantly made known that violence is happening and abundant, in a way that is done well, in spite of some of the arty stuff I don't think works.

I don't know, I didn't want to review a movie with heavy tones! I mean - Yes! It's a good film. Although, I don't want to know the kind of person who rants and raves about movies like this "ZONE OF INTEREST IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE EVER!!!" That just would be crazy to hear or read. Yea, it captures the atrocities of Things That Really Happened, but maybe gets too lost in its atmoshere some. My friend says it is above Shindler's List on the list of Holocaust movies - I cannot debate this, as I've never seen it. But she also went on a tangent about how this movie came out at a weird time, in reference to the situation in Palestine, and I was just like, OK...? At this point I was still under the impression that Jon, not Jonathan, Glazer, made the film, so I was like, let the dude get his money, cause he's like a comedian or something. I was like, this dude was in Pootie Tang, and now he's directing heavy ass shit. I really am such a fucking idiot!

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