So, this looks pretty good. The trailer poses an intriguing and mysterious central question before going batshit. There seem to be some indelible images here, and as they emerge one's confidence grows in the film's potential: children running down the street, arms raised as if in preparation for takeoff; a man running through the streets in a similar posture before getting plowed down by an SUV in an elegantly-composed long shot; what looks like a screaming mental patient being held…
A specious but not uncommon assumption holds that the qualities inherent in a film dictate its potential success or failure. "Of course The Godfather was a massive success that's constantly referred to as an example of narrative perfection," the casual media viewer might say. "It was fucking AWESOME!" Obviously this is illogical, as various industry imperatives impact a film's marketing, distribution, and ultimately its reception. Nevertheless, I've struggled with the question, especially as we continue our slide into this new…
Like Under the Skin, The Zone of Interest represents a rare instance in which a conceptually "thick" experimental film also hits hard on an emotional level. Glazer is often speciously compared to Kubrick: can a filmmaker who cares about light, framing, and aggressive soundtracks ever move outside of that long shadow? Maybe not.
However, Glazer's insistence on instilling ostensibly commercial narratives with elements of mystery, wonder, and technical sophistication does broadly align with Kubrick's modus operandi. Glazer now has three masterpieces (Birth, Under the Skin, The Zone of Interest) and one very good film (Sexy Beast) under his belt. Here's to many more.
Spoilery.
An absolutely jarring and mind-bending mixture of romance, cosmic tragedy, and farce, the film paradoxically seems to gain power the more it holds you at a distance (a real Noli Me Tangere situation). Larry Cohen's work seems like a precedent, if only for the fearlessness of the filmmaking and the tendency to bring quotidian reality together with that which is fantastically bewildering. Otherwise, there’s really nothing else like this.
Mimi Rogers is a magnetic presence, turning in a performance…
