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The Tragedy of ‘HAMNET’ and the Absolution of Art

The therapeutic power of art reverberates through both creator and observer. There’s something that stirs the human spirit in encountering it, especially when it comes carved straight off the bone of the soul. And no emotion strikes deeper than the sorrow born of tragedy. In Chloé Zhao’s powerhouse of a dramatic tearjerker, Hamnet, tragedy and art are married through a human tapestry of love and loss. Buckle up and bring the Kleenex. Read More

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Bureaucracy of Evil: ‘THE ZONE OF INTEREST’

How dare the guardians of hell find solace on its perimeter? That is the question that Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing holocaust drama asks. Not so much about the banality of evil as the bureaucracy of evil, the stomach-churning film ruminates on the operational complexities of the Holocaust and the monstrous administrators who oversaw its execution, making for a new entry to the Holocaust recreation sub-genre that’s starkly unique and entirely haunting. Glazer and cinematographer Lukasz Zal capture the simple, beautiful domesticity of a Germany family living just outside the barbed-wire walls of Auschwitz, juxtaposing the visually appealing nature of their idyllic grounds against the soul-piercing aural nightmare sounding on the other side of the wall. That stark contrast and cognitive dissonance – trapping the audience between seeing beauty and hearing hell – creates a truly disturbing tension in The Zone of Interest, sure to make viewers queasy and entirely unsettled.  Read More