The two films reviewed today complete my watching all 10 Best Picture nominees. Available on Amazon Prime by Demand, I very much doubt we’ll see these films in our cinemas, as they cater to a niche audience - the American indie scene and arthouse movies.

American Fiction - Based on Erasure, a Percival Everett meta-novel, has been adapted and directed by Cord Jefferson in a manner befitting the nominations and awards he’s received. Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a frustrated author and college professor who reacting to the stereotypical expectations of the public in terms of how his output should reflect the ‘blackness’ as seen in works depicting gangs, ex-slaves, criminals, and victims of police brutality. This is heightened at a book festival when all the attention is accorded to Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), a new writer whose book seems to fulfill that expectation. In response, Monk writes the ultimate parody My Pafology, under an assumed name, supposedly an ex-con on the run, and watches as the book is picked up by publishing houses and even secures a movie deal.

What’s interesting is how the film also deals with family dynamics and relationships. We watch Monk travel to Boston and reconnect with his family, his hilarious doctor sister (Tracee Ellis Ross), plastic surgeon brother (Sterling K. Brown), and mother who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s (Leslie Uggams). With this move, the film shifts and becomes a family drama, but again showcasing an African American family that was upwardly mobile and far from the typical stereotype. In embarking on a relationship with his Mom’s neighbor, a divorcee named Coraline (Erica Alexander), Monk demonstrates his failings as a human being, and how he subconsciously pushes people away. Where the film takes us in terms of how the joke book succeeds is part of the scathing social commentary this film provides. Razor sharp, hilarious, and so truthful, so much to take from this film. 

The Zone of Interest - A novel from the late Martin Amis serves as inspiration for this film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer. At its core, I’d call it the most brilliant depiction of the banality of Evil. It shows us how Evil doesn’t have to come in some Thanos costume and as an outlandish physical specimen but can be the family living next door, whose everyday concerns are no different from yours or mine. The film opens as a period piece, and we watch a family enjoying the sun by a river - the father with his two sons, the mother cuddling a newborn daughter while the older girls are playing in the background. It’s circa 1940, and welcome to the world of Rudolf and Hedwig Höss (Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller). We then shift to their home, where a magnificent garden takes center stage.

It’s through this limited perspective that we slowly recognize that Rudolf is the commanding officer at Auschwitz. He’s a workaholic commandant who oversees the gassing of the Jewish inmates at the camp that lies just beyond the oasis of domestic tranquility we’re shown. We see Jews serving as domestics, his staff visiting him at home, Hedwig going through old clothes, a mink coat with jewelry stuffed in its pockets, and a son whose nightly pursuit is going through teeth and gold fillings. It’s such a radical depiction that we are stunned and trust Glazer to take us on an intriguing ride. It’s nice to note that Sandra Hüller also stars in Anatomy of a Fall, putting her in major portrayals in two Best Pictures nominees. As for Zone, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more experimental film among the nominees - it’s an impactful film but with an art house, European sensibility.