charlie groll.

Movie Journal

The Zone of Interest (2023)
★★★★★

Feb 02, 2024
Movie poster for The Zone of Interest
The Zone of Interest gives you an uncomfortable amount of space. Space to realize how numb you can be in the face of the evil of the world. Space to truly contemplate the "banality of evil," as philosopher Hannah Arendt put it.
A lot of people have commented on the soundscape and how gripping it is. I totally agree, and what really hit me in the back half of this film was how some of the more jarring sounds are really saying "Wake up! Don't you see how fucked up this is?" Otherwise, we might get stuck in that vast, uncomfortable space where evil has a nice, big garden and flows wherever a cushy, bureaucratic job takes it.
The camera work also struck me as voyeuristic, almost documentarian, right from the very first scene. How do we reconcile one's humanity with their overwhelming atrocities? Obviously, they're unforgivable, but isn't there something to be said for the humanity in us all?

Over the Garden Wall (2014)
★★★★

Jan 28, 2024
Movie poster for Over the Garden Wall
Burgle your turts.

Memento (2000)
★★★★ ½

Jan 25, 2024
Movie poster for Memento
I thought I'd seen this before but... it was just a false memory.
Absolutely loved the editing and story structure.

American Fiction (2023)
★★★★

Jan 20, 2024
Movie poster for American Fiction
I thought the satire was sharp… but I’m a white dude, so take that with a grain of salt.

Poor Things (2023)
★★★★★

Jan 06, 2024
Movie poster for Poor Things
See the unknown and know it

L.A. Confidential (1997)
★★★★ ½

Jan 05, 2024
Movie poster for L.A. Confidential
This was such a fun ride! The acting was great, the character building and development was top notch, and the dialogue was truly gripping... all of which produced some great pacing and I didn't once feel like things were dragging on.

The Killer (2023)
★★★★

Jan 01, 2024
Movie poster for The Killer
I, too, really like The Smiths.
This one was really fun to watch and the perspective was really gripping. Love this take on the assassin trope.

Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)
★★ ½

Dec 25, 2023
Movie poster for Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Minus points for gratuitously making Sam L Jackson focused solely on race for 3/4 of the movie.

Die Hard 2 (1990)
★★★

Dec 25, 2023
Movie poster for Die Hard 2
Fun like the first but with quite a bit less subtlety.
THE FUCKING ICICLE. IN THE EYE.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
★★★ ½

Dec 24, 2023
Movie poster for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Classic