If you've been wanting to stream the powerful two-time Oscar winning drama The Zone of Interest, which portrays a family living on the border of a Nazi concentration camp, you won't have to wait long because it's coming to Max in April.
The streamer announced the premier on X/Twitter, although the movie's streaming home was never in doubt – it's coming to the streamer as part of the firm's ongoing partnership with the A24 studio, which made this movie too.
Winner of two Academy Awards, @A24's The Zone of Interest begins streaming April 5 exclusively on Max. #MaxGetsMovies pic.twitter.com/p7x1i1BebBMarch 13, 2024
Based on the novel by Martin Amis, the movie won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film this year, as well as for Best Sound. It was also nominated for three other awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Unfortunately, the win was overshadowed somewhat by the apparently accidental misquoting of director Jonathan Glazer's anti-war speech, misquoting that has since been widely amplified and used to attack the director for something he didn't say.
That's a shame, because it's overshadowing an important message in the film that Glazer echoed in his speech: dehumanization, atrocities and the banality of evil don't just exist in the distant past.
Should you stream The Zone of Interest?
As a date movie? Probably not. The Independent says that it spreads the camp's "soul-sickness across each frame". But as a horrifying and beautifully made film about some of the worst events in human history, The Zone of Interest is a hard and important watch.
Empire gave the film the full five stars, calling it "striking and unforgettable... the horror is unseen but underlying, and all the more arresting because of it". The Guardian said it "pulls the banality of evil into pin-sharp focus". And many reviewers praised the sound design and score, with The New Yorker saying that "what will linger, no question, is the score by Mica Levi, who seems to make music out of pain, replete with whisperings and groans".
Seven months on, RogerEbert.com's Robert Daniels says he's "still haunted" by the movie: "It’s a disturbing work, guided by a discomforting sense of immaculateness that chills the viewer... the fact that The Zone of Interest arrives now, as world powers manipulate the narrative to sanitize their crimes, makes Glazer's images all the more chilling."
The Zone of Interest will be available to watch on Max from April 5, 2024. The film is also available to rent on Prime Video and on Apple TV Plus.
