a film exploring the mundanity of all things, but primarily evil
the movie's gaze is so well earned. don't get me wrong: it is incredibly hard to watch, and the film does not pull any punches, but it does not revel in suffering or veer into exploitation, primarily because it doesn't need to. the mundane day-to-day life of the situation is already horrific beyond words. the film really does need to be grounded in the way that it is to avoid falling too deep into despair: with long shots of nature, flowers, bathing, food preparation, cleaning, the ordinary things we all do in our own ways.
much of the movie is filmed with stationary cameras in the home that was built on location with no crew on set, making scenes where someone is just closing doors and turning off lights feel so much more fluid and alive, but also haunting and empty. it is in this silence (primarily the ending during which i was trying my hardest to stifle sobbing in a silent theatre) that the movie throws its heaviest blows.
in those moments, the film shows us that evil is mundane because life is quite often mundane and evil people don't think of themselves as evil, they just think That's Life. it is work, it is logistics, the maintenance of systems. evil people are not in fact willfully ignorant of their actions but instead exuberantly accepting of its rewards and prideful of their work. all they want to do is make their machines they love so much run better than ever, preferably for less money, with less people, for a larger return on what they want, both then and now. good luck, everybody