A look at New York City’s lost seedy past, plus the best movies in L.A. this week

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

We mentioned Jonathan Glazer and his new film “The Zone of Interest” here a few weeks ago. The movie opens in Los Angeles this week, including playing in 35mm at the Vista. A loose adaptation of Martin Amis’ novel about the family of the commandant at Auschwitz living just outside the walls of the concentration camp, “Zone” also features an arresting score by composer Mica Levi. In his review, Justin Chang wrote: “More than any movie I’ve seen this year, or perhaps any year, ‘The Zone of Interest’ leaves you pondering the magnitude of what the banality of evil has wrought — and the terrible, inconsolable void that it leaves behind.”

An image from Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”

(A24)

The film won best picture, director and music last weekend from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., with actress Sandra Hüller recognized for her performances in both “Zone” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp gave a rundown on how the voting went down. (I’m a member too.)

Justin compared the film to “Oppenheimer,” LAFCA’s runner-up for best picture, noting: “Here are two of the most dramatically and formally daring World War II dramas in recent memory, one a blockbuster biopic (an actual hit), the other a mesmerizing art-house stunner. And both movies, in their own damning way, are about the atrocities we cannot see, the barbarism we too easily shrug off. Call me crazy, Glenn, but given the present state of the world, I can’t help but feel that’s why they resonated with us — and also why I hope ‘Zone’ resonates all the more when it opens in theaters this week. It may not be a hit, but good God, does that movie land.”

Glazer’s previous feature, “Under the Skin,” also featuring a score by Levi, is playing the Academy’s David Geffen Theater on Wednesday.

‘The Gods of Times Square’

An image from Richard Sandler’s “The Gods of Times Square.”

(The Film Desk)

Photographer Richard Sandler documents the changing face of New York City’s Times Square in his “The Gods of Times Square,” shot over six years and completed in 1999. This was a crucial period in the transformation of Times Square and New York City, as street preachers, porn theaters and the neighborhood’s overall seediness gave way to a more tourist-friendly, corporatized and commercial destination. What some saw as cleaning things up was seen by others as losing something essential about the city and its character.

The film will be screened by Mezzanine at Brain Dead Studios on Tuesday.

In a statement, Sandler described his film as “a moment in New York City history when the place most identified with free speech and free spirits, changed from a democratic, interracial common ground, to a corporate-controlled, soulless theme park.”

The film is being co-presented by the Film Desk and the Safdie Brothers’ Elara Pictures. Josh Safdie said in a statement: “What used to be Times Square was a town square on steroids. … It was a magnet for all things good and bad. It was hell with attractions. I still secretly wished to be yelled at whenever I enter Times Square.”

‘Children of Men’ and ‘Snowpiercer’

Clive Owen in the movie “Children of Men.”

(Jaap Buitendijk / Universal Pictures)

On Monday and Tuesday, the New Beverly will show the dystopian double-feature of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 “Children of Men” along with Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 “Snowpiercer.” (Both will screen in 35mm.)

“Children of Men’ is set in the year 2027, when women have mysteriously stopped being able to give birth. A disillusioned former political activist (Clive Owen) must help transport a young woman who may be the key to humanity’s survival.

In his review at the time, Kenneth Turan called the film “a ‘Blade Runner’ for the 21st century,” adding: “Perhaps most delicate of all is the way director Cuarón has made ‘Children of Men’ comment on the problems society faces today. … This is a world of rubble, fear and hopelessness whose connections to our own are never forced; Cuarón is such a fluid director with such a powerful imagination, they don’t have to be. This could well be our future, and we know it.”

“Snowpiercer” was Bong’s English-language debut with a cast including Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, in which a new ice age has rendered the world uninhabitable. A super-train endlessly circles the globe with the planet’s survivors onboard, the masses in squalor in the back while elites live in luxury upfront. Eventually, people begin fighting their way forward, car by car.

I spoke to Bong when the film was first coming out. He described the story by saying: “This is sci-fi and very pure. So it’s very immediate, the ideas and the message. It’s a simple structure, the rich are in the front, the poor people are trying to get to the front and defeat them.”

Other points of interest

Pamela Adlon and ‘All That Jazz’

On Tuesday, Vidiots will screen Bob Fosse’s 1979 “All That Jazz,” with a special introduction by Pamela Adlon, whose own soul-baring, autobiographical series “Better Things” could be seen as indebted to Fosse’s vision.

“All That Jazz,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and four Academy Awards, depicts Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a renowned choreographer and director of theater and film (à la Fosse himself) as he pushes himself to the brink of death with work, women and pills.

The movie is now frequently namechecked by other filmmakers as an inspiration. I wrote about Fosse a few years ago; editor Alan Heim, who won an Oscar for his work on the “All That Jazz,” told me: “The critics on ‘All That Jazz,’ the worst thing that people said was that it was an ego trip. I think it was a clubbing of his ego. He was not kind to himself. He was nicer than he pictured himself.” And none other than Liza Minnelli, who won a lead actress Oscar for her work in Fosse’s “Cabaret,” also noted: “He wasn’t the person portrayed in ‘All That Jazz.’”

‘Raging Grace’

Max Eigenmann in a scene from “Raging Grace.”

(Brainstorm Media)

Winner of two jury prizes at this year’s South by Southwest Film and TV Festival and nominated for two British Independent Film Awards, “Raging Grace” is the debut feature from writer-director Paris Zarcilla. The film will be playing a limited engagement at the American Cinematheque from Tuesday through Friday.

Described as a “coming of rage” story, the film follows Joy (Max Eigenmann), an undocumented Filipina cleaner living in London and trying to support her daughter Grace (Jaeden Boadilla). A job tending to a bed-bound owner of a large mansion turns out to be too good to be true, as the film blends horror and social commentary.