![]() ![]() He assesses the world and finds it contemptible. The Power of the Dog is an unexpected film, taking its audience on a surprising, complex journey that is so nuanced it would take more than one viewing to appreciate everything about it. ![]() When George falls in love with and marries Rose ( Kirsten Dunst), the widowed proprietress of a desolate hotel, Phil seethes with a roiling crock full of emotions-resentment, jealousy, disdain-that find their way out through Cumberbatch’s pinched, appraising eyes. Phil is the rebel, snarling in cruddy chaps knife in hand, he can castrate a bull with a flick of the wrist. ![]() George, the bather, is tidy and polite, given to wearing Sunday-best suits and ties as he goes about his rancher business. Jane Campion begins and ends her sinewy western The Power of the Dog with a nod to John Ford’s penchant for framing figures and action through doorways and windows, less a way of focusing our gaze than a proclamation: This is cinema, people-use the whole canvas! After an enforced year or so of watching movies on tiny screens, it’s a pleasure to sink into Campion’s smart, entertaining and terrifically tense sand-painting of a picture, premiering at the 78th annual Venice Film Festival.īased on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of sibling strife in 1920s Montana, The Power of the Dog stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons as, respectively, Phil and George Burbank, rancher brothers whose disparate personalities could be summed up in a single sentence: One bathes, the other doesn’t. If you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |