Dogs Bark

Something Wicked - - The Tragedy Of Macbeth (2021, USA, B/W, 105 min) - - 24 January 2022

Strongly recommended. Seems odd, perhaps, for Joel Coen (Blood Simple) to be working the bard so late in his career. Denzel Washington (Glory) is not a youngster either. But this is how noir works late in life. Macbeth is the most antediluvian of all Shakespeare’s works - - not the goriest - - but the most coldly cruel. To hear Denzel do “tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in its petty pace . . .” is by itself bone chilling. At this point, Washington is one of the greatest actors of his generation and here, all of his skill and experience is poured into this performance. Another Oscar nomination is assured. The entire company - - including Frances McDormand’s (Fargo) well-done mad scene - -  supports his performance. Likewise, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel’s (Darkest Hour) limpid pool of black and white pictures, combined with Stefan Dechant’s (Lincoln) expressionist sets, deepens the grim beauty of this tale. ‘Tis a wonder to behold!

 

We Are All Just - - Passing (2021, USA/UK, B/W, 98 min) - -20 January 2022

Strongly recommended. Watching Passing is a transportive experience. It’s a film to return to several times over, inhabiting its carefully constructed mosaic of ambiguity and detail. Of foremost joy is the pairing of two gorgeous and talented actors, Ruth Negga, (Loving) as ebullient Clare, who passes as white, and Tessa Thompson, (Selma) as Irene, stiffly embracing 1929, Harlem-Renaissance blackness but hinting at mysterious ambiguity. Both deserve Oscar nominations. Between them alternates three-phase currents of envy, shame, and desire, occasionally even charging the homoerotic. But almost nothing is explicit in biracial, debut writer/director, Rebecca Hall’s (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) deep read of Nella Larsen’s novel. The initial meeting of Clare and Irene at the segregated Drake Hotel, mixing the rich black-and-white photography (Eduard Grau, A Single Man) and exquisitely purposeful, Prohibition costumery (Marci Rodgers, BlacKkKlansman), is symphonic. BTW, the tinkly-bluesy piano soloist is 99-year-old, Ethiopian nun, Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou. Check her out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU7iz9RYV0

Winter On The Plains - - The Power Of The Dog (2021, UK, Color, 126 min) - - 17 January 2022

Not recommended. Tho' this ain't John Ford's kind of Western, it must be said: The Power Of The Dog is a visually stunning film and the acting, principally Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia), Jessie Plemens (The Irishman) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road), is mesmerizing. Even Benedict Cumberbatch (1917) gives a powerful performance . . . albeit as the strangest ‘cow-boy’ seen since Brando in The Missouri Breaks. But to what end, one might ask? There is almost nothing we learn about his tortured unpleasantness at the end of this overwrought film except that he may be a closeted gay man, castrating steers in Montana. Jane Campion (The Piano) directed and wrote The Power Of The Dog from Thomas Savage's 1967 novel . . . Savage, also a closeted gay man from Montana. Despite all this, there seems to be no generosity in this nasty, brutish and not so short story, a work of art but ugly in spirit.

Loosely, I'm Shown! - - Being The Ricardos (2021, USA, Color, 131 min) - - 28 December 2021

Recommended. If you want the real story of Lucille Ball’s (The Big Street) very interesting life - - particularly the early years - - TCM’s well researched podcast, Lucy, is the place to go. In fact, writer/director of Being The Ricardos, Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) is interviewed on the podcast. He admits to his mildly troubling tendency to insert deliberate fiction into his bio-pics . . . he calls them ‘metaphors.’ In this film, he irritatingly compresses three, true-life Lucy calamities into a single week. Regardless, there are some great performances here, each of them escaping the mimicry trap. Foremost is Nicole Kidman (The Hours) who does an excellent impression of Lucy Ricardo, but then drops into a more natural voice when Ms. Ball is off camera. Also splendid is Nina Arianda (Midnight In Paris) as Vivian Vance and the always reliable J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) as Bill Frawley . . . but Javier Bardem (Biutiful), as Desi, seems miscast.

The Brontarocs Inherit The Earth - - Don’t Look Up (2021, USA, Color, 138 min) - - 27 December 2021

Recommended. Don’t watch this movie if you are expecting a moral. Seriously. Many incredibly dimwitted critics seemed to . . . and chided Adam McKay (The Big Short) for making a movie that patronizes people who refuse to heed the dangers of global warming. Seriously? First, Don’t Look Up is a black comedy. At this point, to most climate scientists a burlesque of condescension seems a minor vice. Did I mention Don’t Look Up is supposed to be darkly FUNNY??? Think of it as a very expensive SNL skit and you’ll be fine. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Lining Playbook) is perfectly cast as a 30-something, punky grad student who discovers the apocalyptic comet and quickly tries - - unsuccessfully - - to cut through the crap. Leo DiCaprio (Titanic) is her slightly bumbling thesis advisor. Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice), Cate Blanchett (Carol), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), and Jonah Hill (Moneyball) play the slingers of that crap