Jane Campion explores sex and power games in ‘The Power of the Dog’, a multi-layered film for the discerning viewer
Powerful title for the latest from Jane Campion, a filmmaker who epitomizes how complicated a coherent film career can be. Specific successes do not certify an unstoppable trajectory. After attracting attention with the suggestive ‘An angel at my table’ and placing his name in the history of cinema with the multi-award-winning ‘The piano’, emotional to rage, came the stumble of ‘Portrait of a lady’ and the total slip with the misunderstood ‘In living flesh’. It is difficult to maintain the creative level and always convince the critics and the public over the years. ‘The power of the dog’ visits some movie theaters before streaming on Netflix in style, but it has already been seen in some weighty festivals, where it has been received with open arms and excellent comments, recalling the interest in the work of an artist who does not film anything, as is also made clear by her recent work behind the cameras in the recommended series ‘Top of the Lake’.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in a fierce, well-photographed neowestern co-produced between Australia, UK and New Zealand. Awarded for the best direction in Venice, the film adapts with ideas the intense novel by Thomas Savage, the story of two brothers, co-owners of a ranch in Montana, to which more different. They are the face and the cross in a world in constant evolution. While one is cruel and ambitious, the other is pure generosity. The clash is inevitable, rising like an accurate portrait of masculinity. A multi-layered film, such as good cinema, which, precisely due to its emotion and intensity, can be somewhat tedious for a passive viewer, used to being beaten all over the place in pursuit of entertainment. A boutade comment that the enjoyment of a production of these characteristics is greater on the big screen.
Kirsten Dunst, longed for since ‘Seduction’, always magnificent, co-stars in ‘The Power of the Dog’ alongside the charismatic and here extraordinary Cumberbatch, as well as Jesse Plemons, whom we can see in another premiere of the week, the horror film ‘Antlers : Dark Creature ‘, and the emerging Thomasin McKenzie, also on the bill with the visually portentous’ Last Night in Soho’. An exceptional acting team under the command of Campion, whose passion for the medium and the story he wants to tell is notorious, a western set in the 20th century with majestic sequences, full of nooks and crannies that open the doors of reflection. Flashes of lyricism in an exploration of sex and power games that leaves its mark beyond the retina.
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