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Criterion Review: THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021) 4K UHD
Even with stunning clarity, Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning Western remains enigmatic and challenging as ever
After a twelve-year absence, legendary director Jane Campion made a resounding return to feature filmmaking with The Power of the Dog, a brooding Montana-set Western brimming with psychological complexity and riveting tension. The film depicts a nuanced war of passive aggression between hard-edged rancher Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), his timid brother George (Jesse Plemons), and his fraying wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst), until her silent but shrewd son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) plots a subtle yet decisive scheme to put Phil’s reign of terror to an agonizing yet cathartic end.
While Campion is no stranger to piercing deconstructions of machismo across her film and television work, The Power of the Dog sees Campion directly confront one of pop culture’s most “masculine” genres in the American Western. A point of contention by some of Hollywood’s old guard (including a notorious condemnation by Sam Elliott), Campion’s depiction of frontier masculinity is one of sparse, hellish landscapes and equally savage emotions. The barren landscape provokes the characters to eventually lay bare the contrary personalities and desires that society previously encouraged they keep buried. Phil, despite fitting the total iconography of the straight American Cowboy, privately reckons with sexuality he cannot explore; instead, his desires find an outlet in ritualized cruelty. Whether it’s towards his family, taking advantage of how much authority he wields over George or the torment he can wreak on Peter and Rose; the easy command he wields over the men of his outfit; or the literal castration of the heads of cattle he’s built his fortune on for 25 years. His idolization of his former mentor (and possibly more), Bronco Henry, is as far as a man may have worshiped another in a socially-acceptable fashion at the time–at least, without seeming weak or Queer and thus vulnerable to rejection and persecution. With Phil, Campion skillfully dramatizes the hypocrisy at the heart of those who prize a stereotypical depiction of masculinity. In pinning down something as ephemeral as masculinity in order to conform ourselves to it — we risk sacrificing the parts of ourselves that truly define who we are.
But if “masculinity” in the context of what Phil prizes is a degree of strength and conviction with ever-increasing degrees of fragility, then Phil’s repulsion towards Smit-McPhee’s Peter can just as easily be defined as a battle of conviction. Despite going contrary to everything Phil prizes as far as appearances go, Peter never disguises or downplays these aspects of himself. He’s studious, silent, and slender. He’s quickly targeted by Phil for his lisp and apparent femininity. He’s a willowy waif who Phil expects can easily be broken. But where his mother Rose and father-in-law George find themselves to be quickly-crumbling targets when put at Phil’s mercy, Peter remains unwaveringly resolute in the face of psychological torture. In fact, it’s Phil’s underestimation of what Peter is capable of that leads to his downfall; it’s Peter’s keen awareness of how Phil manifests his masculinity that allows this David to finally topple a Western Goliath.
The West is full of mythic heroes brimming with heterosexual (or even sexless) vigor: from John Wayne across Stagecoach, The Searchers, and True Grit, to Clint Eastwood’s romance-spurning Man With No Name; their enemies in these films are often depicted as just as externally masculine, but with an obviously villainous, duplicitous edge. But Phil’s antagonist isn’t someone as brutish as him, nor does Peter even seek out being an enemy at all. What’s more, the duplicitousness at the heart of such Western villains can only be found within Phil himself–and it’s in the name of masking affections that may turn others against him. Peter’s own deception of Phil, ruthless in its coldness, could be argued to be born wholly out of necessity compared to Phil’s second-nature sociopathy; here, to protect Peter and his mother, who is pushed nearly to her breaking point.
With The Power of the Dog, Campion skillfully exposes each of the Western qualities audiences once prized for the fragility they possess, and pointedly in a genre that once championed machismo’s unwavering stoicism amidst a period of torrential change. True strength isn’t in performative social appeasement or rebellion–rather, it’s in the strength of one’s convictions, in how much they can rebound and resist whatever form torture may take.
Video/Audio
Criterion presents The Power of the Dog in 2160p 4K UHD and 1080p Blu-ray in its original 2.28:1 aspect ratio. The Video is sourced from the film’s original 4K digital master, presented in Dolby Vision HDR on the UHD disc. The Dolby Atmos audio track (downmixed to 5.1 surround for the DVD edition) was remastered from the digital master audio files. English SDH subtitles and an English descriptive audio track are provided for the feature film on both the UHD and Blu-ray.
As with Criterion’s other Campion UHD, The Piano, the vast landscapes and intricate production design of The Power of the Dog are stunningly realized in this 4K transfer, here delivered with consistent quality that reliably cuts the cord from the film’s previous exclusive release on Netflix. Individual textures of wood grain, animal fur, field brush, and leather are all well-realized with vibrant intensity. Cinematographer Wegner’s key usage of flame light and dark shadows is delicately handled without significant black crush or pixelized artifacting.
The film’s Atmos audio track creates an equally textured aural experience, prioritizing the plucks and thrums of Greenwood’s score in the bass and echoing horns balanced across as many speakers as the viewer has available. The overall mix, accompanied by the striking visuals, is quite immersive in a way few other releases on Criterion UHD are, making this the definitive release of Campion’s latest film.
Special Features
All of Criterion’s Special Features can be found on the accompanying Blu-ray Disc.
- Behind the Scenes with Jane Campion (17:31): An archival experimental behind-the-scenes featurette driven by BTS footage, and Campion and cinematographer Wegner’s hand-drawn storyboards and reference photos. Campion provides candid narration throughout, and her driven, intimately collaborative direction with actors and crew is fascinating to watch.
- Reframing the West (28:14): A more traditionally-cut archival behind-the-scenes featurette of the making of the film, featuring talking-head interviews with cast and crew intercut with fly-on-the-wall production footage.
- The Women Behind The Power of the Dog (23:30): Filmmaker Tamara Jenkins hosts an awards-season roundtable with Jane Campion, producer Tanya Seghatchian, actor Kirsten Dunst, and cinematographer Ari Wegner, intercut with BTS footage. Topics include the origins of Campion and Seghatchian’s professional friendship, what brought each of them to Tom Savage’s novel, everyone’s preparation to tackle such challenging material, the difficulty of constructing a period-accurate 1920s Montana in Pandemic-era New Zealand, subverting stereotypical gender norms on a film set, and the importance of taking a film set seriously without taking oneself too seriously.
- Anatomy of a Score (13:25): Campion and composer Jonny Greenwood break down their approach to the sonic world of The Power of the Dog, broken into various instruments highlighted in the score. “The Cello” explores Greenwood’s methodology in playing the Cello “like a banjo.” “The Banjo” analyzes the instrument as a diegetic presence in the film compared to other score elements as well as within the historical context of the film. “The Piano” links the instrument to Rose’s fraying psyche, and its role in what Campion and Greenwood call the “ugly duet” between Rose’s piano and Phil’s banjo. Campion and Greenwood consider how horns bring out the loneliness and alienness of the Montana landscape in “The French Horn.” Overall, Campion praises Greenwood’s ability to repurpose and re-contextualize instruments in ways not traditionally used in classical film scores.
- Annie Proulx (13:18): In a new interview conducted by the Criterion Collection, the original author of Brokeback Mountain recounts how she became friends with The Power of the Dog’s author, Tom Savage. Proulx’s commentary on Savage’s novel further illuminates the complex themes behind both the source material and Campion’s adaptation. She also reveals key differences regarding what moments were omitted from the film version, notably a bit of tragic backstory between Phil and Peter’s father. There is also further commentary about other novels in the Western canon to contextualize Power of the Dog’s place within it.
- Trailer (2:09) for Netflix’s theatrical release of The Power of the Dog.
- Essay by critic Amy Taubin deconstructing The Power of the Dog’s earnest and nuanced exploration of masculinity, the struggle for dominance that domineers the film’s runtime, and Campion’s incisive directorial choices that deeply realize her characters’ vast inner worlds with economical precision.
The Power of the Dog is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
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UK’s 101 Films Serves up an AGFA Double Bill of “Smut Without Smut” on Blu-ray
Volume 1 dishes out dsytopian sci-fi with THINGS TO COME and a Manson-esque roughie in THE DIRTY DOLLS
Smut Without Smut Vol. 1 was originally released in the US through Vinegar Syndrome as a limited edition and is out of print. This Region B release presents another opportunity to pick up this pairing.
The first THING to really understand before digging into AGFA’s “Smut without Smut” double bill of Things to Come and The Dirty Dolls, is once upon a time, porn was a much different animal than the few minute clips we see on the internet today, that simply get right to business. Once they were films that had real stories, performances and were screened in theaters no less — they just happened to have hardcore sex in them.
It was also seen as a legitimate leg-in to the film industry for directors and technicians who were looking to break into film to get their start behind the camera in the adult industry, famously Wes Craven and Barry Sonnenfeld got their first breaks in the adult films. Given these even ran in theaters, plot and acting were actually necessary to keep folks in seats, and to ensure patrons got their money’s worth.
There’s a great doc called Labor of Love that digs into one possible scenario that wasn’t completely unheard of at the time — an indie film that per the financiers is forced to add hardcore scenes to keep their funding. This would help not only distribution, since now you had two versions of the film to shop around to two different kinds of venues, but if the plot or acting fell through they could always lean on the adult angle. Now this presented these particular players who signed on for a low budget indie flick with the moral question of just what they will do for their big break. But that’s something to keep in mind when digging into this set is sometimes these films didn’t necessarily start out as adult films and just had those elements shoehorned in at the last moment and since these films played in theaters, before the advent of home video.
How I first stumbled upon this series in particular is when I tuned in to the first Agfadrome, a one day celebration of all things American Genre Film Archive hosted by the folks that run the organization. One of the films they screened that day fell under their “Smut Without Smut” banner and was an adult film that had all it naughty bits edited out and was surprisingly pretty damn good. What remained of 1976’s Things to Come was an engaging dystopian DIY science fiction film shot in Texas, that was the story of one woman’s journey to a theme park like Pleasure Dome populated by robots where you can fulfill any hedonistic wish. The film follows Julie as she falls down the rabbit hole of what exactly is going on at the Pleasure dome only to discover a bizarre twist that to be honest gave the film more depth and breadth than I expected. I am a sucker for a good Westworld knock off, and surprisingly this isn’t the only adult riff on Michael Criteon’s sci-fi masterpiece.
Next up was The Dirty Dolls, a mean little film that appears to be inspired by the Manson murders, as the charismatic and unhinged Johnny (John Alderman) leads an all female gang of theives. When a diamond heist goes south, with the women taking both a male and a female hostage and their fence leaving them high and dry, the tension is turned up as the girls decide to take full advantage of their prisoners before they decide if they live or die. The edited version here loses about 20 minutes and feels like a taught potboiler as some girls want to set their captives to go free, while Johnny wants no eye witnesses left alive. This one also had some really decent performances and given the adult angle they swing for the fences by having one of Johnny’s girls being his kid sister, and you know where that’s going to go. Its not an easy watch, but the roughie still works even without its sex scenes.
The set that was originally released by Vinegar Syndrome as a limited edition only to go out of print was also released across the pond by 101 Films in a set that mirrors the Out of Print Disc, albeit region coded (Region B). The films are presented in newly scanned HD masters from the only surviving theatrical prints and they definitely show their age and wear. But presented here are both the edited and regular versions and for those looking to dip their toes in the pool this is a great way since both of these films stand rather well without their naughty bits. I will say Things to Come’s scenes feel like the scenario where the adult angle was more of an after thought compared to The Dirty Dolls. There is also a great commentary on Things by the AGFA crew where they dig into the history of that film and where this concept of Smut without Smut came from.
To be honest removing the droning naughty bits allows you to really focus on not only the performances, but the narrative at work here, which in these cases is surprisingly effective. These two films are more the exception rather than the rule in these cases, but it might be an eye opener to those who’ve written these films off. Things to Come started off fairly standard, but it gains the kind of momentum you wouldn’t expect as it ramps up to its twist, which I really don’t want to spoil here. Lets just say it hit surprisingly hard considering the genre and that is what the folks at Agfa hope to show by releasing this series. The Dirty Dolls was a rougher watch, but held its own with some great performances and the danger this film just radiates, which could be possibly attributed to the real guns you can see everyone handling in the film.
Smut Without Smut Vol. 1: Things to Come + The Dirty Dolls (AGFA) (Blu-ray)
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UK’s 101 Films Serves up an AGFA Double Bill of “Smut Without Smut” on Blu-ray
Volume 1 dishes out dsytopian sci-fi with THINGS TO COME and a Manson-esque roughie in THE DIRTY DOLLS
Smut Without Smut Vol. 1 was originally released in the US through Vinegar Syndrome as a limited edition and is out of print. This Region B release presents another opportunity to pick up this pairing.
The first THING to really understand before digging into AGFA’s “Smut without Smut” double bill of Things to Come and The Dirty Dolls, is once upon a time, porn was a much different animal than the few minute clips we see on the internet today, that simply get right to business. Once they were films that had real stories, performances and were screened in theaters no less — they just happened to have hardcore sex in them.
It was also seen as a legitimate leg-in to the film industry for directors and technicians who were looking to break into film to get their start behind the camera in the adult industry, famously Wes Craven and Barry Sonnenfeld got their first breaks in the adult films. Given these even ran in theaters, plot and acting were actually necessary to keep folks in seats, and to ensure patrons got their money’s worth.
There’s a great doc called Labor of Love that digs into one possible scenario that wasn’t completely unheard of at the time — an indie film that per the financiers is forced to add hardcore scenes to keep their funding. This would help not only distribution, since now you had two versions of the film to shop around to two different kinds of venues, but if the plot or acting fell through they could always lean on the adult angle. Now this presented these particular players who signed on for a low budget indie flick with the moral question of just what they will do for their big break. But that’s something to keep in mind when digging into this set is sometimes these films didn’t necessarily start out as adult films and just had those elements shoehorned in at the last moment and since these films played in theaters, before the advent of home video.
How I first stumbled upon this series in particular is when I tuned in to the first Agfadrome, a one day celebration of all things American Genre Film Archive hosted by the folks that run the organization. One of the films they screened that day fell under their “Smut Without Smut” banner and was an adult film that had all it naughty bits edited out and was surprisingly pretty damn good. What remained of 1976’s Things to Come was an engaging dystopian DIY science fiction film shot in Texas, that was the story of one woman’s journey to a theme park like Pleasure Dome populated by robots where you can fulfill any hedonistic wish. The film follows Julie as she falls down the rabbit hole of what exactly is going on at the Pleasure dome only to discover a bizarre twist that to be honest gave the film more depth and breadth than I expected. I am a sucker for a good Westworld knock off, and surprisingly this isn’t the only adult riff on Michael Criteon’s sci-fi masterpiece.
Next up was The Dirty Dolls, a mean little film that appears to be inspired by the Manson murders, as the charismatic and unhinged Johnny (John Alderman) leads an all female gang of theives. When a diamond heist goes south, with the women taking both a male and a female hostage and their fence leaving them high and dry, the tension is turned up as the girls decide to take full advantage of their prisoners before they decide if they live or die. The edited version here loses about 20 minutes and feels like a taught potboiler as some girls want to set their captives to go free, while Johnny wants no eye witnesses left alive. This one also had some really decent performances and given the adult angle they swing for the fences by having one of Johnny’s girls being his kid sister, and you know where that’s going to go. Its not an easy watch, but the roughie still works even without its sex scenes.
The set that was originally released by Vinegar Syndrome as a limited edition only to go out of print was also released across the pond by 101 Films in a set that mirrors the Out of Print Disc, albeit region coded (Region B). The films are presented in newly scanned HD masters from the only surviving theatrical prints and they definitely show their age and wear. But presented here are both the edited and regular versions and for those looking to dip their toes in the pool this is a great way since both of these films stand rather well without their naughty bits. I will say Things to Come’s scenes feel like the scenario where the adult angle was more of an after thought compared to The Dirty Dolls. There is also a great commentary on Things by the AGFA crew where they dig into the history of that film and where this concept of Smut without Smut came from.
To be honest removing the droning naughty bits allows you to really focus on not only the performances, but the narrative at work here, which in these cases is surprisingly effective. These two films are more the exception rather than the rule in these cases, but it might be an eye opener to those who’ve written these films off. Things to Come started off fairly standard, but it gains the kind of momentum you wouldn’t expect as it ramps up to its twist, which I really don’t want to spoil here. Lets just say it hit surprisingly hard considering the genre and that is what the folks at Agfa hope to show by releasing this series. The Dirty Dolls was a rougher watch, but held its own with some great performances and the danger this film just radiates, which could be possibly attributed to the real guns you can see everyone handling in the film.
Smut Without Smut Vol. 1: Things to Come + The Dirty Dolls (AGFA) (Blu-ray)
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Criterion Review: Czech Masterpiece DAISIES
The surreal Dadaist work hits Blu-ray just in time for the latest 50% off sale!
Daisies (Czech: Sedmikrásky) the Dadaist Czech masterpiece, just hit Blu-ray last week thanks to Criterion in a new restoration, which recently premiered at Cannes. This was great for fans of the film like myself because it was previously only available in their Pearls of the Czech New Wave DVD set. At long last, the film is finally getting its own well deserved HD release. The 1966 film by Věra Chytilová is a feminist masterwork that follows two women both named Marie, (Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová), who after lamenting at how terrible the world is decide to go out and be terrible themselves. The pair could be perceived as simply two women who’ve had enough, or two divine beings on a rampage if you’d want to dig a bit deeper here. This has the pair going out and just all around raining chaos throughout the film’s 76 minute runtime. These acts are contrasted with quieter moments that have the pair pontificating on their reality, politics, love and life.
Riddled with metaphors the film is a layered work that at times is a literal metaphor utilizing a visual collage style employing stock footage, color timing and even practical effects to echo its point. The women are seen eating apples throughout, a call out to the tree of knowledge, while they destroy eggs and mutilate a number of phallic objects metaphor for the film’s anti-patriarchal message. Men are also presented as singular minded and the pair fleece a number of older men for free meals throughout the film. The women are treated like children by the men around them, probably due to attitudes towards women and models during the 60s. They in turn weaponize these attitudes cooing like babies as they use this to get away with everything from public drunkenness, to straight up robbery. The film concludes with a massive food fight that had the film banned in its home country of Czechoslovakia for its images of wanton women and excessive food wastage.
Given where the film was shot, I think it’s ironic that the film was banned, because it was probably banned by the same socialist government that footed the bill. The film is presented newly restored from the original negative and given the nature of the film, some sections show this better than others. Unlike other HD presentations the color tinting and timing has been preserved and carried forward with this new master. Compared to the original DVD it’s night and day. Along with the film, you get a documentary that really gets into the production and themes of the film, to help unlock this surreal watch. There is also a great commentary that explores some of the more contextual meanings in the film that may not be readily readable to those just starting their journey in surreal cinema. All these extras help to exhaustively unlock the film, which may confound those on its initial watch.
Daisies is a film whose subtext has only been amplified over the years and it’s truly remarkable that this film was made to begin with. I personally love its chaotic nature and its rather unconventional surrealist political approach. It uses imagery that is dadaist and surreal, but it still manages on the surface to be extremely engaging and entertaining to someone just watching it without the historical, social or political context. But what I truly love about Daisies is just how deep you can go into this film that says so much with its feminist chaos. It’s very reminiscent to Deathgame another film about two women on an anti-patriarchal rampage that no doubt was inspired by Daisies and would go on to inspire Knock Knock. I am just glad more folks will get to experience this film not only in the better transfer, but without the bar of buying an entire set to own the film.
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TWO WITCHES is an Engaging Exploration of Witchcraft and Power
Pierre Tsigaridis’ feature length debut is fun foray into Folk Horror
My favorite genre explorations of witchcraft are the ones that attempt to do something a bit different with the age old myth. You get just that with Two Witches, the feature length debut by Pierre Tsigaridis, a French cinematographer turned director. The film is a slow burn episodic take on two generations of witches that torment a small group of friends. Broken up into chapters the first one looks at a young pregnant woman who believes she was struck with the evil eye and begins to unravel while spending some time with her significant other’s hipster friends who definitely have a vested interest in the occult. Her story is deliberately paced and lays the groundwork before it climaxes in an incident that paves the way for the next story.
The next story moves a bit more brisk and follows Masha (Rebekah Kennedy) a troubled young woman who looks like the Hot Topic witch archetype you’d expect, who is about to inherit her mother’s gift. In this film, a witch’s power is passed down from mother to daughter, and while the first story deals with Masha’s mother, the second story tackles the terrifying prospect of what happens when someone who is powerless, is suddenly given unlimited power. This has her going on a spree attacking and killing those who she believed wronged her to get the love she never had. It’s very messy and thanks to Rebekah Kennedy’s sympathetic performance, the rage that fuels her attacks is palpable and almost understandable. It’s Masha’s thread that closes the loop as the film finishes with her attempting to crash her roommate’s holiday with her mother.
The film looks lush and definitely makes some big swings, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Where the film doesn’t falter in its mythology, which I found fascinating as it forged its world and its rules before us. Where the film falters is it did a lot of things with faces and looks as a sort of magical trance, and sometimes it was really effective, and sometimes the camera would just linger a few milliseconds too long. That’s a minor nitpick for a film that I found worked relatively well and accomplished exactly what it set out to do. The actors here also are on 100% which definitely helps keeping some of those moment from becoming unintentionally funny, since it’s all played straight.
Two Witches is an enjoyable watch that delivers the scares along with an interesting mythology to boot. We don’t really see enough films dig into the Evil Eye, which once upon a time was a thing feared by folks. Rebekah Kennedy’s performance however, is what really elevates the narrative and invests you in the story after being relegated to the periphera for the first act. Her turn which is equal parts tragic and terrifying tears at the audience’s empathy as she goes on her rampage. When Two Witches works, it works really well, when it stumbles it still manages to keep you engaged to see what it comes up with next. The film was just released on Blu-ray by Arrow and is currently streaming on various services.
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Austin Film Festival 2022: THE WHALE Marks the Revelatory Return of Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser delivers an astonishing performance in Darren Aronofsky’s latest tale of cathartic transformation
Critic’s Disclaimer: Julian Singleton previously interned with Protozoa Pictures, Darren Aronofsky’s production company, in Spring 2012. He currently works for Megalomedia, the production company of My 600-lb Life.
To Charlie (Brendan Fraser), his cramped two-bedroom apartment in Moscow, Idaho may as well be the totality of the known universe. Buried under 600 pounds of body weight, he rarely leaves his couch, aided only by a walker to go to the bathroom or to feebly attempt sleeping in a cramped bed. His caretaker, Liz (Hong Chau), enables Charlie’s worsening condition as much as she tries to abate it with regular deliveries of meatball subs accompanying her checkups. When Liz recognizes signs of heart failure, she urges Charlie to go to the hospital; Charlie fights back with a defeated, optimistic apathy. However, Charlie’s awakened sense of mortality spurs him to do the unthinkable and reconnect with his estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink), who Charlie abandoned eight years ago in order to be with his now-deceased partner.
Darren Aronofsky recognizes that to get at an audience’s heart, you must first get under their skin. Across his filmography, Aronofsky viscerally depicts how characters must unravel before they can be reborn. Whether it’s metaphorical resurrection like in mother! or The Fountain, or literal metamorphoses like in The Wrestler or Black Swan, Aronofsky tests the physical and psychological limits of both characters and audience along the journey of deliverance. The Whale is Aronofsky’s latest act of transformation, and with its one-apartment setting shot in a claustrophobic Academy ratio, it’s the director’s most stripped-down and sparse film yet. We are as bound to Charlie’s circumstances as he is. This formal asceticism only heightens the searing emotional impact of the film’s ensemble cast, led by a career-best performance by Brendan Fraser.
Much of The Whale is dedicated to how Charlie ekes out a bare minimum of a life. He teaches online University courses with a “broken” webcam, preventing his students from seeing what he really looks like. He watches trash talk shows with Liz in between oximeter readings, their snarky conversations dancing around the tragic roots of their friendship. Alone, or in the midst of a heart attack scare, Charlie reads a faded Moby Dick essay. In it, the writer ruminates on how Ishmael’s narrative diversions are his own distraction from how terrible his life really is. The appearance of other characters in The Whale provides the biggest differentiation between Charlie’s days, fulfilling a similar purpose. However, Aronofsky and Samuel D. Hunter also treat these arrivals as layers that peel back to reveal the traumatic origins of Charlie’s condition. As young and zealous missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins) makes it his mission to “save” Charlie, we grow to understand just how much Charlie refuses to be the object of others’ pity, regardless of how much Charlie doubts such salvation is even possible. To Charlie, if there’s anyone who deserves to suffer, it’s him; his condition isn’t an affliction to be cured, but a sentence to bear.
Through skillful production design, Hunter and Aronofsky augment the original claustrophobia of Hunter’s original stage play; frequent glances at a kitchen window provide clues for who’s suddenly invading Charlie’s life, as well as providing a last glance at whoever’s about to vanish from it. A centered couch provides a limiting nexus point for Charlie, with the visitors darting in and out of its orbit ever conscious of how Charlie can’t get up and close that distance with him. We’re perpetually conscious of how much isn’t possible or within reach, immersed in Charlie’s physical limitation at being reduced to an audience member in his own life.
But from the keys to locked away bedrooms Charlie keeps out of reach, to the stashes of candy bars and pizzas always a grab away, Aronofsky and Hunter tread a delicate path in depicting Charlie’s excess-ridden monasticism. Writing off Charlie’s weight as a value judgment with physical consequences denies the years of guilt and grief that brought him to this point. It places him at a comfortable yet dehumanizing distance of spectacle. Echoing the opening acts of My 600-lb Life, Charlie’s masochistic binge-eating and painful struggles for mobility rip off the band-aid of initial expectations. It weaponizes any sense of disgust or pity, for sympathy and understanding are two very different beasts.
As Aronofsky and Hunter reveal the motivations for Charlie’s refusal to seek help, we understand how his trauma metastasized into his current weight. Charlie’s self-deprecation regarding his appearance isn’t meant to validate social prejudices against obesity. Rather, it’s Charlie begging others to validate how much he deserves what he’s done to himself. There are valid concerns about the choice to immerse Fraser in transformative prosthetics than seek out an actor with the weight for the role, as well as the concerns raised by production on the toll a demanding shoot may take on such an actor’s health. To me, though, Fraser’s casting works on another level of audience expectation. However much we might be aware of the actor under the prosthetics, we know on some human level that Charlie — like anyone burdened by societal prejudices against their abilities — is someone who exists separate and beyond the condition that cocoons him. Regardless of his physical condition, we know how far he’s retreated within himself. In turn, that provokes how much we root for him to reach back out to the world.
The rest of The Whale’s ensemble suffers from similar self-imposed acts of retribution, each filling in nuances of Charlie’s drive for obligatory isolation. Sink’s Ellie turns Charlie’s efforts to get closer to her via her schoolwork into an interrogation of his failings as a father. However, it becomes clear how much she’s internalized her sense of abandonment, and how her self-actualizing villainy towards Charlie and later Thomas runs close to self-sabotage. Samantha Morton as Ellie’s mother/Charlie’s ex-wife Mary has similarly internalized being defined by the consequences of Charlie’s choices: being abandoned by a man who ran off with his gay lover, left with no one else but a girl who coped by tormenting everyone around her. Simpkins manically plays Thomas as someone whose faith has warped into something that isn’t believed for its own sake, but something that can only be proven by “saving” others. And Chau’s Liz, in a stunner of a monologue, recognizes just how much she’s hurting Charlie by enabling him…but is equally convinced that faith (whether from Thomas or anyone else) is capable of doing equally lasting damage, as both her, Charlie, and his deceased partner are all victims of belief. Each of the performers races along a spectrum of venomous spite and agonizing despair, but all find themselves lifted by Charlie’s relentless, seemingly misplaced optimism.
What Fraser does in this role is revelatory, charging The Whale with the necessary conviction it needs for Aronofsky’s transformative effect to really take hold. Regardless of who he talks to in the gloom of his apartment, Fraser makes Charlie’s eyes shine with a nearly seemingly incongruous wonder. No matter how much he believes he’s earned the life he’s imposed upon himself, Charlie desperately tries to instill in them his belief that no one else deserves the same fate. What’s more, amidst all of their self-hatred or hatred for others, he fervently believes that by extension, they all work together to lift each other up. “Do you ever get the feeling,” Charlie intones late in the film, “that people are incapable of not caring?” In his performance, Fraser drives home just how much Charlie needs to recognize that same endless potential of humanity in himself.
The Whale is an earnest plea as much as it is a provocation–one to understand ourselves as much as those around us. With his new film, Aronofsky recognizes how agonizing grief and guilt may be, but that the rewards of redemption are worth far more than any possible act of retribution.
The Whale had its Texas Premiere at the 2022 Austin Film Festival, with a theatrical release by A24 planned for December 9th.
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BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is a Soulful Blockbuster Burdened by Loss and a Burgeoning MCU
Ryan Coogler delivers a vibrant and poignant affair that is often muddled by Marvel’s grand plan
The weight upon Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is palpable. The sad loss of star Chadwick Boseman left writer/director Ryan Coogler (and co-writer Joe Robert Cole) with an unenviable task: not only reworking the logistics of the film, but also making it serve as a worthy tribute to the man who leaves behind a large void at its core. The other consideration hanging over Coogler is the film’s service to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which, as with so many Marvel films of late, proves to be the real stumbling block.
The film opens with a family and nation plunged into mourning after the loss of their iconic King T’Challa. A year later, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) finds herself maneuvering on the world stage as other nations, sensing weakness in Wakanda, push their luck trying to seize its technology and vibranium for themselves. An American search for the precious ore outside the nation’s closely guarded borders detects vibranium at the bottom of the ocean. However, this expedition encroaches on the territory of the secretive nation of Talocan, home to a species of humanoids who have thrived in an underwater realm for hundreds of years.
With their anonymity under threat, Talocan leader Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) meets with Wakanda to form an alliance and take preemptive action against the Western nations. But pressure to acquiesce to Talocan’s terms and align to their ideals precipitates another conflict for Wakanda, one that looks to pose an insurmountable challenge not just for their technologies, but also for their spirit.
The film largely handles the death of T’Challa with resonant sorrow and surprising grace. An opening sequence is dedicated to the character’s (off-screen) departure and the ceremony to celebrate his life. But this loss permeates the entire film. Coogler affords time for each of the key figures in the film to reckon with their loss and the legacy they strive for in the wake of T’Challa’s passing. The exception is Shuri (Letitia Wright), who buries herself in work and science rather than embracing emotion and tradition. The discovery of the threat to Wakanda helps to wake her from her stupor and begin a path to action so she can heal herself and her wavering country.
The arrival of Namor, revered as a god called K’uk’ulkan, is the other big focus of the film. We learn that the Talocan came from a tribe of Mayans who sought refuge from the smallpox and savagery of invading conquistadors in the 1500s, ventured to the ocean floor, and built an an empire on the back of vibranium. The plot plays to another part of T’Challa’s enduring legacy, where he was looking to break the bubble of isolationism, and connect with the outside world—acts that brought a spotlight upon vibranium and, eventually, to Talocan’s door. Namor might lack the sheer anger of Killmonger, but he is similarly rooted in post-colonial fury. His fear at being unable to protect his loved ones is well mirrored by Shuri’s arc, and the film’s conflict rests on how they process these changes.
While these aspects of the film harmonize, the connections to the wider, future MCU disrupt the plot. The introduction of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) feels entirely unnecessary and underwritten and is a superfluous load for the film to bear just to help set up a Disney+ series. The return of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and another (no spoilers) character also plays more toward other Marvel projects than the one at hand.
Wakanda Forever also feels like it has fallen into the same trap of other Marvel ventures, where a discovery or tech advancement offers a convenient solution to a problem. It’s ironic that as Wakanda has opened up, so has the Black Panther series.
Despite these issues, Coogler largely cuts through the clutter and reminds us of his prime intent, wrangling a blockbuster with the approach of an auteur. In showing what could be, Wakanda Forever scrutinizes the colonial powers of the west for their past indiscretions and for those they continue to perpetuate in the present. Like grief, the effects of slavery and colonialism echo for a long time. These themes and the shifts in power in Wakanda Forever look to stoke the geopolitics of the later Captain America films. The action is altogether tighter this time out, supported by a great step up in the quality of the CGI. Production creativity continues to dazzle, notably an electric score from Ludwig Göransson and the superb costume design of Ruth Carter (the Abe Sapien outfit aside).
Coogler’s craft again focuses on the character-driven moments, and he is aided in this by a stellar cast. Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, and Lupita Nyong’o slip back into their roles and add nuances of burden and loss, as well as drive and hope. Huerta Mejía is a magnetic presence onscreen and deftly adds grit and grey to the MCU while drawing empathy for his situation. Wright wobbles at times, but shows glimpses of the potential with which she might fully embrace a role that seems to be mapped out for a few years (and movies) down the line. Bassett is an absolute force of nature, be it with a barnstorming speech or quieter moments; her regal, maternal presence anchors the whole film. You really have to applaud what a bold, Black, and woman-driven film this is.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever might fall short of its predecessor, but it is undeniably the highlight of Marvel’s phase four. Setting aside the more muddled aspects of the film that serve the burgeoning and bloated MCU, Coogler again crafts a soulful and even cathartic venture. It is a treatise on grief and loss that takes the pride that comes with cries of “Wakanda Forever” and instills in it a sense of poignancy and promise.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 10th.
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CHAINSAW MAN Recap — Episode 5: It’s a Trap!
While its an exposition heavy episode, I’m enjoying the world building and the character development going on here
This week’s episode had A LOT going on….
First, Denji achieves his latest ultimate goal shattering the plotting of every shonen series ever, as he gets to cop 3 consensual feels off of Power, only to realize it wasn’t quite the earth shattering experience he expected in more ways than one. In true oversharing Denji fashion this is something he laments to his boss, Makima, who informs him that it’s when you care for someone that these intimate moments carry the true weight they deserve, in an oddly wholesome moment. This is however right before she basically offers to have sex with him if he can kill the “Gun Devil”, in a move that reinvigorates our favorite devil hunter, right before he is put on the hunt yet again.
In a very on the nose, yet fitting origin Makima lets Denji in on a bit of the lore of the “Gun Devil”. A very powerful devil who first appeared in America (Of course) after a terrorist attack. My first thought was 9/11, but I remembered Chainsaw Man technically takes place in 1997. Since his appearance, the fear that he’s spread has only empowered the lesser demons; which brings us to this week’s mission. Apparently if another devil eats a chunk of the “Gun Devil”, which he is always shedding, it supercharges them. This has six agents from Public Safety Experimental Division 4 descending on a hotel where a few devil hunters have recently gone missing, and its thought a demon who ingested a chunk of the “Gun Devil” is the culprit.
We are then thrown into the thick of it as the character development of three more hunters Himeno, Kobeni and Hirokazu (who are all teens mind you) is contrasted by Aki’s back story and some of the occupational hazards of devil hunters is thrown in for good measure — most don’t live a year. This has the dread frothing up as we slowly realize they all just walked into a trap. It’s a very different episode from last week’s slice of life look at Aki’s morning routine as we are dealt a ton of new exposition before our next big arc. While Denji is hormonally supercharged at this point, it’s the other hunters who are going to have to earn their exit from this ordeal with Power still not quite falling into line and pushing her boundaries with Public Safety.
I am going to say we are ramping up given this is episode 5 of a 12 episode run for our big bad in the “Gun Devil”, but slow is one thing Chainsaw Man is not, so who knows? I like the awkwardness that settled in between Denji and Power when he discovered her boobs were fake that sort of broke that sexual tension and put the two more in a brother sister vibe. I much prefer that rather than venturing into the dreaded anime love triangle, which is a trope I really just can’t anymore. Not only that, I think Power has more to offer as a peer, than a love interest in the show, given how much of a wild card she appears to still be. I also just really enjoy that coupled with the dynamic with Aki, with him rediscovering the lost younger siblings in the pair. Its this near familial setup that gives whatever they are walking into some real stakes for the trio.
So while its exposition heavy, I’m enjoying the world building and the character development here that really serves up a very non-traditional anime protagonist in Denji and his continued adventures. I mean he’s horny, but he is an adolescent kid and its pretty hilarious since he the non-creepy consensual kind and he appears to actually have a heart. Its this flawed protagonist that really makes him more relatable than some holier than thou shonen heroes, which I think gives Chainsaw Man its comedy and its charm. Also its hard not to get Reservoir Dogs vibes from the group all in black suits rolling in on their target.
Chainsaw Man is released on Crunchyroll every Tuesday.
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Tokusatsu Talk: KAMEN RIDER BLACK SUN
A more adult take on the old school series just hit Amazon Prime and its definitely worth a watch!
I am not going to play cool, I am still relatively new to the world of old school Tokusatsu. Of course I grew up watching Power Rangers like most guys my age, but it wasn’t until falling down the rabbit hole of reviewing Shin Ultra Man did I start to get into the older, classic shows. On that thread I got into Kamen Rider, to get my homework done before Shin Kamen Rider hits theaters in Japan this January. This led me to not only enjoying the original Kamen Rider, but checking out the latest installment based on the lead being an actor from one of my favorite Oscar nominated films last year, Hidetoshi Nishijima from Drive My Car, yes THAT Hidetoshi Nishijima!
In the original setup for Kamen Rider, a motorcycle racer is kidnapped by the evil organization called Shocker and turned into a bug-like cyborg against his will. It was a monster of the week scenario as he tried to defeat Shocker who turned him into a cyborg, while foiling every plot for world domination they come up with week after week along with an animal themed monster. This was a show primarily aimed at kids, although the monsters were unintentionally nightmarish, and it still holds up rather well considering the show ran in 1971. The Kamen Rider universe has since exploded over the last 50 years with a plethora of different incarnations all with their own spin on the story.
As part of this 50th anniversary celebration we got Kamen Black Sun, which just dropped all 10 episodes of season 1 on Amazon Prime. It’s a big budget, very adult take on the hero, that to be honest went way harder than I could have even expected. In this flavor, we are thrown into a world in turmoil. There are humans and Kaijin — human-like creatures that have an animal form, putting a bio spin on the typical cyborg one from the original. The world is a powder-keg of discrimination and riots as the humans want the Kaijin race eradicated once and for all. It’s here we catch up with our Rider played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, a ketamine-addicted assassin. The narrative gets thrown into high gear when the Rider is sent to kill a young human girl who just spoke at the UN on the need for harmony between the two races.
This takes the form of a battle that has the Oscar nominated actor turning into a giant humanoid grasshopper and disemboweling another spider assassin before beheading him in front of his target. Its hyperviolent and surreal and left me speechless to be honest. Its not what I expected at all and that’s what locked me in. Not only for the racism metaphor, which is painfully relevant to Japan and its relationship to its constant influx of foreigners, but it contrasts that rather highbrow theme with a rather lowbrow show of pure madness and gore and I am there for it. Hidetoshi Nishijima just imbues the character with so much angst that really pays off when someone is stupid enough to cross him. Of course there’s a bigger story here that gets started as well, but I didn’t want to spoil too much for those looking to start this great series, which is presented with subtitles only, in UHD with HDR.
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CHAINSAW MAN Recap — Episode 4: Kinda a Bridge
Chainsaw Man episode 4 is a couple of things, firstly its tidying up the battle from the last episode that had Denji squaring off against the “Bat Devil” on, to save Power’s beloved cat Meowy for a chance to grab her chest. Here the show hammers home Denji’s simple goals that definitely pale in comparison to lets say a Naruto, a Luffy or a Tanjiro, but are no less important to our protagonist and that’s kinda refreshing. Also do we really need another shonen show where we witness our honorable holier than thou protagonist fight to achieve his dream? That is probably not what most teenagers would do if dealt the same cards. I think this piece, other than supplying humor, really works to humanize Denji and hammer in the fact that he’s still an adolescent boy fighting these battles for the shadowy adult run government organization.
When the “Leech Devil” shows up after Denji dispatches the “Bat Devil” to get vengeance for her fallen lover (!?!), Denji runs out of gas, or blood here, and is bailed out by the katana-wielding Aki. Here we discover he also has a pack with a demon. In a moment of pure spectacle, Aki uses the giant fox devil to quickly dispatch the “Leech Devil” and save Denji, Power and Meowy who had broken too many rules to end up where they were. It’s something Aki is faced with cleaning up as he decides to save both his demonic coworkers, because while they did cause a huge mess, they dispatched two well known devils with no human casualties. This moment of mercy Aki displays when not throwing his coworkers under the bus is not lost on Makima, who mentions the once rigid agent has shown an uncharacteristic bit of flexibility.
The show then kind of follows Aki after the revelation that he too has his own pact with a devil and we get a bit of a slice of life look at the young agent as he gets ready in the morning and his daily routine. It’s a much needed moment of peace and reflection as we get a glimpse into Hayakawa’s once peaceful home life as a rapturous knock comes to his door interrupting the peaceful montage. Pulling a page from Neon Genesis Evangelion, we now have Aki as Misato, with Denji as Shinji and his new house guest thanks to Makima, Power as Asuka in a very similar dynamic since Shinji was, if not hornier than Denji. Its just Denji is up front about it as he finally is offered his reward for saving Power. He gets three feels, and the episode goes to black….
This is where I usually end up checking out the comments section below and which offers its own hilarious commentary, which I look forward to every week after my viewing. If you’ve never delved into the comment section of Crunchyroll after an episode I highly recommend it. Not only will you get a good laugh, sometimes the perspective is quite dead on. This week however they simply lamented at the cliffhangering of the series, which can be annoying, especially when there’s no previews.
This week’s episode had some great action set pieces that felt more coherent than last week and I really enjoyed some of the quieter moments this time. Like watching Aki make coffee or chop vegetables, it’s these little moments where we get some time to enjoy the characters and let them develop a bit and show some inflection before their next mission. This episode offers up just that as well as the kind of action we’ve come to expect from the series. For me this was a near perfect episode with that balance of quiet and humor, we got some story, we got some character development and now Power, Denji and Hayakawa all now living in the same apartment. Let the the anime hijinks ensue.
Until next week!
