As an actor, I found this documentary absolutely stunning in its revelation of the approaches and concepts for the greatest role in the English language. I suspect non-actors would find it rich and intriguing, too, but for an actor who revels in Shakespeare, I was moved and thrilled and enlightened, over and over. The great Hamlet actors who here spoke about their experiences -- Gielgud, Olivier, Burton, Williamson, Kingsley, my own great teacher Maximilian Schell, and others all have differing…
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Killers of the Flower Moon 2023
Long, involving, at times confusing (particularly as regards who various minor characters are), sometimes moving, seriously disturbing, briefly wacky, and terrifying drama from Martin Scorsese does a fine job of telling a story about American Indians with scarcely an authentic white savior anywhere to be found. The slew of murders among the Osage in the early twentieth century as whites found a multitude of ways to deprive the natives of their oil wealth is depicted brutally and generally honestly. Despite…
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Dune 2021
It took many years, but I finally found a science-fiction movie I hated worse than Star Wars. This pseudo-mythic melange of Islamic-Gaelic-Hebrew-Christian nomenclature and ponderous Sir Gawainish “dialog” has virtually no intelligible story beyond the barest framework of presumably good guys in conflict with assortments of monosyllabic bad guys. No effort is evident in making the characters identifiable humans one could connect with emotionally (although Jason Momoa, through force of personality, comes close). It’s all sci-fi fanboy wanking, with all…
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The Banshees of Inisherin 2022
This remarkable tale of loneliness, purpose, and what we now call "unfriending" is another in the stunning emotional explorations by writer-director Martin McDonagh. In a performance that tops anything of his I've ever seen, Colin Farrell is heartbreaking as a provincial Irish lad who cannot understand and will not grasp that his closest friend no longer wants his friendship. As the former friend, Brendan Gleeson is also superb, but the picture really belongs to Farrell, who plays exquisitely the balancing…
