Michael’s review published on Letterboxd:
"The cub you once hunted ate up your nose. Now the wolf has grown. He hungers for the rest!"
This is as if William Shakespeare wrote Conan the Barbarian, and it insanely works. There are elements of Hamlet and Macbeth, but the main character is an orphaned child who grows up to be a mighty warrior who deals with witchcraft, gods, and vengeance. He also discovers a badass sword in a cave that he takes from a corpse. Conan, indeed. I thought Eggers painted a wonderful environment from the set designs, clothing, and landscape that made me want to run away and disappear from the world. And the score is the cherry on top. Much of it reminded me of The Witcher 3's score. The cast is great. I find it funny that Alexander Sarsgaard started acting on a whim in a gasoline fight, and now he is in full beast mode for Robert Eggers. Ana Taylor Joy is beautiful and fearless. As is Nicole Kidman, and I swear she can play any role. Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe don't have big parts, but they own every moment they are on screen. I was ecstatic to see Bjork in a movie again, and she looked amazing. And I swear she brought her own costume. And I was happy to get a bit of a The Witch reunion with Ana Taylor Joy, Kim Dickie, and Ralph Ineson, but sadly all three aren't on screen together. The tone is brutal, unforgiving, and it doesn't cater to weakness. Its revenge as a religious experience, and the graphic violence is its sermon. And any film with a climax involving two naked men sword fighting in a volcano is automatically a winner in my book. Sorry Episode 3, you no longer have the coolest swordfight in a volcano scene.
10 out of 10 teardrops
