REVIEW: The Father [2021]

I don’t need anyone. The first scene transition in Florian Zeller‘s The Father (adapted from his play “Le Père” with help from Christopher Hampton) is exactly the type of system shock we need to find our footing within an environment that more or less is devoid of ground. We meet Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) soon after he’s forced yet another caretaker from his home. Despite suffering from dementia and prone to the temperamental flare-ups the condition fosters, he staunchly believes he can take care of himself. So his daughter Anne (Olivia…

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REVIEW: The Favourite [2018]

We’ve been laying very different games. This isn’t your parents’ period piece. If the name Yorgos Lanthimos under the header of director didn’t already give you that impression, there it is. The Favourite has everything you’d expect from one, though: real-life characters, powdered faces and wigs, wars discussed from perches miles away from the battlefield, and political jockeying for power. The difference is what Deborah Davis discovered in a corner of British royal history, namely the love and affection shared between Queen Anne, Lady Sarah Churchill (yes, a descendant of…

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REVIEW: Our Kind of Traitor [2016]

“What am I doing here?” We received two John le Carré adaptations this year, each delivering high production value, effective performances, and somewhat weak plotting. Susanne Bier‘s The Night Manager provides a “hero” between worlds—not a bona fide spy as in A Most Wanted Man or Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, not a regular man at his rope’s end willing to do whatever’s necessary a la The Constant Gardener. Surface appearances presume to be the latter except for the fact he has military training and a penchant for killing despite a…

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