The Tragedy of Macbeth reviews

[Sabin]

This movie looks amazing. Its nominations for Cinematography and Production Design are well-deserved. It's pretty clear what made Joel Coen wake up in the morning and want to make this film. I didn't see it in theaters and absolutely regret that decision. It must have been a marvel to just take in this imagery. But this has to be among the least psychologically compelling Shakespeare films I've ever seen. Everyone is basically sleepwalking from set to set. I don't necessarily mind that Joel Coen wants to turn Shakespearean text into a visual/sensory experience but I felt nothing beyond "Oooh, that looks cool." It's odd because Joel Coen (guess that's how I'll be describing his/their efforts now) is a filmmaker with such a fascination with language and I never felt like any of the actors connected with the text beyond just saying the lines. Frances McDormand seems especially miscast to me. Denzel Washington probably fares better because there's a fascination to just watching him play Macbeth. But he doesn't deserve a Best Actor nomination at all.

But yeah. It looks amazing.

[Mister Tee]

Not far into this movie (I saw it in a theatre, and recommend the venue), I realized I was in West Side Story territory: though it's years since my regular acquaintance with the play, my memory of it is pretty crystal-clear. I've got both the "dagger I see before me" and "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speeches committed to memory (used them for auditions), but far more of the dialogue was instantly familiar. (And, as always with Shakespeare, one marvels at how much of it has passed into the common language.) So, really, the only way I could watch it and enjoy it was to see what it did in the way of filming that was new and exciting.

And here it did have the advantage over West Side Story, for me, because the approach was very fresh. This isn't to say it's revolutionary -- as dws says, it's basically the German Expressionist Macbeth (honestly, looking more like the version Orson Welles would have done than Welles' actual film). But I found it just very bracing and pleasing to watch. The play appeared to have been cut around the action, and moved very quickly (I found myself thinking, wow, they're up to killing Duncan already?), but I didn't notice any major speech missing -- even the oft-cut drunken porter's scene survived mostly intact. And the images were just striking, starting with the multiplying witches, all the way through to the best-looking Birnam Wood enactment I've ever seen (and culminating in the flying-off vultures, which evoked memories of Polanski's finale). I've been thinking this year's cinematography prize was down to a Dune/Power of the Dog face-off, but Delbonnel's work is so gorgeous, in such a showy way, that I wonder if he has a chance of swooping in (especially since voters have recently shown a preference for black-and-white work).

I don't entirely disagree with dws on the actors. Washington is solid, but doesn't bring anything terribly special to the central character. And McDormand doesn't give off regal enough vibes in her approach; I also couldn't quite feel the transformation that moved her from eager provoker of evil to covered-in-guilt madwoman. But the rest of the cast is very strong. I'm less sanguine about a Hunter nomination now that I've seen her work -- it's a REALLY small part -- but she brings a unique energy to her scenes.

How does this fit into the Coens' filmography? Well, it's certainly a departure aesthetically, but I'd say in its portrait of characters who, confronted with possible doom, seem to run headlong toward it rather than retreat, it's of a piece with A Serious Man and No Country for Old Men.

I wonder if this is the kind of film that might surprise us on nominations morning (as other Coen films have done). Actor, cinematography and production design seem givens, but it's possible Carter Burwell's score could sneak in, the writers could come through (with the Branagh Hamlet as precedent), and Coen could score with the directors for his very showy work.

[dws1982]

Didn't love this, although my thoughts are probably going to come off as much more negative than I actually was. I do need to watch it again, because I still feel pretty conflicted over it.

It's one of those movies where saying "it feels artificial" is the kind of criticism that feels all wrong because the artificiality is very much part of the aesthetic, everything is very clearly meant to not be realistic, but nothing about it really justifies that approach, which was not pandemic-imposed (it started filming with these sets and with this blocking and with this cinematographic style in February 2020, before the pandemic shut productions down), and it very much feels like a director very consciously trying to do his take on a German Expressionism film (among other influences) rather than a director arriving at that style naturally from the material. His actual take on the material is pretty standard. At the end of the day, it is not much more than a serviceable Shakespeare adaptation, destined to find its home in AP Lit classrooms everywhere. Washington is pretty good, McDormand unfortunately doesn't bring much more than her trademark McDormand severity to the Lady Macbeth role. She's just too casual, for lack of a better word. For someone who is ultimately driven to madness and suicide due to guilt over what she's done and what she's set into motion, there's no sense of her crossing a line, no sense of her realizing she's crossed it. And unfortunately--and this is a failing of Washington and McDormand and Coen too--she and Washington have zero chemistry with each other. They just seem like two people who wondered in from the Oscars onto the same movie set. I do like the idea of casting these two roles older (and with no children) because it brings different stakes to their power grab. Most of the cast is really good. Harry Melling is kind of an unexpected choice for Malcolm, but I actually thought he was excellent, and he just looks like the type of actor who would show up in Coen movies a lot (maybe Coen agrees since this is the second time he's cast him). I was a little mixed on Kathryn Hunter. It's impressive physical work for sure, but it leans a little more into the physical/mental grotesquerie that I tend to find off-putting in other Coen films.

[Sabin]

"Twelve nominations seems a bit high for a black and white movie with a square ratio," he said before he remembered The Artist. This doesn't seem like a winner to me, although I just love the idea of Apple winning an Oscar before Netflix does.

I just looked back on the Coen Bros' decade and it's been a surprisingly low-key one. After the success of True Grit (especially their Best Director nomination over Nolan), I assumed they were squarely in the Academy's radar. Their subsequent work, however, has been more produced by other people (and on television) than themselves. I wonder how much of this has contributed to Ethan's decision to step away.

So, we can assume that Denzel Washington will earn his ninth acting Oscar nomination (he has a nomination for producing Fences) and Frances McDormand will earn her seventh Oscar nomination (she has one win for producing Nomadland). This will put Denzel Washington in the same company as Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, and Al Pacino and this will put Frances McDormand in the company of Ingrid Bergman, Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda, Judi Dench, Greer Garson, and Kate Winslet.

If Denzel Washington gets four additional Academy Award nominations over the course of his career, he will beat Jack Nicholson's current record of twelve nominations. He is 66 years old. I think he might be able to do it.

[Big Magilla]

Wow! I was skeptical, but now 'm impressed.

Sounds like a minimum of 12 Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, at least one Supporting Actor (Corey Hawkins), possibly three or a record-breaking four, as well as Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Score, and Sound. Not only that, but it could win in all 12 categories if Oscar voters are as enthusiastic as the critics though a third win for Washington and a fourth for MacDormand still seems like a couple of bridges too far.

[Mister Tee]

I believe these would be classified as raves.

https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/t ... 235073127/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235019949/

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/s ... gdnculture