Jane Campion’s first
feature film in 12 years
“plays like a master class
in sustained dread,”
said Leah Greenblatt in
Entertainment Weekly.
In 1925 Montana, a
cruel rancher played by
Benedict Cumberbatch
terrorizes everyone
around him. When Phil
Burbank isn’t mocking
his brother, George, he
is bullying even easier targets, such as the feminine
son of a widowed boarding-house proprietress. And
when George impulsively marries the widow and
brings her home, Phil’s menacing behavior quickly
drives Kirsten Dunst’s Rose to drink while Phil and
the younger man “begin to circle one another”
with an “odd thrumming chemistry.” Phil is an
absolute zealot about policing male behavior, and
“if your latent-homosexuality alert hasn’t goneoff yet, it may be time to
calibrate the settings,”
said Stephanie Zacharek
in Time. Still, “noth-
ing in The Power of the
Dog goes quite as you
expect”; even Phil proves
capable of surprises.
While Cumberbatch’s
“astounding” perfor-
mance is a career best, it’s
the younger Kodi Smit-
McPhee whose unknown
heart makes this such a “rivetingly tense” movie,
said David Ehrlich in IndieWire.com. You have
to admire “the shiv-like stealthiness of Campion’s
approach.” The Oscar-winning director of The
Piano has made “a brilliant, murderous fable about
masculine strength that’s so diamond-toothed its
victims are already half dead by the time they see
the first drop of their own blood.” (In select theaters
now; on Netflix Dec. 1)The latest Ghostbusters
installment “wants desper-
ately” to summon the spirit
of the 1984 original, said
Jesse Hassenger in AVClub
.com. But instead of a com-
edy, Jason Reitman, the son
of the original director, has
made a “neo-Spielbergian kid
adventure.” Mckenna Grace
plays the science-loving teen-
age granddaughter of the
Harold Ramis character, Egon Spengler. She and her
brother, Trevor, have been dragged off to Oklahoma
to help their mother clean up a spooky farmhouse
that her grandfather left behind. The story is all
family-friendly supernatural suspense from there,
and though Ghostbusters references far outnumber
laughs, “it’s a harmless night out for the faithful.”Afterlife is “not really a movie
at all,” said Barry Hertz in
the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Granted, its Oklahoma corn-
fields look gorgeous and “chil-
dren under 13 might enjoy its
second-half shenanigans.” But
even Paul Rudd, as a science
teacher who backs the kids’
ghost battles, can’t generate
enough comedy to cover up
the movie’s single-minded
interest in serving up nostalgia. “It’s one of the most
ghoulish things I’ve ever seen, and, in a nefarious
way, ingenious,” said Alison Willmore in NYMag
.com. Most Ghostbusters fans, after all, just want to
remember being kids again. Afterlife will get them
there. In fact, “there’s nothing it won’t do to achieve
a sense of maudlin coziness.” (In theaters only)26 ARTS Review of reviews: Film
The Power of
the Dog
A toxic cowboy rides
toward ruin.++++
Directed by Jane Campion
(R)Ghostbusters:
AfterlifeA new generation battles
the spirit world.++++
Directed by Jason Reitman
(PG-13)“King Richard is a good
old-fashioned Horatio Alger
story for our time,” said
Peter Debruge in Variety. A
“grizzled” Will Smith stars as
Richard Williams, a force of
nature who envisioned tennis
greatness for his daughters
Venus and Serena before they
were even born. We know
going in that the Compton,
Calif.–raised Williams girls
fulfilled that dream. “The attraction here is discov-
ering where the family came from, what they over-
came, and how Richard’s master plan played out.”
Intense hard work seems to have been the secret
ingredient. “There will, no doubt, be questions
about how accurate this portrayal of Richard is,”
said Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair. Though the
screenplay acknowledges that his relentless pushing
exacted a psychological cost from the sisters, “forthe most part he’s framed as
a difficult hero, a demand-
ing father-coach-manager
who nonetheless had a clear,
correct, almost prophetic
vision for what was best for
two of his children.” Smith’s
performance reminds us of
the singular charge he brings
to the screen, and Aunjanue
Ellis has a memorable scene
as the girls’ mother, but “the
heart of the film” belongs to teenagers Saniyya
Sidney as Venus and Demi Singleton as Serena, two
natural young actors. Once the film’s focus turns
to Venus, the older of the pair, said Mick LaSalle in
the San Francisco Chronicle, “whatever is going on
with Richard becomes secondary.” In her scenes on
court, “Sidney is able to convey the double quality
of a killer in embryo and a vulnerable kid.” You
won’t soon forget her. (In theaters only)King Richard
The father behind
two legends of tennis++++
Directed by Reinaldo
Marcus Green
(PG-13)Smith counsels his future champs.Cumberbatch with Smit-McPhee: Rough schoolingGrace fires a 1980s proton pack.Netflix,^ Warner^
Bros.,^ColumbiaPi
ctures