Saturday 26 February 2022

The Power of the Dog (2021 Jane Campion & scr)

It's the awards season, and this is up for 12 Oscars. Jane won one before for the screenplay for The Piano, so she puts another piano in this and ends up being nominated again (and for directing). The Piano, by the way, is not a film I've ever wanted to revisit, nor Holy Smoke. Whilst this was on, I realised that the word 'piano' is contained within the director's surname.

Anyway none of this helps us with The Power of the Dog, which I didn't really get, and seems unbelievably over-praised. Benedict's good, but is it Oscar-worthy (especially coming off Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders)? Jonny Greenwood's music is good, of course, and not just because he also scored There Will Be Blood I kept thinking it was similar to that film in many ways (although not as good and with no humour). I wonder if reading Thomas Savage's book would help. Certainly in no way understand the relevance of the title, even though we see its bible origin, nor the dog visible in the hills.

Kodi Smit-McPhee is good as the young man, and he and Jessie Plemons and Kirsten Dunst are nominated, along with production design, sound, cinematography (Ari Wegner), editing (Peter Sciberras) and music. I've got a funny feeling it isn't going to win any.*



See it? That dog there?

It's New Zealand.

With Thomasin McKenzie again (Last Night in Soho, Leave No Trace, Jojo Rabbit), Frances Conroy, Keith Carradine.

Greenwood multi-tracked and recorded the banjo and cellos himself. Though Radiohead is his primary preoccupation, he has scored several films for Paul Thomas Anderson: There Will Be Blood (his first), The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread (Oscar nominated) and Licorice Pizza, We Need to Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here for Lynn Ramsey, and Spencer. This score was one of the twelve nominations but I think he should have got it for Spencer also.

* Wrong! But close - it won just the one for Campion as director.

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