From writer and director Jane Campion comes the highly awarded and piping hot Oscar favourite The Power of The Dog.
Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides.
The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, revelling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter – all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her.
As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form – he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?
Official Selection:
Venice Film Festival 2021
Telluride Film Festival 2021
Toronto International Film Festival 2021
New York Film Festival 2021
BFI London Film Festival
Reviews:
“THE POWER OF THE DOG IS A MADE WITH ARTISTRY AND COMMAND: IT IS ONE OF JANE CAMPION'S BEST.” - GUARDIAN
“JANE CAMPION'S THE POWER OF THE DOG COULD ALSO BE CALLED THE POWER OF BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, AS HE'S SO SPECTACULAR.” - THE SPECTATOR
“JANE CAMPION MAKES A THRILLING RETURN WITH THE POWER OF THE DOG, A WORK AS BOLDLY IDIOSYNCRATIC, UNPREDICTABLE AND ALIVE WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY AS ANYTHING IN THE REVERED DIRECTOR'S OUTPUT.” - HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“CAMPION'S DISTURBING, UNSETTLING FILM IS CRAFTED TO PERFECTION - FROM THE PERFORMANCES TO A NEAR-SHAKESPEAREAN FINALE.” - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
“CAMPION REMAINS A MASTER OF SENSORY STORYTELLING, DELIVERING A SCORCHING STUDY OF MASCULINITY ROOTED IN FEAR.” - EMPIRE MAGAZINE
“THE POWER OF THE DOG, CAMPION'S NEWEST FILM IN 12 YEARS, IS AMONG THE YEAR'S BEST.” - CHICAGO READER
“THE POWER OF THE DOG - LIKE ALL OF CAMPION'S WORK - MIXES THE SUBLIME AND THE SURPRISING, ART WALKING STEADILY TOWARD A WHOLLY UNEXPECTED CONCLUSION.” - VOX
“TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU, IT'S EVEN BETTER THE SECOND TIME AROUND...THAT'S WHEN THE TRUE GENIUS OF JANE CAMPION SHINES EVEN BRIGHTER.” - MASHABLE
Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Release Date: 11 November 2021
Country: Australia, New Zealand
Running Time: 127 minutes
Language: English
MATURE THEMES