A standing joke/disclaimer: I probably would have liked Shakespeare more had his plays been written by someone else. If the film’s the thing, my appreciation of his work doesn’t extend beyond the films of Welles and Kurosawa. To hold Joel Coen to those unattainable standards would be unfair. So it’s been a bad holiday season for the Bard, what with Spielberg’s pointless restaging of West Side Story and now this equally quizzical endeavor. It follows The Man Who Wasn’t There as Joel Coen’s second solo director’s credit and the first without the collaboration of his younger brother Ethan. This Christmas, the elder Coen gifted his quirky bride with the role of a lifetime. (Rumor has it that Frances McDormand insisted that she wear her own clothes.) So as not to distract from the performances, Coen resorts to suffocating closeups that entombs his cast betwixt monolithic slabs. Denzel Washington and Ms. McDormand are superb, but would one expect anything less from these titans of talent? Three words: rent the Welles. (2021) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.