Joel Coen's 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' Review Thread

Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (8 reviews) with 9.50 in average rating

Metacritic: 89/100 (8 critics)

As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie.

Furious and fleet, emotional and elemental, Joel Coen’s stripped-down take on the Scottish play instantly secures its place among the most audacious modern screen adaptations of Shakespeare. The extended title makes sense, given that Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, leading a superlative ensemble, play not just the ruthless thirst for power but also the anxious race against time to seize their place in history, instead sealing their self-destruction. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a raw, lucid retelling, rendered spellbinding by its enveloping stylized design and its masterful black-and-white visuals, evoking the chiaroscuro textures of Carl Theodor Dreyer.

-David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

It’s no surprise that in “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” an adaptation of the Shakespeare play that is Joel Coen’s first solo outing as a filmmaker (it will open the New York Film Festival tonight), Coen very much approaches the material as the visual obsessive he is. The diaphanous white fog, the cawing black birds, the witch who looks like a depraved Joan of Arc — it all has the entranced clarity of a nightmare. The surprise, at least to me (and I say this as a true believer in the Coen brothers’ aesthetic, even though I only like about half their films), is how sensual and ingenious and expressive and enveloping the film’s images are.

-Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Denzel Washington delivers one of the best performances of his career in Joel Coen's film, but it's Kathryn Hunter who gives this film its witchy magic.

-David Ehrlich, IndieWire: B+

What’s the point of another Macbeth movie? It wasn’t that long ago we had Justin Kurzel’s big realist version, with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Well, there’s always a point if the film is as compelling and visually brilliant as this. Director Joel Coen, working for once without brother Ethan, has delivered a stark monochrome nightmare, refrigerated to an icy coldness.

-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 5/5

Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth may be the best-served by cinema, with terrific, distinctive adaptations over the years from Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski, and most recently Justin Kurzel, with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Coen’s is something different again – though new would be entirely the wrong word. It resonates with the ancient power of a ritual.

-Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: 5/5

Stacked with great performances, anchored by Denzel Washington’s masterfully weary soldier-turned-murderer Macbeth and Frances McDormand as his hard-edged conspirator-turned-madwoman of a spouse, and starkly rendered in expressionistic black and white, Coen’s version of one of the most oft-quoted of Shakespeare’s works is a bracingly textured cinematic plunge into some classically dark waters.

-Robert Abele, The Wrap

Director Joel Coen explores the consequences of war and loss through a fantastical, almost surrealist-like lens. He executes Shakespeare’s work in a way that takes inspiration from other adaptations of the play while creating a version that is all his own.

-Valerie Complex, Deadline

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PLOT

After being convinced by three witches, a Scottish Lord sets out to become the King of Scotland.

DIRECTOR/WRITER

Joel Coen (based on Macbeth by William Shakespeare)

MUSIC

Carter Burwell

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Bruno Delbonnel

EDITOR

Lucian Johnston

Release date:

September 24, 2021 (New York Film Festival)

December 25, 2021 (limited release on theaters)

January 14, 2022 (Apple TV+)

STARRING

• Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth

• Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth

• Corey Hawkins as Macduff

• Brendan Gleeson as King Duncan

• Harry Melling as Malcolm

• Moses Ingram as Lady Macduff

• Ralph Ineson as The Captain

• Brian Thompson as Young Murderer

• Sean Patrick Thomas as Monteith

• Kathryn Hunter as the witches

• Alex Hassell as Ross

• Stephen Root as undisclosed role

• Bertie Carvel as Banquo

Submitted September 24, 2021 at 11:13PM by SanderSo47 https://ift.tt/39Bh6yw