AFI Fest has harnessed Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.
The Netflix film will screen at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre on Nov. 11 as part of this year’s lineup. Written and directed by Campion, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kristen Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Frances Conroy, Thomasin McKenzie, Geneviève Lemon and Keith Carradine. Campion was awarded the Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival for achievement in directing after its debut there, and it went on to screen at Telluride, Toronto, London and New York film festivals.
Adapted from Thomas Savage’s novel, the story centers on rancher brothers George (Plemons) and Phil (Cumberbatch), whose relationship sours when George marries a local widow named Rose (Dunst). She brings her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to their ranch as they attempt to fit into the family’s complex dynamic of new money, but are continually stymied by an unspoken brotherly bond.
“Twelve years after her last feature, 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,” writes THR chief film critic David Rooney in his September review. “For a filmmaker who has predominantly focused on forensic investigations of the female psyche, this riveting adaptation of the 1967 Thomas Savage novel represents an assured thematic shift to corrosive masculinity and repressed sexuality. The intimately uncomfortable drama is a chamber piece on an epic canvas, driven by transfixing performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and, in a stunning breakout turn, young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee.”
The Power of the Dog will be released in theaters on Nov. 17 and on Netflix Dec. 3. The full AFI Fest lineup can be found here. Other recent additions include Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers, Sean Baker’s Red Rocket and Apichatpong Weerkethakul’s Memoria.
Source: HollyWood
