Directed by: Jane Campion

A message from our program director Melissa Tamminga:

I am pleased to say we've booked a new film: Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog.

As a HUGE fangirl of Campion and of every single one of her films (including all her shorts and TV series), I am over the moon we're going to be able to give this a theatrical screening.

Campion's second BA is in art (her first was in anthropology), and her artistic sensibilities show up in every frame of her films. I'll
expect no less from this film, particularly her first Western (shot by DP Ari Wegner -- Lady Macbeth, Zola -- scored by Johnny Greenwood), with the potential for the sweeping vistas that Westerns provide. It deserves the big screen. 

Like all of Campions films, however, we can also expect Campion to follow her own path -- with her, a costume never is never just a costume drama (The Piano, Portrait of a Lady, Bright Star), or a thriller is never just a thriller (In the Cut), or a police procedural is never just a police procedural (Top of the Lake), or a biopic is never just a biopic (Angel at my Table, Bright Star); she constantly subverts both the genres and our expectations of them, and I suspect Campion's Western will not be one to offer a comforting portrait of American masculinity that Westerns so often have done. Critic Robert Daniels notes, Dog is an "eerie" film, "an immense portrait of psychological torture and toxic masculinity, nestled on an imposing mountain landscape that entraps its characters." And indeed, Campion's films are nothing if they are not psychologically and emotionally complex. 

Campion has a knack for getting extraordinary performances (Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin in The Piano) and often new kinds of performances out of her actors (e.g. Meg Ryan in In the Cut, Harvey Keitel in Holy Smoke), too, and critics like Daniels and Justin Chang (LA Times, NPR) are saying this is a career best for the already beloved Benedict Cumberbatch. 

Awards watchers like Variety magazine have Dog up right up there with Belfast for a Best Pic or Best Director nominee or maybe a win, and while there is much to love about the sincerely and beautifully rendered Belfast, I must say, a win for Belfast would be a very safe Oscar pick. Campion, on the other hand, is never safe, and if Oscar voters choose The Power of the Dog, well, I'd say they'll be stepping out of their comfort zones, in some exciting ways. 

(Incidentally, the Filmspotting podcast has had excellent series where they've reviewed all of Campion's features, leading up the The Power of the Dog release, and it's well worth a listen: https://www.filmspotting.net/campion ) 

Melissa