The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

[al_infierno]

Just caught the new half-a-Coen-Brothers adaptation of Macbeth.  Loved it.  Here were my thoughts:

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) totally rules.  Awesome visual spectacle and a surprisingly faithful depiction of the source material while still being fairly streamlined and well paced.  I love the feverish and surreal vibe it has going on, and the whole black-and-white-with-narrow-aspect-ratio gimmick was done extraordinarily well.  I'd rate it up there with The Lighthouse in that department, although they went a little overboard with the CGI crows in some places.

The violence felt a lot more realistic and weighty than the 2015 version, to the point where I actually winced during the scene of Duncan being murdered.  The fight between Macbeth and Macduff was also much cooler and felt more realistic while also being more surreal and visually striking, and it felt much less like an overwrought action movie setpiece than the 2015 version.  This film has definitely dethroned the 2015 Macbeth as my favorite adaptation of the source material, though admittedly I still need to watch the Polanski version which I have a copy of sitting around.

Denzel Washington was pretty wooden in the beginning, but once Macbeth starts to unravel a bit I thought he did a great job.  Even so, I can't help but feel like I preferred Michael Fassbender as Macbeth.  I'll have to rewatch the 2015 one to really make up my mind.  Washington just seems like a bit of a miscast, like a dozen other actors could have done what he did.  He was good overall, but hard to believe he was really the best actor for the role to audition.  Frances McDormand was just awesome as Lady Macbeth.  Corey Hawkins was an odd choice for Macduff but I thought he did a pretty good job with the role despite.

I really, really enjoyed how they managed to include the porter scene (starring Stephen Root as the drunk porter) while keeping the runtime concise.  Also, I love that they actually included the best line in the play: "What, you egg!"

[Spoiler]Speaking of that line, I laughed my ass off when the murderer shouted that and then just picked up the Macduff kid and straight up chucked him into a fire.  Goddamn, that was brutal.[/Spoiler]

Definitely a sneaky slip-in for best of 2021, highly recommended to Shakespeare fanatics.

[Gusington]

Thanks al, have been wanting to watch this for a while. Will it be available anywhere else besides Apple TV?

[al_infierno]

No idea, I hope so because it's a modern masterpiece IMO and deserves not to be limited to one platform.  If it ends up on Amazon I'll almost surely purchase it.

[Gusington]

Hoping for on-demand at some point.