Benedict Cumberbatch is a menacing, whistling cowboy in teaser for The Power Of The Dog
Oscar-winner Jane Campion returns with her first film in 12 years
Film News The Power of the Dog
The official teaser from auteur Jane Campion’s first film in over a decade, The Power Of The Dog, has it all: Mystery, tension, eeriness, all encompassed by beautiful shots that highlight the Western landscape. Dare we say, it’s even a little sexy? The rope tying, running fingers through a fine comb, the low stares, the whistling? The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, and from the shot of the delicate wheat grazed with blood, somebody’s dying by the end of this film.
Based on the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage, the film is set in the 1920s and tells the story of Montana ranchers Phil (Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Plemons). The wealthy and brutal Phil manages to stoke fear in everyone around him, a feeling that’s palpable in the trailer. When George marries widower Rose (Dunst), and brings her back home along with her son Peter (Smit-McPhee), Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love. The only one who utters any words throughout the trailer is Kirsten Dunst, calling Cumberbatch’s character “just a man.” Yes, just a man who can whistle really well and apparently dole out some emotional torture.
The New Zealand director’s previous film was 2009's Bright Star, which received critical acclaim and earned an Oscar nomination for costume design. Her 1993 film The Piano won the Palme d’Or (she was the first woman in history to achieve this), as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Campion was the second woman director in the history of the Academy Awards to receive the nomination for best director for her work on The Piano. In addition to The Power Of The Dog being Campion’s first film in 12 years, it stands out as her first film with a male lead in her 40 year-long career.
“Right from the beginning of my career, it’s been women’s stories because women have been completely flipping ignored,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “It was kind of a mission, and it would have felt like a huge betrayal. Even though I see myself as an artist who can go anywhere, I still felt this natural, but also political, necessity to cleave toward women.”
Campion recruited Oscar-nominated composer Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread), who is also composing the score for this year’s Princess Diana drama, Spencer, from Pablo Larrain.
The Power of the Dog will be released in select theaters on Nov. 17 and debut on Netflix on Dec. 1.
39 Comments
3/1 Champion-to-Campion ratio.
At this point, I’m less surprised that they misspelled Campion four times (including the subhead) and more surprised that they managed to get it right once.
What’s really annoying is that even after these comments, it won’t get fixed. It’s not like you have recall a bunch of physical magazines. Just fix the webpage! It’s not hard.
It’s hard if no one on the publishing end is reading the comments.
Fixed. Feels like I had the worst mandela effect happen to me, and my mind is playing tricks on me as I read it literally 50 times as Champion, sorry for the agony y’all
According to standard internet rules, misspelling someone’s name makes you worse than Hitler.
Hilter, I think you mean.
She is the Campion, my friends.
Typed it on her phone, I reckon. Spellcheck was her enemy. Also, no editor here
widower Rose (Dunst)Women are widows, men are widowers.
Good god it’s just as bad as the recent Barsanti posts, if not worse. I agree it’s like they’ve taken away the writers’ computers and given them the challenge of drafting these entirely on their phones. How can you misspell the director’s name so many times when you’re literally linking to other articles where it’s spelled right, clear as day. It’s frequent enough now that I’m imagining the editor is just a spellchecker bot, unable to recognize that while Champion is a real word, it is not the right one
Holy shit, I loved that book, and I had zero clue that it was being adapted into a film. Definitely recommend reading.
In the book Benedict Cumberbatch’s character played a banjo to set his brother’s wife’s nerves to the point of breaking; in the film it looks like they’ve replaced the banjo with menacing whistling (like Fritz Lang’s M or Alan Arkin in Wait Until Dark). This seems like a welcome and effective move.
Ah, the old “banjolighting” abuse tactic.
It’s both
…how does anyone get “a lot sexy” for that trailer? Looks really tense and mean. Between this and the obsession with the rowers from The White Lotus, the AV Club has turned wayyyyy too horny.
I got no sexiness from the trailer either. I can tell you that the book was not sexy at all, and was pretty tense and mean-spirited at times, so the trailer is on point.And speaking as a hetero male, those rowers were inarguably sexy.
Are you straight, perhaps? The fondling of that saddle? All those leather sound effects? Those eyes they keep making at eachother? This is basically the first 60 seconds of a very high-budget gay porn.
One of Huey Lewis’s lesser-known hits?
Sounded like the Jurassic Park theme to me.
Campion. Also, it’s probably worth mentioning that Jonny Greenwood is unusually more than an Oscar-nominated composer. Finally, “…a lot sexy?” I know you need a few sentences to start, but that’s a strange angle for an obviously ominous trailer centered on the helplessness of a woman and her child.
I was sort of hoping this was a continuation of the story of the guy who killed Buster Scruggs
Where’s the Temple of the Dog movie? I’ll go on a hunger strike for it
I’M GOIN’ HUNGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Thought this was going to be the Don Winslow book.
I read his sequel (or prequel, whatever) to Trevanian’s Shibumi and was not impressed. This is what he gets for stealing the titles of existing novels, his readers get confused.
So, not Dunst’s and Plemons’s Fargo characters’ past lives?
It’s kind of sweet how often Mr and Mrs. Plemons-Dunst appear in projects together.
Everyone in this film has a face for radio.
Ah yes, the old Bill Maher Affect.
I know that sexuality is a very personal thing, and we’re not all turned on by the same things, but I fail to see anything sexy in that trailer.
Gabrielle gets all Jamie-Lee-Curtis-hearing-Italian-in-A-Fish-Called-Wanda horned out by a man who can whistle creepily.
Darn. I was hoping to hear more of Cumberbatch’s awkward American accent.
“Hey dudes! Let’s like totally party down, yeah?” His exact words in the film’s trailer.
Interesting gay literary history fact:Thomas Savage, the author of the 1967 book that this movie is based on, was formerly the boyfriend of Tomie DePaola, the children’s book icon who wrote and illustrated Streganona, The Art Lesson, Big Anthony, etc. Also: *SPOILER FOR THIS MOVIE AND THE BOOK*
A torrid love affair between Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee is entirely too much cheekbone for one relationship
Anyone else get reminded of the theme from Jurassic Park whenever Cumberbatch whistled those bars?
I only found one blatant error in this article:40 year-long career —> 40-year-long career
Got excited for a second and thought this was based on Don Winslow’s awesome drug-war thriller The Power of the Dog. Now that would make an incredible movie/mini-series.