In terms of the lead performances, Washington is...fine. But I have never found the character of Macbeth to be very compelling; I'm more intrigued by Lady Macbeth, and here, Frances McDormand delivers the goods. It also helps that her husband is directing the movie - I've never seen more loving cinematography than all her close-ups as she declaims those famous lines.
The movie looks beautiful, with great thought given to sets that cast unsettling shadows and amplify the oddness of everything that is going on. But it is also abundantly clear that this movie is shot entirely on sound stages, especially any time a scene is purportedly taking place outdoors. The fake-looking skies and clouds reminded me of classic Hollywood movies from the 1940s, where we just took such settings for granted, but in this film it feels a bit jarring. It was a deliberate choice to make the film appear "untethered from reality" but it simply annoyed me. If you're going to make a black-and-white film in the 21st century, you need to take advantage of all the things you can now shoot and do with cameras that people couldn't do in the 40s.
Overall, this movie is a solid and taut piece of filmmaking (it's only 105 minutes long, which is blessedly short for a Shakespearean tragedy), but it doesn't feel necessary. Everything about it is perfectly fine, but nothing about it feels novel or revelatory. Watch it if you want to appreciate some clever cinematography and set design, but don't watch it if you're expecting some fascinating new take on the Bard.
Scream: I was a little worried about going to see a slasher movie all by myself, wondering if I would spend the whole time anxiously curled up into a ball in my seat as people on screen kept getting stabbed. But nope, I spent the whole time with a big goofy grin on my face, thoroughly enjoying this loving and absurd ode to the Scream movie franchise.
Directed by Matt Bellinetti-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick (all of whom were involved in the making of Ready or Not, the last horror comedy that thoroughly delighted me in theaters), this is your classic Scream movie where a bunch of people, mostly teenagers, in the town of Woodsboro are being killed by Ghostface, the iconic masked killer that we all know well from the past four Scream movies. We will spend this film watching various people get tormented and killed until Ghostface is finally unmasked at the end. But what makes this movie so hysterical is the amount of meta commentary throughout. This is a movie that is about the Scream franchise - the characters keep referencing a "Stab" movie franchise that is about the events of the Scream movies, and it is all so twisty and self-referential and amazing. We also get the return of the original Scream cast, with Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette all getting a chance to help this new group of terrorized teens track down their killer. And we get some insights into the Rules of a Scream movie, some of which may or may not come true as the film progresses.
Special shout-out to composer Brian Tyler's score throughout this film. It is so cheeky, constantly hyping up an impending stabbing and then leaving you hanging as the music crescendos to nothing. And just when you've been psyched out for the fourth time in a row, Ghostface shows up and stabs someone in the throat and you shriek with both horror and delight. This movie is so spectacularly silly and fun, and as long as you can tolerate some thrills and jump scares, you are guaranteed to have a good time. So give it a shot...or should I say, give it a stab?!
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