Why The Power of the Dog deserves to win Best Picture
The 2022 Oscars ceremony is coming up on March 27, and 10 new movies are up for the Best Picture title: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and any of them might end up winning big. In the lead-up to the Oscars, we’re making a case for why each of them might deserve to take the big prize.
The Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion.
In 1925 Montana, well-educated ranch owner Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) surrounds himself with sycophantic young cowboys who idolize him for his skill, knowledge, and toughness. When his quiet brother George (Jesse Plemons) marries boarding-house owner Rose (Kirsten Dunst), Phil is threatened and jealous, and he takes out his anger on Rose and her skinny, awkward son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The tensions rise and fall as Phil, Rose, and Peter all take drastic steps, some subtler than others.
Campion is the first woman in history to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar twice. (She was previously nominated for 1993’s The Piano, which won her Best Original Screenplay, but lost the Best Director award to Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List.) Campion has spent her career focusing on the tensions and power dynamics between men and women, with sharp, ambitious, sometimes blisteringly observed films like In The Cut, The Portrait of a Lady, and Holy Smoke. Her primary cast here is an all-star team of actors celebrated for their nuanced performances — even when they’re playing against type, as Cumberbatch is here.
The Power of the Dog is a deceptively simple film — it’s easy to see it as a cut-and-dried drama about a dude who doesn’t like his
Read more on polygon.com
