Movie Diary 12/6/2021

The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021). A Western, of suspense. I hope to give this a proper review. I wish I’d seen it on a big screen.

The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021). Directing debut for the actress; Olivia Colman plays an academic on a working vacation in Greece, observing the goings-on around her and recalling her past as a young mother (where she’s played by Jessie Buckley). Two general thoughts: These flashbacks may be of more interest to Gyllenhaal than they are to the story, and the approach here seems literary more than cinematic, somehow – it’s based on a novel by Elena Ferrante.

Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, 2020). A regularly funny nightmare-comedy set mostly inside a single house, featuring a gallery of dead-on performances by youngish actors (notably Rachel Sennott and Molly Gordon) and old pros (including Polly Draper and Fred Melamed) alike.