The Power of the Dog - 12 nominations

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Kodi Smit-McPhee

Best Adapted Screenplay Jane Campion (written by)

Best Achievement in Directing Jane Campion

Best Motion Picture of the Year Jane Campion (producer) Tanya Seghatchian (producer) Emile Sherman (producer) Iain Canning (producer) Roger Frappier (producer)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Jesse Plemons

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Benedict Cumberbatch

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Kirsten Dunst

Best Achievement in Production Design Grant Major (production design) Amber Richards (set decoration)

Best Sound Richard Flynn Robert Mackenzie Tara Webb

Best Achievement in Cinematography Ari Wegner

Best Achievement in Film Editing Peter Sciberras

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Jonny Greenwood

I don't like Westerns.  I don't generally like slow, "methodical" films that kind of meander to their plot. I don't often like films with sinister, intentionally uncomfortable characters.  So you'd think that I'd hate The Power of the Dog, right?  WRONG.  I loved it.  I loved loved loved it.

Jane Campion's film about two wealthy brothers who own a farm captures everything I love about characters and movies. One brother, Phil, eschews all the trappings of wealth.  He can do every job on the farm and never asks his ranch hands to do anything he wouldn't do himself.  It's a culture of toxic masculinity and he is the head "bro."  But we see some cracks in that veneer, and we begin to learn that Phil's identity is more than what he projects.  On the other hand, his brother George is the opposite; polite and the epitome of a wealthy businessman, and when he meets Rose (and her son) at a restaurant she owns that the crew patronizes, he cares for her in a time of emotional crisis and ultimately marries her.  She comes back to the ranch, now the lady of the house, and Phil torments her so subtly that she begins to melt in front of our very eyes.

Important advisory - GET PAST THE FIRST 15 MINUTES.  I have heard numerous complaints that "I couldn't get past..." - I promise, the payoff is worth it.  This is the rare film that the methodical set up has a giant payoff.  The performances are lessons in acting, no surprise given that married couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons have both been working since they were kids.  Benedict Cumberbatch never puts a wrong step and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee is deliciously meek and totally creepy.

As with most sweeping epic films, cinematography and the original score are absolutely critical to this movie's success.  I simply can't say enough good things.  If you have time for just 3 films this year, make this one of them.