The Power of the Dog review: Jane Campion’s Western is 2021’s best movie

The following review is of Dog Power was originally posted in conjunction with the film’s premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It has been updated for the film’s November theatrical release and its release to Netflix on Dec. 1.

There’s a scene in Jane Campion’s evocative, arresting Western Dog Power — her first film in 12 years after turning to TV with Top of the Lake — that tantalizes viewers like the teasing tips of prairie grass. Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), a hardworking rancher sits at a large table with his cowboy friends in the cozy surroundings of Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dust). His clean-shaven, quiet brother and business partner, George (Jesse Plemons), looks on in dismay as Phil chides a sensitive waiter, Rose’s son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), for the hand-crafted paper flowers he made as table settings.

Adapted by Campion from Thomas Savage’s novel of the same name, Dog PowerIt takes place in Montana, 1925. On its face, the haunting Western concerns Phil and George, radically disparate brothers living on a ranch that aesthetically feels indebted to Terrence Malick’s Days of HeavenRose, the way she comes between them. However, the film is deliberately fast-paced to take viewers beyond their familiar surroundings and show them a more complex and affecting destination. It’s an immense portrait of psychological torture and toxic masculinity, nestled on an imposing mountain landscape that entraps its characters.

Dog PowerIt is a haunting film. Ari Wegner is a cinematographerLady Macbeth, ZolaThe long lens used by ) to photograph rolling hills and their foreground characters in order to create awe-inspiring, philosophic compositions. And Jonny Greenwood’s enrapturing score is downright sinister. They take place in Montana where there is still strong mythology surrounding the West. There are many cars in these cities but they are not common here. It is rare to see judges and lawyers. It is the hard work of men, their homosocial relationships, and the lessons they have to share about women and cattle that really matters.

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Phil and George’s relationship once thrived on those topics, especially when their good buddy Bronco Henry was alive. Phil is now a deified version of Bronco Henry and still takes the time to praise him 20 years later. But even though Phil and George still share their childhood bedroom, they’re drifting apart. George is drawn to Rose, another outcast and vulnerable soul. He becomes Rose’s waiter, in a touching scene. It’s one of the many ways Dog PowerPower dynamics are important to be mindful.

Plemons and Dunst make a great couple. Their innate sensitivity towards each other makes them a natural-life couple. They also have complementary acting styles. Both offer subtle turns, with Dunst as a woman afflicted by the crippling anxiety of moving up to another social class and feeling like she isn’t enough, and Plemons as the lonely, tactful rancher who isn’t wholly at home with his overbearing brother. After a piano recital goes wrong when George pushes Rose to perform for Montana’s governor, it’d be easy to say that both characters fall by the narrative wayside in lieu of Phil. But Campion somehow keeps their presence relevant even when they aren’t on screen.

Cumberbatch has the best performance of his career playing Phil, and they’re boots only he could wear. Phil is an educated college student who can reference Romulus’ myth, but finds it easy to be among hard-working ranch workers. Between Cumberbatch’s angular physique and his intellectual star persona, he brings together two seemingly disparate conceptions of an early-20th-century man. Rose is afflicted with an intellectual meanness by Cumberbatch’s rare combination. One scene, for instance, sees him preying on Rose’s self-conscious piano playing by showing off his virtuoso banjo skills. His auditory calling card, a creepily whistled tune, is heard whenever he wants to let Rose know she’s being watched. Unsettling effects result from his toxic and unsettling environment.

Phil displays a different kind of nastiness toward Rose’s son Peter. It’s a physical meanness, meant to intimidate a boy he thinks of as a dandy. Peter is the tall needle that does stick out from the hay: He wears white sneakers, a white shirt, black slacks, and a cowboy hat that’s altogether too big for him. He’s studying to be a doctor, and can be unconsciously frightening to servants like Lola (Thomasin McKenzie), especially when he’s caught dissecting a rabbit.

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Peter and Phil’s relationship is complicated, but clearly adversarial. Peter hates Phil because of the way that he treats Rose. He wants to protect her, but doesn’t have the tools to do so. They are in an unsteady marriage. Dog PowerTeeters: What will it be? Will it continue to focus on a female who splits up two brothers, or do they want something different? Instead of either of these things, it takes on an unexpected tenor that’s still unrelenting. As Phil and Peter form an unusual bond over the dusty terrain, a surreal lacre emerges. The wellspring of emotions beneath them becomes complex and even mystical.

In the United States, there are no seismic events.Dog Power. No cattle stampedes nor gunfights are allowed. The movie’s abrupt end feels even more shocking because of its meditative nature. Campion, like many directors, is a movie that rewards repeated viewings. On a second watch, the connective tissues surrounding the narrative’s tendons don’t just become apparent, they gain a muscular meaning, a robustness that makes the film’s one major reveal even more enlivening. Dog Power doesn’t just mark Campion’s return — it’s the best movie of 2021 so far. This psychological Western’s themes of isolation and toxic masculinity are an ever-tightening lasso of seemingly innocuous events, and they import more horror and meaning on every closer inspection, corralling viewers under an unforgettable spell.

Dog PowerNetflix now has it streaming.