Hacker Cinema
The Power of the Dog
2021 · Film · 127 min
Directed by Jane Campion
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.
4 positive1 mixed2 neutralfrom 7 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
> China is also destroying the movie industry as well.
China may be changing the "Summer Blockbuster" segment of the industry but it's quite the stretch to say they are destroying the whole thing. Plenty of great movies still come out every year.
There's plenty of argument that the Academy Awards aren't necessarily the best movies but even if you look at the movies represented this year, there were a lot of good ones and I don't think any of them were influenced by China. Obviously you can't prove it unless the filmmakers confirm it, but certainly there are a lot of movies with themes that would be unacceptable to Chinese censors.
Maybe the plot of "Transformers 7" isn't as good as it could have been without Chinese influence but as long as movies like "The Power of the Dog" (or "Licorice Pizza" or "Belfast" or "Flee" if animation is more up your alley or ... take your pick) are coming out, I'd say the industry is doing ok.
> and no good movie Netflix has made in years
That is very subjective. My wife and I really liked The power of the dog. And I am sure there are more.
Also subjective: watching Netflix every day (I do not) will end up in watching below par stuff. No service will be able to produce that much high quality content for everybody’s taste.
Wasn't Campion's Power of the Dog an Oscar-rated Netflix film? I agree overall however, Apple is competing with the legacy content monsters the right way. Severance was great art, Slow Horses is compelling, Foundation had its issues but also better moments than any Netflix Sci-Fi show I've seen the past few years (Nightflyers, Another Life, etc don't even come close), and For All Mankind is well-written.
As a movie fan, I despise Netflix's creative line. Their model is to create dumb TV Shows repeating the same concepts over +8 seasons with no real inherent concept. People just get engaged because it's what's closest and easiest to watch.
Now, said that, The Power of the Dog and Rome were two very good movies that somehow came out of Netflix. I don't think that CODA is such a turning point. All these services are pouring so much money into productions that sometimes they hit the bullseye.
Roma? The Irishman? The Two Popes? Marriage Story? Mank? Beasts of No Nation? Power of the Dog? Tick Tick Boom?
Can't really take a comment seriously that puts Apple's film output over this. Besides Coda has Apple produced or even just distributed anything of comparable quality?
Kind of creeps me out that Apple gets to just slide in and immediately become oscar winning film/tv production company darling, as well.
I'm sure someone at Netflix is cheesed with how quickly and easily Apple can just start drinking their milkshake, though. I remember there being a lot of pushing of ROMA and felt like it was a major nail biter for Netflix to get that to take home anything. But if we're being honest...Netflix doesn't actually try to make a lot of very good things to begin with. Though The Power of the Dog was quite notable, still a bit...sterile.
All that being said, at least HBO has another "quality, not quantity" competitor in the ring, at long last.
It was up against the biopic of the Williams sisters' father "King Richard", Japanese film "Drive My Car", Stephen Spielberg's remake of "West Side Story", and gay western "The Power of the Dog".
Perhaps the last was the second time such a film has been snubbed by the Academy, after "Brokeback Mountain" was infamously passed over by "Crash" in 2005.