O Rei

Um orçamento mais elevado e uma batalha melhor elaborada tê-lo-iam levado ainda mais longe, mas mesmo sem eles o filme é ótimo. Lentamente narrado, detalhada e psicologicamente segue a mudança de mentalidade e de atitude de um pacifista boémio para um guerreiro cruel que quer defender a sua honra. Amizade, ambição, intriga, a perda de algo valioso em troca da aquisição de algo menos valioso, mas predeterminado pelo destino. Ao mesmo tempo, as «naturezas políticas» inglesa e francesa são lindamente capturadas do ponto de vista histórico. Ótimos atores em todos os quatro papéis-chave. Edgerton, como co-escritor e co-produtor, é o pai da obra. Ótimo. (18/09/2020)

Adam Arkapaw occasionally conjures a breathtaking shot (the night shot with the trebuchet), and Edgerton enjoys a well-written mentor role suited to his stocky frame; however, with that, the praises for David Michôd naive film come to an end. The toxicity of the male world, the burden of ruling between the millstones of interests, and the desire to surround oneself with loyal followers knowing that "the king has no friends, only followers or enemies" lack the strength to persuade, and the opening of the royal eyes by Depp's daughter crowns it all. One has become accustomed to tolerating historical inaccuracies buried in the mud of creative intentions, but the problem lies more with films that carry these ambitions and the black-and-white nature of the characters (the corrupt church representative, the toads reveling in moral decay). Comparing it to Kurzel because of Shakespeare, Albion, Arkapaw, mud, and blood? It just doesn't work. His version of Macbeth had a vision, while here the attempt to be different ended in mediocrity. And putting Timothée Chalamet's performance on the same level as Fassbender's is just as audacious as thinking that Pattinson's dauphin will spend Christmas in the mud. (21/11/2019)

October's Netflix horror extravaganza is over, but I'm also thankful for this historical flick, which it seems Netflix will serve up every year (last year it was Outlaw King, which I liked a little more, but this one is a blast too). We follow the story of young Henry V, who has recently been crowned king after the death of his father and will have to deal with the war he inherited. Brilliantly filmed, fateful, messy, authentic, historically accurate and above all breathtakingly acted. Timothée Chalamet shows a huge amount of talent on screen and I feel he has a rich future (the King's rage speech before the battle gave me goosebumps like nothing I've seen in a long time), but it was also nice to see Joel Edgerton with a perfect strategic plan and Robert Pattinson playing the sleazy French prince brilliantly. The film climaxes with the solid and glorious Battle of Agincourt, which is properly raw and dirty, and the final rather unexpected twist is brilliant. Even though the film has a slower pace, it doesn't get boring at all and is absolutely riveting. 85% (03/11/2019)

The solitude, burden and uncompromising nature of being a ruler. On top of that, the father-son relationships on both sides of the channel torn apart. Undoubtedly, you will recognize Shakespeare's themes, dialogue, characters and speeches in many places. However, this is not a direct adaptation of his Henriad, though the movie was inspired by it. You won’t fail to notice it and that is intentional. In any case, The King is a fine historical film impressively shot in the mud and with excellent acting (especially the Edgerton-Harris-Chalamet trio). The more intimate, the better. And it is more than intimate. (02/11/2019)

It seems that Netflix decided to try its hand at European historical epics. During the last two years, it produced the best two films of this genre in quite some time – Outlaw King and The King. These films have similar titles, topics and quality, but the latter seemed more professional to me. Maybe it’s because of the Shakespeare references, great dialogues and actors, intimacy of its story or perhaps the action scenes, with an epic finale and postscript that made me melt in pure bliss. For an intimate historical film full of politics there are quite a lot action scenes and witty lines, which is definitely good. It reminds me of the 1980s and 90s, the era of classic historical epics. By the way, did you also do a double-take over the fact that Timothée Chalamet, an actor with obvious French roots, plays the English king and the indisputable Englishman Robert Pattison plays a bitchy Frenchman? Their performances were very entertaining. (18/12/2019)