Review of The Beguiled (2017) by Bradley J — 29 Jun 2017

I've always thought Hollywood to be an incestuous place. You don't have to look further than Sofia Coppola to prove it. I had to force myself to walk into "The Beguiled" having been so affronted by Sofia's performance in her father's film, "Godfather III," where she won"Worst Supporting Actress" and "Worst New Star" at the 1990 Golden Rasberries. Thirteen years later, she wrote an atrocious screenplay titled, "Lost in Translation" starring Bill Murray and walked away with an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which stunk up the roads with nepotism all the way from Los Angeles to Tijuana. I swore I would never waste my money on another one of her movies.

I was wrong. You have got to give Sofia credit for persistence. "The Beguiled," a remake of Cullinan's book is now her eighth film. When it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, she won the Best Director's Award and I broke the promise to myself and went to see it. What a shocker. The film is an absolute gem.

The film a remake of a 1971 Clint Eastwood flick. This one stars Nicole Kidman and both Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst (both previously cast by Coppola in her trivial biopic, "Marie Antionette.") Unlike Eastwood's thin film of same name, Coppola's film is all about lust. Coppola fills the screen with a moist feminine Confederate heat shot in dark pastels for background with shear sexual desire that ripens and culminates in sexual explosion. Just terrific stuff. Don't miss it. By far her best work yet.