Michael Sarnoski’s new twist on a not-so-merry bandit, “The Death of Robin Hood,” opens this weekend from A24. It’s a revisionist historical epic — or an epic about the history of revisionism, as IndieWire’s film critic David Ehrlich shrewdly argued — that paints Hugh Jackman’s Robin Hood almost as a sociopath who has no remorse about slinging arrows into the skulls of children or shoving a torch down a foe’s gullet.
Until, it seems, he does, as the movie shifts from a brutally violent period actioner to a contemplative, philosophical drama, with Robin Hood looking back on his legacy of blood debts while in the care of a saintly prioress (Jodie Comer).
On the latest episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio catch up on the movie, in which Jackman gives an unvarnished (except in hair and prosthetic wound makeup, of course) performance as a very different version of an iconic outlaw you think you know. Reviews are mixed, per a Metacritic score hovering in the 60s, but we both recommend people seek out the movie. Just gird your loins if you think this is through-and-through a violent period movie. The second half, which dips into profundity and sentimentality while not always hitting the mark per Ryan, will be a harder sell for the audience that the film‘s opening sequences (and its marketing) attracts.
“The Death of Robin Hood” needs audiences and critics behind it to propel it into awards season; the period-specific craft is strong on every level, and that may be A24’s best foot forward in advocating for the movie in the fall. But it needs the box office and review support right now.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Anne reviews “Toy Story 5,” a swiftly moving champagne bubble — airy and sweet but with stakes for the kids and toys. Nothing could top “Toy Story 3,” but Andrew Stanton comes close. With a boost from Randy Newman’s clever score, the Buzz Lightyear sections are hilarious. And Conan O’Brien voices a cheeky new character, a potty-training device named Smarty Pants.
Ryan advocates for distribution for a feature out of Tribeca: Sophia Takal’s “Act One,” starring Ella Beatty, daughter of Warren and Annette Bening, as a high school acting ingenue who’s drawn into the spell of a nefarious acting teacher, played by Ari Graynor, whose methods are not of the Stanlislavki or Meisner sort but instead involve grooming and psychosexual manipulation. There’s a borderline campy Eve Harrington/Margo Channing element that smart indie audiences or even audiences on streaming (which is a possibility) will resonate with. It’s seeking a buyer.
Also, we finally catch up on Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” after last week’s “Screen Talk” episode with Ronan Farrow.
Listen to the episode below, or on your preferred podcast platform.
