Film review: Licorice Pizza

Unconventional romcom set in 1970s LA

“What’s the point of another Macbeth movie,” asked Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. It wasn’t long ago that Justin Kurzel’s version came out, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. “Well, there’s always a point if the film is as compelling and visually brilliant as this.” Directed by Joel Coen (“working for once without brother Ethan”), this “taut, athletic” take on Shakespeare’s tragedy delivers a “monochrome nightmare” refrigerated to “icy coldness”. In a role she was born for, Frances McDormand stars as Lady Macbeth, while her husband is played by Denzel Washington, who submits to his wife’s demands “like a soldier taking orders”. The film “hits its stride immediately”, creating a world of violence and pain that “scorches the retina”.

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