Why is no one in this country talking about Daniel Day-Lewis' new movie, Anemone? OK, the reviews have not been great - The Guardian called it "painfully serious", and, yeah, it's about a traumatised veteran who lives in the woods by himself, so it's hardly I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. But we're talking about the second coming of movie Jesus, here. Not only is Day-Lewis back from an eight-year absence - and properly back, in a leading role with some punchy monologues that could stand up next to his best work - but it's in a small British indie film that was filmed in and around Manchester. This is the cinematic equivalent of Lionel Messi popping over to Inter Miami for his last hurrah, or, to be far more accurate, Michael Jordan joining the Washington Wizards after his second retirement (DDL, too, is now entering retirement number three). We should be hunting him down with an overflowing tub of Gatorade.
And yet, as far as I can make out, I am one of only seven or so people in the UK who has seen this movie, a week on from its nationwide release. It didn't even crack the top 15 at the box office, earning less than a re-issue of Back to the Future. What are we doing?
Anemone, though a little slow and doomy, is definitely not a bad movie. In it, Day-Lewis plays the aforementioned recluse, Ray, who scarpered out of his old life 18 years ago to live by himself in a cabin in the woods, leaving his brother, Jem (Sean Bean), to raise Ray's newborn baby. The movie kicks off with Jem setting out to find Ray, intent on convincing him to return home and counsel his son, who is now a troubled young man looking for answers. But Ray, who experienced something dark and devastating shortly before fleeing all those years ago, seems too crippled by his own pain to help anyone. Despite almost two decades of estrangement, Ray greets his brother like you would a stray cat with a dead mouse in its mouth arriving at your doorstep.
Most of the film plays out in and around Ray's cabin, with the two brothers exchanging middle-aged miseries and reminiscing over childhood traumas. As you may already know, Day-Lewis' son Ronan is in the director's seat here. It's his debut, and it probably would not have got made had his dad not been on board, but he does show some promise - and we'll give him kudos for trying out a couple of surrealist swings that don't work at all. Sean Bean, as you probably know, is very good at playing sad Northern men - that he can go toe-to-toe with DDL on that front is impressive, especially in this stripped-back setting.
But none of that even matters. The reason I went to see Anemone is because it's a new Daniel Day-Lewis movie. And though he plays it quiet and stoic in some stretches, there are some absolutely electrifying moments when he turns the dial up from Reynolds Woodcock all the way to Daniel Plainview. Early on, in the cabin, Ray goes off on a rant about confronting a priest who sexually abused him as a child, who is now an old man. Any further detail would spoil the scene, but in that moment DDL is full DDL again - eyes popping, jaw churning. It's the most locked in I've been at the cinema in a while.
So much of the chat around Day-Lewis gets lost in the method actor guff, but none of that matters when you're watching him cook - he can do severe, funny, terrifying, devastating... and he does most of that here. It's why he's in a hallowed crew of current three-time winners at the Oscars, alongside Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Frances McDormand (Katharine Hepburn is the only one with four). And, if the one big interview he did for this film is anything to go by, it sounds like he's about to slink off back into the woods again. You should be looking to catch him before he goes.
And, yeah, if you're wondering, I still love watching highlights of Messi dribbling around nameless American defenders who can't believe their luck, either. The greatest of all time is still the greatest of all time, no matter the setting.
GQ stories you might have missed:
Fabien Frankel is a legendary hate watch
How Jack O'Connell became the coolest movie villain of the year
The very hot summer of Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno
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NETFLIX
LOVE LIFE SEASON 2
An underrated anthology romcom, about a single guy (William Jackson Harper) navigating the dating scene in New York.
BBC IPLAYER
THE NIGHT MANAGER
It's a great time to re-watch Tom Hiddleston in the excellent Le Carré adaptation, about a hotel worker who gets recruited as a spy, before season two arrives in the new year.
AMAZON PRIME
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
While we're on the hype train... DDL and Scorsese doing a period romance? C'mon!
DISNEY+
IT'S COMPLICATED
One of those eminently rewatchable Nancy Meyers romcoms with nice kitchens and great knitwear. |
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This week, Britain's favourite maximalist auteur, Edgar Wright returned with his most expensive movie to date, a splashy remake of Stephen King's The Running Man. It's about a blue-collar guy (played by Glen Powell) in a dystopian alt-present who is forced to play the world's deadliest reality TV show. It contains a handful of callbacks, including a cameo from the OG Running Man, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appears as the presidential face on the movie's $100 bills. In conversation with GQ, Wright remembered the FaceTime call in which he secured Schwarzenegger's blessing. "The first thing that Schwarzenegger says is, 'Oh, you have a gap in your teeth.' And I immediately thought, 'God, Mr Universe is picking on me,'" Wright says, dropping a pitch-perfect Arnie impression. "And he said, 'When I first came to Hollywood, I had a gap in my teeth. And eventually, later, I had it fixed... Don't do it. The gap is good luck. When I had the gap in my teeth fixed, my box office went down.'" |
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"Christopher Nolan's best movie is Insomnia" |
SAM PARKER
GQ's SITE DIRECTOR |
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GATEN MATARAZZO IS OBSESSED WITH... PAST LIVES |
"I love Celine Song. I think Past Lives is one of the better movies of the century. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that. I think it's perfect." |
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