Venin

This is a very simple story in which we find the protagonist lying in bed and suffering. This tries to be solved by his partner and also by the help of a doctor.

The acting in this Short story is great, Benedict Cumberbatch Manages to perform his character to perfection just by lying in bed and moving his face. I also want to point out the sparks of comedy that this story has, makes me remember that funny Doctor Strange. Together with the other two characters actings, the magic of Wes Anderson and the resources that he uses to sweeten the story and make it Sooooo tense, they create a magic story which is not really that magic.

After watching the other tales, this one shows too much of the story which takes some importance off the narrator.

¡Go watch it by yourself!

Netflix for the first time in a long time is finally releasing stuff that I actually like. These four shorts made by Wes Anderson are a small gem in the enormous pile of bad productions available on that streaming platform. The story of "Poison" is not very interesting per se but the narration style is engaging at times, keeping the audience on the verge. The characters are pretty forgettable in my opinion, the cast did not really manage to create any interesting peculiarity. I reckon that Wes is a bit too repetitive. I understand that his storytelling techniques are very specific, but I wish he could make some variations, adding a bit of novelty to this piece. I believe that in short stories such as this one, he should have left a bigger impact, or simply chose better novels to adapt to the small screen. My final mark is 6.

My last viewing and an excellent conclusion. At this point I am again aware of my high regard for Anderson's work and the resulting standing. What director can celebrate such artistic freedom, dancing on the threshold between mainstream and arthouse. Back to the film. A suspenseful beginning, immediately awakens my empathy, compassion. Tension, not a typical Anderson stylistic device, in fact none at all. But it works, it is maintained, also by not playing too many games. Plus an ending with reverberation, finally. At least for me, I had missed that in the other episodes. My favourite of the series.

Watching the newly filmed short movie Poison, I was fascinated how brilliant acting and directing can come together (with brilliant storytelling as well) and create such an epic movie.

The story evolves around a man named Mr. Pope who lies in his bed while a deadly snake falls asleep under his sheet. His friend Woods is there to help him get out of this terrible situation.

The camera is just wonderful, constantly switching views and finding creative ways to tell the story. The acting is terrific, just perfect to the last detail to serve the story. The setting and design are exactly how a world out of a book might look.

Woods gets home to find his friend Harry lying motionless in bed. He dare not move as there's a highly venomous snake lying on his stomach. After the shock has subsided, Woods calls a local doctor who brings with him the anti-venom. Now, how to move the snake?

Another of Wes Anderson's four-episode short story-series, all adaptations of Roald Dahl stories. The others in the series are The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan and The Rat Catcher.

Wes Anderson adapting a Roald Dahl story seems a perfect combination: the clever innocence of Dahl's writing, Anderson's whimsical, stylised direction. It's been done before, to great effect; 'Fantastic Mr Fox' (2009) was brilliant.

Poison is similar to the other three short films in the series in that it contains narration with the narrator talking in short, bullet-point-like sentences, an engaging story and some quirky backdrops and props. The backdrops are bit less of a factor here, due to this film being set almost entirely in one location.

The other three had a nasty habit of leaving you dangling at the end - setting you up with an engaging, seemingly set up for a powerful ending and then just fizzling out, sans punchline. This one seemed to be heading to buck the trend but, alas, it is more of the same. There is a half-theme around ungraciousness and racism at the end but it really isn't developed well enough to have an impact.

Interesting enough, just don't expect too much of the conclusion.