PotassiumMan

How did William Shakespeare's motivation for writing Hamlet come to be? That's what this incredibly moving film tackles with conviction and painstaking effort. As the Bard's artistic career starts to materialize in London, his wife Agnes raises their children. Agnes, rebellious and thoughtful, has defied her repressive household by choosing the Latin tutor. Will has started to overpower his degenerate father and chart his own path. Their family life seems perfect until one of their children abruptly dies from a illness caused by a contagious plague. From there, Agnes and Will start to diverge.

Jessie Buckley is incandescent as Agnes. This story is as much about her as it is about him. Most of the narrative unfolds through her heartbreak and resilience. Will himself turns out to be something of a supporting perspective. Paul Mescal is splendid as the young Shakespeare who is slowly finding his voice, and whose artistic focus starts to become perfectionistic and ferocious. It is only toward the end that we see how these two vantage points coalesce into one truly mesmerizing whole. Supporting performances from Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn are another strong suit.

Themes of mourning the loss of a child and slowly evolving artistic creation are woven together. It's sort of an amalgamation of "Rabbit Hole" and "Shakespeare in Love" and with Chloe Zhao's deliberate and challenging approach, it becomes a portrayal that is deeply memorable and spectacular. The climax delivers in spades and will stay with you long afterward. Recommended to the highest degree.

Kathryn Bigelow gives us a military procedural in which the United States is suddenly in the midst of a nuclear strike and the ensuing rapid-fire reaction as the warhead is about to make impact. The film unpacks the United States reaction from multiple vantage points- from military personnel on the ground to the intelligence community to the President and his cabinet.

Rebecca Ferguson has a brief but effective role as an NSA official. Tracy Letts is a high-ranking U. S. general. Idris Elba is the President whom we don't see until the film's final chapter. Jared Harris is exceptional as the Secretary of Defense whose own daughter is in the location of where the warhead is about to strike. Performances here are uniformly real and effective.

The pacing never lags too much and the interest level remains at a fever pitch and keeps us guessing all the way through. Some viewers will find this to be realistic and gritty; others might find the ending infuriatingly unsatisfying. While this definitely could have been done differently, it's still a very well-made, pulsating drama that eminently captures human psychology in the worst-case scenario. Recommended to open-minded viewers.