"King Lear"

Amazon's new "King Lear" is a direct hit at current politics, portraying a King with a desperate need to have fawning sycophants surround him at every turn, bolstering up his bottomless pit of ego and feeding a brain clearly on the decline.  The film is set in modern day, sort-of, with a nod to its Renaissance roots.  Anthony Hopkins, nominated for an award in this film, does an excellent job of veering from one mood swing to another while backed up by a host of outstanding performances by a cadre of well-known and lesser-known British actors.  There is Jim Carter, who gives one of the most touching depictions of the Earl of Kent I have ever seen.  It helps that his transformation from banished Earl to wandering old man is done with a haircut rather than a bulky costume.  Karl Johnson and Andrew Scott also turn in touching performances, with Scott making some really remarkable turns from science nerd to madman to hero.  Emma Thompson and Emily Watson are given the chance to make Goneril and Regan human before they become monsters and the young John Macmillan makes for a fine villain as Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester.  Beware the eye-gouging scene and the final showdown between Edmund and Edgar as both have gut-turning moments.  My one big complaint is that the producers felt the need to take this play, one of the longest in the Shakespearean canon, and bring it in under two hours.  To do that huge parts of the play were excised and the scene changes sometimes jump in ways that would make someone unfamiliar with the plot extremely confused.  It breaks the flow of the narrative and there were a few times that even I had to spend some time catching up mentally.  Other than that it is well directed and well played and a worthy addition to the world of Shakespeare films.