Review: “Hamnet”

Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet opens with a quote from a 2004 article by Stephen Greenblatt titled “The Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet”: “Hamnet and Hamlet are in fact the same name, entirely interchangeable in Stratford records in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.” It’s a plain, matter-of-fact statement, not the sort of […]

Review: “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

White so bright you can’t stare at it without blinking. Suddenly, figures emerge, walking straight toward the camera as if out of a dream. In fact, this dream-like state pervades the entirety of Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth,” his first solo outing as a director without brother Ethan. But he brings every skill […]