Yesterday, Lainey pointed out the rather lacking chemistry in the trailer for Anyone But You, the sexy rom-com starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. It’s surprising that the trailer is so bland, given how hot Glen and Sydney were all over Sydney, Australia earlier this year.
Well, another trailer dropped this week for a movie that features an out-of-control relationship fueled by sex and perverse games, and Napoleon looks like a weirdly horny historical biopic, and I am here for it. The first trailer was all about Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, Napoleon’s great love, the new trailer focuses a little more specifically on Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power and role as a “rebel, genius, tyrant”, but Vanessa Kirby is still here, hot as hell, doing the most while literally barely moving her lips to deliver her lines. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with her delivery here, but she looks incredible and I’m super into it, whatever she’s doing. Can’t wait to see the whole performance.
Speaking of performances, I simply adore that Joaquin Phoenix just isn’t doing an accent. Not only is he not even attempting a French accent, he isn’t even doing that thing actors usually do in historical movies when they play continental European characters—just make everyone British. It kind of sounds like, in a couple line deliveries, he might be going for a soft British inflection, but most of his lines are delivered in his normal, American accent. I love it. I’m serious! Bad accents are worse than “no” accent—I realize to non-Americans, he has an accent—and more actors should be encouraged to just use their natural accent and focus on other areas of their performance.
Because Napoleon looks great. There’s big, sweeping action, there’s Josephine tormenting horny Napoleon, there’s a great visual gag about Napoleon’s height as he steps onto a box to look a mummy in the eye, there’s Joaquin Phoenix looking like a louche shark as Napoleon himself. After the first trailer, a lot of people were mad that a legit authoritarian like Napoleon is getting a big fancy biopic, but I don’t know, this doesn’t look like the most flattering portrayal.
We’ll see in the context of the film itself, but the trailers aren’t giving “Napoleon, a hero”, they’re giving “Napoleon is f-cking weird little guy who got led around by his dick”.
For the millionth time, depiction is not endorsement. And it’s almost like something occurred in the world in the last few years that has authoritarianism on everyone’s mind and that might be worth examining by taking a look back at some historic tyrants. Ridley Scott is very good at making epic historical action movies that also examine similarities between the past and the problems of our present, and I am interested to see what he makes of Napoleon.
Also, this is like the third movie this year my dad wants to see. My dad likes two (2) movies: Patton and The Godfather. He sees maybe one movie a year in theaters. He’s not a “movie guy”. But he was there for Oppenheimer, he’s going to Killers of the Flower Moon, and now he’s into Napoleon. I know Barbie is the biggest movie this year and that’s not likely to change, but is this lowkey the year of the Dad Movie?
