ANEMONE MOVIE REVIEW

Nepotism is alive and well! Daniel Day-Lewis has come out of retirement to co-write and star in his son’s (Ronan Day-Lewis) feature film debut with Anemone. The film follows Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) as he travels far and wide to find his estranged brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) who’s become a hermit over the past 17 years. Once Jem locates Ray in the middle of the forest, what follows is a somewhat calm exploration of Ray’s psyche stemming from past traumas. With occasional sweeping monologues from Day-Lewis, Anemone‘s pacing is deliberate and at times abstract. The director uses intense imagery to parallel Ray’s inner turmoil, but said imagery doesn’t necessarily sell the full weight of what he’s going through. Sean Bean does what he can with acting against Day-Lewis with a calm and calculating performance. The film also jumps back to the mainland where we watch Jem’s wife (Samantha Morton) navigate their adopted son’s (Samuel Bottomley) own budding trauma that is directly affected by Ray’s absence. Listen as Wright, Frank, Marco, and Ben discuss the powerhouse performance by Day-Lewis and debate if the story is really worth the effort from the first time director.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Ronan Day-Lewis

STARRING: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, Safia Oakley-Green

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 



Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)

Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.

 



Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?)

Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.

 



Ben Glasthal (Highly Suspect Review, Screener Squad, Breakfast Pub, Unstabletop Gamers, Video and Audio Editor)

Born in Boston, then ending up in Dallas, Texas in the early 2000s, Ben has always had a passion for film. He started in film school not long after where he launched MovieReelizations.com where he still writes reviews to this day. He’s since moved to Austin where he has been also hopping on pod...