Movie · 2021 · Drama, Western · 2h 7m · R · English
Curator score: 6.9/10 (752.7K ratings)
Overview
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.9/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.66/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 89
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Jane Campion
Production
See-Saw Films, Max Films, Brightstar, New Zealand Film Commission, Cross City Films, BBC Film
Cast
Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Thomasin McKenzie, Geneviève Lemon, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy, Kenneth Radley, Sean Keenan, George Mason, Ramontay McConnell, David Denis, Cohen Holloway, Max Mata, Josh Owen, Alistair Sewell, Eddie Campbell, Alice Englert, Bryony Skillington
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A patient, unsettling western drama that uses ranch life to explore power, repression, masculinity, and desire. It’s less about plot twists than accumulating dread, with precise performances and a slow-burn payoff that rewards close attention.
Best for
Viewers who like psychological westerns
Fans of restrained, character-driven drama
People interested in gender and power dynamics
Audiences who enjoy slow-burn tension and ambiguity
Skip if
You want a fast-moving or action-heavy western
You prefer clear emotional catharsis
You dislike ambiguity and subtext-heavy storytelling
You’re not in the mood for bleak, oppressive atmospheres
Overview
The Power of the Dog is a western that feels like it’s constantly tightening a knot. Jane Campion turns the ranch into a pressure cooker, where every gesture, glance, and offhand remark carries threat or longing. The result is a film that is as much about performance and control as it is about the frontier myth itself.
Worth noting
Benedict Cumberbatch gives the movie its volatile center, but the film’s real strength is how carefully it withholds and reveals character. It’s a story about masculinity as theater, about the violence of humiliation, and about the strange forms protection can take. The tension is psychological before it is physical, and that makes it linger.
Bottom line
What makes it memorable is the way it uses western iconography against itself: open landscapes, horses, labor, and silence become tools for emotional warfare. It’s austere, elegant, and deeply uneasy, with a final movement that recontextualizes everything that came before. Not an easy watch, but a rich one.
Top Letterboxd reviews
mia lee vicino (4★) · 21316 likes
the masculine urge to cope with your step-uncle’s pointed homophobia by storming outside and aggressively hula-hooping
kyle (4.5★) · 10914 likes
and is this "bronco henry" in the room with us right now?
liam f (4★) · 9340 likes
you don't know true humiliation until you try to play the piano and get upstaged by a banjo
sofyan (5★) · 6515 likes
the power of the bottom
Karsten (5★) · 5155 likes
will be piecing this one together for weeks. precise and uncomfortable movie about predation and protection. loved it, need to ride a horse immediately
2007 · Crime, Thriller, Western · 2h 2m · R · Curator 9.6/10 (3.1M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
For its spare tension, moral bleakness, and the way violence feels both inevitable and intimate.