News of the World (2020)

"News of the World" is some sort of mix between a western and a road-trip movie. Captain Kidd (without any relation with the pirate bearing the same name) is a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, who earns his living from some sort of a show he performs in small isolated towns - reading stories from some newspapers on which he adds his own theatrical mark. On his way between two such performances he passes by the spot of an incident - a broken wagon, a hanged man, and the sole survivor - a little blond girl who doesn't seem to know any other language than an indian dialect. The mystery is solved quickly by some papers revealing that the girl, kidnapped shortly after birth by indians who killed her family, must be returned to her closest relatives. Kidd's luck: a military patrol also gets to the same place and tasks him with the "delivery". And like that we're getting to the road-trip part...

The movie's development is slow, you're getting about two slightly more dynamic sequences for the entire trip. In its first part it reminded my of "Deadwood"; there's also there an episode where we have the exact same situation of a scandinavian girl who doesn't speak any English, who's saved from a similary situation. But the resemblance stops here. The rest is a sort of calm meditation on the effects of the war, the ocupation of the white in the indian territory, and others. It's relatively obvious that the movie targets some prizes, but as most of the productions signed by Paul Greengrass, there's something missing. There's a lack of feeling in it. It shows that his first experiences as a filmmaker were in the documentary area where is typical to detach from the presented subject, although I've seen documentaries that left me with a much stronger impression than what we have here. Anyway, considering the lack of productions lately, you have to appreciate a new release. Let's hope better ones will follow...

Rating: 3 out of 5