Titus

If you really must see something artfully grotesque this week, skip The Cell and rent this audacious treatment of "the woefullest man who ever lived in Rome," Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Anthony Hopkins plays Mr. T, but the real star is Broadway director Julie Taymor, who won a 1998 Tony Award for the stage version of The Lion King. In this, only her second film, she draws inspiration from quadrants as varied as The Road Warrior, Cabaret, Flash Gordon, and The Great Gatsby, to turn one of the Bard's lesser-produced, more-depraved tales into a spectacular visual carnival of treachery, lies, orgy, vengeance, gore, adultery, and the occasional rhyme.

What in the world is happening? What century is it? Why is everyone getting decapitated, dismembered, raped, and eaten? Who cares! It's Shakespeare! It looks great! Jessica Lange looks great! Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine) looks great! (British stage-trained actor) Alan Cumming (who not coincidentally won a Tony in 1998 for Cabaret and has appeared in a range of films from Emma and Circle of Friends to Spice World and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas) looks like Shemp Howard! Rent it! Throw a party! See how many movie influences you and your friends can spot! Call me! B

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