Carnage

I have no proof otherwise, but I have a sneaking suspicion about Carnage as a work of theater: it plays better onstage than it does as a film. Why? Because if we’re trapped inside a theater as it plays out in front of us, we’re being made complicit in the actions and arguments. And there’s a certain energy involved in live theater that can’t be replicated in film. But Polanski turns in a very smooth and fine film. The wraparound segments featuring the two boys involved in the fight showcases that much of the fighting is about something very superficial, if anything had been slightly different maybe the families would have been reversed. And he is blessed with an absolutely stellar cast that in any other year would have been nominated all around at the Oscars. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster in particular deliver typically fantastic performances. Considering everyone involved, it could have been better, but what is here is pretty damn good.