Film

The Power of the Dog

Name: The Power of the Dog
Genre: Drama, Western
Released: 2021
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Thomasin McKenzie

Period drama
Revisionist western
Very dark
Slow-burning

A slow-burn psychological western where the real violence happens in silences, glances, and the way a man strips a rope with his bare hands. Cumberbatch is magnetic and terrifying as a rancher whose cruelty masks something he can't admit. Gorgeous, patient, and deeply unsettling — for people who like their tension simmering rather than exploding.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burn character studies where the tension lives in glances, silences and what goes unsaid, and you don't mind a western that feels more like a psychological chamber piece than a gunfight.

Skip it if you want the plot to move briskly or need clear good guys and bad guys; the film lingers on quiet mannerisms and cruelty that simmers rather than erupts, and that can feel frustrating.

What it asks of you: Two hours and seven minutes of patience, with long unhurried scenes of landscape and dinner-table tension, and close attention to small looks and gestures that carry much of the weight.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

There Will Be Blood2007

Another towering, isolating performance of American masculinity curdling into obsession, set against unforgiving frontier landscape. Both films ask what a man becomes when he mistakes control for love.

But It's punishing and operatic where Power of the Dog is quiet — less restraint, more scorched earth.

No Country for Old Men2007

The Coens' revisionist western trades gunfights for dread, letting menace build through stillness and inevitability rather than action. Same feeling that danger is coiled just beneath a calm surface.

But Bleaker and more violent in its payoff — this one doesn't pull back from consequence.

Brokeback Mountain2005

A western about desire that can't speak its name, carried by physical performance and unbearable restraint. If Phil Burbank's secret interested you, this sits with that ache far longer.

But More overtly romantic and tragic — less a study of cruelty, more a study of loss.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Power of the Dog

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Johnny Guitar1954

Same DNA: a western where gender and repressed desire destabilize who actually holds power on the ranch — just told seventy years earlier, in lipstick and Trucolor instead of muted grays.

A wildly stylized 1954 western that beat Campion to the punch by decades, putting a woman at the center of power and coding its central rivalry with startling queer subtext for its era.

But Camp, theatrical, and dated in its melodrama — this is Hollywood Western as fever dream, not naturalism.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Gorgeously shot, achingly slow, obsessed with the psychology of admiration curdling into resentment between two men. A western that treats masculinity as something to be quietly dissected.

But Nearly three hours of mood over incident — some will find it glacial rather than gripping.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

The Piano1993

Jane Campion's earlier masterpiece, another story of repression, control, and a household straining under unspoken want. Her fingerprints — the landscapes, the silences — are all over both films.

But More melodrama, less menace — the danger here is romantic rather than psychological.

Winter's Bone2010

A young protagonist navigating a closed, hostile rural world where family secrets and quiet threats govern everything. Jennifer Lawrence's breakout, and just as tense in its stillness.

But Contemporary Ozarks poverty instead of period ranch grandeur — grittier, less painterly.

Meek's Cutoff2011

A stripped-down, almost anti-western where power, trust, and gender roles quietly unravel on a punishing frontier trek. Kelly Reichardt at her most patient and exacting.

But Deliberately uneventful — if you wanted a slow burn here, this one barely simmers.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Not a western at all, but a masterclass in a man's grief and rage sealed shut behind a hard exterior. If Phil's wound is what interested you, this examines that kind of man without the ranch.

But Contemporary and domestic — no landscape, no genre trappings, just grief in a small town.

Nomadland2021

A quieter American West, observational and unhurried, about people living on the margins of a mythologized frontier. Shares that same patient, elegiac camera language.

But Gentle and meditative rather than tense — there's no menace here, just melancholy.

The Celluloid Closet1996

It literally explains the tradition Power of the Dog is quoting: the western as a place where desire has always had to hide in plain sight, one clenched jaw at a time.

A documentary tracing a century of hidden, coded, and closeted queerness in Hollywood film — essential context for understanding what Phil Burbank's secret is doing inside a genre built on machismo.

But It's a talking-heads clip-doc, not a story — informative rather than immersive or emotional.

Bound1996

Same bones, opposite register: hidden desire as leverage against a world of performed masculinity, but played as gleeful crime-thriller instead of somber tragedy.

A trashy, gorgeous neo-noir heist thriller where a queer romance becomes the engine of a deadly power struggle against violent men who never see it coming.

But Pulpy, stylized, and unapologetically genre — this is pure entertainment where Power of the Dog is restraint and dread.