Veneno

Watching the newly filmed short movie Poison, I was fascinated how brilliant acting and directing can come together (with brilliant storytelling as well) and create such an epic movie.

The story evolves around a man named Mr. Pope who lies in his bed while a deadly snake falls asleep under his sheet. His friend Woods is there to help him get out of this terrible situation.

The camera is just wonderful, constantly switching views and finding creative ways to tell the story. The acting is terrific, just perfect to the last detail to serve the story. The setting and design are exactly how a world out of a book might look.

"I'm sorry."

"You can't be."

What an ending. It's so devastating that it left me a bit speechless. No matter the good deeds you do for others, it will be ignored because your race and religion is a problem for some people.

And that brings the end to the daily Wes Anderson's Netflix-Journey. I'm sad that it's over but I'm happy it exists.

Dev Patel, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade, and Rupert Friend were all terrific.

AI and dumb TikTok users could never do this. All these short films are the finest work from Mr. Anderson. I hope he makes more movies like this in the future.

Woods gets home to find his friend Harry lying motionless in bed. He dare not move as there's a highly venomous snake lying on his stomach. After the shock has subsided, Woods calls a local doctor who brings with him the anti-venom. Now, how to move the snake?

Another of Wes Anderson's four-episode short story-series, all adaptations of Roald Dahl stories. The others in the series are The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan and The Rat Catcher.

Wes Anderson adapting a Roald Dahl story seems a perfect combination: the clever innocence of Dahl's writing, Anderson's whimsical, stylised direction. It's been done before, to great effect; 'Fantastic Mr Fox' (2009) was brilliant.

Poison is similar to the other three short films in the series in that it contains narration with the narrator talking in short, bullet-point-like sentences, an engaging story and some quirky backdrops and props. The backdrops are bit less of a factor here, due to this film being set almost entirely in one location.

The other three had a nasty habit of leaving you dangling at the end - setting you up with an engaging, seemingly set up for a powerful ending and then just fizzling out, sans punchline. This one seemed to be heading to buck the trend but, alas, it is more of the same. There is a half-theme around ungraciousness and racism at the end but it really isn't developed well enough to have an impact.

Interesting enough, just don't expect too much of the conclusion.

'Poison' (2023) is stressful. This simple set-up of a man trapped in bed because of a snake leaves the audience in frozen state of nerves. The dialogue (mostly narrative) is detailed and given with such an intensity you drift into the scene yourself.

The scenery takes place mostly in a bedroom with the interior and exterior part of the house being movable pieces much like a play would be. The environment is active like a character and adds to the anxious plot.

On the surface the plot is simple and could be as old as time, but its what's in-between the lines that tell a much larger story. Roald Dahl paints this in his original story, and Wes Anderson with conservative creative control further adds to the story with unacknowledged visual objects and scenery.

This film, like the other Anderson directed films in the "four-part" series are all lessons in story-telling. Each having their own in-between the lines story.

Watch all of them. But don't miss out on this one even if you think its just another short film.

Who really has the poison in them, when you think about it ::sits back and quietly Puffs on a pipe in a scholarly robe::

And so with this, the fourth and final short (for now) adaptation of Roald Dahl by the superlative current distinctive filmmaker of his works, Wes Anderson, we get the kind of white-knuckle pot boiler-pressure cooker scenario that we usually would associate with Quentin Tarantino, including the razor-sharp editing and sickening sense of humor. This is editing that directs you into Benedict Cumberbatch's "Oh bloody hell get this snake off" face for several minutes and the on-camera narration and involved reactions by Dev Patel keeps one equally locked in.

By the time Kingsley comes on the scene, you're in for something that you know is going to kick your brain into the other side of the room, but it's all benefitting from it being so absolutely funny (take off your shoes!) And as mhch as someone watching can understand how pleasurable it is when that pressure valve gets kicked off, it is equally disturbing (but not unsurprising) how quickly, when things suddenly appear to be not in danger anymore, a human being can revert to the absolute worst (or, deep down, truest) version of himself. And that final moment in the car with Kingsley's doctor is rather heartbreaking - mostly for the character's understanding that the status quo has returned, and it sucks.

This may not reach quite the highs of Henry Sugar, but for what Anderson and his cast, particularly Cumberbatch who has not been this intense since the best of Sherlock, accomplish here Poison is a high point in the director's body of work and it is enough to say it's worth it to find on Netflix even if you don't have a subscription (get the free trial if you have to). 9.5/10.