Few storytellers can match Shakespeare for his vast range of timeless themes and awesome characters. Imagine what the Bard could have accomplished if he had had a laptop and smartphone.
Among his works, "Macbeth" — a compelling study of a husband-wife team whose thirst for power leads to their tragic undoing — has been adapted for screen and stage countless times — both faithfully and stylistically, including by Akira Kurosawa for his 1957 "Throne of Blood" set in feudal Japan.
This latest version, however, is a sucker punch to be reckoned with. Directed by Australia's Justin Kurzel — who marked his feature debut with the brutally gruesome "Snowtown" in 2011 (based on a real-life serial killer in southern Australia) — "Macbeth" shows the director's fascination with the allure of power, violence and sadism, and how some relationships thrive (and then rapidly unravel) on a total absence of moral compunction.