150 Word Review: 'Napoleon' (2023)

And the Oscar for 'Best Hat' goes to...

Photo: Apple

The costumes are magnificent. Pantaloons! But director Ridley Scott's dreary, two-and-a-half-hour historical forced march should have been called Nap, instead of Napoleon. The battles are extravagant—loud and bloody. The Battle of Austerlitz woke me right up.

Napoleon is a challenging real-life figure to dramatize with any originality. Who is he, other than the wearer of bicorne headgear? His is a rags-to-riches story, a nobody who grows up to become the world's first military dictator. History reluctantly acknowledges his tactical genius but the British insist he was just a short clown.

His legacy commands respect, but there's none given by Joaquin Phoenix, whose performance as the Emperor of France is lethargic. As Josephine, his wife, Vanessa Kirby, is wily and aristocratic, she gazes admirably. The two share a strange chemistry, though, and the movie's best scenes hint at what might have been: a lavish, naughty, period comedy mocking ambitious men.

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RANDOM RANKINGS: 5 Worst Ridley Scott Movies

5. ‘House of Gucci’ (2021)

4. ‘Black Rain’ (1988)

3. ‘Robin Hood’ (2010)

2. ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise’ (1992)

1. ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ (2014)