Anonymous

No probably not.

"Was Shakespeare a Fraud?"

Welcome to Thursday at The Tagline! Because I'm sure everyone else in the world is as interested in movies about conjectural British History during the Elizabethan Era, I thought today I would review Anonymous, which finally made its way to the top of my "Stuff I'll Watch Some Day" list over the weekend. Starring Rhys Ifans (He was Curt Connors in The Amazing Spider-Man) as Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who if you know your English history was notable as a patron of the arts during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor, and also was notable as a general fuck-up, who was born as heir to the second oldest and perhaps richest earldom in the kingdom, and died having lost his entire estate and fortune, over a long life of mishaps, intrigue, and failed ventures. The movie puts forth, as a number of people have since the late 1920s, that Shakespeare was not the author of his works. Instead, Oxfordian theorists suggest that Edward de Vere was the true author, and that for various political reasons he chose to remain anonymous. This historically real and factually tenuous theory is the central conceit in the movie, and Oxford's love of poetry and theater (which is a matter of historical record) at odds with the puritanical views of the ruthless Cecils (well they're played as the villains in the movie) serve to propel the tragic events of the plot forward. I beg everyone to forgive me, because I am incapable of divorcing my experience with this movie from both literary scholarship and English history (and really if you are aware of either I don't see how you could) and so this post may end up being a history lesson in addition to being about a movie. 

Much Ado About Nothing

A splendid second chance for my OTP.

"Shakespeare knows how to throw a party."

Welcome to the Tagline, as promised I found a movie that has nothing to do with teens or vampires. I went out to the local art cinema (I am lucky enough to live about ten minutes away from a pretty decent one) and saw Much Ado About Nothing, probably my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies, adapted and filmed on a micro-budget by Joss Whedon. The entire movie was shot inside Whedon's house, and the cast is a sort of Joss Whedon Alumni hall of fame. In case you have never read Much Ado About Nothing, or perhaps the last time you read it was when you were a freshman in high school here's a quick primer. Much Ado is primarily about two pairs of lovers. The younger pair are Claudio and Hero, who are very open and forward in their love, compared to Benedick and Beatrice, two witty individuals who rail frequently against love and marriage, and yet are very much in love with one another (though they refuse to admit it) In the midst of all this romance, Don John, brother of Don Pedro (who is the Prince of Aragon, and in the company of Claudio and Benedick) attempts to ruin the nuptial bliss of Claudio and Hero by dishonoring Hero, because Don John is basically a massive dickbag. In this Whedon adaptation, Benedick is portrayed by Alexis Denisof (who portrayed Wesley Wyndam Pryce first in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and later in Angel) and Beatrice is portrayed by Amy Acker (who was romantically opposite Alexis Denisof in Angel as Winifred Burkle) Claudio is played by Fran Kranz (recently he starred in Whedon's Cabin in the Woods) and Hero is played by newcomer Jillian Morgese who previously was only an extra in a few movies (including the Avengers)