Director Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune looks wonderful and is filled to the brim with A-list actors, but it is oddly distant and too reverential of the source material. The film’s most subversive moment is when it reveals itself to be half a story.
We discuss its over-reliance on clunky exposition, how it fails to do justice to evergreen themes such as colonialism, and the lack of cultural specificity across tribes and factions in Dune. We also talk about Timothée Chalamet’s uninteresting performance and Zendaya’s glorified cameo.
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