7/17/2023 0 Comments Chess moviesIt’s yet another high watermark in a young career already full of them, and somehow she’s never better than when Beth is sitting silently behind a chess board. That kind of honesty and release is the stuff of acting legend, like Eleanora Duse’s blush. In this case, however, she’s creating that energy in a room full of cameras and crew members. Scenes of Beth alone in her home, in a stranger’s apartment, on a plane, in her bed at night-they all hum with the kind of energy that only arises when one is truly unobserved. Much of the story hinges on when and how Beth is alone-and sometimes she’s most alone when surrounded by people-and Taylor-Joy’s performance is particularly remarkable in these moments. It’s a turn of both intoxicating glamour and precious little vanity, internal without ever being closed-off, heartbreakingly vulnerable and sharply funny, often at once. Playing Beth from 15 onward, Taylor-Joy gives the kind of performance that only becomes more riveting the longer you sit with it. Luckily, Anya Taylor-Joy is more than up to the task. But it’s the game that drives her, sending her both to the heights of the competitive chess world and, increasingly, to her hoard of pills and the oblivion offered by alcohol. When she finally leaves the school, she’s got those last two things packed in her suitcase alongside a bunch of chess books, a sizable ego, some unexplored trauma, and no small amount of self-loathing. While there, she develops three things: a friendship with Jolene (newcomer Moses Ingram, excellent), a passion for chess, and a physical and emotional dependence on the little green tranquilizers fed to the children until they’re outlawed by the state. Her father’s not in the picture, so Beth finds herself at a Christian school for orphans. We meet Beth as an eight-year-old (Isla Johnson) when she’s left impossibly unharmed-physically, at least-by the car crash that kills her mother. Odds are that Beth Harmon (the remarkable Anya Taylor-Joy) will earn quite a few fist-pumps as people discover Frank and co-creator Alan Scott’s excellent series.
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