Missy - Othello ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 I am giving the Fishburne a very unfair 3 stars because I could barely get through it. 

Othello is one of the 4 great tragedies and, as the Teaching Company professor rightly pointed out, it is the only domestic tragedy. 

It was well done, well cast, beautifully shot and costumed and so painful I had to watch it in small chunks while doing something with my hands.

Ugh

Iago is easy for me and I know he’s very not easy for lots of people. He is a cruel manipulative man who ruins the happiness of others. I like the theory of him as a holdover from an older medieval morality play type.

Branagh is great here.  He is creepy and sociopathic and believable.

Desdémona is easy for me. She is a good and honest person who believes that everyone else must also be good and honest.

Othello is easy for me because he gets so in his own head that rational decision making is beyond him. I enjoyed seeing pre Matrix, young sexy Fishburne with interesting tattoos.

Rodrigo and Cassio are uninterested 2D stock parts. Ditto the Bianca subplot  

Emelia is for me the most approachable and reliable character here. Shout out Anna Patrick. She sounded modern in both delivery and perspective.

My problem is not with the movie.

My problem is with the play. I will have this problem when we get to Titus as well.

I don’t want to watch people suffer like this. 

The Nation State plays, Lear or Richard III, feel removed enough from me. Romeo and Juliet feels like a fairy tale to me. Othello feels like a claustrophobic, slow crushing under a heavy wheel. It feels like drowning.

I deeply value the Greek ideal of plays as cathartic. No part of me needs to express or experience domestic violence. It hurts me to be in that headspace.

I am so glad we are done with this one.

Othello - 3 stars for production and discomfort 

Mom score 0 stars - no moms except in Othello memory of his dead mother as related to his handkerchief and Desdemonas mom also dead.