Ambition's Debt

This is an assembly of really fine actors (including some true stage legends), handling a historically tricky play about power and ambition urgently and well. Director does double shift as Caesar, and is compelling throughout. A lot of Shakespeare film adaptations feel like they're straining against the text, finding excuses to use antiquated language for modern things. But the general post-apocalyptic setting feels like the proper setting for talk of daggers, swords, and awls. This does feel like theatre sometimes, but that's not a bad thing -- it lets the story remain intimate and immediate, in a "Dogville"- type way.