Even as my understanding of Fremen and Harkonnens and Bene Gesserit becomes increasingly confused—to say nothing of trying to keep track of the mounting pile of names for Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet)—the spell cast by Dune and now Dune: Part Two continues to hold me enthralled. Must be the spice. You’ll have to look for a spirited defense of the movie’s snowballing narrative, as well as the complicated character motivations driving it, elsewhere. I’m here to tell you to set much of that aside, breathe in the precious spice that has brought warring parties to the desert planet of Arrakis, and simply take the trip. It’s not Paul and his perplexing quest to lead the indigenous Fremen in a defense of their world that captivates me about Dune: Part Two. Instead, it’s the sounds of whirring machines in vast, hollow spaces; the textures of the fabrics and armor worn by the massive cast of characters; and the ever-shifting, sifting play of sand and light on a planet that seems to exist of only those two things. (In some ways cinematographer Greig Fraser is as much the auteur of this series as director Denis Villeneuve.) Like its predecessor, Dune: Part Two gets in your nostrils, employing the sensuousness of cinema to put you—bodily—in a wholly original time and place. Beyond that sand, Part Two also incisively incorporates the unexpected element of water, presented here as precious, even holy. As a religious narrative, Part Two is a bit unsteady—at turns provocative and diffuse—but its use of water is wholly engrossing. Sucked from the corpses of slain enemies so that others might live or preserved from the bodies of lost compatriots to be added to a sacred well, water in Dune: Part Two has both an intriguing spiritual import and an earthly materiality. Beneath those dusty nostrils, you can feel it on your lips. (With Zendaya, given more to do this time but largely stuck in a perfunctory romance; Javier Bardem, adding gravitas but also, on occasion, a blessedly light touch; and Austin Butler, channeling all his Elvis charisma into a new villain, essentially a nightclub Nosferatu who’s picky about his knives.)
(2/21/2024)
