Reviews of Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand have been rapturous. It currently has a 93% “fresh” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and has been earning awards-season buzz for its performances and cinematography. The New York Review of Books offers one of the most insightful commentaries on the film, titled “Shakespeare Noir,” highlighting the Shakespearean dimensions of the Coen Brothers earlier work. In a way, the review suggests, a confrontation with the Bard was inevitable for filmmakers so consumed by questions of power, revenge, guilt, ambition, and the dizzying possibilities of poetic language.