‘The Birthday Party’ Review: Willem Dafoe Uncordially Invites You to a Murky Family Melodrama

No man is an island, except, perhaps, a man who owns one. The alienating, even dehumanizing effects of extreme wealth and privilege are brought to bear in “The Birthday Party,” a grim little kinda-Greek tragedy that, despite a lengthy guest list, may as well be a one-man show. The latest feature by Spanish writer-director Miguel Ángel Jiménez functions chiefly as an ode to the many menacing screen moods of one Willem Dafoe, cast as a cold-blooded 1970s shipping magnate plainly modeled on Aristotle Onassis, albeit with the kind of dark, gnarled glamor that the big O himself could only dream of. Brooding, glowering and sometimes even speak-singing his way

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