Casey Affleck premieres ‘Company’ at Venice Film Festival

Casey Affleck’s third directorial effort, ‘Company’, premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. The film is a gothic drama utilizing a nesting-doll narrative structure, where stories are told within stories across different eras, including 1975, 1953, and 1903.

The plot follows a mysterious woman named Evelyn who arrives uninvited at a 1975 party and begins recounting tales that link various characters, including an elderly hermit named Tom and a troubled young drifter. The film explores themes of grief, vengeance, and forgiveness.

Critical reception has been mixed. Some reviewers praised the film’s ambitious structure and visual style, while others described the pacing as slow or the narrative as directionless. Affleck noted during press conferences that the film serves as a meditation on how individuals process life’s hardships and make peace with their circumstances. The cast includes Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, and Affleck’s own children, Atticus and Indiana.