bestow

While extolled by supporters as Venezuela’s “dama de hierro” — the iron lady, a sobriquet bestowed decades ago on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — Machado is a controversial figure, even within the Venezuelan opposition.

Foreign policy becomes an instrument of naked personal despotism, with favors bestowed on those who burnish the leader’s vanity, and yanked away from those who decline to do so.

The puppet scenes, bestowing a belated yet supremely deserved spotlight on Abuela Julia, are the most original and haunting aspect of a production that too often flails for effects.

The hayseed county that begat Richard Nixon and the boysenberry also bestowed the Righteous Brothers’ “blue-eyed soul” and the drive-in church upon the world.

It feels like I’m bestowing a curse on Paul Thomas Anderson’s unrelenting movie, putting it in the pole position this early.