In the Hand of Dante, a new film by Julian Schnabel, has the brash style of all his projects. Based on a 2002 novel by Nick Tosches, an exploration of corruption and faith that oscillates between medieval Italy and a post–9/11 criminal underworld, the story seems tailor-made for the artist and his larger-than-life ethos. Oscar Isaac plays two roles: the titular Italian poet as he nears completion of his Divine Comedy and the author Nick Tosches, a Dante expert employed by a mob boss (John Malkovich) to steal an original manuscript of the ancient text. What follows is a black comedy that blends absurdity and startling violence, complete with cameos from Martin Scorsese as Dante’s mentor and Al Pacino as Tosches’s guide. It’s a complex narrative, but Schnabel has worked to keep the film accessible. “Even though we are all prisoners of our own subjectivity, I’d like viewers to see the film the same way they would look at a painting,” he told The Brooklyn Rail. —Maggie Turner