Movie/TV Reviews

“Shogun”

Susan Grange’s review of “Shogun” (Hulu/FX)

 

Back in 1980, audiences were glued to their TV sets for five nights to watch “Shogun,” James Clavell’s best-seller about feudal Japan, starring Richard Chamberlain.

Now Hulu is heralding a new 10-episode miniseries with Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne, a British navigator marooned near a tiny fishing village in early 17th century Japan. His mission is to open up that Asian archipelago to the English.  

Up to this time, trade in Japan was monopolized by Portuguese merchants who kept its location top-secret, using their mercantile presence as an excuse to baptize compliant Japanese into their Roman Catholic faith.

Arriving at the outset of the Protestant Reformation, Blackthorne – determined to undermine papal persuasion – is caught in the middle of a war between the maneuvering samurai clans led by wise Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and duplicitous Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira). In addition, ex-royal consort Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) bears a familial grudge against Toranaga.

Japan’s supreme ruler, is dead. His heir is a child, so a Council of Regents of five feudal lords is in charge, led by Toranaga who views Blackthorne as a potential asset, as do his vassals – Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) and Yabushige’s nephew Omi (Hiroto Kanai).

Amid the culture clashes, political plotting and brutal bloodshed, Blackthorne finds forbidden love with his unflappable interpreter Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), an unhappily married Catholic noblewoman who tactfully calibrates her translations.

There’s a great emphasis on authenticity – with much of the dialogue in Japanese with English subtitles. Blackthorne’s character is based on real-life navigator William Adams and Lord Toranaga modeled on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who helped unite Japan, introducing a period of peace that lasted for 260 years.

Adapted/created by Justin Marks and his wife Rachel Kondo, the sumptuous production was designed by Helen Jarvis with Carlos Rosario’s lavish costumes. The showrunners cleverly enlisted Shakespearean-trained Sanada (“Bullet Train,” “John Wick, Chapter 4”) as producer as well as leading actor.

FX Network chief John Landgraf said it took a decade to get the compromises and choices right, noting FX could never have made this miniseries had it not been bought by Disney which aimed the series at a 21st century streaming audience.

FYI: “Samurai” refers to the warrior class, bound sworn duty to a code of conduct, like medieval knights. And “Shogun” is the supreme military commander.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Shogun” is an ambitious 8, streaming on FX and Hulu with the finale airing on Tuesday, April 23.

“Shogun” Read More »

“Constellation”

Susan Granger’s review of “Constellation” (Apple TV+)

 

Sci-fi reigns supreme as Apple TV+ continues “Constellation,” its newest space saga. What evolves as a spooky, eight-episode mystery begins in Sweden as a woman is seen driving through a snowy forest with her young daughter.

She’s Johanna “Jo” Ericsson (Noomi Rapace), an astronaut who recently returned from a disastrous mission on the International Space Station, where Commander Paul Lancaster (William Catlett) died after a mysterious ‘collision’ and her colleagues – Russian cosmonaut Ilya Andreev (Henry David), ESA astronaut Yasmina Sun (Sandra Tele) and French astronaut Audrey Brostin (Carole Weyers) – took to an escape pod to conserve oxygen and power for Jo.

After pleas from ground control, Jo manages to save the extraordinary CAL (“Cold Atom Laboratory”) experiment master-minded by aging Nobel Prize-winning scientist/astronaut Henry Caldera (Jonathan Banks) and his cosmic twin Bud.

Described by ‘quantum entanglement’ mumbo-jumbo, its enigmatic purpose somehow relates to an 89-year-old Thought Experiment: “Schrodinger’s Cat.”

(Irish physicist Edwin Schrodinger imagined a hypothetical cat in a box with a mechanism that releases radioactive poison. Until you look inside, the cat is both alive and dead – simultaneously – posing the question of when exactly superposition ends and reality resolves into one possibility or the other.)

So how does this CAL capsule – showing how one particle can exist in two different states simultaneously – relate to Jo? At one point, Henry looks at her, noting that “curiosity killed the cat.” Is that a warning not to try to break the space-time fabric and observe the unknown?

What Jo does come to realize is that the life she comes back to does not appear to be the life she left behind. Her car, once red, is now blue. Her 10-year-old daughter Alice (twins Davina & Rosie Coleman) no longer speaks Swedish and hides in cupboards to escape “the Valya.” Plus, Jo’s marital relationship with husband Magnus (James D’Arcy) has changed.

(Fans of “The Matrix” may relate to a pivotal choice between reality and illusion that evokes memories of Neo’s red pill/blue pill parallel universe quest.)

Although Jo cannot play piano, when she sits down at the keyboard, she expertly executes Sergei Rachmaninoff’s difficult classical prelude #3, reading the intricate sheet music and exhibiting amazing physical dexterity.

Above all, why is no one willing to acknowledge that – somehow – in space there was a sudden collision with the desiccated corpse of a long-dead USSR female cosmonaut?

Created as a baffling, non-linear, psychological thriller by Peter Harness (BBC’s “War of the Worlds” miniseries), it’s based on an idea from Sean Jablonski, and directed by Michelle MacLaren, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Joseph Cedar.

The production involved designer Andy Nicholson creating an almost full-scale space station at Germany’s Studio Babelberg, including special effects coordinator Martin Goeres’ camera platforms and microgravity simulator harnesses for weightlessness.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Constellation” is a confusing yet compelling, slow-paced 7, streaming on Apple TV+ with the finale airing on Wednesday, March 27.

“Constellation” Read More »

“And Just Like That…”

Susan Granger’s review of “And Just Like That…” (HBO Max)

 

If you’ve spent any time channel-surfing, you’ll be inundated with re-runs of “Sex and the City,” the successful six-season franchise starring Sarah Jessica Parker as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw with her besties: pragmatic lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nison), WASPy Charlotte York-Greenblatt (Kristin Davis) and uninhibited publicist Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall).

After two big-screen spin-offs, the cast – minus Samantha – reassembled for the sequel “And Just Like That…” in which the quest – finding/marrying the right man – was abandoned in favor of each of the admittedly middle-aged women finding/defining herself.

In the first episode of the new series, Carrie becomes a widow, selling her once-coveted Upper East Side brownstone. Her husband, known as Mr. Big (Chris Noth), collapsed from a heart attack while working out on his Peloton. At the urging of her publisher, Carrie then becomes the keynote speaker at WidowCon.

Self-righteous Miranda suddenly leaves her husband Steve for Che Diaz (Sara Ramiriz), a self-professed “queer, nonbinary Mexican Irish diva” who does stand-up comedy. And Charlotte’s marital relationship with Harry (Evan Handler) comes into question along with her now-teenage daughter Lily’s (Cathy Ang) sexuality.

So much controversy erupted about Samantha’s abrupt exit to London that actress Kim Cattrall was paid a fortune to appear in a highly-anticipated, admittedly antic-climactic 75-second cameo in the final episode of the second season.

Without Samantha, the second season was cluttered with superficial supporting characters, like Aidan (John Corbett), raising three sons in Virginia; Anthony (Mario Cantone) falling for an Italian studnik; unexpectedly pregnant Law professor Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker); divorcee Nya (Karen Pittman); and commitment-phobic, real estate agent Seema’s (Sarita Choudhury) involvement with a Marvel director.

Obsessively self-involved Carrie is still chirping…but now it’s about career frustration, breast cancer and – above all – existential disappointment and loneliness. Not much fun.

Perhaps Miranda puts it best as she ponders whether her relationship with Che was “a good train wreck” or just a train wreck.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “And Just Like That…” is a forced, frustrating 5, streaming on HBO Max (now simply called Max).

05
05

“And Just Like That…” Read More »

2024 Oscar Predictions

Susan Granger’s 2024 OSCAR PREDICTIONS:

 

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the 96th Academy Awards, airing Sunday, March 10 on ABC.

The most important difference between 2024 and previous years is the increasing internationalization of the 9,800-member Academy since the #OscarsSoWhite influx of new members after 2015. The Academy revealed that members from 93 countries cast nomination ballots this year; international members now comprise 25% of the total voters.

Many of them are accustomed to watching films with subtitles, which helps to explain how “Anatomy of a Fall,” “ Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest”  landed best picture noms, along with the directors of “Anatomy (Triet) and “Zone” (Glazer). The star of “Anatomy” (Hüller) got a lead actress nod and the Japanese film “The Boy and the Heron” was chosen for animation. And all five documentary nominees came from outside the United States.

To put this into perspective, it’s been 20 years since the year’s biggest blockbuster – 2003’s “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” – took best picture. Last year, “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” made the cut, but an art house film – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – won. This year, it will be “Oppenheimer,” grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide; with 13 nominations, it could break the record for the most Oscar wins in one night.

Here are the 10 Best Picture nominees:

“American Fiction”: a biting satire about racial representation

“Anatomy of a Fall”: a twisty whodunit courtroom thriller

“Barbie”: a candy-colored feminist comedy skewering patriarchy

“The Holdovers”: misadventures in a 1970s Christmas dramedy

“Killers of the Flower Moon”: a tragic historical crime drama

“Maestro”: Leonard Bernstein’s complicated marital love story

“Oppenheimer”: a biopic about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer

“Past Lives”: an Asian-American romance between childhood friends

“Poor Things”: a surreal, feminist ‘Frankenstein’ gender-bender

“The Zone of Interest”: a Holocaust drama about the banality of evil

MY PREDICTION: “Oppenheimer”

For Best Director, nominees are Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Yogos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) & Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”).

Controversy concerns the omission of “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig, the first filmmaker in history to have her first three solo features – “Lady Bird,” “Little Women” & “Barbie” – nominated for best picture.

Nominees are selected by the Directors branch consisting of just 587 voters – about a quarter of whom are women. Historically, however, this highbrow group has rejected mainstream, even blockbuster, studio fare, choosing three directors who live and work primarily in Europe. That’s probably why Justine Triet – only the 8th woman ever nominated – squeezed in, while Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”) was excluded.

Yet the odds-on favorite is Christopher Nolan, winner of the Directors Guild Award. FYI: he doesn’t own a telephone; the only way to contact him is via his wife/producing partner Emma Thomas.

MY PREDICTION: Christopher Nolan

Back in 2009, five previous Acting winners introduced the nominees in the four Acting categories; that segment was so popular that the Academy plans to repeat it for the five current contenders. Although the Academy never reveals who will be presenting which awards, you can bet that last year’s four winners – Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis – will be among them.

For Best Actress, nominees are Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Huller (“Anatomy of a Fall), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) & Emma Stone (“Poor Things”).

Lily Gladstone is the first Native American nominated in this category; her quiet performance as Mollie Burkhardt highlights the film’s most riveting and powerful moments. But she doesn’t propel the picture the way Emma Stone captures woman/child in the feminist Frankenstein gender-bender. It’s the fifth nomination for Annette Bening, who’s a long-shot but would get my vote. Carey Mulligan was exquisite as Leonard Bernstein’s long-suffering wife Felicia Montealegre and – with a strong international following – German actress Sandra Huller starred in both “Anatomy” and “Zone of Interest.”

MY PREDICTION: Lily Gladstone

For Best Actor, nominees are Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) & Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”).

Curmudgeonly Paul Giamatti was a natural as the odiferous, socially challenged professor stuck at a prep school over Christmas, as was Jeffrey Wright as the bitter, razor-sharp novelist courting fame and fortune. Bradley Cooper tackled Leonard Bernstein’s personal angels and demons, and Cillian Murphy was convincing as the ‘father’ of the atomic bomb.  He’d be the first Irish-born actor to win Best Actor.

Playing Bayard Rustin who helped organize the 1993 March on Washington, Colman Domingo is the first Afro-Latino nominated as lead actor and only the second openly LGBTQ+ actor nominated for playing a gay character; Ian McKellen was the first for “Gods and Monsters” (1998).

MY PREDICTION: Cillian Murphy

For Best Supporting Actress, nominees are Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), America Ferrera (“Barbie”), Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) & Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”).

Emily Blunt added humanity as the physicist’s wife, and Danielle Brooks reprised her acclaimed stage role. I cheered when America Ferrera delivered that powerful monologue in “Barbie” about the complexities of being a woman, and this is the first time openly gay Jodie Foster has played a lesbian character. But the odds-on favorite is Da’Vine Joy Randolph whose portrayal of a grieving mother gave “The Holdovers” dramatic depth and heart.

MY PREDICTION: Da’Vine Joy Randolph

For Best Supporting Actor, nominees are Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”), Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”), Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”) & Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”).

Sterling K. Brown nails the gay cosmetic surgeon in a midlife crisis; Robert De Niro oozes evil on the Oklahoma prairie; Ryan Gosling was “Keough;” Mark Ruffalo was delightfully dastardly; but Robert Downey Jr. was so utterly contemptible.

MY PREDICTION: Robert Downey Jr.

For Best Editing, nominees are “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer” & “Poor Things.”

In the non-linear “Oppenheimer,” Jennifer Lame cuts from color to black-and-white as the renowned scientist supervises the building, testing and aftermath of the atomic bomb.

Thelma Schoonmaker edited “Killers,” Scorsese’s first epic Western, to convey the scope of the tragedy. Given the absurdity of “Poor Things,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis makes the concept psychologically plausible, while Kevin Tent makes the wacky “The Holdovers” believable.

MY PREDICTION: “Oppenheimer”

For Best Cinematography, nominees are “El Conde,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer” & “Poor Things.”

Nominated three times before, DP Rodrigo Prieto’s naturalistic “Killers” encompassed the world of the Osage Nation, while DP Hoyte Van Hoytema scores his second nomination, depicting the explosive Trinity test with no CG simulation; he also worked with Kodak to develop black-and-white 70mm film stock for the monochromatic aspects of “Oppenheimer.” Others in contention include Matthew Libatique for “Maestro” and Robbie Ryan for “Poor Things.”

MY PREDICTION: “Oppenheimer”

For Best Production Design, nominees are “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon,” “Oppenheimer” & “Poor Things.”

How do you compare Sarah Greenwood/Katie Spencer’s dazzling pink plastic Barbie Land (which caused a global shortage of fluorescent pink paint) with Ruth De Jong’s reconstruction of the New Mexico desert town of Los Alamos and Jack Fisk’s depiction of the Reign of Terror that struck Oklahoma’s booming Osage Nation in the 1920s?

Arthur Max was charged with staging the French emperor’s six major battles, while Shona Heath/James Price were tasked with creating Gothic images in both black-and-white and color.

MY PREDICTION: “Barbie”

For Best Original Screenplay, nominees are “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “May-December” & “Past Lives.”

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” revolves around a woman on trial for murdering her husband; Todd Haynes’ sad/sordid “May-December” profiles an actress doing research on the woman she’ll portray; David Hemingson scored nostalgia points with “The Holdovers”; Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer delved into Leonard Bernstein’s marriage in “Maestro;” and Celine Song’s “Past Lives” may linger in people’s minds. Justine Triet could be the first French woman to win in this category.

MY PREDICTION: “Anatomy of a Fall”

For Best Adapted Screenplay, nominees are “American Fiction,” “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things” & “The Zone of Interest.”

Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach crafted a smart, witty script that packs a feminist punch; they could win since Gerwig was snubbed as Best Director. Yet the front-runner is Christopher Nolan who made every word count with real-life characters in “Oppenheimer.” Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone” goes behind-the-scenes at Auschwitz death camp; Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Poor Things” is a macabre coming-of-age tale. But perhaps it’s Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” skewering the publishing industry, that’s the most surprising.

MY PREDICTION: “American Fiction”

For Best International Film, nominees are “Io Capitano” (Italy), “Perfect Days” (Japan), “Society of the Snow” (Spain), “The Teachers Lounge” (Germany) & “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom).

“Io Capitano” follows a teenage Senegalese immigrant’s quest to reach Italy. Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows a Japanese toilet cleaner‘s simple city routine. “Society of the Snow” is a real-life survival thriller. “The Teachers Longe” revolves around an idealistic instructor. “The Zone of Interest” evokes the horrors of the Holocaust; it could score the first UK win in this category since the main dialogue is not English.

Although it copped Best Picture, Best Director & Best Original Screenplay nominations, “Anatomy of a Fall” is not eligible since France did not choose to submit it as its entry.

MY PREDICTION: “The Zone of Interest”

For Best Animated Feature, nominees are “The Boy and the Heron,” “Elemental,” “Nimona,” “Robot Dreams” & “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”

Hayao Miyazaki’s hand-drawn “Boy” will probably the last that the 82 year-old Japanese master will direct. “Elemental” boasts a wondrous character-driven narrative, while “Nimona” profiles a female who just wants to be seen for who she is. So does might make right? This “Spider-Man” sequel made $690.5 million at the worldwide box-office.

MY PREDICTION: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

For Best Visual Effects, nominees are “The Creator,” “Godzilla Minus One,” “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One” & “Napoleon.”

What’s extraordinary is that VFX veteran Neil Corbould (winner for the original “Gladiator” & “Gravity”) supervised three of the five nominated films. Tom Cruise’s “Mission” franchise upped its game with the Fiat 500 car chase in Rome and the spectacular Orient Express train sequence where the train plummeted from the exploding bridge, one carriage at a time; the legendary French emperor “Napoleon” fought epic battles involving massive crowds; and “The Creator” was filled with fabricated pyrotechnics and explosions. Problem is: how will voters for Corbould chose among these three films?

And let’s not forget that in its 70-year franchise history, this is the first VFX nomination for a “Godzilla” film.

MY PREDICTION: “Godzilla Minus One”

For Best Costume Design, nominees are “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon,” “Oppenheimer” & “Poor Things.”

“Barbie” is the dazzling favorite – with Jacqueline Durran covering Mattel’s fashion history and tailoring it to the story narrative. For “Killers,” costumer Jacqueline West worked with Pendelton to secure 1,000 authentic Osage Nation blankets.

For “Poor Things,” Holly Waddington conveyed traumatized Bela’s transition from wearing a white silk cape to the futuristic use of latex and plastic. In “Napoleon,” Janty Yates went for neo-classical fashion while David Crossman handled the military garb. And Ellen Mirojnick chose those iconic three-pieces suits for the titular “Oppenheimer.”

MY PREDICTION: “Barbie”

For Best Makeup & Hairstyling, nominees are “Golda,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things” & “Society of the Snow.”

Bradley Cooper’s nose in “Maestro” was the most controversial transformation but can it win a third Oscar for Kazu Hiro? Equally admirable was Luisa Abel’s turning Robert Downey Jr. into elderly Admiral Lewis Strauss in “Oppenheimer” and Karen Hartley Thomas molding Helen Mirren into “Golda” Meir. For “Poor Things,” Nadia Stacey transformed Emma Stone from feral to outlandish and made Willem Dafoe’s deformed face a prosthetic marvel.

MY PREDICTION: “Maestro”

For Best Sound, nominees are “The Creator,” “Maestro,” “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One,” “Oppenheimer” & “The Zone of Interest.”

With its subatomic and cosmic sounds, “Oppenheimer” is a favorite but the more intimate visceral approach for “Mission Impossible” made it memorable. Yet in “Zone,” it was only sound that conveyed the scope of the horrors that the audience did not witness.

MY PREDICTION: “Oppenheimer”

For Best Documentary, non-fiction nominees are “Bobi White: The People’s President,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Four Daughters,” “To Kill a Tiger” & “20 Days in Mariupol.”

“Bobi White” features a former Presidential candidate fighting against a vicious dictator in Uganda. Chilean Maite Alberdi’s “Eternal” resonates as a romantic story about the devastation of Alzheimer’s. “Tiger” chronicles rural women’s difficulties to find justice in a deeply misogynistic society. Tunisia’s “Four Daughters” blends real interviews with staged reenactments to show a mother’s struggle to understand why two of her girls joined ISIS in Libya. And “20 Days” is Pulitzer Prize-winner Mstyslav Chernov’s timely war journalist story.

MY PREDICTION: “20 Days in Mariupol”

For Best Original Score, nominees are “American Fiction,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer” & “Poor Things.”

At 91, John Williams is the oldest competitive award nominee. This year’s nod for “Indiana Jones” brings his total to 54 – more than any other living person. (Walt Disney holds the record with 59.)

Composer Hildur Guonadottir began “Oppenheimer” with a violin solo, tracing the scientist’s intense emotional journey. British musician-turned-composer Jerskin Fendrix (a.k.a. Joscelin Dent-Pooley) is a contender for “Poor Things”; to achieve dissonance, he told his musicians to ‘play stupid’ during Bella’s wobbly pieces. And “Killers” was Robbie Robertson final score, making him a sentimental choice.

MY PREDICTION: “Oppenheimer”

For Best Original Song, nominees are “The Fire Inside” (“Flamin’ Hot”), “I’m Just Ken” (“Barbie”), “It Never Went Away” (“American Symphony”), “Wahzhazhe – A Song for My People” (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) & “What Was I Made For?” (“Barbie”).

Nominated 15 times and given an Honorary Oscar, veteran song writer Diane Warren has never won so perhaps “The Fire Inside,” performed by Latin superstar Becky G, will prove lucky. But look out for siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell who won for “No Time to Die” (2022); a “What Was I Made For” win this year would make them the first songwriters to win twice in three years since Tim Rice won in 1995 & 1997 for songs from “The Lion King” and “Evita.” But then there’s Mark Watson & Andrew Wyatt’s “I’m Just Ken.”

MY PREDICTION: “What Was I Made For?”

For Best Animated Short Film, nominees are “Letter to a Pig,” “Ninety-Five Senses,” “Our Uniform” “Pachyderme” & “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko.”

The Holocaust, morality and abuse are serious themes captured by this year’s nominees.

MY PREDICTION: “Letter to a Pig”

For Best Documentary Short Film, nominees are “The ABCs of Book Banning,” “The Barber of Little Rock,” “Island in Between,” “The Last Repair Shop” and “Nai Nai & Wai Po.”

They spotlight local heroes, urgent issues and a couple of grandmothers who make everything right.

MY PREDICTION: “The ABCs of Book Banning”

For Best Live Action Short Film, nominees are “The After,” “Invincible,” “Knight of Fortune,” “Red, White and Blue” & “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

Despite their brief runtimes, all five successfully tackle complex issues. In “The After,” David Oyelowo is a grief-stricken Uber-esque driver; “Invincible” focuses on a French suicide; “Knight of Fortune” explores grief in a morgue;  “Red, White and Blue” finds a pregnant single mother in need of an abortion that’s illegal in Arkansas; and Wes Anderson adapts Roald Dahl’s flight of fancy in “Henry Sugar.”

MY PREDICTION: “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024 Oscar Predictions Read More »

“Spaceman”

Susan Granger’s review of “Spaceman” (Netflix)

 

Stand-up comic Adam Sandler established his screen career in broad, slapstick comedies. But in 2019, he stunned audiences by playing a desperate New York City jeweler on the lookout for the ultimate win in “Uncut Gems.”

Now in “Spaceman,” he’s Jakub Prochazka, a weary, bearded Czechoslovakian astronaut who is six months into a solo mission to explore and retrieve particle samples from a huge purple nebula known as the Chopra Cloud, located near the outer limits of Jupiter.

Yet his research mission is minor in comparison with his concern about the dissolution of his marriage to pregnant Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who resents his ego, ambition and commitment to space travel. (Didn’t she know that when she married him?)

When she sends him a video message announcing that she’s leaving him, it’s intercepted by Jakub’s deeply concerned Euro Space Program boss, Commissioner Tuma (Isabella Rossellini), who refuses to pass it on, psrtiularly since a competitive South Korean spaceship is following close behind.

She knows Jakub is already in emotional distress, searching for some kind of redemption for the sins of his disgraced father, an informant for the Communist Party, but the narrative almost obliterates that political connection.

Meanwhile, looking in a mirror, Jakub extracts a spidery creature from his mouth…Is it a nightmare or somehow connected to his subsequent discovery of a huge, hairy arachnid, a six-eyed alien intruder, lurking on his spaceship?

Addressing him as “skinny human,” this mysterious creature (voiced by Paul Dano) quickly assures Jakub that it’s not predatory; instead, it seems to be offering soft-spoken counsel, evoking an empathetic cross between the barn spider in E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” and Stanley Kubrick’s HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Adapted by Colby Day from Jaroslav Kalfar’s 2017 novel “Spaceman of Bohemia,” it’s unevenly directed by Sweden’s Johan Renck (HBO’s “Chernobyl”), who never quite decides whether this is a melancholy marital relationship drama, an existential meditation on loneliness, or cosmic conjecture about the ability of a human to remain sane while in claustrophobic solitude.

Due to mixed reactions at test screenings, “Spaceman” has been in post-production for almost three years. On the plus side, as Max Richter’s score soars, cinematographer Jakon Ihre comes up with some stunning visuals, creating an experiential sense of zero gravity.

FYI: The little girl who inquires whether Jakub is the loneliest man in the world is actually Sandler’s real-life daughter Sunny.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Spaceman” is an ambiguous, inconsequential 4, streaming on Netflix.

“Spaceman” Read More »

“The New Look”

Susan Granger’s review of “The New Look” (Apple TV+)

 

A provocative new series “The New Look” delves into what Christian Dior and Coco Chanel did during the Nazi occupation of Paris in W.W. II – and it’s not about ‘haute couture’ (defined as ‘high sewing’).

In 1955, shy, sensitive Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) was the first fashion designer ever invited to speak at the Sorbonne in the French University’s 700-year history.

When he takes the stage, a student demands to know whether he – like Coco Chanel – ever collaborated with the enemy. His response to that question ignites flashbacks to what life was like under the Germans.

From 1940 to 1944, swastika flags flew as the French Vichy regime deported more than 70,000 Jews to Hitler’s concentration camps.

Dior was one of several designers working for the elite fashion house of Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich), who refused to close his business, even though his customers were Nazis or their collaborators.

Meanwhile at home, Dior was harboring heroic French Resistance fighters like his feisty younger sister Catherine (Maisie Williams), who was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck work camp.

Although Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) closed her atelier, she continued to live at the Ritz Hotel – a.k.a. Nazi headquarters – and used ‘Aryan Law’ to eliminate her Jewish investors, the Wertheimer brothers.

Conflicted Chanel became romantically involved with SS Officer Hans Gunther von Dincklage (Claes Bang), known as ‘Spatz,’ and participated in a botched espionage mission with British aristocrat Elsa Lombardi (Emily Mortimer) to deliver a secret message to Winston Churchill.

After Allied forces liberated Paris, Lelong organized “an exhibition of hope” at the Louvre, enlisting designers – like Cristobal Balenciaga (Nuno Lopes), Pierre Balmain (Thomas Poitevin) and Dior – to create a miniature fashion show since there was not enough fabric available to fit human models. More than 100,000 people admired the exquisite French craftsmanship and opulence.

Soon after, Dior launched his legendary salon; his dazzling postwar 1947 collection of fitted jackets and full skirts was christened “The New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow (Glenn Close).

After Germany’s surrender, Chanel was interrogated about her Nazi collaboration, eventually cleared, and her iconic business thrived.

Inspired by ‘real events,’ it’s adapted as a star-studded fashion fantasy by director Todd A. Kessler (“Damages,” “Bloodline”), who favors style over substance; each of the 10 episodes concludes with a 1940s song performed by a contemporary artist.

If you’re in Paris before May 13, you can see Karen Serreau’s costume replicas at La Galerie Dior, museum space adjacent to Dior’s atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne; Dior is now chaired by Delphine Arnault.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Total Look” is a shallow, quasi-historical 7, streaming weekly on Wednesdays on Apple TV+ with the final episode dropping on April 3rd.

“The New Look” Read More »

“Freud’s Last Session”

Susan Granger’s review of “Freud’s Last Session” (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

If you enjoy stimulating conversation, just imagine what mental jousting would occur if/when Sigmund Freud, the atheist ‘father’ of psychoanalysis, and erudite Christian apologist C.S. Lewis were to speculate about religion and the existence of God.

For the intellectual invention “Freud’s Last Session,” director Matthew Brown worked with writer Mark St. Germain to adapt his 2009 stage play into what is, basically, a compelling spiritual debate.

Having fled from Nazi-controlled Vienna in 1938, now 83-year-old Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and his daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) have settled into a small house in London.

Suffering from terminal intraoral cancer, Freud is, nevertheless, intrigued when C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode), an esteemed Oxford don, comes to call. Lewis is hoping that the dying doctor might find some consolation in the concept of an afterlife. A fervent convert to Christianity, this is before Lewis blended fantasy and doctrine in his beloved “Chronicles of Narnia.”

“We’re all cowards…We’ve never matured enough to overcome the terror of being in the dark,” Freud argues. To which Lewis counters: “Why does religion make room for science, but science refuses to make room for religion?”

Their verbal sparring is cohesive and respectful, deftly delineating their personal perspectives. As Freud notes: “From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.”

Dependent on periodic doses of morphine, Freud struggles with the cumbersome prosthesis he must wear to replace his resected palate and jaw. Plus, he’s stressed about Anna’s lesbian relationship with fellow analyst Dorothy Burlingham (Jodi Balfour); over the years, he and Anna have obviously had a co-dependent relationship.

Then when air-raid sirens warn of German bombers, they make their way to a nearby shelter. Previous to that excursion, there are numerous flashbacks to both men’s formative years, describing their respective backstories and the traumas that shaped their disparate philosophies.

Boasting exquisite performances by Hopkins and Goode, this is, essentially, a perceptive, character-drive narrative. Some may deem the highbrow discussion boring; others find the arguments exhilarating. Above all, the film accomplishes what its writer/director set out to do.

FYI: Hopkins played novelist C.S. Lewis in “Shadowlands” (1993) and, if you relish brain stimulation, track down “My Dinner with Andre” (1981) and “Mindwalk” (1990) for more compelling conversations.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Freud’s Last Session” is a thought-provoking, enlightening 9, now streaming on Apple TV. Prime Video and Vudu.

“Freud’s Last Session” Read More »

“Expats”

Susan Granger’s review of “Expats” (Amazon Prime Video)

Writer/director Lulu Wang first captivated audiences with “The Farewell” (2019) about a Chinese-American woman returning to Hong Kong to visit her terminally ill grandmother. With “Expats,” she’s has adapted Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel “The Expatriates,” exploring motherhood, grief, friendship and resilience.

Set in the summer/fall of 2014, “Expats” follows three expat American women: Margaret Woo (Nicole Kidman), Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue) and Mercy Kim (Ji-young Yoo) whose lives become inexorably interconnected through trauma and tragedy.

Mother of three young children, Margaret is a landscape architect who abandoned her career to move from New York to Hong Kong when her husband, Clarke Woo (Brian Tee), got a lucrative job opportunity. As the series opens, she’s distraught because her youngest son Gus (Connor J. Gillman) is missing.

Providing a guilt-riddled voiceover prologue, 24 year-old Korean-American Mercy, a Columbia University postgrad,  was supposed to be watching Gus the evening he mysteriously disappeared in a crowded, neon-lit marketplace.

Meanwhile, India-born Hilary surfaces as Margaret’s childless neighbor/friend whose marriage to smarmy, philandering David (Jack Houston) is unraveling as part of their mid-life ‘fertility’ crisis.

Hovering around the kaleidoscopic periphery are the Filipina/Indonesian domestic workers: Margaret’s live-in nanny/housekeeper Essie (Ruby Ruiz) and Hilary’s helper Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla). They take care of all the housekeeping and babysitting for US$500 a month!

Plus, there are two university students – Charly (Bonde Sham) and Tony (Will Or) – active in Hong-Kong’s pro-democracy effort known as the Umbrella Movement in which protestors occupied major roadways and landmarks, using umbrellas to protect themselves from the police’s pepper spray and tear gas.

Beijing-born director Lulu Wang led an all-female writers’ room, interweaving and detailing each woman’s melodramatic anguish as she unburdens herself, delving deeply into family dynamics as she reveals her loneliness and shameful secrets.

Clarifying the context and complexity of class division, Wang notes that wealthy, upwardly mobile expats live extravagant, privileged lives, sheltered from the impact of political changes in Hong Kong – but they are not immune to tragedy.  

“I had hoped for a specific event, an unimaginable act of kindness, a forgiveness that would reset everything,” Mercy concludes. “But there is no miracle that can reset everything. You must hold the pain and keep on living…”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Expats” is a compassionate, sorrowful, slowly paced 7 – with all six episodes streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

“Expats” Read More »

“Death and Other Details”

Susan Granger’s review of “Death and Other Details” (Hulu)

Murder mysteries abound – there’s reality-based (“Tracker”), British-derived (“Criminal Record”), occult (“Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale”), star-propelled (“True Detective: Night Country”), animated (“Grimsburg”), along with “Griselda,” “Fool Me Once” and “The Brothers Sun.”

Which is why Hulu’s 10-episode series “Death and Other Details,” created by Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, strives to be a bit different, unearthing the generational secrets of internationally powerful families.

Set in the Mediterranean Sea on the luxurious S.S. Verona yacht, the plot focuses on Imogene Scott (Violett Beane), the prime suspect in a locked-room murder mystery. A prologue explains that – when Imogene was 10 years-old – her mother died suspiciously. Although world-famous British detective Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin) was summoned, he’s been unable to crack the case.

Now 28, Imogene is on-board with the wealthy Collier family who took her in after her mother’s tragic demise. Patriarchal Lawrence Collier (David Marshall Grant) is retiring and Imogen’s best-friend, Anna Collier (Lauren Patten), is ready to become CEO of Collier Mills, a textile company.

Shortly after embarkation, boorish passenger Keith Trubitsky (Michael Gladis) is found dead in his cabin, a harpoon protruding from his belly, Since there’s video footage of Imogene sneaking into his room, she’s immediately under suspicion.

Fortunately, alcoholic/irascible Rufus is also aboard; eager to prove her innocence, Imogene becomes his ad-hoc assistant. “Pay attention,” he lectures her. “Details matter…If you want to solve a crime, you must first learn to see through the illusion.”

Other passengers include Mrs. Collier (Jayne Atkinson), the Colliers’ lawyer (Jere Burns), Anna’s neurotic wife Leila (Pardis Saremi), her coked-up brother Tripp (Jack Cutmore-Scott), and her ex, Eleanor Chun (Karoline), part of the uber-rich Chun family that’s brokering a billion-dollar deal with Collier Mills.

Plus the ship’s owner (Rahul Kohli), security chief (Hugo Diego Garcia), hospitality head (Angela Zhou), Governor of Washington (Tamberla Perry), Interpol agent (Linda Emond), Father Toby (Danny Johnson) with his 14-year-old son That Derek (Sincere Wilbert) – and an elusive criminal mastermind, Viktor Sams.

Figure in the use of the poisonous pigment Captionem Blue in manufacturing, blackmail, deception and more murders – all dramatically over-the-top, derivative and unevenly paced. So whodunnit? As this less-than-compelling, Agatha Christie-stylized detective series drags on, I’m not sure I care.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Death and Other Details” is a shallow, mildly suspenseful 6 – with its concluding episode scheduled for March 5th on Hulu.

“Death and Other Details” Read More »

“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Susan Granger’s review of “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” (FX/Hulu)

Confession: I’m hooked on “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.” I remember when Truman Capote published his lightly fictionalized “La Cote Basque 1965,” an incendiary chapter of “Answered Prayers,” in which he committed ‘publish and perish’ social suicide.

Unlike Season One of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series “Feud,” which recounted Bette Davis & Joan Crawford’s animosity, “Capote vs. the Swans” chronicles the rise and fall of author Truman Capote as he viciously eviscerates his prominent socialite friends whose scandalous peccadillos generated gallons of gossip.

Revealed in overlapping flashbacks, the ‘Swans’ are wealthy, self-indulgent trophy wives of powerful men; they befriend witty, openly gay Truman (Tom Hollander), making him their constant companion/confidant/confessor at their wine-soaked lunches at Henri Soule’s chic La Cote Basque restaurant on East 55th Street.

There’s porcelain perfect Babe Paley (Naomi Watts), married to CBS chief Bill Paley (Treat Williams); Jacqueline Kennedy’s jealous sister Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart); blue-blooded gardening expert C.Z. Guest (Chloe Sevigny), married to British/American polo champion Winston Frederick Churchill Guest; and caustic model Slim Keith (Diane Lane), ex-wife of director Howard Hawks, producer Leland Hayward and British banker Kenneth Keith – a.k.a. Baron Keith of Castleacre.

Haunted by the spiteful ghost of his mother (Jessica Lange) and chided by his long-suffering ex-boyfriend Jack Dunphy (Joe Mantello), Truman’s first ‘target’ is Ann Woodward (Demi Moore), dubbed “Bang-Bang,” who ‘accidentally’ shot her banker husband and, literally, got away with murder.

But Tru’s most bitter confrontation was with his beloved Babe Paley. One of three daughters of Boston’s pioneering neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, Babe was horrified and humiliated when Tru vividly detailed her philandering husband’s dalliance with Happy Rockefeller, wife of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Adapted by Jon Robin Baitz from Laurence Leamer’s 2021 book “Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal and a Swan Song for an Era” and directed by Gus Van Zant, it’s is a compelling tale of seduction, deception and self-destruction – since Truman lived by Mark Twain’s maxim: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

Eventually sinking into alcoholism and despair, banished from New York social circles, Truman sought refuge in Hollywood with Johnny Carson’s protective ex-wife Joanne (Molly Ringwald).

FX ads pitch the rarefied series as “The Original Housewives,” but it’s far more than that. Obsessed with superficial appearance, these shallow, unhappy WASP trendsetters flaunt conspicuous consumption while zealously guarding their private lives in an era before People magazine delved behind closed doors.

As Truman notes: “A swan can never rest. Underneath the crisp surface of the water, they have to paddle twice as fast and vigorously as an ordinary duck just to stay afloat.”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” is an aristocratic 8 – with eight episodes running on FX on Wednesday and/or Hulu on Thursday.

“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” Read More »

Scroll to Top