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.

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 5^th on Hulu.

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 55^th 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.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Boys in the Boat” (Amazon Studios)

George Clooney helms “The Boys in the Boat” as a classic underdog sports saga set during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Based on Daniel James Brown’s 2013 non-fiction best-seller, it begins with elderly Joe Rantz (Ian McElhinney) watching a young boy rowing a boat in a lake – which reminds him of the challenges of his youth at the University of Washington.

Unlike many of his classmates, young Joe (Callum Turner) didn’t have parents who could pay his tuition. He lives in a dilapidated car and often goes hungry. He’s had to work for every penny – with jobs few and far between.

Then he hears about tryouts for the junior varsity rowing team. If he qualifies, he’ll get three meals a day, lodging and enough of a stipend to pay his tuition bills.

Despite never having lifted an oar, resourceful Joe miraculously makes his way through the selection process, demonstrating strength, stamina and determination – along with his best friend Roger Morris (Sam Strike).

Since their jobs are also at stake, Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) and his assistant Tom Bowles (James Wolk) are determined to end their losing streak and – finally – beat Cal (University of California at Berkeley).

Eventually, as history notes, they qualified for the Olympic Games in Nazi-held Germany, facing off against the Third Reich’s elite team.

Clooney excels at depicting the grueling training sequences which demand that eight – perfectly matched – men on alternate sides of the boat, holding one oar each, master the demanding rhythm required to propel them across the finish line. Rowing four hours a day, the actors trained for five months, eventually achieving their goal of 46 strokes per minute.

Screenwriter Mark L. Smith utilizes a satisfying ‘bookending’ prologue and conclusion but his cliché-clogged dialogue is far too staid and superficial, eschewing all subtleties.  As a result, many character-revealing nuances are ‘told,’ rather than shown.

FYI: Back in 2017, this saga was featured on an episode of PBS’ “American Experience” titled “The Boys of ’36.”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Boys in the Boat” is a rousing, inspirational 7, streaming on Amazon Prime.

Susan Granger’s review of “Saltburn” (M.G.M./Amazon)

After “Promising Young Woman” (2022), Emerald Fennell’s auspicious writing/directing debut, her audacious second feature “Saltburn” is a disappointment.

Set in 2006, it’s a twisted, kinky, social-climbing satire revolving around Oliver Quick (Irish actor Barry Keoghan), a guileless ‘scholarship’ Oxford undergrad who cleverly befriends handsome Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), an aristocratic yet surprisingly compassionate classmate.

According to Oliver’s tragic backstory, his parents suffered addiction/mental health problems before his father’s recent death – which is why it’s so important to him to wangle an invitation to spend the summer at Catton’s family’s Baroque country estate called Saltburn.

From the moment this scheming interloper enters the eccentric family’s fabulously elite realm, his devious emotional attachment ignites. That’s the provocative premise.

As Oliver passes through the wrought-iron gates and becomes acquainted with various Catton relatives, he conspires and betrays each of them with ruthless precision.

His victims include Felix’s self-consciously troubled sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver); his droll father, Sir James (Richard E. Grant); and his shallow, glamorous, scene-stealing mother, Elsbeth (Rosamond Pike).

There’s Elsbeth’s fashionable friend, Pamela (Carey Mulligan) and, of course, the loyal, observant, meticulous butler, Duncan (Paul Rhys).

Somewhat reminiscent of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” this psychosexual drama superficially blends class and privilege with Gothic horror – desire with restraint – and – above all – revenge.

Spoiler Alert!

It’s particularly disgusting when libidinous Oliver is glimpsed drinking the draining bathwater into which Felix masturbated and then licking the bottom of the bathtub.

Following that, undoubtedly the most bizarre sequence is the finale, depicting Oliver dancing triumphantly – displaying full-frontal nudity – through the palatial mansion’s halls.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Saltburn” is an exasperating, toxic 3, streaming on Amazon Prime.

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

Take a bit of “Downton Abbey,” a touch of “The Gilded Age,” and a whiff of “Bridgerton” and you’ll come up with “The Buccaneers,” Apple TV’s costume drama about wealthy young American women crossing the Atlantic to find titled British husbands.

Based on an unfinished 1938 novel by Edith Wharton, it was obviously inspired by the ‘arranged’ marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt – heiress to the shipping-and-railroad fortune – to the ninth Duke of Marlborough, becoming the most famous of what were known as “dollar princesses.”

Apparently, the Duke told Consuelo that he was only interested in her huge dowry to “save Blenheim Palace,” his ancestral home. As a result, for much of their loveless 25-year marriage, they lived apart.

This series – set in the 1870s – follows the misadventures of five giddy girls seeking love abroad. Since their parents are considered ‘nouveau riche’ by condescending New York society, they’ve set their sights on acquiring aristocratic titles by marrying some of London’s cash-poor Lords and Dukes.

They’re following in the footsteps of their friend Conchita Closson (Alisha Boe) who married Lord Richard Marable (Josh Dylan); unfortunately, his patrician parents have turned out to be vehemently anti-American snobs.

Pretty Nan St. George (Kristine Froseth) seems to be the most popular, catching the fancy of sensitive, discontented Duke Theo (Guy Remmers) and his impoverished best friend Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome). But her scheming older sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) beats her to the altar, eloping with a Lord.

After her original acclaim in “Mad Men” and four seasons on the crime caper “Good Girls,” Christina Hendricks plays their mother Patricia St. George, who is keeping a shameful secret and seems to be trapped in a marriage-of-convenience.

Caught in a different dilemma, Mabel (Josie Totah) is torn between a heterosexual marriage of convenience and a lesbian liaison with Conchita’s uptight sister-in-law (Kate Winslet’s real-life daughter Mia Threapleton).

The real Tintagel Castle still stands in Scoland but, unfortunately, it’s in ruins. So exteriors were filmed at Culzean Castle, situated on cliffs high above the sea, while interiors were shot at Drumlanrig Castle in Drumfresshire.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Buccaneers” is an impertinent 7, streaming on Apple TV+ – and it’s already renewed for a second season.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Gilded Age: Season 2” (HBO TV MAX)

 

The second season of Julian Fellowes’ genteel, rococo soap-opera known as “The Gilded Age” finds ambitious 19^th century NYC aristocrats dressed in bustles and top hats. Ambition meets its match as traditional customs collide with innovative schemes, proving that when the old rules don’t bend, something has to break,

And since much of the filming took place in and around New York and Rhode Island, more than 60 of Broadway’s brightest musical stars comprise the cast, giving it a frivolous upstairs/downstairs aura – like ‘Downton Abbey Lite.’

Season 2 begins on Easter morning, 1883, with the news that snobbish Mrs. Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy) has rejected nouveau riche Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) request for a box at the prestigious Academy of Music, despite Bertha’s new champion, busybody Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane).

In retaliation, Bertha ruthlessly challenges Society’s Old Guard by sponsoring the new Metropolitan Opera, while her railroad tycoon husband George (Morgan Spector) tackles the threat of labor unions at his Pittsburgh steel plant. (Although she’s not named, Bertha’s character is obviously based on Alva Vanderbilt.)

Among spectators at Newport’s lawn tennis, Bertha’s Harvard-educated architect son Larry (Harry Richardson) becomes scandalously infatuated with older, widowed Mrs. Susan Blane (Laura Benanti). Returning to New York, he learns who really designed the engineering for the just-opened Brooklyn Bridge.

Across East 61^st Street at the Brook House, acerbic Agnes van Rhijn (Christina Baranski) discovers to her chagrin that her niece Marian (Louisa Jacobson, Meryl Streep’s youngest daughter) is teaching art at a girls’ school and that her sister Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon), aided by Aurora Fane (Kelli O’Hara), may no longer be a lonely spinster.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, melodrama reigns supreme as grieving Dorothy Scott (Audra McDonald) learns that her intrepid daughter Peggy (Denee Benton) has become an activist/journalist at the Black-owned New York Globe.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Gilded Age: Season 2” is a sumptuous, sudsy 7, streaming on HBO TV MAX.

Susan Granger’s review of “Eileen”

 

Anne Hathaway demonstrates remarkable versatility in this low-budget psychological thriller about a woman who works in a Massachustts juvenile detention facility for boys in the 1960s.

Lonely, bitter, often bullied 24 year-old Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) lives with her often drunk, domineering, widowed father (Shea Whigham), who used to be the town’s Chief of Police. She’s a clerical worker at the detention center and frequently indulges in sexual fantasies that involve a hunky security guard and moving to New York City.

Then, one wintry day, a new psychologist is added to the prison staff: beautiful, platinum blonde Rebecca St. John (Hathaway), a confidant Harvard graduate.

Transfixed by Rebecca’s tawdry, seductive ‘film noir’ glamour, Eileen is thrilled when Rebecca befriends her – since they seem to share a mutual interest in a mysterious young inmate, Lee Polk, who apparently killed his father.

Exuding infatuation, obsession and repressed desire, the unconventional relationship between the two women quickly deepens, leading to some intriguing criminality.

Directed by William Oldroyd from a cryptic, pulpy screenplay by Luke Goebel and his wife Ottesam Moshfeh, based on Moshfeh’s debut 2015 novel, it’s most notable for its jarring, far-fetched, third-act almost-Hitchcockian twist, leading to an unexpected conclusion which – on second viewing – may have been subtly foreshadowed.

Although it looks like grainy film stock – because of the tight budget – cinematographer Ari Wegner used ARRI ALEXA digital cameras with a special Angenieux 25-250 HR zoom lens.

Do you recognize young Thomasin McKenzie from “The Power of the Dog”? This – now-grown – New Zealand actress adroitly captures Eileen’s naïve, multi-layered vulnerability, while Anne Hathaway projects Rebecca’s sophisticated self-importance.

And automotive buffs may spot a ‘goof’ when Eileen explains to a coworker that her “cat in her car” is damaged, causing smoke – referring to her catalytic converter. Oops! The film is set in the 1960s and catalytic converters weren’t routinely installed until 1975.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Eileen is a sinister 6, streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and Vudu.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Zone of Interest” (A24)

 

How do you choose what movie to watch? Most people want to be entertained. Others want to be educated. British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” – recipient of five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director – falls into the latter category.

Loosely adapted from Martin Amis’ 2014 novel, it follows the seemingly mundane lives of Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedl), his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller) and their five children who dwell in a comfortable home that’s adjacent to the notorious concentration camp in Western Poland.

Their story begins with a bucolic scene as the Hoss family is enjoying a picnic by the river. Driving home, they seem blissfully unaware of the cruelty and genocide occurring next-door – despite the ambient sound of reverberating gunshots, audible cries, dogs barking and roar of the crematorium fires.

When her husband brings home ‘loot’ confiscated from prisoners delivered regularly by transport trains, Hedwig grabs a fur coat, tries it on and is delighted to find that it fits her perfectly; there’s even a lipstick in the pocket. One of her sons avidly collects gold teeth.

Tending her carefully landscaped fruit trees and gardens, nourished by human ash, Hedwig is so enamored of her residence that – when Rudolf is transferred to another camp – she insists on staying behind.

According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, S.S. Commandant Hoss masterminded the mass murder of 1.1 million men, women and children, most of them Jews. But that’s never discussed.

Instead, the Hoss family, enjoying their powerful position, embodies Nazi values, emphasizing self-interest as opposed to empathy. They’re inordinately proud of their muti-story villa with its swimming pool and extensive greenhouses.

It’s a chilling depiction of what American historian/political theorist Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.”

Working with Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal, Glazer chooses to present the horrors occurring over the barbed-wire-topped wall sonically – meaning that he never ‘shows’ familiar images of the atrocities. They’re only heard – which assumes audiences are well aware of what they’re not seeing.

FYI: 1) The titular “Zone of Interest” is what the Nazis called the restricted zone around Auschwitz. 2) Rudolf Hess was hanged in 1947, but his complicit wife Hedwig remarried and lived in the United States until her death in 1989.

In interviews, Jonathan Glazer maintains: “Fascism starts in the family. This is not a film about the past. It’s about now, and about us and our similarity to the perpetrators, not our similarity to the victims.”

Is it a commentary on Trump’s isolationism? Is it about our refusal to acknowledge the desperation of the homeless in our cities and/or refugees on our Southern border? Glazer hopes the audience will appreciate its timely relevance.

In German with English subtitles – on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Zone of Interest” is an agonizing, excruciating 8, showing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Society of the Snow” (Netflix)

 

Oscar-nominated “Society of the Snow” is Spain’s entry for Best International Film at this year’s Academy Awards. J.A Bayona’s true-life survival tale centers on the 19 members of a Uruguayan rugby team that set off from Montevideo for Santiago, Chile, and was stranded in the snow-covered Andes for 72 days.

Told primarily from the perspective of rugby player Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic Roldan), their ordeal begins on October 13, 1972, when poor weather conditions forced Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 to land in Mendoza, Argentina, overnight.

The following morning – about an hour after takeoff – the propeller-driven Fairchild with two engines went into a steep climb in the midst of a blinding blizzard and crashed on a glacier in the Andes mountains.

Of 45 people aboard, 12 died immediately, including the pilot. Eagerly awaiting rescue, survivors create a shelter out of the plane wreckage, scavenging all the food they could find and beginning to ration it out.

But – 10 days later – they hear on the radio that the search-and-rescue mission has concluded. Their reaction is desperate as hopelessness threatens. They felt trapped, abandoned, betrayed and totally isolated in one of the world’s toughest environments..

Their eventual rescue utilized archival photos for authenticity, particularly the famous 60-millieter shot of the fuselage from the hovering helicopter.

Adapting Pablo Vierci’s 2009 book and interviews with survivors, Bayona and screenwriters Nicolas Casariego, Jaime Marque, and Bernat Vilaplana, along with cinematographer Pedro Luque, are perhaps more sensitive, yet brutally honest about the essential humanity and harsh physicality of the situation that led to cannibalism.

If the flesh-eating plot seems familiar, it was previously the basis of Frank Marshall’s “Alive” (1993), starring Ethan Hawke, along with several documentaries and TV series, including “Yellowjackets.”

FYI: Filming took place in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains where the crash was authentically recreated.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Society of the Snow” is an intense, survivalist 7, streaming on Netflix.