Movie/TV Reviews

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

 

The idiom “Everything old is new again…” can be applied to writer/director Steven Zaillian’s sensational new noir Netflix series “Ripley,” based on Patricia Highsmith’s pulpy, best-selling novels.

Sociopathic antihero Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is a down-on-his-luck grifter in 1961 New York who is hired by wealthy shipping magnate to travel to Italy to try to convince his prodigal son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to return home.

Tom’s acceptance of this lucrative job opens the door to a labyrinthine life of crime. As soon as he arrives in the picturesque coastal village of Atrani, he begins to ingratiate himself with entitled Dickie, much to the annoyance of his resentful girl-friend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning), who is suspicious from the getgo.

“I’m not someone who takes advantage of people,” Tom claims when, in fact, that’s exactly who he is.

At Dickie’s villa, Tom learns about art, culture and beauty, particularly the distinctive use of light and shadow by Italian painter Caravaggio. He resents the intrusion of Dickie’s snobbish pal Freddie Miles (Eliot Sumner) and cleverly matches wits with Police Inspector Pietro Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi).

Traveling along the Amalfi coast to Rome, San Remo, Palermo and Venice, quick-witted Tom is a consummate con-man, a conniving cheat capable of committing brazen art theft, mail fraud, forgery and brutally murdering multiple people.

Graham Greene aptly described author Patricia Highsmith as a “poet of apprehension.”  By having Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood”) film in austere black-and-white, Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List,” “The Irishman”) gives an artistically stunning, noir essence to her murky, malevolent story.

Prior to this Netflix series, there have been five films about Tom Ripley; perhaps the most memorable is Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999), starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Others include “Purple Noon” (1960), “An American Friend” (1977), “Ripley’s Game” (2002) and “Ripley Under Ground” (2005).

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ripley” is a tantalizing, tension-filled 10 – with all eight episodes now streaming on Netflix.

Susan Granger’s Worst Movie Sequels study:

 

If you feel that movie theaters are being inundated with reboots and sequels, you’re right. They’re everywhere – with more on the way!

Casino.ca recently did a Worst Movie Sequel Study, searching through more than 100,000 reviews for nine different negative keywords – including ”boring,” waste” and “trash” – to decide which of the highest-grossing movie sequels are the all-tome worst.

Here are the results:

• Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction”
• George Lucas’ “Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi”
• James Bond’s “Skyfall”
• “Avengers” appeared three times, making it the worst-reviewed franchise

The primary reason reboots and sequels are made is simple: money. Filmmakers just take what worked in the original, sprinkle in some new twists with beloved characters and familiar settings – and you’ve got another installment.

Conversely, research has shown that when there’s a new film that no one knows anything about, something that doesn’t emanate from a popular novel, a completely new story, audiences may be reluctant to line up at the box-office.

So remakes are – generally – a safe bet. Since “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” and “Gorilla vs. Kong: The New Empire” have already opened at local theaters, popcorn partisans are eagerly awaiting “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Bad Boys 4.”

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, 2024 also beckons “Deadpool 3,” “Venom 3,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3”, “Despicable Me 4,” “Beetlejuice 2,” “Inside Out 2,” “Twisters,” and “Gladiator 2.”

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Susan Granger’s review of “Monkey Man” (Universal Pictures)

Remember Dev Patel, that appealing young Indian actor in “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and its sequel?

Now he’s made his writing/directing/producing debut with “Monkey Man,” a grim action-packed revenge thriller set in the squalid (fictional) city of Yatana in India.

Patel plays an unnamed Kid who grew up in the forest with Neela (Adithi Kalkunte), his hard-working single mom who kept him enthralled with Hindu stories from the Ramayama revolving around about the mythological monkey deity known as Lord Hanuman.

When a greedy land developer, disguised as a spiritual guru, with the help of a populist rightwing politician, destroyed their village, his mother was brutally killed by Rana (Sikander Kher), the corrupt local police chief.

As years pass, the skinny Kid with badly scarred hands develops into a formidable, monkey-masked fighter, but he’s often defeated at the bloody, bare-knuckle bouts staged by sleazy Tiger (Sharlo Copley), a ruthless Master of Ceremonies.

Determined to wreak revenge for his mother’s death, he steals enough rupees to enable him to go undercover as ‘Bobby,’ a dishwasher-then-waiter at an elite nightclub/brothel run by Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) under the ‘protection’ of villainous Rana.

Awkwardly scripted as an underdog story by Patel, Paul Angunawela, and John Collee with nods to the obvious influence of the Bruce Lee/John Wick genres, it’s filled with so many graphic close-ups that narrative/political coherence is often discarded, despite energetic cinematographer Sharone Meir and rapid-fire editors David Janesso & Tim Murrell.

Intriguing supporting characters, like the compassionate trans-woman Alpha (Vipin Sharma) – who identifies as hijira, a Hindu term for the third gender – and the prostitute Sita (Sobbhita Dhulipala), appear and inexplicably disappear.

Raised in London by Gujarati parents from Nairobi, Kenya, Dev Patel has obviously been deeply influenced by his Indian heritage, particularly the caste system, and he feels strongly about its socio/political context. Plus, he’s trained in Taekwondo since he was 10 years old.

Originally set to debut on Netflix, the film was boosted to a theatrical run when filmmaker Jordan Peele convinced Universal Pictures of its commercial viability.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Monkey Man” is a grisly, gruesome, gory 5, having opened in local theaters last Friday.

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

“Scoop,” Netflix’s drama about the downfall of Prince Andrew, drives home the old proverb – “If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas” – a warning to be mindful of who we surround ourselves with and what behavior we condone.

The plot of “Scoop” revolves around how – back in 2019 – the BBC secured an exclusive interview with the Duke of York about his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  The broadcast ultimately triggered Andrew’s disgrace, confiscating his HRH title, patronages and removing him from Royal life.

It all began with Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), a flamboyant junior producer at the BBC’s ‘Newsnight’ whose primary job is booking guests. Worried about the current wave of downsizing, she decides to track down rumors about Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was still alive at that point.

Using the guise of promoting Pitch Palace, the Prince’s entrepreneurial ‘initiative,’ Sam contacts the Prince’s aide Amanda Thirsk (Keely Hawes). But when news breaks about Epstein’s suicide, including claims that the Prince had sex with a 17 year-old girl trafficked into Epstein’s sex ring, inevitably the focus changes.

After consulting “Mommy” (the Queen) who told him to use his best judgment, the Prince (Rufus Sewell) agrees to the opportunity to put the record straight and, hopefully, repair his tarnished public image.

But his interview with journalist Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) causes even more acute embarrassment for the Palace since the Prince comes across like a bumbling oaf, admitting he doesn’t regret his friendship with Epstein because the “opportunities” he gained from it were “actually very useful.” Explaining why he continued be Epstein’s houseguest, he says, “It was a convenient place to stay.”

Reminiscent of Harvey Weinstein’s predations and the child abuse tolerated by Boston’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese, it’s based on Sam McAlister’s book “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.”

Adroitly directed by Philip Martin, there’s a significant moment in the conclusion when exhausted Sam takes the bus home, gazing at some giggling, carefree teenage girls, obviously thinking about Epstein’s victims and how the rich and powerful can so easily prey on the weak.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Scoop” is a sensationalistic 6, streaming on Netflix.

Susan Granger’s review of “Teeth” (MainStage/Playwrights Horizons)

 

Back in 2007, Mitchell Lichtenstein made a savage, low-budget, comedy/horror movie called “Teeth” about a woman with a carnivorous vagina. And now – believe it or not – it’s become a campy, off-Broadway musical about faith and shame, having its World Premiere at Playwrights Horizons.

Set in New Testament Village, a paternalistic, evangelical Christian community located in a town called Eden, somewhere in the Midwest, Dawn O’Keefe (Alyse Alan Louis) is the chaste leader of the Promise Keeper Girls, a group of high-school students who have – in the words of her abusive step-father Pastor (Steven Pasquale) – “committed themselves to female empowerment through sexual purity.”

Problem is: her brawny, basketball-star boyfriend Tobey (Jason Gotay) and their raging hormones. So one night at a lake – after Tobey proposes marriage – they have sex, only to discover that Dawn’s vagina has sharp teeth that cut off his penis, causing Tobey to bleed to death.

“I’ve got some really crazy stuff going on downstairs,” Dawn tells her doctor (Pasquale) in advance of her first gynecological exam. And that’s putting it mildly.

Meanwhile, there’s Dawn’s grudge-holding stepbrother Brad (Will Connolly), railing against “the feminocracy,” and Dawn’s closeted buddy Ryan (Jared Loftin), who is desperately trying not to be gay.

Apparently, Dawn suffers from a mythical condition known as ‘vagina dentate,’ descending from the voracious Goddess Dentata, who not only protects women but epitomizes a psychological extension of men’s anxiety about emasculation.

“The moon turns red and the lines all blur,” sings Dawn, “and inside by head I’m reborn as her.”

Transitioning from worry to vengeful fury, she is accompanied by a Greek chorus of six young women who mirror Dawn’s transformation, chanting “Fear, pain, power, death.”

Cleverly adapted by composer/co-librettist Anna K. Jacobs with pop/rock music by Michael R. Jackson, it’s a parable, broadly directed by Sarah Benson with lots of grisly, gory phalli props designed by Matt Carlin, plus Jeremy Chernick’s special effects, Adam Riggs’ set, Enver Chakartash’s costumes, Palmer Hefferan’s sound  and lighting by Jane Cox and Stacey Derosier.

I cannot imagine this moving onto Broadway and appealing to a mainstream audience, but I’ve been surprised in the past.

Running 1 hour, 55 minutes with no intermission, “Teeth” is on the Main Stage at Playwright’s Horizons – its run is extended to April 28^th.

Susan Granger’s review of “Apples Never Fall” (NBC/Peacock TV)

Based on a bestseller by Australian author Liana Moriarty (“Big Little Lies”), “Apples Never Fall Far” is a seven-episode limited series that’s ready to binge.

The family drama begins with the sudden disappearance of recently retired Joy Delaney (Annette Bening), who spent decades running a prestigious tennis academy in West Palm Beach with her husband Stan (Sam Neill), a highly competitive former player who became a respected coach, having launched the career of Grand Slam winner Harry Haddad (Giles Matthey).

Stunned that their mother inexplicably vanished are their four adult children. Once a top-tier contender, Troy (Jake Lacy) has channeled his competitive energy into venture capital. Acerbic Brooke (Essie Randles) has opened a physical therapy clinic and is engaged to Gina (Paul Andrea Placido).

Arty, alarmist, aimless Amy (Alison Brie) is an emotional mess, bunking in with a younger, empathetic landlord (Nate Mann). And marine manager Logan (Connor Merrigan-Turner) finds it’s easier to break up with his fiancée than move from his houseboat and cut close family ties.

Then Joy’s blood-splattered bicycle is found on the roadside. Complicating matters is short-tempered Stan’s history of emotional neglect, making him a prime suspect, along with Savannah (Georgia Flood), an enigmatic grifter who appeared on the Delany’s doorstep one night, begging for shelter from an abusive boy-friend, and deliberately proceeds to ingratiate herself with Joy.

Following her Oscar-nominated performance in “Nyad,” Annette Bening is warm and compelling as an aging ‘helicopter mom’ coping with an ‘empty nest,’ while Sam Neill adds depth to a volatile performance.

Showrunner Melanie Marnich with directors Chris Sweeney and Dawn Shadforth interweave ‘Now’ and ‘Then’ chronological episodes, geared to presenting each family member’s perspective, keeping the ‘whodunit’ tension taut, throwing in structured snippets of mistrust, deception and infidelity.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Apples Never Fall Far” is a seductively suspenseful 7 – with all episodes

Susan Granger’s review of “Masters of the Air” (Apple TV+)

From Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the same production team that gave us “Band of Brothers” (2001) and “The Pacific” (2010), comes a new, nine-part series “Masters of the Air” about the heroic W.W.II pilots who set the stage for D-Day.

The 8^th Air Force, 100^th Bomber Group – known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of their high casualty rate – was stationed at England’s Thorpe Abbotts Base. In less than six months in 1943, 34 out of 36 crews were shot down. Their high casualty count was attributed to their orders to fly daylight missions over Nazi-occupied territory, while the British stealthily dropped their bombs at night.

Based on Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction account, narrated by airsickness-prone navigator Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle), the series pivots around Maj. Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and Maj. John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner).

Tasked with bringing the war to Hitler’s doorstep, they battled the German Luftwaffe in a real-life superhero story about men who gave up everything for a cause they believed in. They endured mid-air attacks, being shot down, sent to a Stalag and barely escaping certain death by trekking toward Allied territory.

“Buck and Bucky are romantics who grew up dreaming of flying planes,” notes John Orloff, who scripted the series, “That’s why they joined the Army Air Corps. But serving as soldiers in the war changed them. Their friendship deepens and matures as they do.”

The vast supporting cast includes Nate Mann as Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal, Barry Keoghan as Curtis Biddick, Ncuti Gatwa as Tuskegee Airman Robert Daniels, Sawyer Spielberg (Steven’s 31 year-old son with Kate Capshaw) as Roy Claytor, and Rafferty Law (Jude’s son) as Ken Lawrenson.

Curious about the B-17s? The gripping fight scenes were filmed in replicas, using technology known as The Volume. Three B-17s were suspended 50 ft. in the air on a gimbal inside a 360-degree stage of seamless LED-panel screens and ceiling. The actors reacted to fake explosions, crashes and other planes in real time.

Logistically, filming the series was a huge challenge with over 3000 crew working on the nine episodes – Steven Spielberg said this has been the biggest project ever.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Masters of the Air” soars in with an exhausting, exhilarating 8 – all episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+.

Susan Granger’s review of “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures)

Denis Villenueve’s  mythic sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part Two” has already grossed $500 million globally, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024 – domestic and worldwide – surpassing the first film, released back in 2021.

Based on Frank Herbert’s anti-imperial, ecologically dystopian “Dune” saga, it revolves around Paul (Timothee Chalamet), heir to the House of Atreides, wiped out in Part One under the fascist aegis of grotesque, genocidal Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard). As with any franchise, seeing the first installment is vital to understanding the second.

In the year 10191, Paul is hiding out on the vast desert planet Arrakis, where he joins forces with the rebellious, indigenous Fremen, earning the respect of their wry religious elder Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and forming an attachment to feisty Chani (Zendaya) as they defiantly wage guerilla warfare against House Harkonnen.

Meanwhile, his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) with her “pre-born fetus,” gulps down the Water of Life, a clear blue liquid that looks like mouthwash that elevates her to exalted status of Reverend Mother within the Fremen’s secretive matriarchal religious group Bene Gesserit.

At the center of the conflict is a rare commodity called “spice mélange,” an addictive drug known for its powerful psychotropic powers and prescience (an ability to see into the past, present & future). In smell and taste, it’s like cinnamon. (Because of their constant spice exposure, all Fremen have radiant blue eyes.)

In the “Dune” world, whoever controls spice mining and management rules the universe: “Power over spice is power over all.”

New characters include the evil Emperor (Christopher Walken), his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), pugnacious Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) and Lady Margot (Lea Seydoux), pregnant with Feyd-Rautha’s child.

Among the most memorable sequences are when Chani teaches Paul how to sandwalk, adroitly avoiding rhythmic patterns in the arid, terra-cotta colored desert that would alert sandworms, when Paul is reunited with Atreides weapon master Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), and when Paul and the Fremen mount those giant sandworms for a climactic battle…concluding with “The war has just begun.”

Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts with an emphasis on action – as opposed to exposition and character-development – this shallow, self-important sequel runs 2 hours, 46 minutes, dominated by Grieg Fraser’s spectacular cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s propulsive score.

The Fremen tribal language derives from Arabic, Sanskrit and Hebrew with nods to French, Greek, Romani and Slavic.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dune: Part Two” is a visually stunning yet sterile 6 – teasing an inevitable Part Three in years to come.

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 17^th 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 21^st 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.

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.