Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Hit Man” (Netflix)

 

“You have to live passionately – on your own terms,” instructs Gary Johnson (Glenn Powell), a mild-mannered, tech-savvy, psychology/philosophy professor at the University of New Orleans, who moonlights occasionally for local law enforcement, setting up recording/listening devices for their ‘sting’ operations.

One day, while in the audio surveillance truck, he is summoned to fill in for a veteran undercover detective (Austin Amelio) who was caught in a compromising situation. Basically, geeky Gary is told to pretend to be a hitman for hire.

Taking role-playing the cool ‘assassin’ very seriously, Gary stuns his police colleagues (Sanjay Rao, Retta) by scoring successfully from the get-go.

“Forgettable-looking” Gary, who has a goofy grin, has always lived quietly in suburbia with his two cats, named Id and Ego. Driving an unobtrusive Honda Civic, he’s divorced but still friendly with his ex-wife.

Following Nietzsche’s ‘identity’ advice: to live dangerously in order “to harvest from existence the greatest fruitfulness” – a.k.a. ”self-liberation – Gary soon adapts to taking risks to truly embody a cold-blooded contract killer, complete with convincing disguises, accents and backstories.

But then Madison Masters (Adria Arjona), an attractive young ‘femme fatale,’ wants him to kill her abusive, controlling husband. Visibly moved by her plight, Gary – assuming the persona of stud-muffin Ron – breaks protocol and convinces this potential client to abandon that plan.

What happens next becomes a smart, sexy, screwball comedy/crime rom-com, a saucy thriller filled with unexpectedly subversive twists and turns.  Does pretending to be someone else long enough change a person? No spoilers here!

Based on Skip Hollingsworth’s article in Oct., 2001’s Texas Monthly, the wildly entertaining, ‘somewhat true’ story was co-scripted by director Richard Linklater (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyhood,” “School of Rock”) and actor Glen Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick”).

Charismatic 35 year-old Powell, a native of Austin TX, is headed for stardom. Mentored by Tom Cruise, he’s committed to marketing his movies as well as making them – playing a tornado-chaser in “Twisters,” scheduled for July.

“To be a lasting success in Hollywood, you have to make people money,” he told the New York Times. “I find the gamification of the business fun. How do we make a movie that is rewatched and rewatched over decades?”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hit Man” is a nihilistic ‘noir’ 9, now streaming on Netflix after a limited theatrical release (making it Oscar-eligible).

Susan Granger’s review of “Hacks: Season 3” (Max/Universal Television)

 

Delightfully original, “Hacks” is a clever character study about writing and performing comedy, bridging the generation gap with smart show-business satire.

For the first two seasons, legendary Boomer diva Deborah Vance (Emmy-winner Jean Smart) has been working in Las Vegas with Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), her combative Gen-Z comedy-writer protégé. Then they go their separate ways.

As the third season begins, Deborah’s stand-up TV comeback special is wildly successful, and Ava has secured a prestigious new writing gig in Los Angeles. Problem is: Deborah misses her provocative young collaborator, and Ava cannot resist the creative challenge.

Deborah’s quest this time is to become the first woman to host a late-night talk show on a major television network – like Johnny Carson. The season explores the pitfalls in pursuit of this elusive prize.

This isn’t a new goal for Deborah; she ‘almost’ snagged it 40 years ago. “I need to be sharper and funnier than I’ve ever been,” she tells Ava, refusing to even consider that she may be past her prime. Their toxic, symbiotic, co-dependent chemistry is the crux of the show.

Septuagenarian Deborah summons her support squad: stalwart CEO Marcus (Carl Clemons Hopkins), personal assistant Damien (Mark Indelicato), beleaguered agent Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and his delusional assistant Kayla (Megan Stalter).

Causing relationship complications, there’s Deborah’s resentful daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson) and estranged younger sister Kathy Vance (J. Smith-Cameron). Plus a full roster of guests stars, including Tony Goldwyn, Christina Hendricks, Helen Hunt, Christopher Lloyd and Chris McDonald as casino magnate Marty Ghilain.

Showrunners Jan Statsky, Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs tackle – among other humorous conundrums – the difficulty of racist, sexist, fat-phobic jokes that may have been funny – in the context of their time – but didn’t age well. “I can’t be woke! I’m exhausted,” Deborah wails.

Jean Smart is beyond brilliant, embodying a composite of trailblazing comediennes including Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Kathy Griffin, even Betty White, while Hannah Einbinder, daughter of “S.N.L’s” Laraine Newman and comedy writer Chad Einbinder, has a terrific deadpan and superbly timed delivery.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hacks: Season 3” is a fast-paced, nimble 9. All nine episodes are streaming on Max and it’s just been renewed for Season 4.

Susan Granger’s review of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros.)

Australian director George Miller is an acknowledged master at staging propulsive action sequences – so why did his “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” flop at the box-office?

Costing $168 million – plus more for marketing – it launched the worst Memorial Day weekend result in 43 years, excluding when the coronavirus shut theaters. Subsequent weeks have not fared much better.

Since this is a prequel, speculation centers on the substitution of young Anya Taylor-Joy for Charlize Theron, who originated role, but Ms, Taylor Joy (“The Witch,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) actually does a creditable job in this origin story.

Instead, perhaps audiences had no desire to see a prequel since there’s little suspense about whether Furiosa survives. We already know that she does, making “Mad Max: Fury Road” into a 2015 hit.  

Ignoring that obvious fact, George Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris delve into a ravaged, post-apocalyptic world to tell Furiosa’s origin story in five chapters.

With barbarism creeping in all around them, 10 year-old Furiosa (Alyla Browne) and her mother, Mary Jabassa (Charlee Fraser), dwell in The Green Place of Many Mothers, an idyllic spot ruled by the Vuvalini, a benevolent matriarchy – until she’s kidnapped by the Biker Horde and delivered to Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), who lost his own family and still totes his daughter’s Teddy bear on his back.

When machete-wielding Mary tries to retrieve her daughter, she’s brutally killed. Her crucifixion imagery then haunts Furiosa’s life and ignites her desire for vengeance as Furiosa passes from one captor to another in the blighted wasteland.

Meanwhile, dim-witted Dementus is determined to gain control of the Citadel, the rocky stronghold of diseased Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). After suffering horrendous loses in his initial assault, Dementus teams up with Octoboss (Goran D. Kleut). And so it goes…high octane biker battle after biker battle…

As now-grown Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) becomes a full-fledged rebel, she finds a mentor in War Rig driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and turns out to be the badass Imperator, relishing the vehicular choreography.

FYI: The “Mad Max” saga began in 1979 with Mel Gibson as highway patrol supercop Max Rockatansky, followed by “The Road Warrior” (1982) & “Beyond Thunderdome (1985). When Gibson’s misogynistic, anti-Semitic rants made him a liability, Tom Hardy took over the role.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” goes full throttle with a fierce 5 – playing in theaters.

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “The Idea of You” (Amazon/Prime Video)

The older woman/younger man romantic concept has not been explored like this in a contemporary rom-com – which is what makes “The Idea of You” unique.

Smart, savvy Solene Marchand (Anne Hathaway – at her charming best) is a divorced, 40 year-old mom who owns an art gallery in the trendy Silver Lake section of Los Angeles.

When her feckless ex-husband (Reid Scott) flakes out on a promised trip to Coachella, Solene agrees to chaperone their 16 year-old daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her friends.

Searching for the VIP bathroom at the desert concert venue, Solene accidently stumbles into the trailer belonging to British 24 year-old boy-band heartthrob Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), who is immediately attracted to her.

When his group – August Moon – takes the stage, the pop star publicly flirts with Solene, but their rocky road to romance is filled with fame-induced pitfalls – since being with a paparazzi-hounded celebrity is challenging – even though it includes room service in posh hotel suites, glam stylists and private jets.

When she’s ruthlessly denounced as a ‘cougar’ and severely judged on social media, it deeply affects dewy yet vulnerable Solene, who describes herself as “a people-pleaser from New Jersey,” making her wonder if you can ever mend your heart after it’s been broken by a massive trust trauma.

Based on Robinne Lee’s popular novel, it’s adapted by Jennifer Westfeldt and director Michael Showalter, who deftly hone in on what happens to a middle-aged woman who defies societal expectations and how its ramifications affect her teenage daughter.

Apparently that’s a poignant topic to which Anne Hathaway can relate, since she’s been the object of social media controversy ever since the cruel backlash after her Oscar-win for “Les Miserables” and has spoken of it to several interviewers.

Recognize Nicholas Galitzine from “Red, White & Royal Blue” and “George & Mary”? Many fans think his Hayes Campbell character was inspired by ‘One Direction’ frontman Harry Styles’ dating ‘older’ Olivia Wilde.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Idea of You” is an empathetic 8, an emotional roller-coaster – streaming on Prime Video.

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

Jennifer Lopez stars in “Atlas,” an ambitious sci-fi action adventure about the potential dangers of A.I.

She’s Atlas Shepherd, whose robotics expert mother (Lana Perilla) created and unleashed Harlan (Simu Liu), an A.I. terrorist who has killed millions and threatened humanity with extinction before taking off into outer space.

Skip ahead 28 years. Now a highly respected but “rigid and hostile” counterterrorism data analyst, Atlas is summoned by Gen. Jake Boothe (Mark Strong) when the I.C.N. (International Coalition of Nations) captures Casca Vix (Abraham Popoola), an A.I. bot connected to Harlan.

After analyzing the bot’s brain, Atlas – who grew up with Harlan as part of her family – deduces that he is hiding on GR-39, a distant planet in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Determined to capture him alive for questioning, she boards a spacecraft filled with Special Forces rangers commanded by Col. Elias Banks (Sterling K. Brown).

Although suspicious Atlas initially refuses to don one of the immense exo-suits – because it requires a neural bond between man and machine – when a surprise attack leaves her stranded, she has no other choice.

That’s when Atlas’ combative relationship with ‘Smith’ (voiced by Gregory James Cohan) begins. Smith is the mech-suit’s persona with software designed to befriend its occupant.

Problem is: Misanthropic Atlas is aggressive and distrustful, particularly when deprived of her addictive black coffee. Eventually Atlas realizes she needs Smith to adapt and survive in this strange environment while battling Harlan’s cyborg troops.

Predictably plotted by screenwriters Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite, it’s clichéd and obviously derivative.  Carrying the weight of the world on her slim shoulders, Atlas feels responsible if/when it’s doomsday for humankind, and Harlan was obviously named after sci-fi author Harlan Ellison.

Director Brad Peyton (“San Andreas”), who specializes in visual effects/spectacle, appears to have copied the exo-suit from James Cameron’s “Avatar” AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) suits and his uninspiring, glacial pacing brings little enlightenment about the genocidal threat that supposedly propels this feature.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Atlas” is an absurdly formulaic 3, streaming on Netflix.

Susan Granger’s review of “Bridgerton: Season 3, Part 1” (Netflix)

Gentle reader, if you have not seen the first two seasons of the Regency-era melodrama “Bridgerton,” you’ve missed some truly delightful television. Producer Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland series is now heavily into Season 3 with a cliffhanger concluding Part 1 – and Part 2 scheduled to commence on June 13.

Based on Julia Quinn’s novels about the eight close-knit siblings of the Bridgerton family looking for love and happiness in London’s high society, the series has brought love/passion/desire back to prime-time television – like “Gossip Girl” meets “Downton Abbey.”

Re-imaging a diverse 19^th century England, it focuses on aristocratic families finding proper husbands for their ‘eligible’ daughters while seeking favor from Black royalty: “We were two separate societies, divided by color, until King George fell in love with one of us,” explained influential Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) in Season 2.

In Season 1, Simon, Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page) courted Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor). In Season 2, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) pursued Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Now, in Season 3, Part 1 – childhood friends/neighbors Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) acknowledge their amorous feelings for one another.

Meanwhile, when Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) makes her debut, her “sparkle’ is acknowledged by scheming Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and her widowed mother Violet (Ruth Gemmell) finds an ardent admirer in Lady Danbury’s estranged brother, Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis).

Plus there’s a recurring character, Will Mondritch (Martins Imhangbe), inspired by the most famous Black boxer of the time, Bill Richmond. Mondrich has retired from boxing, opened a gentlemen’s club and become the father of a Baron.

All of this bodice-ripping drama is chronicled by the cunning, scandal-mongering, anonymous gossiper known as Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews).

“Bridgerton” has been renewed through Season 4 but plans are to adapt every book in Julia Quinn’s series for a total of eight seasons.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bridgerton: Season 3, Part 1” is a spicy, steamy 7 – with four episodes available to binge-watch on Netflix.

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

The most compelling theme of “Manhunt” – which focuses on the pursuit of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth – is what it takes to maintain and defend the democracy that we currently enjoy: i.e. the political cost of freedom.

This new historical miniseries from Apple TV+ begins on April 14, 1865, the day that Booth (Anthony Boyle) shot President Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) during a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater.

Plotted as a chase thriller, the drama depicts how – enraged by the celebratory mood that marked the end of the Civil War – treacherous supporters of the South conspired not only to kill Lincoln but also Vice-President Andrew Johnson (Glenn Morshower) and Secretary of State William H. Seward (Larry Pine).

Based on James L. Swanson’s 2006 nonfiction book “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer,” showrunner Monica Beletsky – using flashbacks – has created an intricate, highly detailed account from two differing perspectives: that of Confederacy-supporter Booth and also of Lincoln’s comrade, asthmatic Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies).

Strikingly handsome yet insecure John Wilkes Booth wasn’t the best actor in his thespian family. That honor went to his father, Junius Brutus Booth, or brother, Edwin Booth. But he was a desperate, delusional, obviously narcissistic racist, determined “to be more famous than anyone in my family.”

After firing his derringer into the back of Lincoln’s head, Booth leaped from the Presidential Box onto the stage. Despite breaking a leg, he jumped onto a horse that had been tethered near the stage door and galloped into the night.

Several segments revolve around Booth’s post-assassination escape from Washington, D.C, southward through Maryland to the devastated Confederate stronghold of Richmond, Virginia – with its conspiratorial ties to Montreal.

Lawyer-turned-statesman Edwin Stanton was a lesser-known yet heroic patriot who sacrificed his health and family to bring the traitors responsible for his friend’s murder to justice and to then relentlessly shepherd Lincoln’s Reconstruction amendments to ratification through Congress.

That was no easy task, given Wall Street’s support of the slave trade and the revocation of land grants to newly freed Blacks; the compromises struck then reverberate even today.  And in the opening episode, Stanton says: “This is America – we replace our Presidents with elections, not coups.”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Manhunt” is an insightful, impassioned 7 – with all seven episodes now streaming on Apple TV+ and Emmy nominations in the offing.

Susan Granger’s review of “Master Gardener” (Magnolia Pictures)

 

If you’re a Paul Schrader fan, perhaps you missed the dramatic thriller “Master Gardener” the third in his ‘God’s Lonely Man’ trilogy that started with “First Reformed” (2022) and continued with “The Card Counter” (2021).  

Obsessively contained and solitary Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is the scholarly head horticulturist at formal, ornately manicured Gracewood Gardens, a vast former Louisiana plantation owned by wealthy Baroness Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). “Gardening is a belief in the future,” he says.

When his imperiously entitled patroness/benefactor asks him to take on her estranged, bi-racial grand-niece, Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as an apprentice, suddenly his highly organized life is in grave danger.

From the moment of her arrival, 20’ish Maya, who inherited drug issues from her mother, threatens obliging Narvel’s meticulously ordered existence. A former white supremacist, now in witness protection, carefully covering his tell-tale neo-Nazi tattoos with a black turtle-neck, long-sleeved sweater and overalls, Narvel becomes Maya’s mentor, then her lover, a relationship that inevitably leads to violence, tempered by grace.

Perhaps best known as the screenwriter of Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed “Taxi Driver” & “Raging Bull,” Schrader wrote the book “Transcendental Style in Film” (1972) in which he delineated an ascetic form of filmmaking that “seeks to maximize the mystery of existence; it eschews all conventional interpretations of reality, realism, naturalism, psychologism, romanticism, expressionism, impressionism and, finally rationalism.”

Using the metaphor of gardening – how it calms the mind and mends the soul -Schrader centers this character-driven film once again on a tormented man in turmoil, writing “The seeds of love grow like the seeds of hate” in his journal, trying in vain not to allow the secreted skulls and swastikas to surface.

Then there’s Schrader’s perennial question of transgression and forgiveness, tracing back to the Calvinist fatalism of the Christian Reformed Church in which he was raised.

Also, the title has a double meaning. While “Master Gardener” designates a certification program providing intensive horticultural training, in this instance it also refers to the Nazi “master race,” indicating blond, blue-eyed German people.

Bottom line: too much angst, too little payoff.

FYI: Zendaya was Schrader’s first choice to play Maya but their salary discussions soon disintegrated.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Master Gardener” is a stoic, serious, even severe 6, streaming on Hulu and Apple TV.

Susan Granger’s review of “Baby Reindeer” (Netflix)

Without question, “Baby Reindeer” is one of the more bizarre series ever to capture worldwide attention. Allegedly based on true events, its seven episodes chronicle the creepy relationship of a Scottish comedian and his stalker.

According to Netflix, in the four weeks since it debuted, it’s been viewed more than 56 million times, spawning endless discussion and a cadre of amateur sleuths trying to discover the real identities of various characters.

“Baby Reindeer” begins in a London police station as Donny Dunn (creator Richard Gadd, playing a version of himself) awkwardly attempts to report a female stalker named Martha (Jessica Gunning), who wandered into the Camden pub where he works as a bartender and has been tormenting him ever since.

Adapted from his 2019 one-man, award-winning show that played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London’s West End, Gadd’s series shows how he spent years trying to find some semblance of success as Donny Dunn, a tartan-clad stand-up comedian with sad eyes and a hangdog face.

Twentysomething Donny lives in a boarding house owned by the mother of his ex-girlfriend Keely (Shalom Brune-Franklin) and is dating Teri (Nava Mau), a transgender woman, while working out some shameful self-loathing about his own sexuality.

If viewing Donny’s cringe-worthy attempts at comedy isn’t excruciating enough, watching him bumble ineptly through his personal life is even worse, particularly when he’s seduced by Darrien O’Connor (Tom Goodman-Hill), an older, successful TV producer who drugs, assaults and rapes him.

In contrast, as a serial stalker, menacing, middle-aged Martha is cleverly delineated and steadfastly confident, always thinking two steps ahead of damaged, dimwitted Donny. She’s so lonely and obsessed that she’s lost touch with reality, idealizing and projecting her primal desires onto him, calling him her ‘baby reindeer.’

Like many victims of stalkers, Donny – at first – feels pity for Martha and tries to deal with her compassionately. When that doesn’t deter her, he seems to get some kind of ego boost from her devotion, yet his complicity in engaging with her – while not setting boundaries – is the worst thing he can do.

During the epilogue, there are generational confrontations which eventually lead to the emotionally ambivalent conclusion.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Baby Reindeer” is a sordid 7 – with all episodes now streaming on Netflix.

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

 

When your name is as famous as Jerry Seinfeld’s and your bank account tops $900 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), you can make whatever kind of movie suits your fancy.

For his feature-film directorial debut, 70 year-old Seinfeld chose a campy comedy about the creation of the tasty Pop Tart when cereal wars rattled Battle Creek, Michigan, which Seinfeld called “cereal’s Silicon Valley.”

Back in 1963, both Kellogg’s and General Foods – a.k.a. Post – were eager to break away from the traditional cereal need for a bowl, milk and spoon.

As head of development, Bob Cabana (Seinfeld) works for gruff, goofy Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) whose dynastic, family rivalry with Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) is legendary. Both companies were eager to launch the first, shelf-stable breakfast pastry, rectangular-shaped to fit in a toaster.

To that end, Cabana recruits NASA’s Dana Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy), fitness guru Jack LaLanne (James Marsden), bicycle visionary Steve Schwinn (Jack McBrayer), ice cream’s Tom Carvel (Adrian Martinez), and others – while trying to corner the sugar market through El Sucre (Felix Solis).

Meanwhile, Post makes a deal with Nikita Khrushchev (Dean Norris) to import sugar from Cuba, igniting an Oval Office meeting with JFK (Bill Burr), launching the Missile Crisis.

Egged on by Cabana’s milkman (Christian Slater), the about-to-be-sidelined Milk Syndicate is headed by menacing Henry Friendly (Peter Dinklage). And when a Kellogg’s employee dies, there’s an absurdly irreverent, cereal-centric funeral.

Plus haughty Hugh Grant voices Tony the Tiger and there are a litany of celebrity cameos, the best of which features Jon Hamm & John Slattery satirizing their ad execs in “Mad Men.”

Unevenly scripted by Seinfeld with longtime TV collaborators Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder, it’s filled with generic jokes and only vaguely reminiscent of other product-inspired movies like “Air,” “Flamin’ Hot,” “Blackberry,” “Tetris,” even “The Founder” about Ray Kroc who franchised McDonald’s.

FYI: Once known as the richest woman in America, Marjorie Merriweather Post was the mother of actress Dina Merrill. Post built Palm Beach’s fabled 100-room Mar-A-Largo mansion, now owned by Donald Trump.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Unfrosted” is a flaky, high-fructose, forgettable 5, streaming on Netflix.