Movie/TV Reviews

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.

Susan Granger’s review of “American Fiction” (Orion Pictures/Amazon M.G.M.)

 

Based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasures,” Cord Jefferson’s cagey “American Fiction” has garnered five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.

The story introduces Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), a serious West Coast university professor/fledgling writer who bristles at the media’s exploitation of Black stereotypes for profit.

After suffering rejection-after-rejection of his new manuscript, a translation of Aeschylus’s The Persians, because it’s deemed inadequately Black literature, misanthropic Monk bitterly cobbles together a book of offensive Black cliches about gangsters and urban suffering and submits it as a joke under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh with the title My Pafology.

After all, if rival novelist, Oberlin-educated former publishing assistant Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) can be acclaimed for her pandering We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, why can’t he?

Indulging in one highly effective scene involving magical realism, Jefferson breaks all audience expectations about what the plot involves and where it’s going.

So instead of another rebuff, Monk, who presents himself as an ex-con, is deluged with whopping publishing offers and catapulted to literary fame, much to the amazement of his agent (John Ortiz) and his successful, upper middle-class physician, elder siblings (Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown).

This financial windfall comes just as the Ellison family is facing a financial crisis as their matriarch, Agnes (Leslie Uggams), who still lives in their childhood home in Boston, is suffering signs of memory loss/dementia/Alzheimer’s.

Written by Jefferson in his directorial debut, “American Fiction” won the prestigious People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

In his acceptance, Jefferson spoke about how films about Black people always seem to focus on tragedy: slavery, civil rights, drug dealers – “Black trauma porn” – excluding the rest of the Black experience. Which is why he created this crowd-pleasing, satirical dramedy that skewers racial politics and representation.

Yet historically, comedies are not good Best Picture bets. Back in 1997, “The Full Monty” lost to “Titanic,” while “Little Miss Sunshine” lost to “The Departed” in 2006.

FYI: There’s no Thelonious Monk music on the soundtrack, just Laura Karpman’s Oscar-nominated score with a variety of tracks, including Cannonball Adderly.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “American Fiction” is an edgy 8, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “For All Mankind: Season 4” (Sony/Apple TV+)

Wanna binge on a terrific sci-fi/spy series? An alternate historical take on the international space race, “For All Mankind” has just concluded its fourth season – with season five already on the drawing boards.

Created by Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert, it poses the provocative question: What if the Soviet Union had won the race to the moon?

The first season revolves around US astronauts Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman) who were ordered not to land on the moon, allowing a cosmonaut to get there first, infuriating then-President Richard Nixon.

Meanwhile at NASA in Houston, rocket engineer Wernher von Braun (Colm Feore) mentors Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), the first woman at Mission Control, while Gordo’s wife Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones) becomes the first female astronaut.

Planting a crucial sub-plot, Mexican teenager Aleida (Olivia Trujillo) emigrates to Texas, yearning to join NASA, while Astronaut Ellen Waverly (Jodi Balfour) is a closeted lesbian. Plus, there’s ornery veteran test pilot Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) and determined Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), the first black female astronaut.

Skipping ahead 40 years to season 4, set in now-colonized Happy Valley on Mars, the plot pivots around Helios entrepreneur Dev Ayesa’s (Edi Gathegi) determination to mine a metal-rich asteroid – which requires expanding the labor force beyond pilots and engineers, involving workers’ rights, unionization and sabotage.

Recalling their mother/daughter-like relationship, now-grown Aleida (Coral Pena) is reunited with Margo, who fled to the USSR after saving her Russian colleague Sergei (Piotr Adamczyk) from the KGB.

And Ed Baldwin’s adoptive daughter Kelly (Cynthy Wu) arrives on Mars with her young son Alex (Ezrah Lin), leading a Helios search for signs of life in the craters.

What distinguishes this compelling series is how these complicated, conflicted, ‘fictionalized’ characters are deftly delineated against a thriller background of ruthless political turmoil, sexism, prejudice and ‘patriotism.’

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “For All Mankind” is an escapist 8, streaming on Apple TV+.

Susan Granger’s review of “Faraway Downs” (Hulu)

Do you recall a 2008 Baz Luhrmann film called “Australia”? Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, I found it an exciting, epic adventure but – at the box-office – it went nowhere, perhaps because it touched too superficially on that country’s notorious Aboriginal race issue.

So resourceful Luhrmann recently re-edited it into a six-episode limited series called “Faraway Downs,” telling a compelling tale as viewed through the eyes of Nullah (Brandon Walters), an enchanting half-Aboriginal outcast child – and adding nearly an hour of never-before-seen footage.

Arriving at the inhospitable outpost of Darwin in 1939, just before the outbreak of W.W. II, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) is an arrogant British aristocrat determined to visit her philandering husband’s enormous estate known as Faraway Downs.

Armed with divorce papers, she’s stunned to discover that he’s been killed by his scheming, loathsome property manager (David Wenham) who’s in cahoots with King Carney (Bryan Brown), a ruthlessly malevolent cattle baron.

Sarah’s only hope of saving the ramshackle Outback ranch lies with the Drover (Hugh Jackman), a feisty, restless stockman. And she becomes immediately protective of young Nullah whose mother Daisy (Ursula Yovich) works on the property; he refers to Sarah as ‘Missus Boss’.

Together – with the help of Nullah’s grandfather, King George (David Gulpilil), a mysterious Aboriginal shaman – they drive 1500 head of cattle across the vast Kuraman Desert to market – just as Japanese warplanes are bombing Darwin in 1942 with twice the airfreight they used to attack Pearl Harbor.

Stunning both as a vibrant journey and as fascinating history, it’s awesomely photographed by Mandy Walker (“Elvis”), intensely emotional and creatively challenging, including an effective “Wizard of Oz” motif.

Nicole Kidman conjures up an incandescent image of a powerful, passionate woman shaped by destiny, while Hugh Jackman exudes charismatic intensity.

In tribute to the Stolen Generations, each chapter begins with a tribute to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their children, who were brutally kidnapped by government officials and forced to assimilate.

New opening credits featuring animated kangaroos were designed by Indigenous artists, there’s a new theme from Budjerah and a new song by Anpuru.

If Luhrmann’s experiment works, look for other filmmakers to re-imagine their lengthy, big-budget extravaganzas into episodic segments for the small screen.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Faraway Downs” is an exotic, exhilarating 8, streaming on Hulu/Disney+.

Susan Granger’s review of “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon/Lionsgate)

Golden Globe-winner as Best Foreign Film, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” has a scandalous premise that should intrigue true-crime aficionados.

The whodunit plot pivots around Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) a writer who dies suspiciously after falling from the upper floor of an Alpine chalet and is discovered sprawled in the snow amid a trail of blood from a deep cranial wound.

Since she was the only other person in the house, his renown writer wife, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller), is suspected of murder. Did she push him? Did he tumble accidentally? Or did he commit suicide by jumping?

The French family drama that subsequently ensues examines various aspects the couple’s marriage, including the testimony of Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), their troubled, visually-impaired 11-year-old son, in court in Grenoble.

German actress Sandra Huller adroitly pleads the wife’s case – which is not surprising since director Justine Triet and her writing partner/father of her two children, Arthur Harari, wrote the enigmatic script with Sandra in mind.

“I was captivated,” Huller has said in interviews. “I’d never read anything like this – the division of power between modern couples – and I wanted to find out if she did it…but Justine never told me!”

What is revealed is that, while Sandra is German, she came to live in France, where Samuel grew up. Noting that their marriage was based on “intellectual stimulation,” she admits that she’s committed adultery and has engaged a lawyer, Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), with whom she was once involved.

“I did not kill him!” Sandra testifies, so her defense centers on the assertion that Samuel committed suicide.

FYI: Despite its acclaim, “Anatomy of a Fall” cannot win an Oscar as Best International Film. Why? Because France did not submit it. Instead, the title selected was “The Taste of Things” (“La passion de Dodin Bouffant”), a period romance revolving around ancient French cuisine. Even after France’s snub, Triet’s film is, however, eligible for nomination in other categories.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Anatomy of a Fall” is a psychologically intense, elusive 8, streaming on Prime Video, iTunes and Vudu.

Susan Granger’s review of “Poor Things” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

I’m told that Yorgos Lanthimos’s films (“Dogtooth,” “The Lobster,” The Favourite”) are an “acquired taste,” meaning that – at first viewing – they’re unpleasant but after being experienced repeatedly, they’re, perhaps, likeable and can be appreciated.

Unfortunately, I have not found that to be true, particularly as it applies to his newest sci-fi dramedy “Poor Things,” a strange, surreal satire that won the Golden Lion in Venice and features Emma Stone’s graphic full-frontal nudity.

Adapting Scottish author/artist Alasdair Gray’s 1992 dementedly comic novel, screenwriter Tony McNamara focuses the late-Victorian-era story on the bizarre evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a suicidal pregnant woman reanimated by reclusive, facially-scarred mad-scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who transplants into her cranial cavity the brain of the baby in her womb.

With the inquisitive, impulsive mind of a child and a beautiful woman’s body, hedonistic Bella loves sex in all its permutations – from joyful masturbation to Parisian prostitution. She finds it enticing and empowering which is why – eager to experience all the wonders of the world – Bella runs off with womanizing con-artist/lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (mustachioed Mark Ruffalo), much to the consternation of her ‘fiancé,’ medical student Max McCandless (Remy Youssef), Dr. Baxter’s research assistant.

After learning to pleasure herself with a bowl of fruit, Bella tells Max, “Let us touch each other’s genital places!” Then, having discovered fornication, which she calls “furious jumping,” she wonders: “Why do people not do this all the time?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Following her “La La Land” acclaim, Emma Stone filmed Yorgos Lanthimos’s “The Favourite.”  So she’s developed total trust in the Greek auteur, fearlessly citing nymphomaniacal Bella as “the greatest character I’ll probably ever get to play.” ‘

“Bella is a bit of a Frankenstein, but she’s also an experiment in the sense that everything is happening very rapidly on her,” Stone says. “Her hair grows about two inches every couple of days.” And it’s no coincidence that ‘Godwin’ was “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley’s maiden name.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan refers to the evocative artificiality of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) as his inspiration, using early cinematic techniques like miniatures, bizarre lighting and false perspectives. He films the early scenes in London in black-and-white, not introducing jewel-toned color until Bella embarks on her seductive journey of self-discovery.

Whether or not the absurdist perversity – with its many grotesquely explicit carnal scenes – appeals to you, it inevitably sparks controversy.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Poor Things” is a formidable, flamboyant, fantastical 7, playing in select theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Ferrari” (Neon/STX International)

If racing cars is your passion, perhaps you might enjoy Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” but I found it frustrating in so many ways.

It’s ostensibly a deep dive into the pivotal summer of 1957 when Italian industrialist Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) almost lost control of the prestigious automobile company he and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) founded in Modena.

Scripted by Troy Kennedy Martin, based on motorsports journalist Brock Yates’ 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Car, The Races, The Machine, it’s disjointed and – at times – barely coherent.

Enzo Ferrari is still in mourning; his 24 year-old son died the previous year. Given the opening montage of careening cars, one might assume he died in a fiery crash but – no – eventually, it’s revealed that Dino had muscular dystrophy. Crashes consume other characters later on.

Called ‘Commendatore’ (‘Commander’), Enzo is consumed with every detail of the mechanics and design of his fleet of Formula I ‘racing red’ cars, their hoods adorned with a prancing black stallion emblem that he’d seen on the downed SPAD S.XIII fighter of Italy’s greatest W.W.I ace, Count Francesco Baracca.

Downshifting to home, Laura simmers with sorrow and anger. She’s aware of Enzo’s philandering yet, given her stock majority and freehold on the factory, she wields the upper hand in business decisions.

But when a banker inadvertently refers to Enzo’s two homes, Laura suddenly realizes that Enzo is also living with his longtime mistress Lina Lardi (miscast uber-American Shailene Woodley) and their 12-year-old son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese).  Laura’s resentment and rage surface with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, stoic Enzo is focused on the upcoming Mille Miglia competition that encompasses 1,000 miles across Italy’s bucolic countryside – with cars careening through towns – their streets lined with bales of hay to protect spectators.

 

Enzo is depending on veteran Piero Taruffi (underutilized Patrick Dempsey) and ambitious Spaniard Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone), whose entourage includes actress Linda Christian (Sarah Gadon), just divorced from actor Tyrone Power.

There are spectacular set-pieces, chronicled by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who notes: “All the racing is real there’s no green screen. One of the things that was very important to Michael (Mann) was that the cars should go the speeds that they are prescribed.”

The horrifying accident that claimed several lives, including children, was shot in a continuous take utilizing six cameras. A special effects team rigged a self-driving car that could hit the required speed, launch into the air and tumble before landing in a ditch.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ferrari” flags in with a 5, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “What Happens Later” (Bleecker Street)

After an eight-year hiatus, Fairfield, Connecticut, actress Meg Ryan returns to the big screen, co-writing, directing, producing and starring in the disappointing romantic comedy “What Happens Later.”

Based on Stephen Dietz’s 2008 play “Shooting Star,” the story revolves around former lovers who are stranded together at a small regional airport during a snowstorm.

Toting a rain-stick and dressed in bohemian garb, Willa (Ryan) is a free spirit, “a wellness practitioner in the healing arts,” while Bill (David Duchovny) is a buttoned-up businessman, suffering from “anticipatory anxiety.” They hooked up 25 years ago when they were students at the University of Wisconsin.

After initially trying to avoid one another, they realize they’re inevitably going to have to talk to each other.

Jumpstarting the catch-up conversation, Willa suggests they trade wallets, examining the contents that are inevitably indicative of their present lives. As a result, they rehash the most excruciating aspects of their former relationship, which include Willa’s ‘infidelity’ and the miscarriage of their baby.

Relying on magical realism, the disembodied voice on the airport loudspeaker becomes an integral part of the otherwise narrative two-hander, focusing on aging and regret, which begs the question: Will they or won’t they wind up together?

Few romantic comedies focus on older people revisiting the loves they’ve left behind. That’s what intrigued Meg Ryan, who notes: “You slowly learn that love is easy, while relationships are hard.”

Problem is: neither of these stereotypical characters (Willa or Bill) is compelling enough to care about.

Ryan dedicates the film to her dear friend/writer Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail” and “When Harry Met Sally…”), evoking her frequent theme of fate. “The idea of destiny was one of the great comforts of Nora’s movies,” Ryan recalls. “This idea that two people are destined for each other.”  

Unfortunately, the inherent cuteness wears thin, lacking the essential charm that epitomized Ephron’s work.

FYI: Filming took place over 21 days at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Northwest Arkansas National Airport.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “What Happens Later” is a flaky 4, streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and Vudu.

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

Many years ago during a 1976 Harvard University lecture, ebullient conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein said, “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them.” Director/co-writer/actor Bradley Cooper opens “Maestro” with the same statement.

Made with the support of Bernstein’s now-grown offspring (Jamie, Alexander, Nina), this is a love story, not a biopic. It begins with a shot of elderly Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) at the piano and then segues back to November 14, 1943, when New York Philharmonic conductor Bruno Walter falls ill, so Bernstein, as his assistant, is summoned to Carnegie Hall.

“To conduct an orchestra, you must conduct your life,” Bernstein was once told. So despite his on-going romantic liaison with musical collaborator David Oppenheimer (Matt Bomer), he marries sophisticated Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn (Carey Mulligan) who, at first, accepts his bisexual dalliances.

Chronicled by co-screenwriter Josh Singer and cinematographer Matthew Libatique, who utilizes different ratios, switching from black-and-white to color, the narrative about their unusual relationship moves from their chic Manhattan penthouse to their suburban Connecticut home to Tanglewood in Massachusetts – and back.

If Bernstein been more discreet, perhaps their marital melodrama would not have escalated – but he wasn’t – and it did.

Their ferocious fights encompass not only fidelity but also family and increasing fame, encompassing his innovative Young People’s Concerts, film score for “On the Waterfront” and Broadway hits “On the Town,” “West Side Story,” and more.

Bernstein’s theatrical collaborators Betty Comden and Adolph Green (Mallory Portnoy, Nick Blaemire) pop in periodically, along with composer Aaron Copland (Brian Klugman).

One of the most memorable scenes depicts exuberant Bernstein’s conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with the London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1973. Bradley Cooper’s intensity and commitment are extraordinary.

As for the controversy about Cooper’s nose, it’s ridiculous. Japanese-American makeup-effects master Kazuhiro Tsuji (Oscar-winner for transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill in “The Darkest Hour”) devised four sets of prosthetics and two bodysuits to show Bernstein’s aging process.

Last but certainly not least, there’s genuinely heartbreaking Carey Mulligan as long-suffering, self-deprecating, sorrowful Felicia, noting: “Life is not that serious.” Watch for her name among the Best Actress Oscar-contenders later this month.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Maestro” is an intimate, enigmatic 8, streaming on Netflix.

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “All the Light We Cannot See” (Netflix)

 

Adapting a beloved best-seller isn’t easy, but screenwriter Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”) and director Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things”) tackle Anthony Doerr’s 544-page, 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel  – “All the Light We Cannot See” – with timely relevance since antisemitism is – once again – rampant.

Set in occupied France during W.W.II, the epic story – often told in flashbacks – revolves around blind Marie-Laure (Aria Mia Loberti) who lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her devoted father, Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo), is a master locksmith.

Daniel is also a gifted craftsman who constructs intricately detailed models of their neighborhood so Marie-Laure can memorize the placement of stores and surrounding streets, giving her the ability to navigate and develop a sense of independence.

When Nazis invade, father and teenage daughter take refuge in the walled seaside town of Saint-Malo, moving in with reclusive great-uncle Etienne (Hugh Laurie), an agoraphobic W.W.I veteran who – as ‘the Professor’ – secretly broadcasts from his attic, delivering coded messages to aid the French Resistance.

Fearful that it will wind up in Hitler’s possession, Daniel carries a priceless-but-cursed diamond, a treasured Museum artifact. Known as the Sea of Flames, the fabled gem promises eternal life along with great misfortune.

Meanwhile in Germany, orphaned Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann) listens to a forbidden radio broadcast that brings him not only news but also hope for the future. Recognized for his radio-tech skills, Werner is recruited into the Army, where he dares to disobey orders. Inevitably, his path crosses with Marie-Laure’s.

Since Shawn Levy was adamant about ‘authenticity’ and ‘representation, radiant newcomer Aria Mia Loberti was a Ph.D. student at Penn State when she was discovered through a worldwide casting call for actors who are blind or visually impaired; seven year-old Marie-Laure is played by Nell Sutton, who is also blind.

Filming for 80 days in Budapest, Villefranche-de-Rouergue and Saint-Malo, the scene in which hordes of refugees flee from Paris includes real-life Ukrainians who had come west to Hungary to escape invading Russian troops.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “All the Light We Cannot See” is an intriguing 8 – the four-part mini-series is streaming on Netflix.