Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Blitz” (Apple Original Films)

 

“Blitz” is a historical drama revolving around a mother desperately trying to find her young son in the midst of the Nazi bombardment of London during W.W. II.

Their adventure begins in 1940 as a massive firehose ominously whips around like a giant snake while brave firefighters battle a building that’s engulfed in flames and reduced to smoking rubble.

Nine year-old George Hanway (Elliott Heffernan), along with other terrified residents, cowers in an underground shelter with his single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan), a munitions factory worker, but there’s never enough room for everyone.

That’s why Rita puts him on an evacuation train to join more than 500,000 children taking refuge with families in the English countryside. George doesn’t want to leave her or his beloved grandfather (musician Paul Weller) but he has no choice.

Once the steam engine gets underway, George manages to jump off, determined to make his way back to London’s East End and Stepney Green. Along the way, he joins orphaned siblings hiding in a box-car and he’s reluctantly recruited by a group of scavenging thieves before he can make another getaway. 

Sired by a Black father who disappeared before he was born, George is biracial which subjects him to prejudice and bullying. Roaming the streets, he enters the Empire Arcade, a shopping center filled with enticing window displays of lavish items imported from areas that have been colonized by Great Britain.

That’s where he’s befriended by Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a wise, soft-spoken Nigerian expat, assigned to monitor/enforce the nightly blackout.

Writer/director Steve McQueen’s (“12 Years a Slave”) story structure is episodic and formulaic. On the other hand, working with production designer Adam Stockhausen and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux, he visually recreates not only the detailed chaos of London under attack but also its frenzied nightclubs where all-Black jazz bands entertain integrated audiences.

One of the most memorable scenes reconstructs a true Blitz disaster when a bomb blew both a sewer and water pipe, flooding the Bethnal Green Tube Station where people were sheltering and 70 died.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Blitz” is an evocative 7, streaming on Apple TV +.

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

 

It’s been called “‘Succession’ but with better clothes” and/or  “‘Emily in Paris’ for Grown-Ups” …either way, Apple TV+’s French series “La Maison” entices viewers into the century-old, ultra-luxurious, haute-couture empire that once belonged to Vincent Ledu, who has suddenly fallen out of fashion.

When an offhand racist remark ‘gone viral’ causes Vincent Ledu (Lambert Wilson) to lose control of his iconic label in an international scandal, his relatives circles like vultures, primarily his younger brother Victor (Pierre Deladonchamps) and his pampered thirtysomething nephew Robinson (Antoine Reinartz).

Complicating their inheritance claim is edgy Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot), a visionary designer who arrives on the scene in order to learn more about her father Gino – the great love of Vincent Ledu’s life – who died when she was only two years old.

Championing diversity and sustainability, this outspoken orphan is welcomed by Perle Foster (Amira Casar), Vincent’s second-in-command/former muse, who tries to convince her boss that “a biracial activist young woman” is exactly what they need, particularly since their financial future is hanging by a thread.

Meanwhile, Ledu’s financial independence is threatened by uber-wealthy Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), a relentlessly avaricious predator who already controls a Bernard Arnault-like collection of luxury labels and desperately desires to acquire the Ledu brand – perhaps via her daughter Caroline (Florence Loiret Caille) who is married to Victor Ledu.

Created by Jose Caltagirone and Valentine Millville, this drama series offers behind-the-curtain insight into the unstable economics of the highest echelon of fashion which – for years – has been supported by sales of perfume and purses. With a minuscule client base (about 4,000 worldwide), it nurtures and endorses elitist designers – like Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Gaultier, Schiaparelli, etc. – who meet the exacting, labor-intensive standards of Paris’s Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM).

Since the first season concludes with ambiguity, there’s anticipation for a second season but that has yet to be announced by Apple TV+.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “La Maison” is a sleek yet slow-paced 6 – with all 10 episodes now streaming on Apple TV+.

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)

 

After “Gladiator” (2000) won an Oscar as Best Picture, Ridley Scott waited more than 20 years to return to Rome’s ancient Colosseum to film “Gladiator II.”

While the first “Gladiator” focused on Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe), this follow-up introduces Lucius who, as a sensitive 12 year-old in Numidia, was forced to leave his aristocratic family, go into hiding and ‘forget’ his identity.

Growing up on the coast of North Africa, capable Lucius (Paul Mescal) was ready to fight when Roman legions – under General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) – invaded Numidia, killing his wife and taking him to Rome as a slave/prisoner.

His extraordinary courage and combat skills are immediately spotted by sleazy Macrimus (Denzel Washington), a Machiavellian gangster/gladiator wrangler who buys him, realizing Lucius’ swaggering, crowd-pleasing potential in the arena.

Meanwhile, weary General Acacius returns home to his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), daughter of late Emperor Marcus Aurelius, confiding his disgust with the despotic tyranny of simpering, sadistic twin Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Carcalla (Fred Hechinger) to Senator Gracchus (Derek Jacobi) and others, which inevitably places him in harm’s way.

And you don’t have to be much of a soothsayer to figure out Lucius’ relationship to Lucilla, tracing back to her liaison with the fabled gladiator Maximus.

Written by David Scarpa, Peter Craig & David Franzoni and photographed by John Mathieson, it’s a sword-and-sandal, cinematic spectacle, featuring ferocious baboons, a saddled rhinoceros, and savage sharks. The latter are part of an elaborately staged naval battle in the flooded Colosseum pit, credited to production designer Arthur Max, who did extensive research at the Museum of Roman Ships of Fiumicino.

Above all, it’s redemptive comeback for 86 year-old Ridley Scott after duds like “Napoleon,” “House of Gucci,” and “The Last Duel.” And it should nab a Best Supporting Actor nomination for scene-stealing Denzel Washington.

FYI: If you want to revisit Scott’s original epic “Gladiator,” it’s available on Paramount+ or purchased digitally on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango At Home, and Apple.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Gladiator II” is an eye-popping, barbaric 8, playing in theaters.

 

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

Never underestimate the phenomenal power of L. Frank Baum’s “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as “Wicked” is one of the few films that more than lives up to the hype and hoopla.
Director John M. Chu’s screen adaptation of the Broadway show is already a movie megahit, joining two inspiring Grammy-winning divas as they delve into the backstory behind Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic.
This musical prequel, loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, begins just after Dorothy dissolves Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. As the gleeful Munchkins celebrate, Good Witch Glinda (Ariana Grande) floats in. “Weren’t you and Elphaba once friends?” inquires a youngster. Indeed they were.
As Glinda glides down memory lane – her lavish pink wardrobe and playful demeanor suggesting “Legally Blonde” Elle Woods – recalling how she first met young, bespectacled, green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and they became reluctant roommates at Shiz University, which evokes Hogwarts set in Rivendell.
While trying to harness her inherent magical powers, Elphaba watches out for her plucky, wheelchair-bound younger sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), whose plight subtly ignites an odd-couple friendship between the bullied outcast and confidently manipulative Miss Popularity.
Plus there’s Hunky Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), Sorceress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Comedic Munchkin Boq (Ethan Slater), History Professor Dillamond (a goat, voiced by Peter Dinklage) – introducing a subplot about silencing animals – and Emerald City’s eccentric Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).
Following “In the Heights,” John M Chu is at the top of his captivating, world-building game, making the most of Stephen Schwartz’s music & John Powell’s additional score with Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox’s adapted screenplay, Alice Brooks’ cinematography, Nathan Crowley’s dazzling production design and Paul Tazewell’s fanciful costumes.
Yes, 2 hours, 45 minutes is a very long musical, but you won’t want to miss a moment since “Wicked” will be a Best Picture Oscar contender.
And for those who dig beneath the surface, L. Frank Baum’s fantasy is, basically, a timely political allegory about fear, division, oppression, radicalization and fascism, led by a con man.
So what about Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, whose glorious Broadway performances became legendary? They’re here! Just wait!
Speaking of waiting, although the second half was shot back-to-back with this installment, it’s not scheduled for release until November, 2025.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Wicked” is a spectacularly enchanted 10 – currently playing in theaters.

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

What a colossal disappointment! The limited series “Disclaimer” begins with a provocative premise: a successful woman’s entire existence is threatened when she receives a self-published book that seems to disclose her innermost secrets.

Shortly after London-based documentary journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) is publicly acclaimed for cutting through “narratives and forms that distract us from hidden truths” and revealing “our own complicity in some of today’s more toxic social sins,” she’s entangled in her own web of deception.

Arriving home one evening, Catherine discovers a docu-novel titled “The Perfect Stranger” that begins with a curious disclaimer: “Any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence.”

The narrative reveals that – 20 years earlier, while on a beach vacation in Italy with her then-five year-old son, Nicholas – young Catherine (Leila George) allegedly had an affair with 19 year-old Jonathan Brigstocke (Louis Partridge) after which she was indirectly responsible for his subsequent death by drowning.

Jonathan’s devastated parents – Stephen (Kevin Kline) and Nancy (Leslie Manville) – never recovered from the loss of their only child. Before she died of cancer, Nancy wrote “The Perfect Stranger,” filled with tawdry accusations based on a packet of erotic, sexually explicit photographs that Jonathan took of Catherine.

Still grieving, vengeful Stephen delivers copies to Catherine’s dim-witted, judgmental husband Robert (Sasha Baron Cohen), now-25 year-old depressed, drug-addicted son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), along with Catherine’s stunned co-workers, causing her life to spin into turmoil.

Based on Renee Knight’s raunchy psychological thriller, it’s the work of Mexican writer/director Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma,” “Gravity”), who devotes the first six episodes to Nancy’s lurid interpretation of how Catherine seduced her son and caused his death at sea.

It isn’t until the seventh – concluding – episode that Catherine is able to confront crazed, elderly Stephen and relate her side of the story. Drenched with banal melodrama, designed to manipulate, Indira Verma’s voice-over narration at this point is overly expository and moralizing.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Disclaimer” is a frustrating 5 – with all episodes now streaming on Apple TV+.

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Susan Granger’s review of “Heretic” (A24)

I’m not a great fan of the horror genre but I’m a steadfast admirer of actor Hugh Grant’s decision to demonstrate his versatility by playing villains (“Paddington 2,” Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”), rather than charmingly  stumbling, bumbling romantic leads (“Love Actually,” “Notting Hill,” etc.).

“Heretic” begins as two young missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – ardent, innocent Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and steadfast, stoic Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) – trudge through a Colorado ski town, trying – without success – to strike up conversations with passers-by about their faith.

Following up on an ‘interested prospect,’ they arrive on the doorstep of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). Since he’s receptive and it’s starting to rain, they agree to come in – but only if he’ll summon his wife because it’s necessary that a woman be present.

After learning that his shy wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie, they enter and begin their well-rehearsed message, only to discover genial Mr. Reed knows a great deal about the Book of Mormon, pulling out a large leather-bound volume of the church’s foundational scripture with Post-It notes stuck to pages.

Wary but hoping he’ll be a good prospect for baptism, they parry uncomfortable questions about polygamy and founder Joseph Smith, still waiting for Mrs. Reed and blueberry pie.

Predictably, they discover there’s no wife after they’re lured into a labyrinthine yet claustrophobic basement with sinister doors labeled ‘belief’ and ‘disbelief.’ There’s a trap with no escape.

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, it’s a dialogue-driven psychological thriller, engendering discomfort and dread, with Grant as a malevolent predator, examining the power and control wielded by religion, utilizing allusions to Monopoly and Radiohead’s “Creep.”

But – as the ‘trio talk’ about theology thickens – tedium sets in, along with impatience at the smarmy manipulation and a seemingly endless intellectual dissection of worldwide spiritual beliefs, not to mention the graphic, intense violence.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Heretic” is a fiendishly fizzling 4, playing in theaters.

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Susan Granger’s review of “The Diplomat: Season 2” (Netflix)

If you’re like me, you wait until the entire season is streaming before watching many episodic television shows – like “The Diplomat: Season 2,” a political thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat – from beginning to shocking conclusion.

Don’t let anyone tell you what happens!

First, let’s recognize showrunner/writer Debora Cahn (“The West Wing,” Grey’s Anatomy,” “Homeland”) whose ingenuity and imagination knows no bounds. Cahn ‘created’ the character of intelligent, outspoken, fashion-phobic career diplomat Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) who reluctantly left her pivotal post in Kabul to become U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (England).

Second, let’s laud versatile Keri Russell, acclaimed as teenage “Felicity,” then “The Americans,” in which she played a 1980s Soviet spy. Now her Kate Wyler becomes intimately involved in a game of geo-political chess, the outcome of which could affect the fate of the free world.

An international crisis has erupted with an attack on a British warship, involving Russia, Iran and the United States. The twisty storyline is complex; it’s often hard to decipher the intricate plot involving London politician Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie), Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), Foreign Minister Austin Dennison (David Gyasias), along with Kate’s crew: Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandohl) and Eidra Pak (Ali Ahn).

Concurrently, Kate’s under consideration by U.S. President William Rayburn (Michael McKeon) to replace contentious Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney), whose reputation is under scrutiny because of a brewing scandal.

Then there’s Kate’s clever, conniving husband Hal Wyler (charismatic Rufus Sewell), a former Ambassador who ruffled too many feathers in the Middle East.

Kate once considered divorcing Hal because he made immoral deals that were deadly for a few in order to save the many. Now they know they need one another and have each other’s backs, no matter what choices and mistakes they make.

Time and resource limitations, along with production delays, shortened Season 2 to just six episodes but – with Season 3 – things will only get more complicated.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Diplomat: Season 2” is a tension-filled 10, streaming on Netflix.

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

Martha Stewart is not happy with the Netflix documentary “Martha” and – quite frankly – I don’t blame her: the lifestyle guru emerges as a stern, humorless bitch.

Is she? I don’t know. But documentarian R.J. Cutler does her no favors.  

As Martha told The New York Times: “Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden… I told him to get rid of those, and he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them.”

“Martha” reflects on the rise and fall of the stoic 83 year-old businesswoman, including her five-month stint at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia in 2004.

Beginning as a child in the working-class Kostra family in Nutley, New Jersey, her life and career revolved around the impossible goal of being ‘perfectly perfect.’

Martha admits she and her book publisher husband, Andrew Stewart, not only cheated on each other while raising their daughter Alexis but also that she had a passionate interlude with a stranger in Florence, Italy, on their honeymoon.

The Stewarts married in 1961, when Martha was a 19 year-old college student. A few years later, working as a stockbroker, Martha had her first extra-marital affair. Practically perfect, she was not. The Stewarts separated in 1987 and divorced in 1990.

Meanwhile, Martha launched a catering company on Turkey Hill Road in Westport – “Nothing store-bought; everything homemade” – that became the stimulus for aspirational books about homemaking and entertaining.

The U.S’s first self-made female billionaire as CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Martha was the original ‘influencer.’

Filmmaker Cutler notes: “She democratized fashion, taste and style. She saw the future before others saw it and she always had to overcome enormous obstacles that were in her way.”

From 1993 to 2008, Martha was romantically linked with Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian software developer.  Fame and fortune were fleeting, however, when James B. Comey (another Westport resident), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, seemingly targeted her for ‘insider trading’ of ImClone Systems stock, a charge she still denies.

“It was so horrifying to me that I had to go through that to be a trophy for those idiots in the U.S. attorney’s office,” Martha asserts, adding, “Those prosecutors should’ve been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high.”

Three years after Martha was released from prison, she and Simonyi broke up; shortly after, he married Lisa Persdotter, a Swedish heiress 32 years his junior.

Then came the TV debacle when Mark Burnett (“The Apprentice”) produced her ill-fated “Martha Stewart Show” (2005-2012):  “A live audience, crummy music – that was more like prison than being at Alderson.”

According to Martha, her mojo was severely damaged, even as she cultivated her new 153-acre, orchard-studded property in Bedford, New York.

Redemption came when Martha shamelessly participated in “The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber” (2015), igniting an improbable friendship/collaboration with rapper Snoop Dogg.

“I have two mottos,” she concludes. “One is: learn something every day. And the second one is: when you’re through changing, you’re through.”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Martha” is a callous, self-empowered, spicy 6, streaming on Netflix.

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Susan Granger’s review of “Here” (Sony/TriStar/Miramax)

Robert Zemeckis is a courageous, innovative filmmaker. Never resting on his “Forrest Gump,” “Back to the Future,” “Cast Away” laurels, he’s obsessed with technology and its countless possibilities.
With the camera firmly fixed on a wide-angle vantage point, his newest film – “Here” – traces one particular living space through the prism of time. Set on a New England plot of land, Zemeckis’ visual perspective never changes while everything around it does.
Beginning before recorded time, Indigenous people lived there. Then came the settlers, including Benjamin Franklin’s estranged son who built a huge colonial manor across the street.
Constructed in 1902, Pauline (Michelle Dockery) first lived in the house with her aviation-obsessed husband John (Gwilyn Lee), followed by ‘reclining chair’ inventor Leo (David Flynn) and his wife Stella (Ophelia Lovibond) in the 1930s.
In 1945 – shortly after W.W.II – the two-story house was purchased for $3,400 by Army veteran Al Young (Paul Bettany) and his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly), who raised three children there.
When their son, aspiring artist Richard (Tom Hanks), impregnates his high-school sweetheart Margaret (Robin Wright), he puts his dreams aside, taking a mundane job and raising their daughter (Zsa Zsa Zemeckis). Because finances are tight, they move in with Al & Rose, although Margaret always yearns for a home of her own.
Years pass. There are weddings, births, deaths and break-ups, accompanied by suffering, soul-searching, sentimentality and a steep climb in real-estate value.
To transition between time periods, Zemeckis cleverly uses pop-up windows, evoking crucial pop culture moments (like when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan’s TV show), and delves into A.I’s digital de-aging process.
Adapted from the 2014 conceptual graphic novel by Richard McGuire, it’s episodically scripted by Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” collaborator Eric Roth as a cinematically ambitious, non-linear, intergenerational meditation on mortality.
Only the inclusion of a ‘cautionary’ vignette featuring a contemporary Black family (Nikki Amuka-Bird, Nicholas Pinnock, Cache Vanderpuye) – who buy the house for $1 million in 2015 after the Youngs vacate – seems oddly jarring.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Here” is a stationary, static, yet solid 7, playing in theaters.

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Susan Granger’s review of “Conclave” (Focus Features)

The psychological thriller “Conclave” revolves around the selection of a new Pope, a mysteriously secretive process that begins with the death of the Holy Father whose private chambers are immediately sealed as Roman Catholic Cardinals from all over the world descend on the Vatican to be locked in the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes for his successor.

“Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith,” intones British Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the anguished, reform-minded Dean of the College of Cardinals who presides over the proceedings. “Let us pray that God grants us a pope who doubts.”

As the various ‘contenders’ are introduced, it becomes obvious that the most prominent are outspoken American liberal Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), homophobic Nigerian Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), conservative Italian Gioffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), and ambitious Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), the late Pope’s chosen Camerlengo, or chamberlain. Scene-by-scene, the intrigue mounts.

Suspicion arises as a new Cardinal whom nobody knew about. Archbishop of Kabul Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), shows up, and there’s turmoil with the unexpected arrival of a nun serving under attentive Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini). Plus rampant political unrest inevitably rattles the Vatican’s walls.

As in every election, there are accusations of misconduct – involving money, power and, inevitably, sex. Plus there’s a word in the dialogue that sent me to the dictionary – ‘simony,’ an archaic term for the buying and selling of church positions or privileges.

Based on Robert Harris’ speculative novel of the same name, it’s adapted by Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) and directed by Edward Berger (Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front”), who – working with cinematographer Stephane Fontaine – obviously relishes revealing the intricate details of scarlet ceremonial pageantry, aesthetic ballot procedures, and clandestine rituals like generating black-or-white smoke as a signal to Vatican watchers.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Conclave” is a provocative, ecclesiastical 8, playing in theaters.

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