Movie/TV Reviews

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

“The Gorge” is a remote, fog-shrouded place that the most powerful nations of the world are determined to keep secret. Ever since the end of W.W, II, it’s been guarded by enormous watchtowers perched on opposite sides.

This sci-horror thriller begins as two elite, world-class snipers are chosen to maintain and protect the huge, remote chasm. On the Eastern European side, there’s Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), a renowned markswoman from Lithuania, and on the Western side, there’s Levi (Miles Teller), an experienced American assassin who stealthily moves from the miliary to contract work.

Accepting this ‘cloaked’ assignment involves a year-long commitment with no technology: no Wi-Fi, no phones, no communication with the outside world. Only a radio check-in with their respective headquarters every 30 days. They have no idea where they are on the globe and are forbidden to contact one another.

But they do have high-tech binoculars – so the inevitable happens. She sees him; he sees her. The only hitch is that hideous, ravenous monsters – dubbed ‘The Hollow Men’ from a T.S. Eliot poem – keep surfacing from the depths of the mysterious abyss, trying to scale the steep walls. requiring Drasa and Levi to utilize all of their weaponized experience just to stay alive.

“The Gorge is the door to hell…You need to stop what’s there from coming out!” That’s really all you need to know.

Cleverly scripted by Zach Dean (“The Tomorrow War”), who manages to mesh sci-fi horror with romance, and inventively directed by Scott Derrickson (“Doctor Strange”), it’s a fun ‘n’ frightening excursion into a chilling genetic mystery – packed with quirky historical twists, screwy sci-fi science and relentless, radioactive action.

The chemistry clicks between Anya Taylor-Joy (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) and Miles Taylor (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Whiplash”) with additional menace emanating from a cold-blooded paramilitary spook played by Sigourney Weaver.

Full disclosure: My son, Don Granger, was one of the producers.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Gorge” is an exciting, explosive, engaging 8, streaming on Apple TV+.

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Susan Granger’s review of “Apple Cider Vinegar” (Netflix)

 

Having been married to a neurologist for 27 years, I have always had a healthy skepticism about the ‘miraculous’ claims of alternative medicine – and watching Netflix’s limited crime drama series “Apple Cider Vinegar” confirmed them.

WARNING: There is a major ‘spoiler’ concluding this review because the showrunner, Australian writer/producer Samantha Strauss, deftly deflects any kind of satisfactory conclusion with an irritating: “Look it up on Google.”

Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) is an audacious single mother/influencer who launched a wellness empire in Australia by convincing people that she’d had brain cancer and successfully cured herself with a holistic approach and all-natural lifestyle, chronicled in her 2014 book “The Whole Pantry.”

Her meandering “true-ish story based on a lie” is related via a confusingly jumbled timeline, incorporating her frenetic long-term relationship with Clive Rothwell (Ashley Zuckerman) and the young son they’ve raised together.

Belle leveraged the success of her social media app to build the Whole Pantry brand, encompassing cookbooks in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. She earned half a million dollars in less than two years, spurred by (unsubstantiated) claims that her brain cancer had spread to her blood, spleen, uterus and liver.

Intertwined, there are case histories of two ‘real’ cancer patients: blogger Milla (Alyssa Debnam-Carey) and ‘believer’ Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) – both reject treatment in favor of pseudoscience, claiming: “Western medicine is run by pharma giants and male doctors who are immune to our concerns and only want to make money and boss us around.”

Inspired by the non-fiction book “The Woman Who Fooled the World” by investigative journalists Beau Donelly & Nick Toscano, it’s scripted by Samantha Strauss, Anya Beyersdorf & Angela Betzien – who fail to provide a satisfactory answer to what happened to the disgraced fraudster. Instead, the final scenes focus on survivors.

SPOILER: In April, 2017, the Federal Court of Australia ruled that Belle was “misleading” & “deceptive,” fining her more than $1 million. That was later reduced to $410,000, which she still has not paid although her Melbourne home has been raided twice in an attempt to recoup the money she owes.

Segments of Belle Gibson’s interview with “60 Minutes” Australia can be viewed on YouTube.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Apple Cider Vinegar” is an exasperating, scamming 7 – with all six episodes streaming on Netflix.

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Susan Granger’s review of “The Wild Robot” (DreamWorks Animation/Univeral Pictures)

 

When a storm at sea dislodges a shipping container from a cargo ship, a large box washes ashore on a faraway island inhabited only by animals.

Battered and bruised but incredibly resilient, the sole occupant of the box is a Rozzum 7134 android assistant (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) that can walk, talk, assimilate information and help around the house. She’s designed to serve.

Confused about her kindly nature, the animals (beavers, possums, porcupines, deer, bears) view Roz as a monster and try to kill her – until by accident she accidentally crushes all but one goose egg in a nest.

When the abandoned gosling hatches, the baby bird imprints on dutiful Roz as she evolves into a maternal role although, as she admits, “I do not have the programming to be a mother,”

Calling him Brightbill, Roz searches her database to try to teach him basic skills – like how to hunt, swim and fly – aided by Fink (Pedro Pascal), a conniving fox, and Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), a harried possum mother.

As Brightbill (Kit Connor) grows, Roz realizes that the time is coming for the local gaggle of geese to migrate and, although Brightbill resists parting from his home and family, he, fortunately, has a Canadian goose mentor, Longneck (voiced by Bill Nighy). as he tries to follow the feathered flock heading south for the winter.

There’s a meaningful lesson here: If Roz properly does her job as a mother, her child will eventually leave.

Written and directed by Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon”), this futuristic story of survival, parenting and community is based on a 2016 best-selling books by Peter Brown and is Oscar-nominated for Best Animation, Sound and Original Score.

As for a sequel, it’s inevitable, since “The Wild Robot” encompasses only part one of a trilogy of YA novels.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Wild Robot” is a tender-hearted 10, the best family film of last year, now streaming on Peacock.

Susan Granger’s review of “Anora” (Neon/Film Nation)

 

Winner at the Directors’ Guild, Producers’ Guild, Critics’ Choice, Cannes Film Festival and Best Picture Oscar frontrunner “Anora” may have a similar concept to “Pretty Woman” but with one helluva difference.

Oscar nominee Sean Baker’s raucous, raunchy rom-com revolves around Anora – a.k.a.  Ani (Oscar nominee Mikey Madison) – a tough-talking 23 year-old stripper from Brighton Beach in South Brooklyn, who hooks up with 21 year-old Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the obscenely spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.

They meet at the tacky HQ KONY Midtown Manhattan strip club where Ivan – nicknamed Vanya – specifically requests the services of a Russian-speaking lap dancer. What starts out as a drug-fueled, transactional sex worker/client relationship in a private room soon progresses to wild New Year’s Eve party that culminates in an impromptu wedding in Las Vegas.

Ani’s thrilled with the accoutrements of this whirlwind romance, particularly the cash payment of $15,000 a week as his personal escort, a sparking 4-carat diamond engagement ring and long sable coat, while Vanya relishes the idea that this quickie U.S. ‘green card’ union will enable him to escape parental control and become an American citizen.

But when Ivan’s irate folks in Moscow discover their precious son/heir has married a prostitute, all hell breaks loose. Specifically, there’s a remarkable home-invasion scene in which Toros (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian ‘fixer,’ and his two muscle men (Vache Tovmasyan, Oscar nominee Yuri Borisov) try to capture Ani and Ivan to facilitate an immediate annulment.

While feckless Ivan flees, feisty Ani turns ferociously feral, screaming uncontrollably and utterly terrorizing the thugs as she tears apart the luxurious waterfront McMansion.  (The palatial Mill Basin property actually once belonged to Russian billionaire Galina Anisimove.)

In interviews, writer/director Sean Baker, who favors making movies about bawdy, brash sex workers (“Tangerine,” “The Florida Project,” “Red Rocket”) often mentions that he was loosely inspired by Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabria” (1957), starring Giulietta Masina as the determined prostitute who – at the conclusion – sheds a single tear.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Anora” is a provocative 8, available to rent/buy on Prime Video and soon to be streaming on Hulu.

Susan Granger’s review of “You’re Cordially Invited” (Amazon Studios)

 

For years, studio strategy included releasing a star-studded romantic comedy for Valetine’s Day weekend. But Amazon’s Will Ferrell/Reese Witherspoon “You’re Cordially Invited” is a dismal mess.

Widower Jim (Ferrell) is an overly devoted father to Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan); since the death of his wife/her mother many years ago, Jenni has been the center of his life and he’s become creepily co-dependent on her.

So when Jenni returns to their home in Atlanta with a diamond engagement ring on her finger and her DJ fiancé Oliver (Stony Blyden) in tow, Jim immediately books a June 1^st destination wedding at the Palmetto House, an idyllic inn on the small Georgia island where he married her mother decades earlier.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Margot (Witherspoon), a high-powered reality TV executive, is planning the Palmetto House nuptials of her younger sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) to her Chippendale’s dancer boyfriend Dixon (Jimmy Tatro) on the same date.

When these two disparate groups arrive on the island, the accidental double-booking is revealed, creating an extremely awkward situation since there can be only one wedding at a time at the resort – and both are determined to use the picturesque pier at sunset.

While a compromise is negotiated, chaos results when Margot and Jim each strive for dominance within their respective extended families, eventually resulting in plans to sabotage each other, only to discover – in a bizarre third-act twist – they they’re romantically attracted to one another.

Yet the only glimpse of their improbable and unconvincing romantic chemistry is glimpsed during the end credits.

Written and directed by Nick Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), it’s simply one of the world’s worst wedding comedies, despite memorable turns from Celia Weston as a starchy Southern matriarch and Leanne Morgan as sex-starved Aunt Gwyneth – plus senseless cameos from NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and musician Nick Jonas s Pastor Luther.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “You’re Cordially Invited” is a flimsy, floundering 4. It’s streaming on Prime Video so I’d advise sending regrets.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Room Next Door” (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s first feature film in English – “The Room Next Door,” winner of the Golden Lion at the 81^st Venice International Film Festival – revolves around mortality and euthanasia, the decision to commit suicide.

Aware that her inoperable cervical cancer is terminal, Martha (Tilda Swinton), a former war correspondent estranged from her only daughter, convinces her novelist friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to accompany her to a a serenely peaceful rented house – in the woods of upstate New York – where she plans to take a fatal drug dose.

Acquiring the lethal pill off the dark web, Martha decides to be self-determined to the end but she doesn’t want to be alone, which is why she asks Ingrid to be in the room next door, to be her witness.

Although Ingrid is terrified of the concept of death, she reluctantly agrees, and they discover that their friendship and understanding deepens during this final getaway. That’s the crux of Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel “What Are You Going Through” which inspired Almodovar’s adapted screenplay.

Nunez’s novel takes its title from a quote by French philosopher Simone Weil: “The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to ask: ‘What are you going through?’”

That’s explored even further when Ingrid reunites with Damian (John Turturro), an old lover who is obsessed with the environment and climate change, observing, “You’re living with a dying woman in a world also in its death throes.”

In Spain, despite religious opposition, assisted suicide is accepted while – in the United States – the right to die is controversial. Euthanasia is legal in only 10 states and Washington, D.C.  Obviously in the context of this film, Almodovar believes that the freedom to end one’s life is a fundamental human right, particularly if the person is living in pain.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Room Next Door” is a bittersweet, visually sumptuous, spectral 6, streaming on Prime Video.

-Susan Granger’s review of “The Order”

 

Based on a true story that delves into America’s scourge of white supremacy, “The Order” stars Jude Law as a veteran FBI agent who stumbles on a virulent hate group operating in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s.

When grizzled Terry Husk (Law) is dispatched to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1983, his assignment is to investigate a series of bank and armored-car robberies, along with a synagogue bombing and murder of Denver talk-show host Alan Berg.

Working with conscientous local cop Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), Husk discovers undeniable links to a secluded mountain cult called Aryan Nations, headed by cautious Rev. Richard Butler (Victor Slezak).

While Aryan Nations believers’ goal is to seize control of the United States government through duly elected officials, an extremist splinter group, dubbed ‘The Order’, headed by charismatic zealot Robert “Bob” J. Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), is determined to use violence/domestic terrorism to overthrow it.

His motto is “Victory forever, defeat never!”

As a sidebar, Bob seems to have two families: his submissive wife Debbie (Alison Oliver), mother of their adopted son, and very pregnant mistress (Odessa Young).

Adapted by Zach Baylin from “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn & Gary Gerhardt, reporters for the “Rocky Mountain News,” with Australian director/producer Justin Kurzel, the character of Terry Husk is actually a fictional composite of several law enforcement officers who took part in the investigation.

What makes this crime thriller timely is that many considered the concept of a neo-Nazi movement with tacit presidential approval just a fantasy until there were January 6, 2021, photos of Capitol rioters – fanatic Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – waving copies of “The Turner Diaries,” the 1978 novel that became the foundational text for white nationalists, and Donald Trump was reelected.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Order” is a cautionary 6, available to buy/rent on Prime Video.

Susan Granger’s column: Where to see the Oscar-nominated Top 10:

 

Watching the Oscars on ABC on Sunday, March 2, is always more fun if you’ve seen the 10 Best Picture nominees, particularly since nominees for other Awards are often linked to many of these releases. Here’s where you can find them:

“Anora” focuses on a sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Writer/director Sean Baker is nominated, along with actress Mikey Madison and actor Yura Borisov. It’ available for rent and/or purchase on Prime Video, and watch for it to stream on Hulu.

“The Brutalist” is a study of Holocaust immigrant trauma and antisemitism. Director Brady Corbet is nominated, along with actors Adrien Brody & Guy Pearce and actress Felicity Jones, plus Cinematography, Editing & Production Design. It’s playing in theaters now and will eventually stream on Max.

“A Complete Unknown” charts Bob Dylan’s rise as a folk singer from 1961-1965, when he traded his acoustic guitar to go electric. Director/writer James Mangold is nominated, along with actors Timothee Chalamet & Edward Norton and actress Monica Barbaro, plus Costume Design & Sound. It’s playing in theaters before streaming on Hulu.

“Conclave” revolves around the election of a new Pope. Actor Ralph Fiennes is nominated, along with actress Isabella Rossellini, plus Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design & Original Score. It’s currently available to rent/buy on Peacock and Prime Video.

“Dune: Part Two” is the sequel to 2021’s “Dune,” picking up as Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) unties with the Fremen against House Harkonnen. Also nominated for Cinematography, Production Design, Sound & Visual Effects, it’s streaming on Max & Netflix and available to rent/buy on Prime Video.

“Emilia Perez” is a musical exploration of trans-identity as a Mexican cartel boss transitions into a woman.  Trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon is nominated along with Director, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Sound, International Film, Makeup & Hairstyling.  Streaming exclusively on Netflix.

“I’m Still Here” profiles a mother/activist whose husband – a dissident politician – disappears during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Along with Best International Feature, actress Fernanda Torres is nominated. No streaming information is available but since it’s Sony Pictures Classics, it will probably be on Netflix.

“Nickel Boys” is a historical drama set at a racist reform school in 1960s Florida. Also nominated as Adapted Screenplay, it’s in theaters and will soon be availanle to buy/rent on Pime Video and streaming on MGM+.

“The Substance” finds an aging celebrity taking a black-market drug to create a younger, hotter version of herself. Director Coralie Fargeat is nominated, along with actress Demi Moore, Original Screenplay, Makeup & Hairstyling. Streaming on MUBI and to buy/rent on Prime Video.

“Wicked,” adapted from the hit Broadway show, is the first half of the story of what happened before Dorothy dropped into Oz. Actresses Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande are nominated along with Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling. Available to buy/rent on Prime Video and it will eventually stream on Peacock.

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “The Brutalist” (A-24)

 

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” is 3 1/2 hours long with an intermission, making it the first film to have an interval since “Gandhi” (1982).

It’s a compelling immigrant tale with Oscar nominee Adrien Brody delivering one of the best performances of the year as Lazlo Toth, a renowned Hungarian Jewish architect whose vulnerability leads to addiction.

His tale begins in 1947, as traumatized Lazlo arrives on Ellis Island, having survived Nazi incarceration at Buchenwald. An anonymous, penniless Holocaust survivor, he’s been separated from his beloved wife Erzebet (Oscar nominee Felicity Jones), who is stuck in Budapest with their young niece, Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy).

Making his way to Philadelphia, Lazlo is given a cot in the back of a furniture store run his cousin (Alessandro Nivola) and his cynical Catholic wife (Emma Laird).

One day, they’re commissioned by Harry (Joe Alwyn) and his sister Maggie (Stacy Martin) to renovate an ornate study in a palatial mansion in nearby Doylestown as a surprise for their father, millionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Oscar nominee Guy Pearce).

When Lazlo transforms it into a minimalist Bauhaus masterpiece, Harrison is – at first – shocked but he soon comes to admire its discreet beauty, commissioning him to design a vast hilltop community center. “I find our conversations intellectually stimulating,” Harrison explains, inviting Lazlo to move into his guest house.

The second half begins in 1953 during the massive building’s construction when Harrison arranges for Erzebet and Zsofia to emigrate and join Lazlo. But their feisty independence soon irks the autocratic Van Burens and erupts into conflict.

Credit Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lol Crawley for the jaw-droppingly, almost mythical sequence, a visual allegory in which anguished Lazlo and nefarious Harrison visit Italy’s famed Carrara white marble quarry where Michelangelo carved the Pieta.

Co-writing with his partner, Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, Oscar-nominated director Corbet seems to have fashioned visionary, perfectionist Lazlo after Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead,” as he sacrifices everything to bring Brutalist architecture to his adopted American home.

The film’s audacious themes cover individualism vs. capitalism, creativity vs. compromise, and immigration vs. assimilation – citing Israel as the Jews’ homeland – closing with an epilogue about an architectural aesthetic surreptitiously reverberating from the past.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 1o 10, “The Brutalist” is an electrifying, epic 8, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Lee” (Roadside Attractions)

 

Kate Winslet devoted nearly a decade to bringing her passion project “Lee,” the story of Lee Miller, a hedonistic high-fashion-model-turned-war correspondent, to the screen – for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.

“So many people don’t know who Lee Miller was, have never heard of her, yet will have looked at the images she took that informed them in some way about what happened during World War II,” Winslet notes. “She was an American woman who went to war to document the truth and to bear witness to Nazi atrocities.”

After Miller’s ‘accidental’ son, Antony Penrose, gave her complete access to his estranged mother’s archive, Winslet developed the script with Liz Hannah, Marion Hume & John Collee, chose cinematographer Ellen Duras as director, and bankrolled the film herself when necessary.

Using the framing device of being ‘interviewed,’ Miller’s story begins in 1937 in the south of France, where – realizing that her modelling days were numbered – she turned to photography, became the audacious, bare-breasted muse of Dada artist Man Ray and eventually married British Surrealist Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard), who recruited artists for a ‘camouflage’ unit.

When Hitler’s forces invaded France, Miller moved to London, where she convinced British Vogue editor Audrey Winters (Andrea Riseborough) to use the ‘solarized’ pictures she took with her Rolleiflex and dispatched from the war zone, often working with Life photojournalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg).

(Solarization is a process in which the background of a portrait is overexposed to outline the head with a black shadow.)

They arrived at Buchenwald in General Patton’s wake and were among the first to document the depravity at Dachau. In Munich, they wrangled entrance to Hitler’s private apartment on the Prinzregentenplatz, where Scherman photographed Miller nude the Fuhrer’s bathtub.

Problem is: the episodic narrative thread tends to be awkward and confusing – glossing over or omitting salient details about Miller’s alcoholism, chain-smoking, promiscuous sexuality, insatiable desire for excitement, and bohemian fondness for macabre visual images.

Yet Kate Winslet’s nuanced performance is arresting and compelling, particularly when she focuses on Lee Miller’s fear of fascism.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Lee” is a poignant, visually searing 6, streaming on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Hulu.