What I've Seen...
Ocean's 8
Maybe I reflect on the Steven Soderbergh helmed "Ocean's.." films with too much fondness (but not "Ocean's 12" though. Never "Ocean's 12"), but as much as "Ocean's 8" tries to match the level of that franchise (Soderbergh, who is friends with the film's director Gary Ross, shot some second unit for this go.) but never ascends to its slick appeal.
Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is free from the clink after doing a 5 year and some change bid for the one crime she didn't commit. With this freedom to continue following her family's proud tradition of crime, reunites with her former literal parter in crime, the cool, calm, collected and stylish Lou (Cate Blanchett) in hopes that Lou would help her on her next get : steal a multi-million dollar piece of jewelry from the Met Gala.
Needing help for a heist as big as this, Lou puts together a team for Debbie : hacker 9-Ball (Rihanna), pickpocket/sleight of hand expert Constance (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians), Lou's friend whose gone respectable Tammy (Sarah Paulson), jewelry maker Amita (Mindy Kaling),and down on her luck designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter),
the latter having the biggest tasks of getting Met Gala co-chair and actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) to agree to wear Rose designs and agree to wearing the jewels so the team can literally steal it from under her nose.
Like the previous "Ocean's" films (even the Rat Pack one), the magic is in plotting the heist. Even at a adequate 2 hours in length, I don't get the sense we get the full force of the characters dynamic because the film diverts much needed time in the last act with ridiculous rigmarole being the appearance of James Corden's John Frazier, a man who could derail the women's steal.
Like Clooney before her, Bullock has the thankless role of being the straight (wo)man while the others get to be more involved in the heist. Even Blanchett whose character is a cool, careful with words number like Brad Pitt's always eating Rusty, resonates more thanks to her Burberry and Givenchy clad character.
It's a grand achievement to see so many high caliber female actors in a high-budget, big studio film, with three of the women being actors of color, well I can easily deal with the fact that in this instance the sum is infinitely better than the whole.
Besides a plethora of celebrities recreating the Met Gala, there are two appearances by veteran "Ocean's" cast members.
Tag
With sporadic laughs, that will make you reflect on enduring friendships and the desire to retain your sense of fun in adulthood.
For thirty years friends Hoagie (Ed Helms), Bob (Jon Hamm), Sable (Hannibal Buress), Chilli (Jake Johnson) and Jerry (Jeremy Renner) have spent every May playing Tag and have spent every May losing to Jerry, the Tag king who have never been "it" in all their time of playing.
When the gang finds out Jerry is retiring from the game after his upcoming wedding, they decide to finally take him down by any means necessary. With assist from Hoagie's overly competitive and highly involved wife Anna, and witnessed by Rebecca (Annabelle Wallis, The Mummy) the reporter who "tags" along as she scraps her initial interview with Bob in order to cover their game, the group descends on Portland for Jerry's wedding and his takedown.
Making something fun actually look fun is hard to do and the film tries by coming up with off-the-wall situations which make you think it's too outlandish to be true, but it's not. The film is based on a true story of friends who have an ongoing game of Tag and the film ends with clips of their game ---a few which are actual set ups in the film.
To show just why Jerry is so good at the game, the filmmakers use the inventive "Sherlock Holmes" Guy Ritchie effect of Jerry seeing everything in slow motion and detailing his and his opponent’s strategies.
I wish the film played up the strength of the friendship more. It's understandable that Jerry wouldn't be a part of the friendship angle because he has to keep his distance from them, but I think the film could have spent a bit of time on what makes these friends remain friends outside of this game. Then there's an entire wasted premise with Rashida Jones as the girl who dated both Chilli and Bob who reawakens their competition for her affection. It's cobbled in there and then tossed aside just as quickly.
Renner is definitely better served in this film than an any of "The Avengers" film. His brief role in "The House" and the larger one here, as well as in the fourth and fifth "Mission Impossible" shows that he's best utilized as the foil if he's not taking lead.
Miraculously this film came together seamlessly despite Renner injured both arms on set on Day 3 of the 43 day production during a stunt.
There’s a scene where Jerry’s on camera and it sounded to me that Renner was slurring his words and I thought, “Did he come to work drunk?” But I guess that was the pain meds ::shrug::
**Hamm gets to exert his comedic chops once more in the current season of “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” in his own episode “Party Monster: Scratching the Surface” as his character, the Reverend is the subject of a documentary about a fan of his DJing who is lured into trying to prove the Reverend’s innocence in the kidnapping of Kimmy and her fellow mole women.
Upgrade
White!Tom Hardy Logan Marshall-Green is the lead in this this Blumhouse TILT production - TILT being the even lower budgeted arm of Blumhouse Productions which means this movie was made for 25k and a meat and cheese platter.
Thankfully Leigh Whannell, creator of the “Saw” franchise, knows his way around a budget so the film looks perfectly adequate for what is essentially a Terminator/Blade Runner homage.
When Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) and his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo)
are attacked by a group of thugs, leaving Asha dead and Grey a quadriplegic, tech wunderkind Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson)
offers Grey a medical miracle in the form of a stent Eron created that has the power of a human brain. This stem, embedded in Grey who is wary of the technological leaps and bounds the world has made, would be a guinea pig to see how the stem acts as a bridge between the mind and body.
Taking this chance to walk again and to find his wife’s killers, Grey assents to the surgery which soon turns him into a uneasy vessel for STEM (voice of Simon Maiden) who wants Grey to take a more violent path to justice.
Problems build when the officer assigned to Grey’s attack, Cortez (Betty Gabriel) becomes suspicious at the building body count of her suspects.
It’s a bit of fun. A definite gore-fest, but not mindlessly so like the “Saw” films.
Whannell, Gabriel and Marshall-Green
Adrift
This movie drifts as listlessly as the injured boat that Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin are passengers on in this film inspired by a true story.
23-year old Tami (Shailene Woodley, Divergent) dreams of traveling the world and she may get there one place as a time as she takes various jobs on ships in order to see different sites. While in Tahiti she meets another traveler in Richard (Sam Claflin, The Hunger Games).
The two free spirits quickly fall in love and luck into a grand opportunity: to sail Richard's acquaintance's yacht from Tahiti to San Diego for $10k to fund their dream of traveling the world.
The two embark on the journey and are felled by a hurricane. Knocked off course, with Richard injured and limited food; Tami hopes to plot a course to land before they starve.
A testament to the spirit of survival. Woodley is incredible with this tough role. I think Jennifer Lawrence would have been overly praised for the same work that Woodley gets ignored for.
The Tale
I was thankfully prepared for the film due to reading about audience's reaction coming out of Sundance. I knew the film would be an unflinching, hard look at sex abuse but I didn't estimate the frank look the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that a survivor of abuse goes through.
Based on the true story from the film's writer/director Jennifer Fox, it's a look at Fox's realization that what she had envisioned as a mutually consenting relationship between a 40-year old man was actually abuse.
Jennifer (Laura Dern),
a documentarian and college educator, gets a frantic call from her mother Nettie (Ellyn Burstyn) telling her that she has found the story that 13-year old Jennifer (Isabelle Nélisse, The Strain) wrote detailing her relationship with her 40-year old running coach Bill (Jason Ritter) and Mrs. G (Elizabeth Debicki), her riding instructor.
Not understanding why her mother would despair over something that she considered loving and transformative, Jennifer began to look back at that time and with now adult eyes begin uncovering that she had been groomed by Mrs. G and Bill.
Told through a series of flashbacks and talking head commentary a'la a documentary, Jennifer, with Nettie's urging, begins to reach out to find Bill and Mrs. G so that she could get the answer of "why me".
As I was walking out two men were talking about the film with one complaining that it was "too much". A sentiment my male friend had and I told him it needed to be and to get over it because child abuse isn't pretty or nice. We should be horrified by it. And what was tremendous about Fox's take is that she gives the POV from the survivor on how a kid could make justifications for the abuse and how perception plays into it. There's a great scene nearly straightaway in the film where Jennifer is thinking back to when she first met Bill and Mrs. G and she's a blonde, perky, teen, seemingly very much in touch with her sexuality and her attraction to Mrs. G, but when she finds a photo of herself at that age when the abuse started, she realizes that who she was at all, we then get the same scene reenacted of her but this time as her real 13-year old self; very much a shy, insecure child.
There was a Q&A afterwards with Fox, Dern, Burstyn, Common who plays Dern's fiancee Martin, Nélisse and Ritter.
Here are my TERRIBLE photos
-Fox says it wasn't until her forties that she considered the relationship abuse. Despite being in therapy since age 17, when she would discuss her relationship with Bill it was always like looking back at a past relationship, she never once used "assault" or "rape". It was only through her work as a documentarian and hearing stories from women detailing their abuse that she realized it applied to what the relationship was.
-The hope that Fox and the cast have is that this film will lead to action. She wants to tie it into legislation and getting statute of limitations widened. She says that the statute of limitations ran out on her when she was 33, but she didn't even realize she had been abused until her 40s. She thinks that the law needs to realize that it is a process and it can takes decades for survivors to assess what has happened to them.
It's a sentiment that Ritter shared saying that he has always been a proponent for women speaking out, he is now learning how to deal with people who either well-meaning or trying to shame, who ask "why did it take so long to come forward".
-Brian DePalma suggested Laura Dern for the role and personally called her to get her to meet with Fox. Dern called Common as they were friends through an acting teacher. Fox showed Dern a list of actors who she wanted for the role and Dern picked Ritter and personally called him to ask him to speak with them about the role. Dern said she really wanted Ritter because he's a great actor but because he also didn't look the part of how people perceive predators: he's nice and wholesome and funny and good-looking and people are taken in by that type of persona.
-While unwilling to point fingers, Fox says that there is an inherent need to not believe bad things that make people go into denial. The story she wrote was a story she wrote for her 7th grade class outlining the "relationship'. The note from her teacher was, ""If this is true, it's a travesty," Fox's teacher had scribbled on the back of the paper. "But since you're so well-adjusted, it can't be true." And was congratulated for her imagination. Now anyone would think to question how a child could come up with a story like that if it wasn't true but because what the reality would mean if it was true is too hard to confront, that people rather believe an easy lie.
-Dern and Burstyn struggled with putting their opinions aside because they felt that there were scenes that seemed too permissive and it came across as justifying abuse; they couldn't understand why Fox wasn't angry at her abusers but Fox provided them with her journals and audio tapes from that time period and they realized it was really Fox's state of mind. And that they had to put aside their ideas of "what they would do' and accept that this was her reality.
-Common said he took the role because of the fact Martin was very much a proponent of Jenny getting help. "He wasn't trying to save her. She saved herself." He says his mother was a teacher and so he knew of the child abuse her students endured so he was always empathetic to that but this film has actually made him proactive and he now works to be a part of ending child abuse getting education out about it. He also liked that his character was a black man suggesting therapy because he says mental health and therapy isn't really pushed in the black community and people should realize that while you may want to help, there are things professionals are more equipped to deal with. Burstyn praised him for his performance and said she loved that role for the very reasons he discussed.
-Nélisse was cast when she was 11 years old because they needed someone who was small as Jenny was a small 13-year old. Fox also said when she looked for 11 year olds in L.A and NY, they were too Disney-fied and gave off a worldly air, so they found Nélisse in Ontario.
While she was given the complete script there were measures in place to not have her confronted with the realism of what they were doing. They shot the sex scenes with an adult stand-in. For Nélisse's reaction shots during those scenes Fox directed her to "look like you got stung with a bee" or "look like you're a grandma running".
-Nélisse says that she, Debecki and Ritter got along well (even though, "she didn't laugh once at my jokes", Ritter "complained") and that they kept it light on set. Ritter said that the house of cards he set up to maintain the happiness fell apart one day when he said Nélisse looked at him with so much trust and he realized that this was exactly the feeling Fox's abuser created in her and he manipulated that.
-Dern talked about how hoping survivors find validation in coming forward even if it doesn't mean justice. (Paraphrasing her) That sometimes justice doesn't always come for the wrong doers so survivors should find peace in knowing that how they address their abuse can be enough. That justice doesn't always get wrapped up in a neat bow.
Beast
Engrossing look at the romance between two outcasts and the prying eyes of a cloistered town that jeopardizes their relationship.
Living on the small Brtish Isles'Jersey,Twenty-something Moll (Jessie Buckley, Taboo) is like a caged bird. Controlled by her intimidating and unyielding mother (Geraldine James, Ann), she unsurprisingly finds freedom when she falls for the town's loner Pascal (Johnny Flynn, Genius).
But when a string of unsolved disappearances of young girls happen, suspicions falls on immigrants --which Pascal is, Moll is put on the defensive. But as the scenario unfolds we find out that there may be more than one beast in this relationship.
Hotel Artemis
I would call this film a straight-to-dvd film but that would be an insult to straight-to-dvd film. I've never seen such a pointless film and I have seen a lot of dreck in my life. I cannot for the life of me see what the actors saw in the script to think, "Yes. This is it. I want to be in this." Maybe that's the problem. There's such high caliber actors who are taking this seriously when you really need over the top performances to sell this mess. It's the reason why Charlie Day is the best thing about this film.
It's 2028 and the night of the largest riot in L.A history as denizens clamor to protest a conglomerate's heavy handed tactic of shutting down water for L.A as a way of sticking it to the population.
None of this matters, however. It was a scenario stuck in to act like this film is deeper than what it is and it's not.
On said night, Hotel Artemis- an upscale, members' only hospital for the underworld run by Jean aka Nurse (Jodie Foster)
and orderly Everett (Dave Bautista)
- sees two new patients: Brothers Sherman (Sterling K. Brown) and brother Lee (Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta) after they're injured in a botched heist.
The Artemis, governed by their own set of rules (almost like the rules at The Continental in John Wick), is a place where everyone goes by the names of their rooms, lays down their arms and make nice. This is increasingly hard for other patients Acapulco (Charlie Day, Pacific Rim: Uprising) and assassin Nice (Sofia Boutella, The Mummy).
When Nurse gets two unexpected guests: an injured cop (Jenny Slate, Gifted) she has a history with and kingpen The Wolf King (Jeff Goldblum) and his menacing son Ilya (Zachary Quinto)
An entirely stupid, makes no kind of sense, plot point pops up with pits the guests against each other in a race to survive each other. It's like "Smokin' Aces" but terrible and stupid(er).
Terrible writing, but a great fight sequence where Boutella goes Angelina Jolie "Salt" and "Wanted" on a group of men; also a bunch of actor-ing by Jodie Foster whose Nurse walks with an ambling gait because ACTING!!
This production photo was better than the film
I will say, though, get Sterling K. Brown a romcom! Suave, handsome devil.
Deadpool 2
The Merc with the Mouth is back for round 2 of puns upon puns upon puns and quips upon quips upon quips. More of the same from the first one except it has more heart and really gets to play more with the X-Men universe.
When Wade/Deadpool's life is upended due to tragedy, X-Men's Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapičić) hopes to get Deadpool off the path of self-destruction and unto a path of purpose by becoming an X-Men trainee under his tutelage.
When Deadpool's botches his first save : to get through to a young mutant Russell (Julian Dennison, Hunt for the Wilderpeople).
Always in the eyeline of dangerous people who want to kill him, Deadpool encounters the time-traveler Cable (Josh Brolin) who has come to this timeline not for Deadpool but for Russell whose future self is an agent of destruction.
As Russell is inching closer to villainy, Deadpool assembles his own X-Men team: X-Force with Domino (Zazie Beets, Atlanta), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan, Iron Fist) and Peter (Rob Delaney, Catastrophe).
There is a thing as overkill and at the times the jokes come so fast and furious that you're brain is stuttering in order to keep up with the references (many aimed at DC's film'verse and The Avengers). The jokes worked in the first one because it is so new and unexpected but now the filmmakers obviously felt they had to double-down so things that were humorous in the first one such scenes of Weasel (TJ Miller) insulting to Wade and the slow regeneration of Deadpool go on too long. It's so unending that it wasn't until a few hours later that I could actually appreciate the film.
Good film, but an obvious cash grab by Fox and like the Marvel film'verse and tv'verse haven't directly overlapped, Fox is keeping Deadpool and X-Men as a whole at arms length with each other they have eased up a bit in a very smart cameo in the film which I think Fox hopes will get people interested in the next X-Men installment "Dark Phoenix" (they dropped X-Men from the title as if people will be fooled that it's not another terrible X-Men film).
"Deadpool" also stars returnees Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams and Wade's friend Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, who wants nothing more to be a killer for hire with Wade and Eddie Marsan as the headmaster of the anti-Mutant orphanage where Russell lives.
Cobra Kai
"Kick the Leg!" "Wax on, Wax Off"..that's about the extent of my "The Karate Kid" memories, but I fell headlong into it's series follow-up "Cobra Kai" and we enjoyed it.
34 years after getting waxed by Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is divorced, estranged from his teen son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and trying to make ends meet in a series of menial jobs. Johnny begrudingly begins to think of others besides himself after intervening when his teenaged neighbor Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) gets roughed up by bullies. In awe of Johnny's karate skills, Miguel asks him for lessons. Memories of his days as a karate champ, Johnny uses the "get out of my life" money from his cruel stepfather (Ed Asner) to open up his own dojo.
As he takes Miguel under his wings, Johnny's son Robby goes to work for Daniel who doesn't know Robby's connection to Johnny. With a son who is only focused on his gadgets, and a daughter who is into her social crowd, Daniel bonds with Robby.
While the series spends a great deal of time on Miguel and Robby and how their lives unwittingly intersects, as well as Johnny's other students, it does glances back at the original films with Daniel still living by the lessons instilled in him by Mr. Miyagi and Johnny's demons borne of being a student of John Kreese (Martin Kove).
The synth laden score and Johnny's obvious love of days past (he watches "Iron Eagle" repeatedly and lives for his Trans Am) could come across as pathetically cheesy but it's a nod to the nostalgia people feel which is why this Youtube Red series exists. It's also about dragging people out of their learned behaviors and try to get them to evolve. As Johnny teaches Miguel how to fight, Miguel tries to teach Johnny how to be humane towards the students in his class instead of the bully he he's been all of his life.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
You know those standalone tie-in books that piggybacks on existing canon but doesn't add much to the canon? That's this, but just a $250 million version of that.
For those of you who wondered, "Just how did Han meet Chewbacca?" Or "How did Han meet Lando?" This film answers your nerdy questions.
We meet Han (Alden Ehrenreich, Hail!Caesar), a rebellious streetrat who teams up with whoever gets him closer to getting enough credits (currency) to leave his homeworld of Corellia, with his girlfriend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones).
As the pair is close to their dream, they get separated. Three years later, still trying to find a way back to Qi'ra, Han teams up with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), a man who shares Han's sense of rebelliousness and winner-takes-all attitude; and newfound associate Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo).
When the two run afoul of crime syndicate head Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), Han and Tobias have to score a haul that will keep Dryden from killing them. To ensure they follow through, Dryden dispatches his right hand to join them on the mission: Qi'ra.
On their perilous, adventure-filled journey they encounter smuggler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover)and his awesome, crowd pleasing, scene-stealing droid L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag).
It's what every Star Wars film is: a group of ragtag misfits who join together and fight against or for a rebellion. Since I don't have a strong sense of Han Solo as a character (it's been an eternity since I've seen the first 3 films) I could watch the film for what it is and not compare it to the previous incarnations. Ehrenreich's Han is enjoyable: he's like a hairy feather-haired Ferris Bueller who's full of ideas, but none of them quite so bright.
I'm a fan of Clarke's so I think she's wonderful in everything. Her Qi'Ra is self-actualized and actually smart which is one thing I think the Star Wars franchise has always gotten right.
Everyone is fine: Harrelson's playing pretty much every character he's played since after "Cheers" and Glover as Lando is suitably smooth and charming, with a humorous love of capes. But my favorite charcter is L3-37, the droid who isn't satisfied with just being a sidekick. L3-37 is an activist for the equality of droids. From criticizing other droids for droid wrestling for the amusement of aliens; or keeping Lando firmly in place when she thinks he's marginalizing her. The father-son writing team of Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan didn't do so in a way that seemed anvilicious or as a way to taunt and draw the ire of 4chan fanboys who over the years have been overly critical about their hate for "Mary Sues" like "The Force Awakens"Rey and "The Last Jedi"s Rose (Kelly Ann Tran), instead it's a nice turn of play that a droid who is supposed to be in servitude to dominant organics (aliens, humans) is actually something with more fortitude than the one she works beside.
A lot of keyboard typing has gone on about Ron Howard's eleventh hour takeover of the film from original directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord (The Lego Movie, 22 Jump Street). Fans were livid over what they hoped would be a fresh take on the franchise like Taiki Waititi provided for "Thor Ragnarok", but LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy didn't like the pair's style which included improvisation and numerous retakes so that they and the actors could "find the moment" in the film. When the majority of their work has been in animation, or moderate budgeted live-action films I can see taking that approach but a multi-million dollar movie is a different thing. In a Hollywood Reporter article about the director swap, people who worked on the film said that for a scene Miller & Lord had already done, Howard was able to recreate it with half of the soundstage and in a fraction of the time they shot it in. Yes it is a safe film, that doesn't bring anything new to the table but it's capable and pleasing and I think that's what you expect from the Howard.
Pose
Ryan Murphy & Co. knows extremes from the over-the-top characters on "Popular" and the over-the-top-outrageous scenarios of "Nip/Tuck" to the apex bombastic nature of "American Crime: The Assassination of Versace", there is no zero to eleven with Murphy & Co -only eleven. But I have high hopes for the just aired "Pose" and hope that its' eleven is more downrange than the high-level operatic nature of "..Versace". "Pose" is like "Paris is Burning" and "Fame" had a baby with the lead Chanel from "Scream Queens" and that is a good thing.
Notable by casting actual trans women of color as the lead, that casting becomes less of the story as the characters unfold and you are secure in the fact that this isn't just Murphy & Co. stunting for points, but instead a sincere interest in telling a great story and honoring the reality of these characters with the casting.
Set in 1987 amidst the ball culture where vogueing came into...vogue, the series follows the House of Abundance led by domineering HBIC house mother Elektra (Dominique Jackson). She rules her house with a sharp tongue and strict rules to be the best as to not embarrass her dynasty.
When one of her "kids" Blanca (MJ Rodriguez) decides to pursue her dream of starting her own house, the battle lines are drawn.
Blanca's first wards are 17-year old Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) who is homeless after being kicked out of his house for being gay and Blanca's fellow emigre from House Abundance Angel (Indya Moore).
Unlike Blanca who holds down a job as a nail technician, Angel can't find work outside of s*x work which is how she meets the married father of two Stan (Evan Peters) who is trying to come up in the Trump era big business of 80s Wall Street.
House Mother Elektra is dynamic and cutting; and Angel is beautiful and dreamy, but for me the real stars are Rodriguez' Blanca and Broadway legend Billy Porter as their fairy godfather of sorts Pray Tell who, like Mother Elektra has harsh words, but unlike her, he has a soft heart.
Within minutes I just knew I was going to love Blanca; she's nurturing and a fighter and anyone who you would want in your corner. There's a sincerity in her performance that eclipses the showier characters. She is, to me, the heart and soul of the show.
-While on panel for Deadline Hollywood's panel on limited series Peters (there for "American Horror Story: Cult") praised "Pose" and its trans cast.
Also on panel were Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning for TNT's "The Alienist" and Alex Rich for "Genius: Picasso".
Succession
Debuting the same night on HBO is "Succession" and it couldn't be any more different than "Pose" if it tired. It was disconcerting to move from a show filled with warmth and positivity led by a black and brown cast to this nihilistic, typical fare about white men behaving badly and that behavior being shown as power. "Succession" is the drama version of the Michael J. Fox/Kirk Douglas comedy "Greedy" where nearly all of the characters are Phil Hartman's jerky, cruel, sycophantic character.
With media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) in questionable health, his second oldest son the blowhard, bull-in-a-china-shop Kendall (Jeremy Strong, The Big Short) is poised and ready to take over as CEO, leapfrogging over his disinterested older brother Connor (Alan Ruck, Spin City), sister Siobhan (Natalie Gold) who is into politics whereas her fiance Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) yearns to climb the ladder at her father's company, and party boy younger brother Roman (Kieran Culkin, Scott Pilgrim v. The World) who sits on the board but lacks ambition.
Entering the fray is Logan's adult nephew Greg (Nicholas Braun, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) whose mother urges him to kiss the ring in order to get in good with his uncle.
The show tries to give dimension to Strong's Kendall that shows that what is driving him is not just ambition (though that is the prevailing attitude) but longing for his father's love and approval. While this is supposed to make one sympathetic to his ploys, it's obnoxious : treating everyone with contempt because you weren't given enough hugs is a played out character motivation.
The pilot episode is directed by "The Big Short"s director Adam McKay and his documentarian style worked for that film, but his excessive push-ins on his characters in this is as obnoxious as the characters' behavior, such as the moment Roman (Culkin) urged a kid to play baseball with his family and if the kid got a home run he'd give him $1 million dollars. When the kid lost, he tore up the check and gave him a square telling him it was "a quarter million". Deplorables. Deplorables in expensive suits and wading in opulence. It'd be one thing if this is to be a cautionary tale or to show that these characters are hurt souls underneath it all, but other than Rucks's Connor, I think they are just who they are and loving it. But I can see myself sticking with it unlike Showtime's limited series "Patrick Melrose" starring Bendydick Cucumbersquash.
Based on the novels and a roman a'clef of the life of the author, "Patrick Melrose" is a look at the 30 years of the life of Patrick (Cumberbatch) who struggles with his drug addiction, an addiction born out of the tragedy that was his s8child abuse at the hands of his cruel father (Hugo Weaving), and the resentment he holds against his mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a functional alcoholic who turned a blind eye to the atrocity.
The first episode is Cumberbatch's tour-de-farce where he spirals out of control as he wrestles with his grief and anger over his abuse; but the second and third episode is more a study on the bored upper class where we are stuck with Melrose's parents and their haughty friends.