By Anne Brodie
Let’s celebrate June Squibb! Hardworking, tiny, mighty, she has an uncanny acting gift – a mix of power and subtlety She’s enlivened more than 1oo films, including Nebraska for which she received an Oscar nomination, About Schmidt, The Humans and Thelma. First timer Scarlett Johansson directs her in the Eleanor the Great, an approachable but complex study of a woman whose life is changed when her best friend dies. Bessie (Rita Zohar) and Eleanor have known each other forever; their habits are lined up and they share a room and a routine. Bessie’s a storyteller; Eleanor is transfixed when she shares her experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis in the Holocaust. But now she must move in with her daughter and grandson and she’s unhappy. So she dreams up an idea to throw herself a Bat Mitzvah, a request that strangely upsets her family. She goes to a Holocaust support group (all real-life survivors), hears their stories and makes a new friend, journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman). When Eleanora eventually shares her story, Nina asks to do a paper on her and her father (Chiwetel Ejiofor) requests a story on her for his television show. They too are grieving; they’ve just lost their mother and wife. Meanwhile Eleanor’s been to the rabbi who assures her a little deceit is ok sometimes and they go ahead with her celebration plans. Squibb carries off an imperfect character with tremendous glee, and charm, and kudos to Kellyman for her sensitivity. Her light touch is moving, but we see the burden behind it. The film’s a celebration of life, a stinging reminder of the pain of the deaths of people we love. Frailty, whims, corrections, surviving and connection are beautifully expressed in his lovely human story. Squibb turns 96 on November 6. Eleanor the Great is in theatres including TIFF Bell Lightbox Sept. today.
Ethan Hawe’s hypnotic performance in FX’s The Lowdown is top of game stuff, consistently ultra real, moody, and charged with a manic energy that comes off the screen. He’s “citizen journalist” Lee Raybon, a “truthstorian” who is “obsessed by the truth” and shines light on Tulsa’s shadowy corners. He’s now a target of the local elite family the Washbergs, which he believes built its power and fortune on generational corruption. He’s written a slew of exposes and is investigating another piece, disregarding outright threats against him. Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson) appears to have shot himself following his latest article, after tucking a note inside a book in his library. Oddly, Lee owns a rare book shop in town, catering mostly to universities and he loves art. He’s no hick, but pretends to be. At a dinner with Washberg patriarch, top baddie and aspiring governor, Donald (ha-ha!) (Kyle McLaughlin), Lee bribes the receptionist to sell him a priceless drawing behind her desk.He’s someone who gets what he wants and he doesn’t care how. He was Dale’s friend who then “appears” to him to tell him the family considers him “spent meat” because he wouldn’t vote their way in business. Despite his enemies, Lee continues to expose them – he’s beaten, kidnapped, and shot in multiple incidents but nothing stops him. And a pair of skinheads are after him for reporting that they burned down a synagogue. Lee’s daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and best friend Marty (Keith David) have his back; she susses out what’s going on, seeks and finds Dale’s books witn hidden copious notes exposing Washberg evil deeds. Fasten those seatbelts – this is classic, vintage, excellent FX. A hearty handshake to creator Sterlin Harjo and FX home of some of the best, oddest and most original streaming stories around. The Lowdown holds its freak flag high. Ahh, Fargo! Now on FX, streaming next day on Disney+.
Jessica Chastain stars in the incredibly, shockingly timely series The Savant, on Apple TV+ Sept 26. She’s known as the Savant in her work as a top-secret government agent who, alongside an army of colleagues, tracks domestic extremists. The highest of high tech allows them to infiltrate groups and individuals who may be planning harm to bolster their white supremacist nationalism in order to nip any planned attacks in the bud. The movement adheres to the Great Replacement theory that non whites are taking away America, “their country”, and their rights and have no qualms about using violence to silence liberals and minorities. Out in the woods, a man in black spreads hate on his computer with a banner behind him reading When Tyranny Becomes Law; he’s known as The Ferret. She’s followed him for a year and a half and knows he’s about to act. And a US soldier is killed in Iraq; she recognises the potential killer. More and more domestic extremists pop up; Aaron, one of her targets blows up his tuck in front of a government building, an eye doctor donates to the cause, and horrifically, her colleague Danielle is doxxed and killed when her truck is bombed. The series is well made and intense, and is a hard pill to swallow for people observing heightened political, cultural tensions in the US and beyond. Also stars Melissa James Gibson, Alan Poul, Kelly Carmichael, Matthew Heineman, David Levine, Garrett Kemble, Jessica Giles. Eight episodes. LATE WORD that APPLE TV+ has decided ” after careful considerations” to release it later due to the nature of the material. Savant quote “Snipers, bombings, ambushes, we’re on the verge of serious violence.” She adds: “This guy isn’t just planning violence, he’s out to make a statement … innocent Americans are going to die”.
Netflix‘ riveting eight-part series House of Guinness gives family businesses a bad name. Phenomenally successful Ango-Irish brewer Benjamin Guinness died in 1868 leaving four children, Arthur, Edward, Anne and Ben. The family were unpopular in Dublin to say the least, paying workers chump change while helping build the massive global business, while the Guinnesses lived in luxury. His children were not fond of him, mistrusted him. Daughter Anne had to pay rabble organisers to clear the street to allow Sir Benjamin’s funeral cortege to pass; egg throwing Fenian hecklers hated them as “Protestant gentry”. Soldiers were called in. The family sat together at the cathedral but didn’t attend the funeral out of fear and awaited the reading of the will. It was a shocker – he left everything to Ben. A few concessions to the other males and nada to Anne as she was married – to a poor pastor. Benjamin was tight “Your father always gave the church “just not quite enough”. But her gentle wisdom keeps the family together and she makes sacrifices of dubious nature to protect them. Workers drink in a bar that serves only stolen Guinness, and night the cooperage where full barrels are kept is burned to the ground. Someone left the door unlocked. Meanwhile Ben owes a gambling debt “Or he’ll throw me in the canal”. The loosely fact-based series is hugely entertaining, and a modern rock score adds a certain tang to the proceedings, reminding us that human nature ‘twas ever thus. Oh, and there are no longer any members of the Guinness family on the board. This will spell out why. Streaming now.
The appeal of the cosy murder series is the attention to character, relationships and motives that drive murder in what is almost always a pretty English village, minus the angst. Its appearance contrasts with the darkness in an unknown local’s soul, so that’s fun. And turns out there are always plenty of apparent solid citizens who hold secrets and desperation. But which one Did It? That’s the idea. So, we go inside lots of charming little homes, drink tea from fine china, admire the gardens and potted plants and the woollen sensible clothes they wear. These upstanding citizens? Guilty of murder? Detectives, usually from a city, with a local in tow get on the case. Murder Before Evensong, a new series on Acorn TV based on the bestselling Canon Clement Mysteries by British author The Reverend Richard Coles isn’t the first series about skilled problem-solving religious people – Sister Boniface Mysteries, Father Brown and others have come before. But Evensong breaks the mould – its dark. Unusually dark. Its 1988 – the height of the AIDS crisis, and Canon Daniel Clement (Lewis) who is gay, has just had a disagreement with a woman. And to his horror, discovers a parishioner’s body inside his church, killed with garden shears. He investigates and threatening, anonymous hate mail begins to fill his mailbox. He visits a dying man who confesses he bayonetted a man during WWII as a “scallywag” – local armed farmers and workers who held off Germans. The mood lightens with a village fete but difficult relationships between villagers are revealed. Amanda Redman and Tamzin Outhwaite, who lead their own hit series star with Amit Shah, Adam James, Meghan Treadway, Alexander Delamain, Marion Bailey, Amanda Hadingue, Francis Magee, and Nina Toussaint-White. Lots going on here. Acorn TV tomorrow.
Not so cosy, Emma Thompson’s new film. She leaves her signature humorous, romantic, period and contemporary films for something brutally intense, a thriller shot, as the title tells us, in Dead of Winter. Thompson is Barb and she has just lost her beloved husband and is in bad shape. An endless snowstorm has hit her rural home in Minnesota so she bundles up and takes her ancient but trusty truck to honour him by scattering his ashes on Lake Hilda, far in the wilderness. When she arrives, she becomes aware of a couple of locals, Purple Lady and Camo Jacket (Judy Greer and Menchaca) and witnesses the woman shoot and a girl running in the forest. No cell phone service so she looks for the road, panicking, trudging through knee high snow. She arrives at a house to ask for help and peers in the basement window to find a young girl gagged and chained to a post – she can’t get inside and just as well, the homeowners, Purple Lady and Camo Jacket are dangerous, impulsive and heavily armed and coming back. Thus launches a bloody, nasty, survivalist, insane trip forcing Barb to rely on her wits and instinct to stay alive and rescue the girl. A shocking turn in Thompon’s repertoire, a change of pace and one helluva frosty, ugly ride. In theatres today.
An entire day of indigenous p[programming is available on Hollywood Suite next Tuesday to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation / Orange Shirt Day. Here is what’s on offer:
Incident at Restigouche (1984)
Black Robe (1991)
Dance Me Outside (1994)
The Lesser Blessed (2012)
Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013)
Kuessipan (2019)
Rustic Oracle (2019)
Every Child Matters: Reconciliation Through Education (2020)
Don’t Say Its Name (2021)
L’Inhumain (2021)
The Corruption of Divine Providence (2021)
Wildhood (2021)
Angela’s Shadow (2023)
s-yéwyáw: Awaken (2023)
The Great Salish Heist (2024)