Susan Granger At the Movies

News of the World

Set five years after the Civil War, Tom Hanks stars in the elegiac Western “News of the World” as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who travels from town-to-town, enthralling often-illiterate audiences with stories about what’s happening in this country and abroad, charging a dime per person.

It’s 1870 and the tumultuous 15th Amendment has just been ratified, extending the right to vote to all men without regard to race or previous condition of servitude.

While riding from Wichita Falls, this itinerant newsreader finds abandoned 10-year-old Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel), who was raised by the Kiowa Native American tribe after her farmer parents were killed. Determined to return her to members of her biological family, he soon discovers that she is far from welcome by her relatives in far-off Castroville.

“An orphan twice-over,” uncommunicative Joanna, who doesn’t speak English and never learned to use a knife-and-fork, suffers a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, defiantly determined to run away to return to the familiarity of the Kiowa.

And Capt. Kidd is an archetypal lonely wanderer, fleeing from his own sad history of physical abuse and emotional trauma.

Soon, a surrogate father/daughter relationship develops, as they face various dangers along the rough-hewn road in Reconstruction-era Texas, including a brutal shoot-out with a trio of child-sex traders.

Leisurely directed by Paul Greengrass (“Captain Phillips”), who co-wrote the script with Luke Davis, it’s adapted from Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel, which bears remarkable resemblance with Charles Portis’ “True Grit” and John Ford’s “The Searchers.” Both starred John Wayne as an older man on a journey with a young girl.

In contrast to Wayne’s grizzled, ornery streak, Tom Hanks oozes basic, human decency. The supporting cast includes Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, Ray McKinnon and Mare Winningham with a symphonic musical score by James Newton Howard.

FYI: With her almost translucent white skin, platinum hair and blue eyes, riveting Berlin-based child-actor Helena Zengel actually learned to speak the Kiowa language.

Promising Young Woman

Do you remember — back in 2016 — when Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman? Despite having committed this heinous crime, the presiding Judge referred to him as a “promising young man.”

That obviously inspired debuting British writer/director/actress Emerald Fennell, who created “Promising Young Woman,” a female revenge #MeToo thriller that’s surprisingly peppered with comedy and utterly incongruous music.

Living at home with her parents and working as a coffee shop barista, 30 year-old Cassandra “Cassie” Thomas (Carey Mulligan) is a medical school dropout whom many called “a promising young woman.”

At night, Cassie roams the bar scene, pretending to be “drunk,” allowing herself to be picked up by “nice guy” predators whom she subsequently humiliates. Apparently, years earlier, her best-friend Nina was victimized by a privileged classmate whom the patriarchal system protected from prosecution.

When Cassie starts dating former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), now a pediatric surgeon, she discovers that Nina’s attacker is getting married. Plus, previously estranged fellow student Madison (Alison Brie) shows Cassie a repugnant video of Nina’s rape that she’s kept on her phone all these years.

So the stage is set for Cassie to wreak the vengeance she’s been contemplating for a long time.

Sucking strawberry licorice twists, Carey Mulligan cleverly plays against the stylized, candy-colored silliness of some of the anarchic scenes, mingling chilling suspense with strange satisfaction.

“I wanted to make a real revenge movie about a real woman, combining female rage and romance with heartbreak and horror,” states filmmaker Emerald Fennell, who is currently playing Camilla Parker-Bowles on “The Crown.”

As for Brock Turner, he was incarcerated for just 90 days, although he must register as a sex offender for life. His overly sympathetic California Judge Aaron Persky was subsequently disbarred. Now 24, Brock Turner is living with his parents near Dayton, Ohio, working at a factory for $12 an hour.

The Nest

Back in the 1980s, which is when “The Nest” is set, one of the Ladies’ Home Journal’s most popular monthly features was “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” drawing from the files of marital therapists and counselors.

Dutifully following along those lines, writer/director Sean Durkin introduces hot-shot British commodities broker Rory O’Hara (Jude Law) who leaves Wall Street to return to the U.K. with his American wife Allison (Carrie Coon), an avid equestrian, and two children: young Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell) and his teenage half-sister Samantha (Oona Roche).

Sensing an opportunity to score big-time, ambitious Rory rejoins his former firm and leases a cavernous, centuries-old country manor in Surrey where — as legend has it — Led Zeppelin once stayed while working on an album.

No one’s happy there, including Allison’s beloved black thoroughbred stallion Richmond, who raises a ruckus as a proper stable and riding ring are under construction.

Problem is: stretched far beyond his financial means, Rory’s a pathological liar. He tells people they still have a penthouse in Manhattan and are shopping for a flat in Mayfair. And his patrician English boss (Michael Culkin) is resisting Rory’s brash buyout plan which would net him a huge finder’s fee.

For many years, chain-smoking, co-dependent Allison has enabled Rory’s luxurious fantasies, contributing to the posh facade — until she can’t stand the pretense any longer. Bitterly disillusioned, she is tired of stashing cash in hiding places and pretending that all’s well.

Having garnered acclaim for “Martha Marcy May Marlene” (2011) and launching Elizabeth Olsen’s career, Sean Durkin’s casting choices are commendable. Looking startlingly like Cate Blanchett, Carrie Coon’s inscrutable beauty matches Jude Law’s recklessly brash masculinity. And Hungarian DP Matyas Erdely delivers appropriately ominous cinematography.

In the press notes, Durkin acknowledges that the slim concept emanated from his own transatlantic memories of alienation as a child in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.

As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.

During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie and drama critic, syndicating her reviews and articles around the world, including Video Librarian. She has appeared on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies. In 2017, her book 150 Timeless Movies was published by Hannacroix Creek Books.

Her website is www.susangranger.com. Follow her on Twitter @susangranger.