Susan Granger At The Movies

A Quiet Place II

If you didn’t see “A Quiet Place” (2018), you’ll be bewildered because John Krasinski’s sci-fi sequel begins where the first left off. Instead of the peace and tranquility they’ve sought, the Abbott family must once again run and hide from vicious extraterrestrial creatures that hunt by sound.

In a prologue/flashback on Day 1, Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) drives into the seemingly deserted upstate New York town of Millbrook to pick up oranges, etc. to take to a Little League game where his son Marcus (Noah Jupe) waits for his turn at bat.

Suddenly, a fireball shoots through the sky. Grabbing Marcus, Lee’s wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) speeds off with their newborn baby, while Lee loads their deaf teenage daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) into his truck. Tragedy strikes and Evelyn is left to care for the kids on her own.

Day 474: Taking refuge in an abandoned steel mill with a cynical, misanthropic, despondent neighbor (Cillian Murphy), they hide in an airless but sound-proof furnace, where Evelyn deposits her infant in a portable case with a tiny oxygen mask wrapped around its head to muffle its wails.

Self-reliant, resourceful Regan, toting a radio, amp and microphone, plus a homemade hearing aid, uses these devices to pick up a broadcast of the song “Beyond the Sea,” playing repeatedly. If she can locate its source, she’s sure that’s a clue to finding other survivors.

Opening with writer/director/actor John Kraskinski thanking theatergoers for coming back to the multiplex, this is a horror/thriller that should be seen as a communal experience in that silent, darkened space.

Deaf actress Millicent Simmonds delivers a pivotal performance, combining grit and vulnerability, supported by Noah Jupe, displaying terror, empathy and courage.

Editor Michael P. Sawyer incessantly cuts between multiple storylines, albeit utilizing far too many jump-scares, with the sound dropping in and out, as cinematographer Polly Morgan captures the chaotic, post-apocalyptic wasteland, punctuated by Marco Beltrami’s anxiously pulsating score.

Halston

Have you ever stood in the check-out line at the supermarket, skimming through the tabloids on display? It’s like gorging yourself on salacious gossip and juicy innuendo.

That’s the feeling you get watching “Halston,” the new five-part Netflix mini-series, starring Scottish actor Ewan McGregor as Roy Halston Frowick, who becomes one of America’s most famous designers.

Raised in Indiana, he’d try to lift his woebegone mother’s spirits by making her hats. Growing into adulthood, he created the famous pillbox that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband’s Inauguration.

Propelled by Eleanor Lambert (Kelly Bishop), Halston transitioned into haute couture, choosing young Liza Minnelli (Krysta Rodriguez) as his first muse, blending freedom with fashion, cutting fabric to flow with her dancing.

As affluent socialites popularized his shirtwaist dress and ultrasuede fabric, David Mahoney (Bill Pullman) of Norton Simon Industries supplied him with extravagant financial backing.

Meanwhile, reckless, cocaine-addicted Halston sought male prostitutes like Victor Hugo (Gian Franco Rodriguez), embracing them in an entourage that included Joel Schumacher (Rory Culkin) and jewelry designer Elsa Peretti (Rebecca Dayan).

Having lost claim to his trademark name and unable to meet deadlines, Halston was forced to work with theater costumer John David Ridge (Jack Mikesell). Later, he collaborated with Martha Graham (Mary Beth Piel) on unique “Persephone” outfits.

FYI: In the episode devoted to the orgiastic debauchery & decadence of Manhattan’s Studio 54, a disheveled woman is repeatedly denied entrance. Desperate, she tries to sneak through the air vents and perishes. Based on a real incident, it was a man’s dead body that was found.

Adapted by Sharr White from Stephen Gaines’ book “Simply Halston,” it’s directed by Daniel Minahan and produced by Ryan Murphy, offering fragmented glimpses into Halston’s ludicrous penchant for raunchy self-destruction as he snorts away admirable talent and incredible potential.

While Krysta Rodriguez barely skims Liza Minnelli’s surface and Vera Farmiga is wasted as a perfumer sniffing Victor Hugo’s jock strap, Ewan McGregor’s compelling performance is perfection personified.

Above Suspicion

Set in Pikeville, Kentucky, the crime thriller “Above Suspicion” is based on actual events that caused fear, loathing and revenge in rural Appalachia.

“You know what’s the worst thing about being dead? You have too much time to think,” muses Susan Smith (Emilia Clarke) as her from-the-grave voiceover teases the Southern Gothic saga about to unfold.

In 1988, Susan was living in a trailer park with her two children and abusive, drug-dealing ex-husband, Cash (Johnny Knoxville). Addicted to cocaine, she was about to be arrested as a welfare cheat, drawing checks from multiple states, when she spies handsome, clean-cut F.B.I. agent Mark Putnam (Jack Huston), moving from Connecticut into her small town with his wife Kathy (Sophie Lowe) and infant daughter.

Eager for advancement within the Bureau, Putman was determined to catch a local thief who had already hit 11 banks in the area.

Grateful for the extra income and seeing an avenue for escape from the hardscrabble drudgery of her life, desperate, impetuous Susan is determined to seduce him, acting as his undercover ‘informant,’ helping him break several cases.

Not surprisingly, when their relationship turns sexual and he refuses to fulfill her naïve romantic fantasy, there are violent repercussions, since snitches are despised in the Kentucky hills. Eventually, guilt-riddled Putnam is arrested — the first time an F.B.I. agent was convicted of murder.

Adapted by Chris Gerolmo from the book by ‘New York Times’ journalist Joe Sharkey and directed by Philip Noyce (“Patriot Games”), it superficially skims the sordid story, balefully punctuated by Dickon Hinchliffe’s score.

During the end credits, there are glimpses of the real people depicted, including Mark Putnam.

FYI: Best known as blonde dragon-riding Danerys Targaryen in HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Emilia Clark wears a brunette wig. And Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) is the nephew of actress Angelica Huston.

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.