Susan Granger At The Movies

The Kominsky Method

Created by Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men, “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon”), the comedy/drama series “The Kominsky Method” made its Netflix debut in 2018, starring Michael Douglas as Sandy Kominsky, an imperious Hollywood acting coach whose promising career as a performer never panned out, and Alan Arkin as Norman Newlander, Sandy’s longtime agent and only friend.

Sandy’s long-suffering daughter Mindy (Sarah Baker) helps him run his acting classes; her boyfriend is Martin Schneider (Paul Reiser). And Sandy’s ex-wife/Mindy’s mother is volatile Dr. Roz Volander (Kathleen Turner).

This third — and final — season finds Sandy mourning the death of his friend Norman and serving as Executor of Norman’s estate. Drinks and dinner at their favorite hangout, Musso and Frank’s, will never be the same.

“We are passengers on boats, slowly sinking,” Sandy declares.

There’s an inevitable sadness, even though life still goes on. While trying to adjust to life without his closest confidante, grumpy Sandy must also come to grips with the complicated inevitability of Mindy’s marriage to much-older Martin.

Their upcoming nuptials signal the arrival of raunchy Roz, as Douglas and Turner reignite their “Romancing the Stone” and “Jewel of the Nile” charisma. Plus there are amusing encounters with Morgan Freeman and Barry Levinson, as themselves.

Silver-haired Michael Douglas has always had an effective knack for self-deprecation; his Sandy is absurdly vain yet acutely self-aware. And Alan Arkin is renowned for his impeccable comic timing.

If you’re streaming all three seasons, you’ll glimpse memorable appearances by Danny DeVito, as a proctologist, Jane Seymour, as a flame from Norman’s past, Ann-Margret, as Norman’s friend, Nancy Travis, as a divorcee who takes acting lessons from Sandy, and Lisa Edelstein as Norman’s estranged daughter.

There’s lots of laughter — fun and sentimental — amid the pathos, which the cast is obviously enjoying. Sadly, the condensed six-episode season left me wanting more, yet knowing this is the final chapter.

 

The Ice Road

At age 69, grizzled Irish actor Liam Neeson (“The Grey,” “Non-Stop,” “Cold Pursuit”) has become one of Hollywood’s most steadfast leading men, accustomed to coping with catastrophic situations. In “The Ice Road,” he’s a rugged, long-haul trucker based in North Dakota.

When there’s a sudden explosion of methane gas, hapless diamond miners are trapped deep below the surface in remote Manitoba, knowing that their oxygen will soon run out.

Mike McCann (Neeson) and his younger brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), a skilled mechanic who suffers from P.T.S.D. and aphasia as the result of a war injury in Iraq, are summoned by trucker Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) to transport rescue drilling equipment — 30-ton gas wellheads — across northern Canada’s treacherous terrain during the spring thaw when ‘ice roads’ are normally closed.

As part of a convoy of three 18-wheelers, they’re joined by feisty Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), an Indigenous Canadian woman whose brother is among the trapped miners, along with sleazy Vernay (Benjamin Walker), an insurance claims adjuster from corporate headquarters.

As they proceed along the only route that will allow them to reach the mine in time, they encounter cracks in the rapidly melting ice, pressure waves, storms, avalanches and deceptions as they fight for traction.

Taking his cue from the success of the History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers,” screenwriter/director Jonathan Hensleigh (“Kill the Irishman”) has fashioned a formulaic action-thriller, populated by predictably clichéd characters … although I did learn the reason why truckers keep bobbleheads on their dashboards.

And if the concept feels familiar, perhaps you’re recalling Henri Georges Clouzot’s classic 1953 French thriller “The Wages of Fear,” based on a novel by George Arnaud, about trucks carrying explosive nitroglycerine through the mountains; in 1977, it was remade by William Friedkin as “Sorcerer.”

 

No Sudden Move

Sometimes filmmakers go through a rough patch. Steven Soderbergh struck out with the Academy Awards, feeling so secure in his assumption that Chadwick Boseman would win that he broke tradition by closing the show with the Best Actor Award, only to discover Anthony Hopkins won; Hopkins was in Wales and no film crew was on stand-by there.

Now with “No Sudden Move,” Soderbergh’s created a stupefying ‘noir’ trip back to 1954 in Detroit, where ex-con Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) is eager to pocket $5,000 to re-claim land that was taken from him.

When he visits his buddy Jimmy’s (Craig muMs Grant) barber shop, he’s sent to the back alley where Doug Jones (Brendan Fraser) hires him to hold the Wertz family hostage while husband/father, Matt (David Harbour), an accountant at General Motors, is forced to steal engineering specs from a safe that belongs to his boss, Mel Forbert (Hugh Maguire).

Matt’s having an affair with Forbert’s secretary, Paula Cole (Frankie Shaw), so getting the combination to the safe from her shouldn’t be much of a problem. But it is, particularly when Matt’s wife, Mary (Amy Seimetz) finds out.

For this job, Curt must team up with Ronald Russo (Benicio Del Toro) and Charlie Barnes (Kieran Culkin). But when it becomes a full-scale fiasco, Curt joins Ronald in a scheme to dupe Frank Capelli (Ray Liotta), whose wife (Julia Fox) is having an affair with Ronald.

Then there’s cynical Police Detective Joe Finney (Jon Hamm) and other ‘surprise’ characters.

Ed Solomon’s sprawling script encompasses too many tricky, interlocking plots and duplicitous characters, emerging as downright confusing within its tight, two-hour timeframe. It’s like trying to assemble a complicated jigsaw puzzle in which you’ve completely lost interest.

As usual, Soderbergh not only directs but serves as cinematographer, using the pseudonym Peter Andrews, and editor, under the name Mary Ann Bernard.

 

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.