Susan Granger At The Movies

The Green Knight

Years ago, as an English major, I had to read a rather long, boring 14th century epic poem from the Arthurian legend called “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Now, visual storyteller David Lowery has revitalized and enhanced this chivalric romance as “The Green Knight.”

Young Gawain (Dev Patel) is a dissolute youth, son of enchantress Morgan le Fay (Sarita Choudhury), who spends most of his time carousing with Essel (Alicia Vikander).

On Christmas Day in the court of aging King Arthur (Sean Harris) and Queen Guinevere (Kate Dickie), regal Arthur summons his nephew Gawain to sit beside him at the feast, expressing regret that he hasn’t spent more time with him. Guinevere reassures the lad that, someday, he will take his rightful place at the Round Table as the “boldest of blood and wildest of heart.”

Suddenly, a towering, ominous figure — resembling half armor-clad man and half-gnarled tree — gallops in on horseback. The Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) challenges any nobleman to strike him with his mighty sword on the condition that — one year hence — he will return the blow in his Green Chapel.

When no one else volunteers, Gawain accepts, decapitating the Green Knight, who promptly retrieves his head and reiterates the young man’s promise to meet him again the following Christmas.

“I fear I am not made for greatness,” insecure Gawain muses before his departure across the wintry landscape in the murky mists of time. But King Arthur believes in his potential, even as Gawain continues to doubt himself.

On the road to meet his destiny, Gawain must face a series of fearsome trials, tribulations and temptations as he gradually learns the true nature of chivalry.

Led by 31 year-old Dev Patel, the compelling performances, Andrew Droz Palermo’s cinematography, Jade Healy’s production design, Malgosia Turzanska’s costume design, Daniel Hart’s music (lutes and harps) and the CGI splendidly augment each other, bringing various chapters of medieval literature to life with spellbinding imagery.

 

Stillwater

If you remember the Amanda Knox case in which she was wrongly convicted of the 2007 murder of her roommate in Perugia, Italy, the plot of “Stillwater” may seem vaguely familiar.

But director Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”), working with Marcus Hinchey and French screenwriters Thomas Bidegain & Noe Debre, adds several new twists to the mystery.

McCarthy sets his dramatic thriller in Marseilles, France. And he tells the story from the point-of-view of oil-rig roughneck Bill Baker (Matt Damon), whose estranged, twentysomething daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) continues to maintain her innocence long after she’s been imprisoned for murdering her unfaithful girlfriend while studying abroad.

Arriving in the exotic Mediterranean port from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to visit Allison and to help overturn her conviction, Baker is befriended by Virginie (Camille Cottin), a single mother with a precocious nine year-old daughter, Maya (Lilou Siuvaud).

Tired of feeling helpless, Baker knows he’s made mistakes as a father, which is why he’s so desperate to exonerate Allison. Stoic yet determined, Baker’s skills are limited to carpentry and home maintenance.

Yet he manages to overcome cultural differences and his lack of proficiency in the French language by engaging the help of others while confronting many social, racial and political pitfalls.

Was Allison’s case influenced because she was in a lesbian relationship with a French-Arabic woman? Was it sensationalized because she was an American?

Often underrated as an actor, Matt Damon burst onto the Hollywood scene as the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter with Ben Affleck of “Good Will Hunting,” coinciding with Steven Spielberg’s casting him as the titular W.W.II Everyman in “Saving Private Ryan.”

Then came the “Jason Bourne” franchise, along with “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “The Departed,” “Invictus,” “Contagion,” and “The Martian,” among others. Now, Damon subtly embodies this rugged, taciturn loner, a recovering addict, with just the suggestion of violence beneath the surface.

 

Crisis

Writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s dramatic thriller “Crisis” revolves around three aspects of the opioid epidemic.

There’s architect/single mother Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), who is recovering from an Oxycodone addition when her 16 year-old hockey-playing son suspiciously disappears and she discovers he’s tragically involved in a drug-smuggling operation.

Then there’s undercover DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer), who is tracking a gang that runs prescription painkillers, primarily Fentanyl, across the U.S.-Canadian border. He’s infiltrated a Montreal-based operation that’s run by a menacing mobster code-named ‘Mother’ (Guy Nadon).

At the same time, Kelly’s dealing with his own defiantly drug-addicted younger sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny’s daughter).

And the third narrative revolves around Dr. Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), a university biology professor who supplements his laboratory’s income by doing research for a pharmaceutical company. He faces an ethical predicament when he discovers a serious problem with the company’s latest, supposedly non-addictive painkiller that’s on the verge of FDA approval.

Reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh’s “Crash” (2005), these three stories eventually intertwine as Jarecki (“Arbitrage”) delves into the entire chain of opioid addiction — from the companies that manufacture the prescription drugs that are eventually sold on the street to the dilemmas of law enforcement officers.

Greg Kinnear, Luke Evans and Michelle Rodriguez complete the star-studded cast.

Made before the Covid pandemic, it does seem a bit dated and didactic. It’s also hampered by the current scandal involving actor Armie Hammer (“Call Me By Your Name”) under investigation by the LAPD for accusations of sexual assault, along with allegations of sadism and cannibal sexts. A great-grandson of Armand Hammer, Armie Hammer is an heir to the Occidental Petroleum fortune.

 

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.