House of Gucci - Movie Review

Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Jack Huston and Salma Hayek.

Written by Becky Johnson & Roberto Bentivegna.

Directed by Ridley Scott.

★★½ 

This reminded me a lot of Ridley Scott's other terrible-rich-people drama All the Money in the World. Instead of the Gettys, he's focused on the Guccis, and he decided to ramp up the camp factor in doing so. It's like he decided the Guccis needed a little more Dynasty flavor to it.

The protagonist is Patrizia (Lady Gaga), who marries into the Gucci family and has that Vanity Fair determination to make something of herself via social climbing among multi-millionaires. Patrizia has a meet-cute with Mauricio Gucci (Adam Driver), who falls in love with her and marries her. Patrizia sees once she is in, the dysfunction with Mauricio's dad (Jeremy Irons) and uncle (Al Pacino), who come across as Italian versions of the Duke brothers from Trading Spaces. Also around is Mauricio's cousin Paolo (Jared Leto), portrayed as a talentless idiot, with Leto somehow overacting in a movie that encourages Mommie Dearest level Jon-Lovitz-with-a-hankie capital-A "ACTING!"

This takes place over the course of 20 years, with legal maneuverings and backstabbing that makes Succession's Roy family look stable. It's a 2 1/2 hour epic, and it does drag in parts. The tone also shifts. Some scenes we're supposed to take seriously; other scenes, well, you half-expect JR Ewing to stroll in to buy a piece of the Gucci empire.

Lady Gaga, through it all, is terrific as Patrizia, and Driver, who is terrific in everything, doesn't disappoint as the stiff Mauricio. It strikes me as a movie that would work just as well with a home viewing, with some wine, and maybe some rare cheeses, and a vintage rug in front of a crackling fireplace to one side. And the two guys from Lady & the Tramp performing "Bella Noche" in the background.

High-Rise - DVD Review

HIGH-RISE (R) Starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes and Sienna Guillory.
Written by Amy Jump.
Directed by Ben Wheatley.

★★½

This movie is based on a 1975 JG Ballard novel, and the director has wisely kept it in that time-period, even as it's looking forward into a dystopian future. Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons) has designed a series of high-rise buildings, obnoxious blocky things that jut at the top like a concrete claw.

Dr. Laing (Tom Hiddleston) is a resident on the 25th floor of this 40-story building, and it's through his eyes that we follow the happenings of the High-Rise. The High-Rise is its own character. The interiors are garish and psychadelic; the exteriors cold and dank. The movie establishes fairly early that it's a social satire against class warfare and capitalism run amok. The richer people of the higher floors don't take long before they start exploiting their "lessers" of the lower floors.

The movie really gets away from itself once order breaks down. The camera zooms around on rich, orgiastic parties, then taking time to observe the poor people living amongst the piling-up trash of the ground floor. I've never read the book, and my understanding is that it was deemed unfilmable. Well, they certainly put forth a solid effort here, but the second half just gets messier and messier while it relentlessly hammers home its "rich people are awful" point.

Beautiful Creatures - DVD Review

Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Margo Martindale, Eileen Atkins, Zoey Deutch and Kyle Gallner.
Directed by Richard LaGravenese.

★★

It's Twilight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Teen fantasy romance meets Southern gothic in this latest capitalization on best-selling YA fiction.

My first problem: Very few of these actors are from the south, and it pained my ear to hear the way some of them faked it so.  It takes more than changing "oil" to "awl" to make it sound like you're a natural resident of the Carolinas.

My second problem: The story essentially entails all the other characters waiting around to see if our heroine is going to turn into a good witch or a bad witch.

The little-known Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert play the two star-crossed lovers, he a normal boy from the sticks, she the niece of the wealthiest family in town, rumored to be cultists.  They meet cute and flirt, but eventually a bad-girl cousin and a pure-evil mama show up to stir up trouble for them.  Obvious Brits like Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson get to chew their bits of scenery, but it all builds to a frenzied anti-climax that I'm sure came off better in the book.

Margin Call - DVD Review

★★★½

Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgely, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci and Aasif Mandvi.
Directed by J.C. Chandor.

This does for millionaire financial analysts what Glengarry Glen Ross did for real estate.  It's not based on any one company, but it wouldn't surprise me if the execs at Lehman Bros. or AIG went through the same thing.

Early in the movie there's a scene where a supervisor Eric (Stanley Tucci) along with 80% of the other workers on his floor.  He passes off a thumbdrive to a co-worker Peter (Zachary Quinto) who opens and tries completing its formulas.  He does that evening, and he calls Eric's boss Will (Paul Bettany) to come back to the office.  Peter shows him the numbers, and Will calls his boss Sam (Kevin Spacey) who then calls other higher-up executives until finally the CEO helipcopters in.

Jeremy Irons is John Tuld, the CEO, and one of the bitings truths the movie captures is that the further up the chain, the less knowhow they actually have, the less work they actually do.  They're there because they make the "hard decisions."  Irons commands every scene he's in, and this is with an already outstanding ensemble.

SHO's The Borgias - TV Review

The Borgias picks up right where Showtime's The Tudors left off. Actually, Henry VIII was an infant when this story gets started. In 1492, Rodriga Borgia conspired and succeeded in becoming Pope Alexander VI, arguably the most corrupt Pope in history. This is his story.

For one thing, it's great to see Jeremy Irons get his own series, and he doesn't twirl his mustache as the Pope. His Rodrigo is a schemer, a Machiavellian hypocrite of the highest order, but every once in a while he seems to wonder if he's really doing the right thing. Good. Even if the main character is evil, there still need to be elements about him that make me want to watch each week. It'll be fun to watch this series unfold.