[NoHo Arts District, CA] – This month’s movie and TV reviews of Carry-On and September 5.
Just in time for Christmas (and the inevitable holiday flights) comes the new Netflix movie Carry-On, a well-handled, well-acted thriller that packs enough suspense and twists into its under two-hour running time. It’s also the kind of movie where (if you want to) one can nitpick and play armchair quarterback about the main characters’ actions (I’m including both protagonist Taron Egerton and crafty antagonist Jason Bateman here) but it moves fast enough and is engaging enough to make one care about the outcome. It’s Christmas Eve at a busy LAX, and Egerton is an airline security guard whose failure, regarding the police academy, has damaged his psyche (to say nothing about his relationship with his more successful girlfriend, Sofia Carson). On this particular Christmas Eve, he has convinced his supervisor (Dean Norris) to let him manage a baggage lane—and it is on this night that he is contacted (via an earbud) by Jason Bateman’s mercenary terrorist, who wants Egerton to let a certain bag go through—or else he and his associates (who seem to have a limitless amount of technical acumen and access) will kill his girlfriend.
The first half is a compelling, close-up battle of wits between Egerton and the (largely) invisible Bateman, and both deliver the goods in terms of maintaining their end of the conversation. Bateman employs threats, cajoling, flattery, mockery, and convinces as the disembodied embodiment of evil, while Egerton is suitably intense and occasionally manic while searching for a way to wrest control. Carry-On is at its most intense in these early sections, but director Jaume Collet-Serra and writer T.J. Fixman sustain interest as the stakes are raisedd and other characters are introduced, such as Danielle Deadwyler’s no-nonsense and perceptive LAPD detective, who sees what others don’t see—she also gets to take part in the film’s most imaginative action sequence. You may not want to see Carry-On while in the air, but at home (or in the theater), it packs a lot into its running time—and it reaches its destination in a satisfying manner.
Terrorism is also part of September 5, as it deals with the 1972 Munich Olympics, with ABC broadcasting the event, and the turmoil and fateful decisions that result after Palestinian terrorists make their way into the Olympic village and take members of the Israeli team hostage (after killing two members of the team). Much of the film is set in the control room from the perspective of the ABC Sports team, including exec Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) who wants to keep this breaking story in the hands of ABC News; producer Geoffrey Mason (an excellent John Magaro) who has to deal with fellow execs, the German police, and his own team (who have slightly different views on how the event should be portrayed); crew worker Marianne (Leonie Bensch), who becomes invaluable since she is German and the only one on the team who can interpret/translate, and operations manager Marvin Bader (a terrific Ben Chaplin), who, as a Jewish new Yorker, already harbors strong feelings as his family was affected by the Holocaust. What works about the film is that while it covers many issues and concerns, it feels lean and focused, as our view is necessarily limited to what the ABC crew has access to—we get as “inside” as they can. Yet the film is powerful and raises some questions about the role of the police, the personal struggles among a group of professionals harboring personal feelings, the rivalry among the networks and the little power plays that occur, and the power of the media to shape what we see—as well as to influence events based on the decisions they make. September 5, directed (and co-written) by Tim Feihbaum, is in limited release now but is worth seeing when it re-emerges in January.
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Mike Peros
José Ferrer: Success and Survival
Dan Duryea: Heel with a Heart
Published by University Press of Mississippi