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American Born Chinese and The Offer
American Born Chinese (TV Series, either miniseries or first season): Charming, based on a comic I haven't read, and that rarity, neither Marvel nor DC. Follows two boys, one of whom is actually a god (well, the son of one), and in supporting (but not main) roles has much of the cast of Everywhere all at once. (Including Miichelle Yeaoh as the Goddess of Mercy.) I liked it very much, though I think one mistake the writers made was to let Bull Demon's plan be "bring down heaven" without specificying what that meant, because from what we could see from the (hilarious) flashback episode, heaven surely is in dire need of being overthrown. It's not until the finale that the writers renember to add that the plan doesn't just been bring down the gods, it means triggering an apocalyptic event which would destroy Earth as well, and like I said, that kind of information is important if you want your audience to root for the main objective as opposed to root for the downfall of heaven. But anyway, the main narrative combines the "misfit in highschool" narrative with some well placed social criticism and mythology elements with a light touch, and I liked it a lot.
The Offer (miniseries): Since Strange New worlds starts its second season next week and since they have Discovery and the other Treks as well, I gave in and added Paramount + to my subscriptions. Another thing Paramount + has is The Offer, a miniseries about the making of The Godfather. Based, as the credits inform you, on producer Al Ruddy's memories of producing The Godfather, and boy, is that apparant.
Ruddy is the very clear hero of the narrative. He squares off against higher placed producers and mobsters alike, winning them around. He respects women. He is true to his artistic integrity by walking away from the sure money the sequel will provide in favour of producing his own project. He's the only one of the various producers (plus one film director, Coppola) and mobsters who never ever throws a temper tantrum. Never was there such a cool tough guy, and so forth. This is, of course, why Matthew Goode, who playes the written as infinitely more flawed Robert Evans (head of Paramount film production at the time), Ruddy's immediate superior) almost walks away with mini series; he's egotastic, emotionally unstable, schmoozes, bullshits and spins with the best of them when he's not doing drugs or spleeping around, and it's a charismatic-as-hell compelling performance. (Mind you, I take the series' point that it needed both the Evans types and working reliably hard behind the scenes types to produce the 1970s Hollywood highlights.) I say "almost" because there's Bettye McCartt, played by Juno Temple, who talks herself into being newbie producer Ruddy's secretary, then, as another character points out, does essentially the same work he does but gets paid less (the more things change...), and ends up striking out on her own as an agent (which the credits tell us she'll be very successful as). If anyone is the true heroine of the miniseries, it's her as a real life Girl Friday, who doesn't have a a romance with the boss.
(Dan Fogler is also quite good as a younger Francis Ford Coppola, though having seen the real deal in the making of Apocalypse Now footage Eleanor Coppola shot, I have to say Fogler plays a more restrained version - but then that's Coppola before the big success.) (The cooking scene is almost identical, though.)
There are several reasons why I found The Offer entertaining but not a must, despite having a lot of love for The Godfather movies and a soft spot for "Hollywood on Hollywood" films and tv shows. And the whole "A producer's life is not an easy one" mantra in a post Weinstein age isn't really part of it. (Btw, never mind Weinstein - The Godfather itself, both the novel and the movie, have an absolutely revolting producer who is shown to the rapist of a barely pubescent child star in a short but memorable subplot. The Godfather is way darker and more cynical about Hollywood than The Offer which does paint it as a magical if dysfunctional circus.) For me, a Hollywood on Hollywood tale must have a certain bite. Sunset Boulevard is the classic in this for obvious reasons, but even examples that are kinder to their main characters - like Gods and Monsters to James Whale, for exampole - or tv shows who go straight for a "What if?" AU where people make better choices than they did in rl and as a result, history changes, like the tv series Hollywood, have it. But The Offer does not, and that their chosen main character isn't allowed genuine flaws is only part of why. The other thing is that despite being Paramount, it Disneyfies the issues it raises. So to speak. For example: mid season, having successfully talked mobster Joe Colombo around from being anti-Godfather to being pro Godfather, Al Ruddy discovers he succeeded a bit too well - when the owner of the house later serving as the Corleone home withdraws permission to film there, Colombo scares the hell out of the poor old man until he gives his permission again. Ruddy is shocked and tells Bettye "I never felt more dirty in my life". And then..... that's it. The mobsters - both Colombo and his protege Caesar - complete their transition from threat to cuddly pals of our heroes, Ruddy honestly does become friends with Colombo. Meanwhile, at the same time the series insists we see Ruddy as the square-jawed hero of integrity who just did what he had to do but remains incorruptible and decent. Now, if this story were in the hands of Vince Gilligan and his team from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Ruddy finding he can live with the mob scaring a harmless old man on his behalf and in fact, he wants more favours would be part of a corruption arc. But no such thing happens here. (Come to think of it, of course The Godfather as a whole is a tragedy revolving around a corruption arc. I mean, there's a reason why Breaking Bad modelled the Walt/Skyler scene of 51 on the Michael/Kay scene from Godfather II (according the the audio commentary on the dvds).) The Offer has a lot of fun visual nods to The Godfather movies, but without any of the emotional weight for this Disneyfication reason. Michael sitting next to his comatose father? Powerful scene for a myriad of reasons - this is when Michael recommits himself to the family and thus starts to give up the dream of legitimacy and a crime-less life, then there's the suspense when Michael realises all the police protection has been withdrawn and a hit is imminent, and there's the bittersweet emotional moment of the Don regaining consciousness enough to realise his estranged son has come back to him - but also what this means for Michael and the immigrant dream of making it legit. In The Offer, they restage that hospital bed scene with Ruddy and comatose Joe Colombo, and just, no. The series didn't really sell us on Ruddy feeling this much for Joe Colombo (as opopsed to relief the guy is on his side now instead of threatening him).
But enough nitpicking. On to praise, and there is a lot to praise (in addition ot the already praised Bettye/Juno Temple and Matthew Goode's performance as Robert Evans where the audience is allowed to be appalled and fascinanted in equal measure, as opposed to being expected to just root for the guy as in the case of Ruddy). Burn Gorman has fun as Charles Bluhdorn, the CEO of Gulf & Western (the company which owned Paramount in the 1970s). The hierarchy goes Ruddy => Evans = > Bluhdorn (who is at the top of this particular ladder but also has a board who wants to sell Paramount), and it's that rarity, him in a role where he's not a villain (though he's sometimes an antagonist). The series does get across just how much work gets into the entire pre production process of movie making, and manages to make it compelling and interesting, and while the actual filming isn't shown nearly as much as the pre production work, it also gets across what a director does (my favourite detail is Coppola having a photo camera with him all the time when they're visiting possible locations so he can take snaps, but the few examples of him talking to actors, read, to Al Pacino, are also good examples of directing, as opposed to just letting him shout), and the Puzo-and-Coppola-write-the-script-together scenes are balm to my soul after Mank annoyed me a few years ago by letting Genius!Hermann Mankiewicz dictate every word to his awed secretary in Mank. (The Coppola & Puzo duo doesn't get as much screen time as the Ruddy & Bettye duo, and that's totally justified given which story the series tells, but their scenes always are great fun.) And while what's his name who plays Brando doesn't really convince me as Marlon B., the young actor playing a young Pacino is eerie in his likeness.
In conclusion: like I said, not a must-watch (unlike The Godfather), but I am glad it introduced me to Bettye McCartt and Juno Temple, and I was never bored.
The Offer (miniseries): Since Strange New worlds starts its second season next week and since they have Discovery and the other Treks as well, I gave in and added Paramount + to my subscriptions. Another thing Paramount + has is The Offer, a miniseries about the making of The Godfather. Based, as the credits inform you, on producer Al Ruddy's memories of producing The Godfather, and boy, is that apparant.
Ruddy is the very clear hero of the narrative. He squares off against higher placed producers and mobsters alike, winning them around. He respects women. He is true to his artistic integrity by walking away from the sure money the sequel will provide in favour of producing his own project. He's the only one of the various producers (plus one film director, Coppola) and mobsters who never ever throws a temper tantrum. Never was there such a cool tough guy, and so forth. This is, of course, why Matthew Goode, who playes the written as infinitely more flawed Robert Evans (head of Paramount film production at the time), Ruddy's immediate superior) almost walks away with mini series; he's egotastic, emotionally unstable, schmoozes, bullshits and spins with the best of them when he's not doing drugs or spleeping around, and it's a charismatic-as-hell compelling performance. (Mind you, I take the series' point that it needed both the Evans types and working reliably hard behind the scenes types to produce the 1970s Hollywood highlights.) I say "almost" because there's Bettye McCartt, played by Juno Temple, who talks herself into being newbie producer Ruddy's secretary, then, as another character points out, does essentially the same work he does but gets paid less (the more things change...), and ends up striking out on her own as an agent (which the credits tell us she'll be very successful as). If anyone is the true heroine of the miniseries, it's her as a real life Girl Friday, who doesn't have a a romance with the boss.
(Dan Fogler is also quite good as a younger Francis Ford Coppola, though having seen the real deal in the making of Apocalypse Now footage Eleanor Coppola shot, I have to say Fogler plays a more restrained version - but then that's Coppola before the big success.) (The cooking scene is almost identical, though.)
There are several reasons why I found The Offer entertaining but not a must, despite having a lot of love for The Godfather movies and a soft spot for "Hollywood on Hollywood" films and tv shows. And the whole "A producer's life is not an easy one" mantra in a post Weinstein age isn't really part of it. (Btw, never mind Weinstein - The Godfather itself, both the novel and the movie, have an absolutely revolting producer who is shown to the rapist of a barely pubescent child star in a short but memorable subplot. The Godfather is way darker and more cynical about Hollywood than The Offer which does paint it as a magical if dysfunctional circus.) For me, a Hollywood on Hollywood tale must have a certain bite. Sunset Boulevard is the classic in this for obvious reasons, but even examples that are kinder to their main characters - like Gods and Monsters to James Whale, for exampole - or tv shows who go straight for a "What if?" AU where people make better choices than they did in rl and as a result, history changes, like the tv series Hollywood, have it. But The Offer does not, and that their chosen main character isn't allowed genuine flaws is only part of why. The other thing is that despite being Paramount, it Disneyfies the issues it raises. So to speak. For example: mid season, having successfully talked mobster Joe Colombo around from being anti-Godfather to being pro Godfather, Al Ruddy discovers he succeeded a bit too well - when the owner of the house later serving as the Corleone home withdraws permission to film there, Colombo scares the hell out of the poor old man until he gives his permission again. Ruddy is shocked and tells Bettye "I never felt more dirty in my life". And then..... that's it. The mobsters - both Colombo and his protege Caesar - complete their transition from threat to cuddly pals of our heroes, Ruddy honestly does become friends with Colombo. Meanwhile, at the same time the series insists we see Ruddy as the square-jawed hero of integrity who just did what he had to do but remains incorruptible and decent. Now, if this story were in the hands of Vince Gilligan and his team from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Ruddy finding he can live with the mob scaring a harmless old man on his behalf and in fact, he wants more favours would be part of a corruption arc. But no such thing happens here. (Come to think of it, of course The Godfather as a whole is a tragedy revolving around a corruption arc. I mean, there's a reason why Breaking Bad modelled the Walt/Skyler scene of 51 on the Michael/Kay scene from Godfather II (according the the audio commentary on the dvds).) The Offer has a lot of fun visual nods to The Godfather movies, but without any of the emotional weight for this Disneyfication reason. Michael sitting next to his comatose father? Powerful scene for a myriad of reasons - this is when Michael recommits himself to the family and thus starts to give up the dream of legitimacy and a crime-less life, then there's the suspense when Michael realises all the police protection has been withdrawn and a hit is imminent, and there's the bittersweet emotional moment of the Don regaining consciousness enough to realise his estranged son has come back to him - but also what this means for Michael and the immigrant dream of making it legit. In The Offer, they restage that hospital bed scene with Ruddy and comatose Joe Colombo, and just, no. The series didn't really sell us on Ruddy feeling this much for Joe Colombo (as opopsed to relief the guy is on his side now instead of threatening him).
But enough nitpicking. On to praise, and there is a lot to praise (in addition ot the already praised Bettye/Juno Temple and Matthew Goode's performance as Robert Evans where the audience is allowed to be appalled and fascinanted in equal measure, as opposed to being expected to just root for the guy as in the case of Ruddy). Burn Gorman has fun as Charles Bluhdorn, the CEO of Gulf & Western (the company which owned Paramount in the 1970s). The hierarchy goes Ruddy => Evans = > Bluhdorn (who is at the top of this particular ladder but also has a board who wants to sell Paramount), and it's that rarity, him in a role where he's not a villain (though he's sometimes an antagonist). The series does get across just how much work gets into the entire pre production process of movie making, and manages to make it compelling and interesting, and while the actual filming isn't shown nearly as much as the pre production work, it also gets across what a director does (my favourite detail is Coppola having a photo camera with him all the time when they're visiting possible locations so he can take snaps, but the few examples of him talking to actors, read, to Al Pacino, are also good examples of directing, as opposed to just letting him shout), and the Puzo-and-Coppola-write-the-script-together scenes are balm to my soul after Mank annoyed me a few years ago by letting Genius!Hermann Mankiewicz dictate every word to his awed secretary in Mank. (The Coppola & Puzo duo doesn't get as much screen time as the Ruddy & Bettye duo, and that's totally justified given which story the series tells, but their scenes always are great fun.) And while what's his name who plays Brando doesn't really convince me as Marlon B., the young actor playing a young Pacino is eerie in his likeness.
In conclusion: like I said, not a must-watch (unlike The Godfather), but I am glad it introduced me to Bettye McCartt and Juno Temple, and I was never bored.
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