Loosely inspired by Juliet McDaniels’ 2018 novel “Mr. and Mrs. American Pie,” the comedy series “Palm Royale,” set in the late 1960s, copped three key Emmy nominations – with a total of 12 nods from the Television Academy.
The plot follows the misadventures of former Tennessee beauty queen Maxine Simmons (Emmy nominee Kristen Wiig), a desperate social climber determined to join South Florida’s most elegant, exclusive country club.
Currently penniless, ambitious Maxine is married to dim-witted airline pilot Douglas (Josh Lucas), presumed heir to the plastics/mouthwash fortune of his formidable aunt, high-society doyenne Norma Delacorte (Emmy-nominated Carol Burnett), who recently suffered a life-threatening embolism and is currently lying comatose in a posh nursing home.
In order to accomplish her goal, Maxine – as an unwanted interloper – must not only steal and lie but also charm snobbish socialite competitors like Evelyn (Allison Janney), Dinah (Leslie Bibb), Mary (Julia Duffy) and Raquel (Claudia Ferri).
Chronicled by society editor Ann Holiday (Mindy Cohn) in the ubiquitous “Shiny Sheet,” their duplicitous social politics and seductive treachery reign supreme.
But Maxine’s most formidable frenemy turns out to be bohemian Linda Shaw (Laura Dern), who runs an earthy, counter-culture, feminist collective situated in a West Palm Beach book store: Our Bodies, Our Shelves.
Supplying Maxine with a constant supply of her favorite mint-green grasshopper cocktails is wary, eagle-eyed Robert Diaz (Ricky Martin), a hunky Korean War veteran working as a bartender at the swanky Palm Royale and doubling as Norma’s pool boy/loyal companion. And Maxine’s best frenemy turns out to be manicurist Mitzi (Kaia Gerber).
Created as a darkly comedic melodrama by showrunner Abe Sylvia, this flimsy, farcical, frivolous frolic starts out deceptively shallow but slowly builds in depth and intensity, incorporating a beached whale and an astronaut falling from the sky.
In various interviews, Sylvia has described conniving Maxine as “a bit of an Archie Bunker character, Her ideas are so retrograde, and yet we buy into her character because she believes them so much – she’s so optimistic and likable.”
Plus there are references to wealthy heiress Marjorie Meriweather Post, who built Mar-a-Lago, and Joseph Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Palm Royale” is a silly, satiric, sun-soaked 7 – with all 10 episodes now streaming on Apple TV+ …and it’s been renewed for a second season.
To plug their new heist movie – “The Instigators” – Matt Damon and Casey Affleck made a You Tube video pretending to rob a Dunkin Donuts; settling for a Boston Kreme and strawberry-frosted pastry, it’s almost as lame as the film.
Friends since their Cambridge, Massachusetts, childhood, Damon and Affleck (younger brother of Ben – with whom Damon wrote “Good Will Hunting”) went back to their native Boston to film this wannabe action-comedy caper.
Desperate Rory (Damon) is a divorced, debt-ridden ex-Marine who’s so depressed because he can’t come up with the $32,480 he owes in legal fees and child support for his teenage son that his VA psychiatrist, Dr. Donna Rivera (Hong Chau), fears he might be a suicide risk.
To get that money, Rory partners with Cobby (Affleck), a wisecracking, alcoholic ex-con – from blue-collar Quincy – in a crackpot plan to rob corrupt Beantown Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman) on election night.
Apparently Miccelli stores his usual 11th-hour cash bribes in a huge office safe which is emptied regularly, so the holdup ought to go like clockwork. But – right from the getgo – they screw up. Meaning: not only are the police after them but the Mayor’s Special Opps enforcer (Ving Rhames) is as well.
Problem is: precise Rory and impulsive Cobby are inept idiots. Riffing on “The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” they bicker, fumble and bumble – yet nothing about them is even remotely endearing.
Eager to get the script he co-wrote with Chuck MacLean onto the screen, Casey Affleck gave it to Damon’s wife Luciana who obviously liked it. So Damon signed on, along with director Doug Limon (“The Bourne Identity,” “Edge of Tomorrow”) who intercuts dreary male-bonding/ buddy banter with far too many generic VFX car chases, involving an appalling amount of wreckage.
Deprived of substantive characterizations, stalwart supporting actors Alfred Molina, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow and Andre De Shields drift in and quickly disappear.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Instigators” is a flawed, unfocused, feeble 4 – streaming on Apple TV+… don’t waste your time.
Recent Comments