What to watch: ‘The Citadel’ is a sexy, bonkers thriller — and worth your time
The flood of streaming options surges this week with the release of Prime Video’s hugely hyped actioner “Citadel”; HBO Max’s take on the oft-told Candy Montgomery murder case, “Love & Death”; Paramount+’s redo of the seminal 1987 erotic thriller “Fatal Attraction” (yes, the boiled bunny movie); and Hulu’s adaptation of the daring literary thriller “Saint X.”
My pick, though, for the best of the week goes to “Sisu,” the stand-up-and-cheer action thriller from Finland that lands in theaters this week. And I can’t overlook the peppy “Polite Society.”
Here’s our rundown.
“Citadel”: In this visually arousing spy thriller, the impossibly gorgeous Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden are at the center of a smackdown between two rival agencies — one good but put out to pasture, the other dubious and posing a clear and present danger. Old memories re-emerge and fuel a cinematic bullet train that’s built around kickass action, sultry gazes and frenetic editing. Subtlety is all but extinct in every frame of this six-part Amazon extravaganza from the sometimes marvelous Russo brothers. It’s like a cocaine/Red Bull cocktail. Stanley Tucci co-stars as a former agent with worthwhile intel and he brings gravitas to this over-the-top malarkey. Either you’re gonna love this unruly behemoth or bemoan the sorry state of blockbuster entertainment. Honestly, I kind of dug it and love the pairing of the main stars who appear to be having fun at toying with each other and this “Mission: Impossible”-like scenario. Details: 3 stars out of 4; two episodes debut April 28, one additional episodes drops every Friday through May 26.
“Love & Death”: Hollywood loves to latch onto a story or a franchise and never let go. Such is the sensational murder case of Candy Montgomery, the ‘80s churchgoing momma from Texas who took up an ax and gave her former lover’s depressed wife 41 whacks. This time, scribe David E. Kelley takes a stab at bringing something different to this lurid, true-crime story. He gets about halfway there. At seven episodes, the HBO Max series overstays its own welcome but its two aces in the hole are Elizabeth Olsen as the to-the-point Montgomery, who has it all but desires to spice up her life, and Tom Pelphrey as flashy attorney/church member Don Crowder. Does it improve upon Hulu’s tighter, more intense “Candy” starring Jessica Biel, or the the more interpretive 1990 teledrama “A Killing in a Small Town” with Barbara Hershey? Not entirely. It makes you wonder what might have happened if Kelley branched out and concentrated on the life and career of Crowder, giving scene stealer Pelphrey more time to shine. Now that would have been one hell of a story. As is, “Love & Death” hits all the same notes as its predecessors. Details: 2½ stars; three episodes drop April 27, then one every week through May 25.
“Fatal Attraction”: At just under 2 hours, Adrian Lyne’s deliciously overheated 1987 erotic thriller — wherein a two-timin’ hubby hooks up with a woman who becomes an unhinged stalker when he tries to end the affair — achieved all it intended, even giving us some steamy kitchen sink sex even as it outraged some for how it portrayed mental illness. Now comes Paramount+’s flabby, un-sexy redo from Alexandra Cunningham. The series opens with once hot-shot attorney Daniel Gallagher (Joshua Jackson) getting paroled after a 15-year sentence for the murder of Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan). Alex made life hell for Dan and his family after their affair, but also obsessed about other men she encountered. Since this is laboriously strung out, we spend time with Dan trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), and even his ex-wife Beth (Amanda Peet) while trying to clear his name. Both Jackson and Caplan tackle the iconic roles with passion and put their own stamp on them, but the pacing and the lack of sparks make this fizzle. I lasted through five episodes and walked away with the clear feeling it needed tightening — which you can say for a good many streaming series now. That said, it has it moments along with some delightful Easter egg references to the giggle-worthy original, including (of course) a white bunny and that unforgettable fury-fueled line from Alex that gets delivered with perfect deluded annunciation by Caplan: “I’m not going to be IGNORED, Dan!” That almost makes this “Fatal” worth watching. Details: 2 stars; three episodes drop April 30, followed by one episode each Sunday until the final two chapters are released May 28.
“Saint X”: My favorite limited series out this week comes from Hulu, but it’s likely to divide viewers. That’s because it takes a very conventional and sordid mystery premise — a college-age vacationer turns up dead in the Caribbean, with suspects aplenty — and then fires up a much more provocative tale about fear, racism, privilege and the dangers of hiding from our real selves. Yes, it’ll take a bit to readjust expectations, but executive producer Leila Gerstein’s version of Alexis Schaitkin’s novel legitimately deserves all of its eight episodes. It also dares to make all of its characters flawed, painfully real and sometimes irritating. Just like all of us. But for that reason you might get fed up with Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey) a New York documentary-maker who risks everything to find the truth about happened to her sister Alison (West Duchovny, David Duchovny and Tea Leoni’s daughter) on the final day of their vacation on Saint X. Dee Rees directs the first episode of this thoughtful series that says so much more than you’d expect. In pivotal roles as resort workers, Jayden Elijah and Josh Bonzie deliver the best performances — two you won’t forget. Details: 3½ stars; three episodes drop April 26 on Hulu with new episodes weekly.
“Sisu”: Sometimes after a grueling day at work where everyone’s demanding a pound of flesh from you, you need an action-packed movie where the Nazis get the crap beat out of them to properly unwind. That’s what you get and so, so much more in director/screenwriter Jalmari Helander’s gonzo masterpiece — a gory, irreverent smackdown of fascism set in WWII-era Finland and featuring an invincible 60something gold prospector with a cute dog and a lean and mean physique. With minimal dialogue, some of the best editing you’ll find in any film this year, arresting visuals and ridiculous action and stunts, “Sisu” is a ready-made genre classic and further evidence that Helander, director of “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” and “Big Game,” deserves to be in the big leagues. Action movies don’t get much better than this. Details: 4 stars; in theaters April 28.
“Polite Society”: In this hyperactive but thoroughly enjoyable action comedy, Londoner and wanna-be stuntwoman Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) suspects that the intentions of her sister’s (Ritu Arya) dreamy, filthy rich beau Salim (Akshaye Khanna) aren’t entirely noble. So she takes some rather bumbling steps to put the breaks on the courtship. Writer/director Nida Manzoor’s feature debut packs a comedic and subversive feminist punch, taking aim at arranged marriages and showing how damaging it is to marginalize women and not allow them to fully pursue their dreams. That it accomplishes all of that through humor and pratfalls without ever getting heavy-handed about its themes is a credit to Manzoor’s innate skill. She’s a filmmaker on the rise. Details: 3 stars; in theaters April 28.
“The Black Demon”: Sometimes after a grueling day at work where everyone’s demanding a pound of flesh from you, you need a killer shark movie to properly unwind. This is not that movie, though it begins with a twinkle of promise. Josh Lucas gives one of the most erratic performances of 2023 as a slick oil company man who takes the fam on a vacation near Baja while he inspects a decommissioned oil rig. The locals are none too keen to see his brood and soon they all — in a laughable plot development — get stranded on the rig where a menacing (and poorly lit) mega shark lurks. Marital spates, giggle-worthy overacting and bargain-basement special effects put this on a par with that 1987 shark stinker “Jaws: The Revenge.” Even the family dog screws up here, barking with his mouth closed. Details: 1 star; in theaters April 28.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.