By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Bill Gates once said, “Banking is necessary, banks are not.” Which may be why bankers and banks have become popular cinematic villains, like the hapless brothers in last year’s “Hell or High Water.”
In “Going in Style,” three Brooklyn-based seniors suddenly realize that — because of a nefarious local bank — they’re going to be broke and homeless.
Joe (Michael Caine) comes up with the idea of an armed robbery after conferring with a sleazy Williamsburg Savings Bank manager (Josh Pais) about his adjustable mortgage that has suddenly tripled, threatening him, his divorced daughter and beloved granddaughter with foreclosure and eviction.
Joined by longtime friends Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Al (Alan Arkin), Joe then discovers that Wechsler Steel, where they’ve all worked for years, has outsourced to Vietnam and their pensions will be confiscated by the same Williamsburg Savings Bank.
Retribution seems to be the only answer. What have they got to lose? Suffering from renal failure, Willie needs a kidney transplant, and cantankerous Al, a jazz saxophonist, is fed up with teaching music to talentless kids — like the son of a saucy grocery store clerk (Ann-Margret).
Viewing “Dog Day Afternoon” as a cautionary tale, the retirees seek advice from a professional thief (John Ortiz). After several ‘trial runs,’ they work out a watertight alibi and disguise themselves in rubber masks depicting the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.), unaware that they’ve aroused the suspicions of an FBI agent (Matt Dillon).
Adapted by Theodore Melfi (“Hidden Figures”) and directed by Zach Braff (“Garden State”), this crime caper is a remake of Martin Brest’s 1979 movie, starring George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg. FYI: Ironically, President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was as an executive producer of this gibe at corporate greed.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Going in Style” is a salty 6, a mildly amusing, slapstick comedy that’s filled with scrappy banter.
As “The Boss Baby” begins, somewhere in the clouds above, Baby Corp. runs an adorable newborn assembly line, where babies are manufactured and families formed.
That’s according to the overactive imagination of seven-year-old Tim Templeton (voiced by Miles Christopher Bakshi), who is totally content as the only child of doting parents (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow) who read him endless bedtime stories and sing the Beatles’ tune “Blackbird” as his lullaby.
But then Tim’s perfect world is disrupted by the arrival of a baby brother, Theodore. To Tim, the demanding infant is a tiny tyrant, dispatched by management, arriving in a business suit, wearing a Rolex and carrying a briefcase. And he can talk.
Theodore manages to remain infantile by gulping a magic formula and sucking on a psychedelic pacifier. “One thing was clear,” now-grown Tim (voiced by Tobey Maguire) recalls. “He was the boss.”
When his cohorts arrive in the guise of a ‘play date,’ which is actually a business meeting, the titular tot explains that, since their parents both work at Puppy Co, they need to infiltrate the company to eliminate the inherent threat of its newest product: an adorable forever puppy that will never grow up.
Based on Marla Frazee’s 36-page picture book, it’s adapted by Michael McCullers (“Austin Powers” sequels) and director Tom McGrath (“Madagascar” trilogy), delving into competitiveness and jealousy.
Oddly enough, its high-concept is aimed at grownups, not children, particularly casting Alec Baldwin whose distinctive voice evokes memories of “30 Rock” and his “Saturday Night Live” caricature of Donald Trump.
Among the many pop culture references, there’s a running gag about “Lord of the Rings” Wizard Gandalf, embodied in Tim’s Wizzie alarm clock, and the line “cookies are for closers,” referencing Alec Baldwin’s seminal scene in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
FYI: Young Miles Christopher Bakshi is a grandson of pioneer “Fritz the Cat” animator Ralph Bakshi.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Boss Baby” is an intermittently funny 5, skewering sibling rivalry.
Back in 1996, Scottish filmmaker Danny Boyle celebrated sneering, rebellious, drug-drenched youth in “Trainspotting.” In “T2: Trainspotting,” Ewan McGregor and the Leith lads trip into middle-age.
Revisiting the same characters 20 years later, it recalls how Mark Renton (McGregor) ripped off his friends in a lucrative drug deal. Apparently, he took the money and fled to Amsterdam, where he kicked his heroin habit and plunged into respectability, including a failed marriage.
When Renton returns to Edinburgh after his mother’s death, only the sniveling junkie, Spud (Ewen Bremner), who is estranged from his wife and child, welcomes him. Spud’s best scene is when he explains to a support group why he feels that the biggest obstacle to sobriety is daylight saving time.
Feigning friendship, Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) — a.k.a. Sick Boy — remains furious about Renton’s betrayal. So Renton tries to help him and his Bulgarian prostitute partner (Anjela Nedyalkova) turn the decrepit family pub into a brothel by scamming a small European Union development grant. And ill-tempered, impotent psychopathic Begbie (Robert Carlisle) escapes from prison, determined to wreak revenge.
Scripted by Johnny Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle as a character study, it’s filled not only with striking images, inducing nostalgia, but also a contemporary commentary on urban gentrification, noting the uneasy rise of the populist movement that fueled Brexit.
Although they’d toyed unsuccessfully with Irvine Welsh’s 2002 follow-up book “Porno,” the idea of a reunion ignited in 2015, when Boyle bumped into Ewan McGregor in a London pub, where they began patching up a feud that began when Boyle cast Leonardo DiCaprio, instead of McGregor, in “The Beach.”
“I decided enough is enough,” admits McGregor. “And I wanted to work with Danny again.”
Not to disappoint, Boyle revives Renton’s “choose life” speech, focusing the rant on the brutality of social media and the dispiriting economy.
On the Granger Gauge, “T2: Trainspotting” is a bitterly cynical 5, redundantly evoking regret and acceptance.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
