Kate Beckinsale in JOLT. Photo credit: Simon Varsano. Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
Beautiful Brit Kate Beckinsale is no stranger to fantasy action flicks after starring in VON HELSING and about five UNDERWORLD outings, fighting vampires and werewolves and bears (? – oh my). She looks every bit the part of an ass-kicker, and her stunt doubles work hard to maintain the illusion effectively. JOLT is more science-y and less supernatural than the aforementioned in this new fast-paced, high-octane rush for adrenaline junkies.
Beckinsale stars as a woman with such extreme anger issues, and abilities to act upon them, that she can only function in society while rigged with a device that lets her self-administer an industrial-strength electric shock when triggered. Which occurs often and easily. Her therapist (Stanley Tucci) oversees her attempts at forging a life. When she falls for a guy (Jai Courtney) during a one-night stand, she starts believing for the first time ever that she might have a shot at true, lasting love. But he’s killed the next day, squashing that dream, and setting her on a course to identify the perp, or perps, and even the score.
That’s a good, if not novel, premise for the mayhem to follow, as the reasons behind her loss unfold and spiral into Big Conspiracy territory. The ensuing events include more twists and surprises than average for such fare, and set up a whole lotta well-executed action sequences. Beckinsale is variably in league or at odds with the local cops in their respective pursuits. Bobby Cannavale is the supportive, sensitive detective, while his partner (superbly played by Laverne Cox) is the skeptic who’d like nothing better than putting Beckinsale down for the count.
Director Tanya Wexler runs a taut ship admirably well for one with only a handful of features on her resume, not exactly concentrated in this sort of production. I don’t know what the final release’s running time will be but the version made available to reviewers for screening maintained a pace, balanced between action and exposition, that kept me from thinking about that. That’s a big compliment, Ms. Wexler, since failure to trim the footage fat has been, unfortunately, a frequent component of my reviews. (Are you seeing this, Mr. Apatow?)
In a summer relatively light on escapist releases, this one’s a solid bet for entertainment value. They dangle the possibility of a sequel (without the Marvel-induced post-credits scene), which is a prospect I welcome. Now that they’ve established such a worthy protagonist, let’s keep her going with those clicks on Prime Video, folks.
JOLT opens on-demand Friday, July 23, on Amazon Prime.
Lily Tomlin delivers a tour-de-force performance in GRANDMA, an inter-generational comedy road trip. The title may bring to mind a sweet little old lady baking cookies but Tomlin’s Grandma Elle is something else. Elle Reid is a fierce, sharp-tongued lesbian poet, academic and early feminist who raised her daughter with her longtime woman partner. When Elle’s high school senior granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) comes to her in need of help, afraid to go to her domineering CEO mother Judy (Marcia Gay Harden), grandma and granddaughter take off on quest that indirectly recaps the many cultural shifts around subjects such as feminism, LGBT rights, birth control, out-of-wedlock birth, single mothers, and other social issues since Grandma’s heyday in the ’70s.
At one time, any of those subjects might have made this film controversial or provoked outrage, but now only one topic the film touches on will do that – abortion. Due to that subject, a certain segment of the population will not want to see this well-made, insightful, thoughtful film, and some may even will recoil at the idea of a film from this family’s particular viewpoint, although there have been plenty of films on the subject of abortion from the opposing view. While this one issue is not this main topic in this film, it is to the film’s credit that it handles the subject with a certain balance and sensitivity, exploring the feelings and rights of fathers, differing opinions on the subject, and underlining that this is not a decision taken lightly.
The reason the granddaughter needs Grandma’s help is to pay for an abortion. But when Sage comes to her for help, Grandma is struggling with her own emotional issues. A virtual recluse, Elle is still mourning the death of her longtime partner Violet, the woman with whom she raised her driven businesswoman daughter. Worse, on the morning Sage turns up at her door, Elle has just broken up with her younger girlfriend Olivia (Judy Greer). Nonetheless, Elle puts all that aside to help her granddaughter.
The problem is that Grandma is broke too, being between teaching jobs, having just paid off her debts and then cut up her credit cards and now waiting on a check for past work. Like her granddaughter, Grandma is reluctant to go to her strong-willed successful daughter, from whom she is estranged, knowing she will not take the news of Sage’s pregnancy well. The father, Sage’s slacker ex-boyfriend (Nat Wolff), is no help and really not interested. So, armed with Grandma’s first editions of books by feminist icons like Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir, which Elle is sure are worth hundreds, the two set off in Grandma’s creaky old car to raise the money from her old friends around Los Angeles, before her granddaughter’s appointment at a clinic for the procedure at 5 o’clock.
Director Paul Weitz has crafted a polished, well-made road trip film that both paints a warm portrait of family bonds, and handles its topics intelligently and with a light touch. Weitz skillfully, subtly blends the social issues into the plot and peppers the comedy with sharp, witty observations, but the film’s greatest strength is Lily Tomlin. Tomlin is at the center of the film’s comedy and its drama, creating a complex character. Elle is both sarcastic and kind-hearted, a character that feels like a true portrait of an early feminist and lesbian, a person with a chip on her shoulder from spending her life defying conventions and resisting pressure to change who she is. It is a wonderful, touching and funny performance. The film touches on the personal for Tomlin, a gay woman herself, and she brings all her comedy and dramatic skills to bear in this film.
As prickly, outspoken Elle, Tomlin shoulders the bulk of the comedy duties but the film also builds up a sense of family and emotional warmth, no matter how unconventional that family is. Tomlin is greatly aided by a strong supporting cast. Julie Garner is charming as the granddaughter, who clearly loves her grandma but often does not get her views or is sometimes embarrassed by her bull-in-china shop approach. Fine performances are also offered by Marcia Gay Harden as Elle’s success-driven daughter, who raised her daughter Sage as a single parent, Judy Greer as Elle’s jilted young lover, Laverne Cox as a transgender tattoo artist and especially by Sam Elliot in a moving, dramatic role a long-ago ex-lover.
Much of the comedy is built around Grandma’s reaction to the changes time has brought – that the free clinic where a woman could get an inexpensive abortion is now a trendy coffee shop, that the owner of the lesbian coffee shop she remembers is now more about business than politics, that her treasured books by feminist icons are not worth what she imagined they should be, and other shocks to her ideals. Her sarcastic responses are funny but there is a touching underlying melancholy too. The three generations also indirectly illustrate women’s changing roles and opportunities – from the radial feminist lesbian grandma to her all-business career woman daughter (directing her company from her treadmill desk), to the gentle but unfocused granddaughter who takes for granted much of her mother’s and grandmother’s hard-won social victories.
This smart, funny film also gets at some human truths but never gets bogged down in lectures on social issues. It remains a warm, human character-driven film about a particular family, with a sparkling performance by a comedy great and feminist pioneer at its center.
Here’s a look at the first trailer for writer/director Paul Weitz’s GRANDMA starring Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox, and Sam Elliott.
Elle Reid has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when her granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing 600 dollars before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old
friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets.
Weitz said he wrote the script hearing Tomlin’s voice. “I asked her to lunch and told her I had written a script for her and told her the story and gave it to her. I’m sure that was a bit nerve-wracking for her.”
From Sony Pictures Classics, GRANDMA opens in theaters August 21.
