Binge-r #163: Morning Wars + The King
Remote Control: Jennifer Aniston (Alex) and Reese Witherspoon (Bradley) in Morning Wars
MORNING WARS S1
Streaming Service: Apple TV+
Availability: All 10 episodes now streaming
At some point tomorrow Apple will launch its new streaming service. As I understand it, Apple TV+ will be available via credit card details for a free week’s trial, after which it will rollover to a $7.99 monthly fee. There will be various deals available, but what’s perhaps most important to note is that Apple is entering the television game without a back catalogue. Half a dozen or so new shows will be on hand at launch, most with several episodes waiting and the promise of a new one weekly. There are no movies, no old sitcoms licensed for the ever more competitive streaming era.
Morning Wars – which is known as The Morning Show in the rest of the world – is Apple’s flagship title, complete with a vast budget that’s readily apparent and a stacked cast headlined by Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell. It wants to be broad and topical, dramatic and relatable – on screen there’s a sense of inclusiveness to Jay Carson and Kerry Ehrin’s drama (off screen the former was fired in 2018). That leads to sharp edges being softened at inopportune moments, as the story launches with popular American network television presenter, Mitch Kessler (Carell), being unexpectedly fired after multiple complaints of sexual misconduct became public, leaving his co-host and partner in reassuring middle America, Alex Levy (Aniston), both devastated and embarrassed.
The story is firmly placed in the #MeToo era (although politically there are no Trump references), as the facts behind the headlines become apparent even as Mitch fulminates about being punished for what he claims were consensual encounters with subordinates. “This is Weinstein’s fault,” he rages, and it appears that Carell was cast to place a likable edge to the reportedly predatory behaviour. Mitch’s delusions are meant to be privileged and even satirical, but what they sometimes elbow aside is scrutiny of the character and his flaws. All the main roles have a tendency to edge back, so that stirring speeches are followed by querulous humour to lighten the mood.
The lineage is Broadcast News via Aaron Sorkin, which is encapsulated by the introduction of scrappy regional reporter Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon), whose rage-filled but articulate demolition of a protestor outside a coal mine goes viral. That draw her an invitation to New York from unpredictable network news boss Cory Ellison (a scene-stealing Billy Crudup), as the workplace machinations take shape over contracts, power, and speeches about protecting journalistic integrity. The first three episodes are easily watchable – Mimi Leder’s direction on the initial two is first-rate – and there are subplots aplenty to be weaved through the narrative, but the series lacks a defining perspective. Morning Wars is solid, but not essential.
Royal Decree: Timothee Chalamet (Henry V) in The King
NEWLY ADDED MOVIES
THE KING (Netflix, 2019, 140 minutes): Sidestepping Shakespearean convention, Australian filmmaker David Michod’s reworking of a young English prince’s rise to the throne and subsequent war in France is muscular and modern; it has grit both in the accomplished production design and its appreciation of how power is merely a gateway – equally for the best or worst of reasons – to betrayal. Timothee Chalamet, often in armour after his open-hearted triumph in Call Me By Your Name, is Hal, recalcitrant heir to King Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn, delightfully scabby). His partner in exile, the sodden old soldier Falstaff (co-writer Joel Edgerton) joins him when the newly crowned and deeply suspicious Hal is crowned Henry V and accedes to war in France. Tradition gets remodelled here, via the textures of Adam Arkapaw’s outstanding cinematography and a recognition of battle’s bloody, incomprehensible struggle, while the supporting cast includes an excellent Sean Harris as Hal’s adviser and Robert Pattinson going full Vincent Cassel as a heavily accented French prince. It’s Michod’s best film since his stunning debut, Animal Kingdom, and there are underlying similarities. “Nothing stains the soul more than arbitrary killing,” Falstaff notes, and that applies equally to either movie.
New on SBS on Demand: The universe is both vast and intimate, childhood equally celestial and chaotic, in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011, 139 minutes), a wondrous 1950s coming of age journey shaped by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain’s contradictory parents; Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs in Space (1986, 103 minutes), with Michael Hutchence and Saskia Post, remains the definitive portrait of Melbourne post-punk life and love.
New on Stan: Video cassettes may now be vintage, but The Ring (2002, 112 minutes) remains a classic mainstream horror film, with Naomi Watts headlining an atmospheric Hollywood adaptation of a Japanese hit; they don’t make PG-rated family films as eccentric and blackly amusing as the Addams Family (1991, 100 minutes) anymore.
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