Binge-r #209: The Comey Rule + Enola Holmes
Main Course: Jeff Daniels (James Comey) and Brendan Gleeson (Donald Trump) in The Comey Rule
THE COMEY RULE
Streaming Service: Stan
Availability: Both episodes now streaming
Based on a memoir by James Comey, the former director of the FBI, and scheduled five weeks out from America’s next Presidential election, The Comey Rule tells us little we didn’t already know: the contentious investigation overseen by Comey (Jeff Daniels) into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server prior to the last election was a trifle, and Donald Trump, who capitalised on it to get into the White House and soon after fired Comey, is a narcissistic charlatan without any allegiance to democracy. That’s both the basis of these two feature length episodes, which Stan will stream on consecutive days starting Sunday, and their limitation. It’s a recap of a disaster that’s still unfolding in real time, and it’s not easy to gather anything valuable from it apart from already ringing alarm bells.
This limited series was adapted and directed by screenwriter and director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, Captain Phillips), who does a worthy job of compressing years into hours, albeit at the expense of characterisation. Comey himself is presented as a righteous career lawman who believed in a noble mission and got sideswiped repeatedly, but the wealth of vexing information means that most of the other characters, from Barack Obama (Kingsley Ben-Adir) to Michael Flynn (Wiliam Sadler), are fleeting figures. The narrative rarely breathes, allowing for few effective moments such as Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates (Holly Hunter) watching Trump on the television and slowly realising that they’re reminded of New York mob bosses long ago incarcerated.
Trump impersonators tend to accentuate everything from his wounded snarl to puckered snout, but Gleeson achieves more by doing less. His Trump speaks softly – you can hear his withering intake of breath – and is present but not engaged in crucial conversations. He cares so little about others that he erases their concerns, suggestions, or even their presence, which is worrying at any time, but even more so when he’s sitting opposite the director of the FBI. Trump’s request for compliance from Comey is delivered without an awareness of what it means, but even as Comey stands tall the storytelling takes refuge in a celebration of America’s institutional strength. The tone is stirring, but the sentiment hollow, because Trump remains effectively untouched. Right now The Comey Rule needs to offer more than just reassurance.
Watching the Detectives: Millie Bobby Brown (Enola) and Henry Cavill (Sherlock) in Enola Holmes
NEWLY ADDED MOVIES
ENOLA HOLMES (Netflix, 2020, 123 minutes): And here’s a restorative tonic. Driven by a terrifically engaging lead performance from Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), who breaks the fourth wall in the opening scene and goes on to demolish plenty of other barriers, this Victorian-era detective adventure has a bolshy energy, female agency, and impudent charm – it also dismisses floppy-haired boy aristocrats as “nincompoops”. Adapted from Nancy Springer’s young adult novel series about Brown’s Enola Holmes, the 16-year-old younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft (Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin respectively), the film wobbles at the finale but otherwise it has a self-aware verve that wins out as Enola has to leave home for 1884 London after the mother who trained her to be an independent woman, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), suddenly goes missing. Enola deciphers clues, dodges her demeaning brothers – “she has no gloves,” Mycroft complains upon sighting her – and fights off assailants, all delivered with appreciable pithiness and a knowing wink from Brown and director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag). More like this please, Netflix.
New on Stan: J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible (2012, 114 minutes) is a pummelling recreation of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as the parents separated and struggling to survive after a disaster illustrated with horrific touches; U-571 (2000, 112 minutes) is a detailed and atmospheric World War II submarine drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Harvey Keitel that anointed director Jonathan Mostow, who then widely missed the mark on several subsequent Hollywood films.
New on SBS on Demand: With a bracing pair of lead performances from Timothy Hutton (introspective and idealistic) and Sean Penn (extroverted and self-destructive), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985, 127 minutes) is the real life story of a pair of fortunate sons in late 1970s California who ended up selling state secrets to the Russians, with British director John Schlesinger staging it as an investigation of the need for faith in tarnished times.
>> Missed last week’s BINGE-R? Click here to read about Stan’s scarifying serial killer study Des, Netflix’s melodramatic period drama Ratched, and SBS on Demand’s timely real life public health thriller The Salisbury Poisonings.
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