Butler's Cinema Scene

Idris Elba

“HIJACK” (Apple+):  I’d watch Idris Elba clean his ears with a Q-Tip. In “Hijack” he is but one member of an excellent ensemble delivering the year’s best nail-biter.

This seven-part miniseries unfolds in real time.  Shorty after taking off from a Middle East airport, a British passenger jet is taken over by gunmen. Their motivations are unclear until late in the drama, but every episode cannily drops breadcrumb clues that we must sort through.

In that we’re like passenger Sam Nelson  (Elba), a heavy-hitting corporate negotiator flying back to his native London.  Nelson isn’t a man of action. No kung fu, no fisticuffs. He’s a thinker who places himself between the hijackers and the terrified passengers in an effort to prevent what looks increasingly like a high body count.

“Hijack” unfolds not only in the air, where we meet all sorts of passengers — as in John Ford’s “Stagecoach,” they represent all aspects of humankind, good and bad —but also on the ground as the British authorities, air traffic controllers and anti-terrorism experts  try to stave off a worst-case scenario in which the air liner is shot down by military jets.

Perhaps the show’s deeply satisfying complexity is the result of a seven-person writing staff who keep coming up with new and intriguing twists.  Meanwhile directors Jim Field Smith and Mo Ali make the most of the yarn’s claustrophobic elements. 

With its real-time delivery “Hijack” is the perfect one-day binge. 

“JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMIEVAL” (Hulu): More Raylan Givens?  YES, PLEASE.

Timothy Olyphant reprises his signature role as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in this eight-parter (too short, but still) that finds our Kentucky-bred lawman working a case in Detroit (as gritty in its own way as coal country).

Nearly 16 years have passed since we last saw Raylan, and if anything he looks sexier than ever.  Maybe it’s because he’s now older and a bit wiser, long divorced and traveling with his teenage daughter, who is way too cocky for her years. (She’s played by Olyphant’s real-life kiddo Vivian…the apple didn’t drop far from this tree).

The villain this time around is Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), a seductive/terrifying good ol’ boy who likes to preen in his tidy whities. Early on Mansell kills a judge and steals his little brown book of bribery.  The idea is to blackmail the “respectable” folk listed in this incriminating volume. 

Toss in Mansell’s grudge match with the local Albanian ganglord (Terry Kinney), his affair with a fortune-hunting casino cocktail waitress (Adelaide Clemens, suggesting the good girl she played in “Rectified” has gone bad),  and an uneasy partnership with a dive bar owner (Vondie Curtis-Hall), and you’ve got plenty of nerve-shredding action.

But there’s more,  with our boy Raylan finding a sympathetic soul in Mansell’s criminal attorney, winning played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. It may be the year’s most unexpected and satisfying TV romance.

Oh…and the final episode ties up loose ends with a coda that damn near rivals the final sendoff of “ Six Feet Under.”

Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, Miles Teller as Al Ruddy

“THE OFFER” (Paramount +): The making of 1972’s “The Godfather” was every bit as gripping as the film itself…at least according to this 10-part miniseries which, we’re told, was inspired by Al Ruddy’s experiences while producing the film.

Miles Teller plays Ruddy, whose track record (“Hogan’s Heroes,” a motorcycle movie) hardly seemed up to adapting Mario Puzo’s best-selling Mafia novel to the big screen.  Basically Ruddy learned the hard way, putting out daily brushfires (budget problems, location hassles) and finding himself aligned with real-world mobster Joe Columbo, who initially opposed the film as being anti-Italian and later padded the production’s payroll with his non-working “workers.”

Teller provides a solid center to the film, but the real fun comes from a small army of  supporting players who chew the scenery with relish:  Matthew Goode as studio head and ladies’ man Robert Evans, Giovanni Ribisi as frog-voiced Joe Columbo, and Brit character actor Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn, the Austrian owner of Paramount and the very image of a capitalist martinet.

Though they have cannily cast actors who sound (and sometimes look) like stars Al Pacino and Marlon Brando, the series’ makers don’t try to re-enact moments from the actual movie.  But frequently we watch the faces of crew members as they oversee a scene being shot, and their awestruck expressions make it clear that movie magic is being captured.

For most viewers “The Offer” will be a huge package of surprise revelations.  Director Frances Coppola (an excellent Dan Fogler) had to fight off numerous attempts by the studio brass to fire Pacino (he was deemed too short, too actorish). The production barely scraped together enough money to send a skeleton crew to Sicily. 

And according to Ruddy’s telling, he was held captive by thug “Crazy” Joe Gallo who demanded money from a production that had none left.

For movie geeks “The Offer” is a total pigout.    And the highest praise is that as soon as you’ve finished it you can’t wait to watch the original “Godfather” one more time.

| Robert W. Butler