Weekend Watch: The Accountant 2, Étoile
Ben Affleck's back calculating and killing, while the Mrs. Maisel duo get dancing
Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Affleck takes aim and Amy Sherman-Palladino heads to the ballet. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social
2016’s The Accountant was something of a rare, odd-duck action movie; one that had a sly line of humour running through it, and boasted Ben Affleck in a very different type of performance.
While it didn’t exactly score much love from critics, it did decently at the box office, which has led to this much-delayed sequel.
Affleck returns as math savant Christian Wolff, who has an uncannily smart brain for numbers, but little connection to the world as his neurodiverse attitude tends to make social interaction difficult. Still, he’s found work cooking the books for high-paying criminal groups, but has caught the attention of the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, which is looking into his activities.
In the new movie, which also sees director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque back, Christian learns of the death of his enemy-turned-reluctant friend Ray King (JK Simmons), who was investigating the disappearance of a young woman and her family who had been trying to get into America through smugglers. King’s protégé, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), asks Wolff for help, and he in turn ropes in his assassin brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal).
It is the buddy comedy dynamic between the latter pair that really makes this one work as well as it does –– Affleck and Bernthal are a supremely entertaining sibling duo, since Braxton might not have the level of smarts as his brother, but he makes up for it in charm and lethality. Plus, he’s not above ribbing Christian about his lifestyle.
O’Connor keeps the action decent and while it’s still a very silly film on the face of it (and one scene, set in a line dancing bar feels like it was added purely for comic relief, has little bearing on the rest of the story and briefly tips the movie over into utter ridiculousness), it’s also entertaining. I still have some issues with Affleck’s portrayal of someone on the spectrum, but The Accountant 2 should at least fill the action movie void.
The Accountant 2 is in UK and US cinemas now.
Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
That Gilmore Girls and The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino love dance is no surprise; anyone who watched their other show, Bunheads (and I realise there weren’t enough to keep it on cable channel ABC Family beyond one season) knows that for sure.
Sherman-Palladino’s roots, in fact, are in ballet; she studied as a young woman, giving years of her life to the dance form before TV scriptwriting became her driving passion.
With new series Étoile, the Palladino duo are going all in on ballet, whipping up the story of two big ballet companies, one in New York, the other in Paris, who are both feeling the financial squeeze that the arts in general are suffering.
The Parisian-based company’s chief, Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg) suggests a plan –– the two dance companies will swap some talent for a season, revitalizing both their line-ups and attracting some fresh press. Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), the rumpled, grumpy boss in New York, begrudgingly agrees, even if he’s wary of the involvement of billionaire and possible war criminal Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow), who offers to cover the costs of the swap.
So New York’s on-the-spectrum, genius young choreographer Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick) heads for France, alongside Mishi Duplessis (Taïs Vinolo), the daughter of a French government culture minister who trained at the Parisian company but was cut and had found a place in America.
In return, New York nabs Cheyenne Toussaint (Lou de Laâge), a truly talented –– and truly spiky –– head dancer who had already been across to the States for a season and left some serious collateral damage.
Kirby and Gainsbourg are solid as the leads, Kirby in particular bringing his scruffy charm to the role. And de Laâge, a French actress who learned English for the role (just imagine the challenge of trying to master the patented Palladino patter when it’s not in your first language!) is a delight, snootily making demands but also proving that she’s got a beating heart under all the attitude.
Around the main players is a winning group of supporting performers –– I’ve already mentioned Callow, who liberally consumes scenery in his slimy role as Shamblee, while his old Four Weddings And A Funeral cast mate David Haig steals scenes as Nicholas Leutwylek, the creative director of the New York company whose hard-living ways have begun to catch up to him. Gilmore fans, meanwhile, will be happy to see Yanic Truesdale, in a small, sarcasm-heavy role as Raphaël Marchand, Geneviève’s second in command.
It’s all wrapped up with the creators’ usual rat-a-tat, screwball-influenced dialogue and keen eye for interesting smaller role, and if not everything works (there’s some cliché laziness towards the end of the season), it’s certainly got plenty of their charm. And unlike Bunheads, we do at least know a second season has already been commissioned…
The first season of Étoile is on Prime Video now. I’ve seen all eight episodes.