The Studio, on Apple TV+

In a way, you could say Continental Studios’ upcoming tent-pole is sort of a Marvel movie, because back in the 1980s, Marvel Comics released five promotional comics featuring the Kool-Aid Man. It was a little weird at the time, but a big-budget Kool-Aid Man movie is a daunting task for Matt Remick, but he had to feign enthusiasm to get promoted to run the studio. He wants to be Robert Evans, but his insecurities are only too obvious in writer-creators Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez’s 10-episode The Studio, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Remick loves movies, so he wants his talent to love him back. Instead, they usually blow him off, at least until sleazy CEO, Griffin Mill, promotes him to studio chief, replacing his mentor, Patty Leigh. However, Remick soon offers her a lucrative producing deal to keep her in the fold. He will have many challenges shepherding Kool-Aid, as well as the rest of his upcoming slate, including Ron Howard’s Alphabet City and a Sarah Polley art film.

Fortunately, his core staff remains more-or-less loyal to him, including his hard-drinking buddy Sal Saperstein, his freshly promoted former assistant Quinn Hackett, and the caustic head of marketing, Maya Mason.

Obviously, The Studio takes a great deal of inspiration from Robert Altman’s The Player. It even pays homage to Tim Robbins’ character, the original Griffin Mill. It also features many real-life show business celebrities playing themselves, but some are considerably funnier than others. Frankly, the surprise scene-stealer is Dave Franco (as himself), who pokes fun at his image and career, while going for some big laughs. He even provides perhaps the funniest recap narration in TV history for the concluding episode, a two-part continuation.

Zoe Kravitz is also a very good sport. However, even though filmmaking legends Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese fully commit, their storylines are more cringy than humorous.

Indeed, the writing and execution varies wildly throughout the ten installments. The opener is an okay set-up, but episodes two, three, five, and six set-up excruciatingly uncomfortable situations that just keep piling on, rather than puncturing the tension. However, episode seven has some of the funniest TV/streaming writing of the 2020s that absolutely skewers Hollywood’s DEI mindset. Honestly, there is no way this episode could have been produced three or four years ago. Ice Cube is also savagely funny as himself.

The two-part conclusion, set during CinemaCon, is also vintage door-slamming farce that even pays tribute to Weekend at Bernie’s. It is mostly either feast or famine with The Studio, but episode four, “The Missing Reel,” is sort of an okay middle of the road offering, mostly because Zac Efron’s droll self-portrayal. It also somewhat amusingly uses elements of film noir.

Your Honor, on Showtime

The law in Louisiana is not technically based on the Napoleonic Code (a common misconception), but it is considerably different from most state law. Less bound by precedent, it gives judges much more interpretive latitude (that sort of sounds like the New Orleans way, doesn’t it?). Judge Michael Desiato is considered one of the more enlightened arbiters of the law. He cares about justice, but he loves his son more, so the judge uses all his knowledge of the justice system to protect him in Your Honor, creator Peter Moffat’s adaptation of the Israeli TV show Kvodo, which premieres tomorrow on Showtime.

It was already a fateful day—the anniversary of the death of Desiato’s wife. Unfortunately, it quickly gets much worse for their son Adam. He just wanted a private commemoration, but he takes a wrong turn through gang territory. Due to the resulting stress, he suffers a serious asthma attack, during which he accidentally collides with a motorcyclist. It turns out that was the son of notorious mob boss, Jimmy Baxter, whom he leaves for dead in his panic.

Judge Desiato had convinced his son to turn himself in, but he aborts that plan when he discovers the identity of the victim. Instead, the jurist opts to conceal his son’s involvement, fearing the Baxters’ reprisals. He is a lot better equipped and informed to perpetrate a cover than the Kennedys after Chappaquiddick, but he still misses a lot. Things get messy, in terms of unintended costs and consequences by the end of the second episode (out of ten), but Desiato has no choice but to keep digging.

Bryan Cranston has instant credibility as Judge Desiato and the New Orleans locations add a great deal of pizzaz. The supporting cast is also mostly strong and engaging. However, each one-darned-thing-after-another that Moffat tries to spring on viewers is really never particularly shocking, at least based on the first four (out of ten) episodes supplied to the press. The series certainly functions as a respectable thriller, but it is basically on the level of Suspect, the okay 1987 Peter Yates film, starring Dennis Quaid.

Of course, Cranston is compulsively watchable as Desiato. The best moments of Your Honor (so far) feature the craftiness he so aptly projects whenever the judge is retrieving evidence or constructing alibis (taking a page out of the playbook followed by the father in Sheep Without a Shepherd).

Cold Comes the Night: A Gritty Noir for Bryan Cranston

The Russian mob does not have much in terms of pension and disability plans, so an aging courier slowly losing his eyesight does not have many options.  He just carries on, relying on trusted accomplices.  Unfortunately, when a shipment of cash goes awry, he will force a single mother to help him retrieve it in Tze Chun’s Cold Comes the Night (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Topo can count on his partner to cover for him, but he has little confidence in the younger man’s judgment. His lack of faith is vindicated when they stop for a few hours shut-eye at Chloe’s no-tell motel in upstate New York. When a lurid misadventure leads to the death of Topo’s associate and a local girl, the more discrete older thug forces Chloe to serve as his eyes.  Initially, Chloe does so to protect her young daughter, Sophia. However, as she grows somewhat used to the grizzled Topo, she tries to forge a temporary alliance.  After all, he seems to be a better bet than Billy, the corrupt married cop she has reluctantly been carrying on with, who also becomes their leading suspect.

Although Cold starts out as a mother-and-child in jeopardy thriller (sort of the reverse of Wait Until Dark), it soon develops its own distinctive identity.  Wisely, it largely removes Sophia from the line of fire, focusing instead on Chloe’s uneasy give-and-take with Topo. There are no cheap rehabilitations in Cold either.  Topo essentially remains who he always was, even though he develops a subtle regard for Chloe.

Admittedly, he never breaks a sweat, but it is still fun to watch Bryan Cranston do his thing as Topo.  He seethes like a champion and nicely projects an air of world weary existential resignation. Despite all his instant hardnose credibility, the name Topo still automatically brings to mind images of Topol singing “If I were a Rich Man,” which clashes rather badly with the mood the film is going for.

As Chloe, Alice Eve holds her own against Cranston’s Topo surprisingly well.  At least, she is not a shrinking violet Lifetime movie heroine. Young Ursula Parker is also relatively down-to-earth and endurable as Sophia.  In contrast, as greasy Billy, Logan Marshall-Green annoyingly acts like he is channeling Bill Paxton.

Perhaps the film’s biggest surprise is that such a gritty noir comes from director-co-writer, Tze Chun, as the follow-up to his emotionally wrenching coming of age story, Children of Invention.  It turns out he has a good handle on the double-crossing machinations of the Simple Plan style thriller. Cold moves along at a healthy clip and delivers plenty of Cranston (this is no glorified cameo, but a legitimate featured role).  It definitely comes from a B-movie place, but the elements come together rather effectively.  Recommended for fans of slightly grungy noirs, Cold Comes the Night opens this Friday (1/10) in New York at the Quad Cinema.