Susan Granger – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE ENGLISH GAME – Review by Susan Granger

July 7, 2026July 11, 2026 Susan Granger association football, Craig Parkionson, Edward Holcroft, James Harkness, julian fellowes, kevin guthrie, mini-series, netflix, soccer, The English Game

Astutely timed to coincide with World Cup enthusiasm, Netflix’s The English Game traces the origins of ‘association football’ in England, which evolved into the sport known as soccer in the United States. Prolific screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey, Belgravia, The Gilded Age) combines fact with fiction in this six-part historical mini-series set in a Lancashire mill town in the late 19th century when two ‘hired’ Scottish players catapulted the local Darwen working-class football club into contention for the coveted FA (Football Association) cup.

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DUTTON RANCH – Review by Susan Granger

May 26, 2026May 31, 2026 Susan Granger annette bening, Chad Feeham, Cole Hauser, Dutton Ranch, Finn Little, Kelly Reilly, Taylor Sheridan

Attention: Yellowstone fans: Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser return as indomitable Beth Dutton and her husband Rip Wheeler in the new Dutton Ranch. When a ferocious wildfire destroys their Montana home, Beth and Rip, along with their adoptive son Carter (Finn Little) take off for Rio Paloma in South Texas, just north of the Mexican border. That’s where they buy a small ranch – 5,000 acres with 175 head of purebred Black Angus cattle – that belonged to the Edwards family

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TRAIN DREAMS – Review by Susan Granger

December 5, 2025 Susan Granger Craig Brewer, Denis Johnson, felicity jones, Greg Kwedar, joel edgerton, Kerry Condon, Train Dreams, Will Patton, William H. Macy

Train Dreams is a mesmerizing, visually stunning motion picture about solitude, sadness and community – one of the best of the year. Set in the rugged forests of the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the 20th century, it’s the ruminative story of itinerant laborer Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) who lives a simple, frontier life, marries, becomes a father, suffers great tragedy and dies – without ever speaking into a telephone or owning a gun.

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HAMNET – Review by Susan Granger

December 1, 2025December 3, 2025 Susan Granger chloe zhao, Hamnet, Jesse Buckley, Łukasz Żal, Maggie O'Farrell, Middleburg FF 2025, Paul Mescal

Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) scores again with Hamnet, adapted with Maggie O’Farrell from her 2020 heart-wrenching novel, a historical fantasy about the trials and tribulations that indelibly marked the marriage of Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare. Zhao’s lyrical visual language permeates the drama, beautifully chronicled by Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal (The Zone of Interest) with stunning sets by production designer Fiona Crombie and Max Richter’s evocative score. Since London’s rebuilt Globe Theater is ornate, Zhao’s version looks like the inside of a tree.

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BLUE MOON – Review by Susan Granger

November 24, 2025November 28, 2025 Susan Granger Andrew Scott, BLUE MOON, Elizabeth Weiland, Ethan Hawke, Lorenz Hart, margaret qualley, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Llinklater, Richard Rodgers, Robert Kaplow, Simon Delaney

Set on March 31, 1943, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon recalls the Opening Night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s genre-redefining musical Oklahoma! at the ‘after-party’ at Sardi’s in NYC’s Theater District, where Lorenze Hart, Rodgers’ former creative partner feels the anguish of being left behind.

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AFTER THE HUNT – Review by Susan Granger

October 21, 2025October 23, 2025 Susan Granger After the Hunt, andrew garfield, ayo edebiri, chloe sevigny, julia roberts, luca guadagnino, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nora Garrett

Set on the Yale campus, Luca Guadagnino’s cryptic After the Hunt revolves around two professors – married to one another – and a grad student who claims she was sexually assaulted after she is accused of plagiarizing her doctoral dissertation on virtue ethics. That much is clear; the rest is decidedly murky.

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THE LEOPARD – Review by Susan Granger

June 18, 2025June 22, 2025 Susan Granger Giuseppe Capotondi, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Kim Rossi Stuart, Laura Luchetti, netflix, series, Sicily, The Leopard, Tom Shankland

With current global turbulence, it’s fitting to reflect on the strife that preceded the unification of Italy. That’s the background of Netflix’s “The Leopard,” a sumptuous, six-part period/political drama adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s acclaimed 1958 novel. Scripted by Richard Warlow and directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi & Laura Luchetti, the stunning, if slow-paced miniseries explores themes of power, romance, immorality, and societal change in Sicily.

Reviews

SIRENS – Review by Susan Granger

May 27, 2025May 31, 2025 Susan Granger Bill Camp, julianne moore, Meghann Fahy, Milly Alcock, Molly Smith Metzler, netflix, Sirens

Show creator/runner Molly Smith Metzler must have been familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s description of the rich because it matches hers in in Netflix’s new, five-part miniseries Sirens, alluding to Greek mythology in which sea monsters/mermaids lured sailors to their death. Her story begins with wealthy ethereal socialite Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Julianne Moore) standing on the edge of a cliff, releasing a falcon into freedom. At the same time, Devon DeWitt (Meghann Fahy) is getting out of jail in Buffalo, New York. Devon is exhausted caring for her widower father Bruce (Bill Camp) who suffers from dementia. So she hops a ferry to an unnamed sanctuary off the coast of Rhode Island and makes her way to the palatial clapboard beachfront estate known as Cliff House where her estranged younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock) – having survived a traumatic childhood – now works as Kiki’s personal assistant.

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THE GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY – Review by Susan Granger

April 30, 2025May 1, 2025 Susan Granger Christina Hendricks, Ellen Pompeo, Good American Family, hulu, Imogen Faith Reid, mark duplass

Autism and Adoption are two ’trigger’ words in today’s culture – and Hulu’s Good American Family delivers a double-whammy on both. “There are three sides to every story,” actress Ellen Pompeo explains. “Or six sides. Or nine. This is why art keeps us alive. Because everybody gets to see things their way – to make sense of them.” Branching out from her surgeon character Meredith Grey on ABC’s hit medical show Grey’s Anatomy, Pompeo tackles suburban supermom Kristine Barnett in Good American Family.

Reviews

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Review by Susan Granger

October 27, 2023September 28, 2025 Susan Granger Apple TV+, David Grann, eric roth, jesse plemons, Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, martin scorsese, Osage Nation, robert deniro, tantoo cardinal

Master storyteller Martin Scorsese’s harrowing epic Killers of the Flower Moon relates an American true-crime drama, set in the 1920s. Adapted from David Grann’s nonfiction 2017 best seller, the ambitious, solidly structured screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese focuses on the ruthless murders of members of the Osage Nation whom the U.S. government forced out of Kansas to relocate on 2,300 acres if barren land in what is now Oklahoma.

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