Like Crabs in a Barrel

Palm Royale | Cast: Kristen Wiig, Josh Lucas, Ricky Martin, Allison Janney
Creator: Abe Sylvia | English | Apple TV+

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN an aspirational pageant queen from Tennessee meets a well-heeled but wayward pilot from Palm Beach, Florida? Well, they get married, he gets disinherited, and she becomes obsessed with getting him what she thinks he is owed. There’s a slight problem. The rich aunt who rules Palm Beach society (“the last sanctuary of beauty in a rapidly changing world”) is in a coma and though our plucky heroine is not above stealing a dress (or two), or a diamond necklace (or two), it is all 1960s vintage which our Palm Royale ladies who lunch can tell from a mile off. There is an alternative set of women who have wealth but have discovered feminism and anti-war protests. It’s 1969, so President Nixon is on TV every day talking about Vietnam, even as the rich white women try to keep their club as exclusive as possible with a series of charity balls and auction nights—the only Latinos who are tolerated are waiters and tennis coaches. Kristen Wiig, as Maxine, the woman who wants it all without having the ability to pay for it, is perfect as is her main antagonist the statuesque Allison Janney (as Evelyn Rollins) whose bouffant and dark glasses hide decades of pain. There is also the mysterious hippie, her stepdaughter, played by Laura Dern, who dresses like an “indigent Mennonite railway princess” to whom Wiig’s character poses this existential zinger: “Don’t you want to grow up and not work?” And when Dern aka Penelope Rollins asks her about her obsession with the club and why she wants to be where she is not wanted, Wiig responds simply: “Isn’t that what revolution is about?” She adds, “I’ve waited my entire life to arrive, only to discover that arriving is not the end of the journey but the beginning.” All the action unfolds over a summer when the elite descend on Palm Beach like crabs in a barrel. Who bites whom? That’s the story.

Why watch it? Well, not to be shallow, but have you seen the dresses? And it doesn’t hurt to have Ricky Martin play a smooth bartender-cum-pool boy dressed mostly in shorts and short smoking jackets

The Triumph of the Little Woman

Patna Shuklla | Cast: Raveena Tandon, Anushka Kaushik Director: Vivek Budakoti Hindi | Disney+Hotstar

THE SMALL LITTLE town woman taking on the big bad wolf is slowly becoming a genre by itself in Hindi cinema, with movies like Bhakshak and Afwaah. No doubt, it is part of the strategy as streaming platforms go local with a vengeance to make the money they promised themselves. It’s a good thing they have allies like Raveena Tandon who is pitch perfect as the homemaker who doubles up as a lower court lawyer, fighting her cases with great gusto, even if they have to do with too-tight underwear. The actor channels the frustration of a woman who is not taken seriously either by her husband or by the judges. It takes a young woman, played by Anushka Kaushik, a fine actor who has been shining in a series of small roles, to give her a spine and make her fight for something higher and bigger than herself. The enemy they’re up against is a politician, played by Jatin Goswami. The lawyer who is opposing her is portrayed by the superb Chandan Roy Sanyal while the late Satish Kaushik is poignant as the judge who is sympathetic but strict.

Why watch it? An able ensemble cast pulls off an engaging film

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