Two for Tuesday: Dramas

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

I enjoyed a couple dramas on HBO recently, so I will share them with you now.

1. Knox Goes Away (2024) stars Michael Keaton, who also directed, Al Pacino (always great), and James Marsden (love him from 27 Dresses, Enchanted, etc.). This film asks the question: what if a hitman got dementia? If Knox hadn't been a hitman, he would have made a tragically romantic hero whose mind is dissolving with disease. But he is, in fact, a murderer, so that complicates things. Knox and his friend Xavier (Pacino) come up with a system to deal with the dementia while at the same time helping Knox's son Miles (Marsden) beat a murder charge himself. Suzy Nakamura plays a police detective who has to deal with coworker sexism while trying to solve the case. The movie held my interest throughout.

2. Juror #2 (2024) stars Nicholas Hoult and is directed by Clint Eastwood. Juror Justin (Hoult) realizes he may have accidentally committed the crime that’s being tried, and he has to decide what to do. We watch him wrestle with his conscience throughout the film. Toni Collette plays the prosecutor, and I have to revise my opinion of her. I’ve avoided her for years because of that absolutely awful movie Hereditary, but I didn’t notice that she was in this movie at first. She was great! All the acting was top-notch, and the story was twisty and unpredictable, in the best of ways. If Juror #2 were a book, I would be tempted to give it 5 stars.