Los Angeles Times - 13.11.2019

CALENDAR

DD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

E

HELEN MIRRENand Ian McKellen appeared together on Broadway in “The
Dance of Death.” Now the actors have teamed for their first film together.

Béatrice de GéaFor The Times

LONDON — In 2001, Ian

McKellen and Helen Mirren

were rehearsing a produc-

tion of August Strindberg’s

“The Dance of Death” at the

Broadhurst Theatre in New

York City. A week before the

previews opened, the events

of Sept. 11 shook the city and

its inhabitants to the core.

But the play continued on.

“We opened the next

week, at a time when you

couldn’t move off Manhat-

tan,” says McKellen, sitting

with Mirren in the basement

room of a restaurant in

Hackney where the pair

filmed a scene for their new

movie “The Good Liar” last

fall. “All the bridges were

closed. It was extraordinary.

You couldn’t move off, you

couldn’t come in. Manhat-

tan was a world by itself.”

“And it was an amazing

time to be there,” Mirren

jumps in. “I’m so honored I

was there at that time, hon-

estly. It was so moving and

impressive. I thought the

New Yorkers were incred-

ible. They just got on it with

it in the most amazing way.”

“You might have thought

this was a play they would

have avoided, but no,” McK-

ellen continues. “We were

the latest play on and the lo-

cals, having seen all the old

hits years ago, came. Those

other theaters were empty

because the tourists

couldn’t come. You could

walk into ‘The Producers’ to

see Nathan Lane, but you

couldn’t get a ticket to see us

because it was the locals.

They had the blitz spirit.

They were going to go on and

go to the theater in New

York. And we became the

center of that need.”

That production of “The

Dance of Death,” surpris-

ingly, marked the first time

the British actors officially

met. While both were aware

of each other’s career,

Friends finally find

their way to a movie

Helen Mirren and Ian

McKellen team up for

Bill Condon’s thriller

‘The Good Liar.’

By Emily Zemler

[See‘Good Liar,’E2]

An all-star cast.

Decades’ worth of “Star

Wars” lore.

Disney’s deep pockets.

There was no question

about the media giant’s

aspirations for its streaming

service, Disney+, when it

launched early Tuesday

morning with “The Man-

dalorian” at the forefront of

several new original series:

Go big — like $12.5-million-

per-episode big — pull in half

of Hollywood, stay on brand.

The premiere episode of the

first live-action series in the

“Star Wars” universe is a di-

rect descendant of the big-

budget film franchise in both

tone and execution. It’s long

on impressive special effects

and alien shootouts and

short on a fresh story line be-

yond the usual unwitting

hero with a mysterious fam-

ily tree and a destiny that in-

volves saving the universe

(or part of it).

The first installment of

the eight-episode sci-fi

drama is replete with swag-

gering bounty hunters, gro-

tesque aliens yukking it up

in bars and a narrative that

must make a lot of sense to

“Star Wars” fans — because

it’s seriously confusing to the

rest of us.

I have no idea what the

series is about, at least not

yet. But it looked cool, like a

trip to Disneyland’s Ga-

laxy’s Edge without the long

lines and screaming chil-

dren.

Here’s what I do know:

“The Mandalorian” takes

A ‘Star

Wa r s ’

first

plays

it safe

Action-packed yet

predictable, ‘The

Mandalorian’ launches

Disney+ into orbit.

LORRAINE ALI

TELEVISION CRITIC

PEDRO PASCALplays

the titular bounty hunter

in “The Mandalorian.”

François DuhamelLucasfilm

[See‘Mandalorian,’ E6]

Apollo 11 lifts off

from Cape Canaveral, and for a minute, Prince Philip (Tobias

Menzies) has something in common with everyone else on the

planet: He’s glued to the TV. He watches as the spacecraft

breaks free of Earth’s orbit, relishing the astronauts’ freedom,

feeling the full weight of the crown.

Sixties-era liberation movements — on Earth and in the sky —

test the royals’ suffocating sense of duty, tradition and public

service in Season 3 of Netflix’s “The Crown,” which premieres

Sunday. The juxtaposition is not an entirely new one for the se-

ries, which premiered in 2016 with Claire Foy as the young Queen

Elizabeth II. But in the new season it takes on a fascinating life of

its own, with Olivia Colman as the maturing matriarch.

Now approaching 40, the queen has found peace in her once-

crumbling marriage, but the U.K. itself is falling apart. The econ-

omy is tanking, the working class is on the verge of revolt and

Parliament is hopelessly split. And if the most visible symbol of

British power has learned anything over the years, it’s that she

has no power at all. Only sway.

Colman is masterful as a cold but not uncaring figurehead for

a country in need of solace. She has to fake tears when touring a

disaster site where a schoolhouse full of children were buried

under an avalanche of coal sludge. She’s bothered, but mostly by

why she can’t feel things the way others do. She wantsto feel, but

even if she could, her station demands an inhuman detachment.

Colman carries that imbalance with her throughout the season,

frostily dressing down her own son Charles (Josh O’Connor),

then tenderly talking about the racehorses she loves as if they

were her real children.

The drama, which kicks off in 1964, also finds that the rest of

Buckingham Palace has matured. Or at least grown older by a

few years.

The troubled Princess Margaret is played with zest by the

brilliant Helena Bonham Carter. The royal black sheep has fi-

nally found an era that suits her: the swinging ’60s, where any-

thing goes. She smokes, drinks,

TELEVISION REVIEWS

“THE CROWN,”a Netflix series, has new leads portraying Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies.

Sophie Mutevelian

Weight of a crown

Series about Queen Elizabeth II gets stronger as troubles run deep

[See‘The Crown,’E6]

BYLORRAINEALITELEVISION CRITIC>>>

Problems in

black and white

Photos of two oceans’

edges are shallow

disappointments at

LACMA, Hauser. E5

What’s on TV..........E7

Comics...................E8-9