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Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

‘Grace and Frankie’ is a 
breath of fresh air on TV

TV REVIEW

“Grace and Frankie” 
shows improvement 
on its first season

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

The second season of “Grace 

and Frankie” began with wishes 
and ended with vibrators. To 
be more pre-
cise, it began 
with Frankie 
(Lily Tomlin, 
“Grandma”) 
making a wish 
on 
an 
eye-

lash and then 
yanking a hair 
from 
Grace’s 

(Jane 
Fonda, 

“Youth) chin and making Grace 
wish on it, and it ended with 
them deciding to make a busi-
ness out of sex toys for women 
with arthritis (while also saying 
goodbye to a dear friend). It was a 
tightly written season, wrapping 
up almost all loose ends while 
still leaving a few tantalizing 
ideas for future seasons.

In the first episode of the 

second season, Robert (Martin 
Sheen, “The West Wing”) has a 
heart attack and ends up in the 
hospital. Before he goes into 
surgery, he decides he wants 
to marry Sol (Sam Waterson, 
“The Newsroom”) in the hospi-
tal, just in case. It’s up to Grace 
and Frankie to find a minister 
for the wedding of their two ex-
husbands — and thus, the first 
episode of hilarity ensues. First 
they find a Catholic priest who 
won’t marry gays; then they find 
a rabbi who has no problem with 
two men getting married, but he 
won’t officiate a wedding that’s 
not between two Jewish people. 
Grace, fed up with this non-
sense, finally shouts: “There’s a 
sick WASP upstairs who needs to 
marry the Jewish one!” Eventu-
ally, Frankie officiates the wed-
ding, beginning with “We are 
here today to join my ex-husband 
with her ex-husband.”

Throughout 
the 
episode, 

Frankie decides to sell her infa-
mous lube made with yams to 

Grace’s daughter Brianna (June 
Diane Raphael, “Burning Love”), 
who runs a cosmetics business. 
Frankie wants millions of dollars 
and her own vaginal art on the 
boxes and stubbornly holds on to 
several of her values regarding 
the business, making Brianna’s 
life extremely difficult. Grace 
goes on a journey to find an old 
flame, which doesn’t and then 
does work out.

One of the funniest parts of the 

fifth episode is a bit of a throw-
away conversation between Grace 
and Frankie. Grace, while talking 
to Frankie about her relationship 
with her old friends, refers to the 
“whole Robert mess” — mean-
ing, of course, the fact that Rob-
ert and Sol had been cheating 
on Grace and Frankie with each 
other for years — and Frankie 
asks her what she means by that. 
Grace looks incredulously at her 
and Frankie realizes what she 
means, but quickly tosses it away 
with a hand wave. This season 
builds on what the first season 
did by allowing room for the 
expression of the pain that comes 
from cheating but also makes us 
aware that the most important 
part of this show is the resilience 
of these two women, and their 
friendship.

“Grace and Frankie” deals 

with more than the negotiation of 
relationship politics between two 
families bizarrely twined togeth-
er. As the two main characters 
and their husbands are both of 
retirement age, everyone’s got 
mortality on the brain. One of 

Grace and Frankie’s eccentric 
friends throws herself the “party 
to end all parties” because she 
wants one final good time before 
she dies by choice before letting 
cancer get her first. The show 
portrays a positive stance on peo-
ple choosing how and when they 
want to go when their options 
are limited, injecting slivers of 
humor and hope into a conver-
sation that is otherwise bleak. 
The finale features a magnifi-
cent speech by both Grace and 
Frankie on how women their 
age aren’t respected or acknowl-
edged — especially sexually — so 
they decide to go into business 
together, making vibrators for 
women with arthritis.

The 
acting 
has 
only 

strengthened 
over 
time, 

bolstered by hysterical writing. 
The jokes land one right after the 
other; Tomlin and Fonda have 
unrivaled chemistry on screen 
(though it is still fun to watch 
Sheen and Waterson play lovers), 
which is part of the reason 
“Grace and Frankie” was able to 
make a significant demographic 
care about a show that revolves 
around 
two 
wealthy, 
white, 

older-than-middle aged women 
and their families. While it’s 
hard to ignore just how wealthy 
they are — especially every 
time there’s a beautiful shot 
of a meal at the beach house — 
and how their abilities to cope 
with their problems are aided 
by that, the show manages to 
ground itself in comedy that 
never lacks a heartfelt warmth. 

NETFLIX

“Is that yam lube all it’s cracked up to be?”

‘Monster’ bores

By RACHEL RICHARDSON

Daily Arts Writer

Perhaps the reason why kids 

have trouble believing there really 
are no monsters under their beds is 
that they can eas-
ily detect bullshit 
in the explana-
tions we provide 
them. 
“Money 

Monster” 
dem-

onstrates 
the 

extent to which 
members of the 
adult world allow 
themselves 
to 

accept the ques-
tionable excuses 
large corporations give them 
when they have a major screw up. 
However, there comes a point, like 
when a company loses eight bil-
lion dollars and proceeds to attri-
bute the mishap to a technological 
glitch, when everyone becomes 
suspicious and angry.

Now, “Money Monster” is not 

actually a nickname for the rather 
unthreatening 
antagonist, 
but 

rather it’s the title of Lee Gates’s 
(George Clooney, “Gravity”) tele-
vision show directed by Patty 
Fern (Julia Roberts, “Notting 
Hill”). Every Friday, Lee gives 
financial tips to the public that, 
while mostly accurate, are usually 
exaggerated. Thus, his fanbase is 
countered by a substantial group 
of haters. One of these haters, 
Kyle Budwell (Jack O’ Connell, 
“Unbroken”), sneaks onto the set 
determined to get an explanation 
for how IBIS (a powerful corpora-
tion) could possibly lose eight bil-
lion dollars overnight. He begins 
his interrogation by forcing Lee to 
make himself a human bomb. The 
only wrinkle in Kyle’s plan is that 
IBIS’s CEO, Walt Cannby (Domi-
nic West, “300”), who was previ-
ously scheduled to do an in-person 
interview that day, has suddenly 
gone rogue (coincidence? I think 
not). At first, Lee thinks Kyle is 
a disillusioned psychopath con-
vinced his life is far worse than 
anyone else’s. But, as Lee listens to 
Kyle’s testimony, he becomes con-
vinced the real culprit must have 
human, not virtual fingerprints.

Clooney 
adds 
an 
essential 

layer of depth to the typical 
bigoted millionaire TV show host 
persona. He demonstrates hosting 
is a craft that requires the ability 
to make a connection with people, 

which is something not many can 
do well. Furthermore, Clooney 
shows hosts are frequently actors 
themselves — the attitude they 
exhibit for the camera may not 
be an accurate representation 
of their true personality. On air, 
Lee’s a know-it-all who views 
women as nothing more than 
sexualized objects. Yet, off screen, 
he exudes sincere gratitude for his 
entire crew, especially Patty. 

Roberts’ portrayal of her char-

acter assures us Patty deserves 
this recognition. Patty comes 
off as a trustworthy, intelligent 
woman who can remain calm dur-
ing high risk situations. On the 
other hand, she’s also not afraid 
to be annoyingly persistent and 
yell at high powered executives 
when they offer her nothing more 
than fabricated excuses. Finally, 
she’s a triumphant representative 
of women in power — not once 
do we question her ability to lead 
the crew of at least 30 individuals, 
most of whom are male. 

“Money Monster” pales in 

comparison to the films of both 
genres it tries to blend. Unlike 
crime thrillers such as “Now You 
See Me” that leave viewers guess-
ing until the final scene, “Money 
Monster” ’s events play out in a 
predictable manner. And, though 
it does expose the corruption of 
wealthy institutions, it fails to 
arouse the same intense feelings 
of hatred toward those who mis-
handle our hard-earned money 
that “The Big Short” does. Despite 
this, the film is not entirely dis-
tasteful, thanks to the comic relief 
provided by the loyal cameraman, 
Lenny (Lenny Venito, “War of the 
Worlds”), and the producer, Rob 
(Christopher Denham, “Shutter 
Island”).

Instead of smoothly shifting 

from one tone to the next, the film 
abruptly switches between them. 
While music usually helps to ease 
this type of transition, direc-
tor Jodie Foster’s (“The Silence 
of the Lambs”) use of music only 
enhances the contradicting tones. 
She follows the awkwardly sappy 
ending with Dan the Automator’s 
hype hip-hop track, “What Make 
the World Go Round [MONEY!].”

So, when deciding where to 

throw your green this weekend, 
know that “Money Monster” is a 
very risky investment. If I were 
you, I’d take that eight dollars and 
spend it somewhere else.

FILM REVIEW

A-

Grace and 
Frankie

Season 2 

Netflix

C+

Money 
Monster

Sony Pictures

Rave and 
Quality 16

