Cinematic Precessions of SUCCESSION
Where to get your fix of WaystarRoyco's finest after the finale
Well, now what am I supposed to do with my Sunday nights?! Watch The Idol? (No.)
I know many people will not have watched the series finale of Succession by the time I send this out, so I will refrain from any overt spoilers. But I will just say that I am going to greatly miss this show, one of the few dramatic series I would consider myself seriously invested in season after season. So in honor of my number one boys (and girls), I’ve put together a list of some great films to watch featuring the Succession cast.
Hiam Abass, The Visitor
Though her enduring legacy as Marcia may be one of heartlessness — “we’re calling Kerry a taxi to the subway so that she can go home to her little apartment” may be Succession’s most devastatingly cutting line — Hiam Abass can also be a performer of great compassion. She gets to show that side in Tom McCarthy’s empathetic drama The Visitor where she plays an undocumented immigrant who strikes up a friendship with a lonely widower as they fret over the fate of her son. It’s friendship cinema done with a smart eye toward the story’s political contours.
The Visitor is available for free with ads on Freevee through Amazon.
Nicholas Braun, Zola
The famously 6’7” Braun has described his character in Zola as just himself in middle school, only as a guy in his thirties. Not unlike his Cousin Greg energy, Braun finds himself stealing scenes with his socially awkward energy as the clumsy boyfriend of culturally appropriative stripper Stefani (Riley Keough). What’s wild is that he’s not even the craziest part of this misadventure in the underbelly of Florida that’s based on a notorious Twitter thread. This brief, glorious ride captures something immediate and intense about the nature of social media-based storytelling.
Zola is available for free with ads on Pluto TV.
Brian Cox, Adaptation.
Already missing Brian Cox yelling? You can get a whole lot of that at the decibel levels of Logan Roy in Adaptation., where he makes a brief but loud appearance as famed screenwriting expert Robert McKee. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), who’s writing himself into his own movie, struggles to figure out how to wrap up his script that’s gone off the rails. So he wanders into the screenwriting seminar looking for permission to deviate from the formula, only to be at the receiving end of a tirade by McKee. It wraps up nicely, though, with an intimate conversation where he provides the keys to unlocking the conclusion.
Adaptation. is available to rent from various digital providers.
Kieran Culkin AND J. Smith-Cameron, Margaret
A two-for-one deal, and from a time in which it would have been even more inappropriate for Roman and Gerri to have a relationship! Margaret makes for something of a perverse New York City B-side to Succession. The characters move in the same upper-class uptown milieus, but in Kenneth Lonergan’s mishandled masterpiece, these sad souls have no ability to shape the forces of the world around them — and must come to grips with their own powerlessness. (More on this in the final edition of my COVID-era newsletter The Distancer, should you be interested.)
Margaret is available to rent from various digital providers.
Dagmara Dominczyk, The Lost Daughter
Look, if there’s an opportunity to once again sing the praises of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter … I am going to take it! (I mean, the title theme was my top track on Spotify Wrapped last year.) You might have missed the show’s Karolina Novotney behind the top-billed trio of leading ladies in the film, but she’s dynamite as Callie, a put-out middle-aged mother who must uneasily share a beach in Greece with the mercurial Leda (Olivia Colman). She’s a crucial block in building a wobbly house of imperfect motherhood.
The Lost Daughter is available on Netflix.
Peter Friedman, Single White Female
Ever wonder what Peter Friedman’s crusty board chair Frank might look like with a full mop of hair? You can find out in Single White Female where he plays the trusted confidante of Bridget Fonda’s titular roommate-seeker as she fends off Jennifer Jason Leigh’s stalker. I’d never seen this one until recently even though its reputation precedes it culturally. This is a solid erotic thriller with a genuinely unhinged antagonist!
Single White Female is available on the Criterion Channel.
Matthew MacFadyen, Death at a Funeral
Succession isn’t Matthew MacFadyen’s first time trying to keep cool on-screen as a dysfunctional family unravels around him. In the uproarious comedy Death at a Funeral, he’s just trying to make it through a funeral without all the dirty laundry of their dead patriarch stinking up the ceremony. Not unlike Tom Wambsgans, his character tries to keep a straight face while dying inside. This movie kills me — know as little as possible going in and be prepared for each twist and turn to outdo the last.
Death at a Funeral is available to rent from various digital providers.
David Rasche, In the Loop
This isn’t the first time David Rasche, who has been stealing scenes lately as long-suffering CFO Karl, has worked with a brilliant British humorist who alternates between absurdity and tragedy when portraying the halls of cultural power. He’s also in the Armando Iannucci-verse with In the Loop about all the mundanity and madness of the Special Relationship. This satire of U.S.-U.K. diplomacy shows operatives both smart and dumb enough to know better trying to avert a war … if they can get out of the way of their own quippy, petty nonsense. It’s the Dr. Strangelove this era deserves.
In the Loop is available for free with ads on Tubi.
Alan Ruck, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Much has been made of the daddy issues faced by Alan Ruck’s Connor Roy in Succession and how they seem to scarily echo those he stared down as Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I’ll let you pinpoint the parallels yourself (though I did really enjoy him discussing them on a recent episode of the Talk Easy podcast). And maybe you also want to watch with my galaxy brain take in mind that the whole day is just a construction to break Cameron out of his shell before college…
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is available on Paramount+ and Showtime.
Sarah Snook, Steve Jobs
Maybe somewhere in the breathless dialogue of Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs script as kinetically directed by Danny Boyle, you missed a now-familiar face. That’s Sarah Snook in there as high-powered publicist Andrea Cunningham, making magic happen behind her headset as Jobs prepares for his crucial product launches. She got started early having to deal with temperamental men obsessed with how their self-presentation affected a company tied in with their own image. (At least Shiv has a tiny bit more power to push back.)
Steve Jobs is available to rent from various digital providers.
Jeremy Strong, The Big Short
While I was tempted to list two underappreciated gems by director Oren Moverman in which Strong has a small part, 2009’s The Messenger and 2015’s Time Out of Mind, I’d be lying if I said I clocked his presence in those films at all. The first time Strong really stood out to me was as the tough-talking, no-nonsense securities trader Vinny Daniel in The Big Short. He stands out among a wild ensemble for his impenetrable armor of defensive rhetoric that covers a conscience roiled with disgust at a corrupt system. That ability to hold both person and persona in conflict and harmony is something that’s been central to making Kendall Roy such a captivating character to watch, and the inklings of his greatness are on display here in a supporting capacity.
The Big Short is available to rent from various digital providers.
Back later this week with something dark for the sickos out there.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall