Timberlake seeks redemption in formulaic Palmer
Lindsey Bahr
There s a kitchen-sink full of Serious Drama Clichés in the new Justin Timberlake film Palmer, about a high school football star turned convict who must help the young gender fluid boy with the addict mom next door while also trying to regain his footing in his small Louisiana hometown. It d be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make Palmer watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we ve seen this kind of thing so many times before.
Timberlake plays Eddie Palmer, who has just been released from prison after 12 years and is going to live with his grandmother Vivian (June Squibb) in his old hometown. He s got the ex-con beard and hoodie and thousand-yard squint and is a bit of a mystery, although that might be giving him a little too much credit. The script takes its time teasing out what exactly landed him behind bars.
For a heady few years, not too long ago, we thought that
Justin Timberlake might be an actor. More than an actor, even: a movie star. He’d charmed so thoroughly in his gigs hosting
Saturday Night Live, though of course his success in that arena came from the happy surprise that he was funny
for a singer. That crucial distinction went mostly ignored, though, and Timberlake was jammed into a ton of movies over a very short period of time, roughly 2011 to 2013, hailed to us as a new kind of
Cher or, I guess, Frank Sinatra.
There was, on the auspicious side of things,
This image released by Apple shows Ryder Allen, foreground, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from Palmer. (Apple via AP)
There’s a kitchen-sink full of Serious Drama Cliches in the new Justin Timberlake film Palmer, about a high school football star turned convict who must help the young gender fluid boy with the addict mom next door while also trying to regain his footing in his small Louisiana hometown. It’d be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make Palmer watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times before.
January 28, 2021 Share
There’s a kitchen-sink full of Serious Drama Cliches in the new Justin Timberlake film “Palmer,” about a high school football star turned convict who must help the young gender fluid boy with the addict mom next door while also trying to regain his footing in his small Louisiana hometown. It’d be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make “Palmer” watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times before.
Timberlake plays Eddie Palmer, who has just been released from prison after 12 years and is going to live with his grandmother Vivian (June Squibb) in his old hometown. He’s got the ex-con beard and hoodie and thousand-yard squint and is a bit of a mystery, although that might be giving him a little too much credit. The script takes its time teasing out what exactly landed him behind bars.