What to watch on Apple TV +: Palmer

The recent release of the latest Apple TV + exclusive movie, Palmer, makes you sit for nearly two hours without knowing the time.

It is clear that watching films from the sofa implies an automatic devaluation of the product (I refer you to the article "The cinemas are dead" where we discussed the issue). Palmer is the perfect movie to go to the movies on Friday and forget about the work week, or call it a happy weekend.

Somehow, to be able to see a first from the sofa at home, with just a couple of clicks, while you see if the washing machine has finished, or stop it because the phone rings, even more so, the simple possibility that those things will happen, represent an impassable boundary for diving that makes it very difficult for you to be admired by what you have just seen.

Also, Palmer, at its core, has a storyline that has been visited a thousand, a hundred thousand times, so you don't even expect big surprises and you know in advance how those films turn out. So, in these situations, the only hope the film has a future is that the performances will make you forget you've seen it so many times before, and it's worth moving on, dedicating your time to Palmer.

In this sense, the actors are perfect in their role. Justin Timberlake is content and expressive, Juno Temple (who you also saw on Apple TV's Ted Lasso) is gorgeous, and the supporting casts are right. However, the whole film is "stolen" from the interpretation of the young protagonist, Ryder Allen, (I deliberately avoid identifying his genre) which leaves one wanting to have more minutes to learn more about how he sees the world.

The argument

Palmer is released from prison after twelve years and returns to his village to try to rebuild a life for himself. There he must live with the past, with the present and the miserable future that awaits him. His neighbor across the street, Sam, is abandoned by his mother and in his absence, Palmer welcomes him.

Il migliore

The best thing is undoubtedly the performance of Sam (Ryder Allen) and his evident complicity with Justin Timberlake, also excellent in containment, far from the exuberance of his music.

Obviously, the message of the film is also fantastic, because it presents it naturally and without fanaticism or moralistic zeal. It is simply a coincidence.

Worse

The plot is linear and predictable. It is shot with simplicity and unpretentiousness (perhaps it should be in the "best") showing the "suspended in time" life of the peoples of deep America, as it happens in any other country.

Conclusion

It's a good movie, with good actors and enough intensity. As I said at the beginning, the main reason to see a movie on television is that you have already seen it in the cinema and you liked it. But when you first see it on television, will you want to see it again after a while?

Undoubtedly, the catalog that Apple is building is rising on the pillars of quality and (as announced on the day of the presentation of Apple TV +) on the big ones. My doubt is that, at the speed with which the contents arrive, it seems that it will not be until 2025 (to say a date, you understand me) that it will not have a sufficiently populated video library to be competitive with other offers.

It's true that Apple has the money and isn't in a hurry, but - despite extending free rates until June - it will have to start loading at some point, and I don't know if the content will be enough to build customer loyalty this year. Perhaps Fundación is Apple's great hope ...

Have you seen it? What do you think?