Mr Corman, Apple TV+, review: a dose of gentle suburban angst from Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an indie movie darling and Mr Corman, the TV show he has written, directed, stars in and executive produced for Apple TV+, is an indie movie in series form. That’s to say it is quirky, warm, and lovingly put together. It ambles along pleasingly without ever worrying about things like plot development. You can watch a couple of episodes, as I did, and come away feeling both “meh” and “yeah!”
The Mr Corman of the title is an LA primary school teacher who, we gather, was quite nearly a rock star. As a result, his life is a disappointment. Gordon-Levitt is very good at quiet frustration, with a sort of post-millennial malaise hewn in to his resting face.
Joshua Corman thus joins a strong American tradition of suburban tragicomedy that runs through John Cheever, Richard Yates and Saul Bellow, in which the American Dream becomes a curse – you could have been a contender. But you’re not. Deal with it.
Mr Corman can’t deal with it. He flits from his classes for 10-year-olds in which everything he’s teaching seems to reflect his own ineptitude (e.g. male vampire bats are largely useless); to excruciating failed sexual encounters; to desperate introspection and a run of panic attacks.
The show’s momentum, where it has any, comes from the drip feed of Corman’s back story. He had a girlfriend, Megan, who was a singer, but they’ve split up. How come? He gave up drink and drugs. Why? He has a feckless, if supportive flatmate (Arturo Castro). How did they meet? He has a bizarrely intimate relationship with his mother (a terrific Debra Winger). Where did that come from?
Don’t go in to Mr Corman expecting answers to those questions any time soon. The first two episodes, at least, run to their own rhythms, sometimes manic, sometimes languid, occasionally surreal, never predictable. It is the way of things these days for the big streamers like Apple to give those they deem auteurs such as Gordon-Levitt as much money and as much time as they like. It works both ways – Mr Corman has moments of sublime beauty, but also passages where you could as well be watching the microwave.
In Corman’s meanderings around a hot, tired Los Angeles Mr Corman most resembles the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, as Corman is exasperated and ultimately defeated by automated phonecalls, nonsensical social etiquette and all the other causes of low-level suburban angst.
But unlike Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mr Corman isn’t looking for laughs – it’s more downbeat and bemused. And in truth it’s a little bemusing, too: there have been some great TV shows (including Curb) in which nothing much happens and Mr Corman may go on to be one of them. Or, like Mr Corman himself, it could shine at first and then disappoint.
