MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY (ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING)

 

The public's fascination with true crime podcasts has always felt ripe for parody.

So hats off to Steve Martin and John Hoffman for finding the right vehicle to do just that with the 10 part Hulu comedy mystery 'Only Murders in the Building'.

Podcasts like 'Serial,' The Clearing,' ''My Favourite Murder' and 'Someone Knew Something' have gripped or amused listeners around the world.

However some of them have not been immune to criticism, facing accusations of voyeurism, trivialising murder, lacking journalistic rigour and trading in speculation.

The public's appetite for bizarre true crime stories remains undiminished, though, as Jim Sheridan's Sky Crime and John Dower's Netflix documentaries this year on the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Co Cork proved.

Another Netflix documentary this year 'Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel' posed some alarming questions, however, about the public's fascination with true crime, with its focus on the contribution and value of social media influencers who speculated on the investigation into the mysterious disappearance and death in 2013 of Elisa Lam in LA.

And now 'Only Murders in the Building' takes a more comic look at the genre, affectionately spoofing the true crime podcast community while at the same time following the amateur sleuth narrative that most podcasters take.

Set in New York, Steve Martin plays Charles Haden-Smith, a porkpie hat wearing semi-retired actor living in the Arconia Building in Manhattan, whose moment in the sun came as the lead in a 1990s network detective series called 'Brazzos'.

Flattered when he is recognised on the street, he is completely thrown when a young man enthuses how 'Brazzos' was his ailing dad's favourite show and then hands him his camera phone when Charles offers a photograph, assuming he is offering to take a photo of him and his girlfriend.

Martin Short is a down on his luck Broadway producer, unable to afford his apartment in the Arconia Building and living off dips and free food he swipes at residents' meetings and receptions.

Infamous for trying to stage a disastrous musical of the Tom Hanks movie 'Splash,' Oliver Putnam has an estranged adult son, Ryan Broussard's Will who he tries to scrounge money off.

Selena Gomez's Mabel Mora is a cynical twentysomething with a childhood history in the Arconia and who is renovating her aunt's apartment.

What brings these characters together is the fact that the three of them were the last to see Julian Cihi's Tim Kono alive in the building, sharing a lift with him before his murder.

After the Arconia is evacuated and the alarm is sounded, the trio are stunned to learn there has been a death of a resident.

Bumping into each other in a nearby diner while cops pore over the scene, the three of them bond over their shared love of a true crime podcast.

Realising they might have the source material for a podcast of their own, they sneak into the apartment the police have been combing and discover Tim Kono is dead.

With Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Detective Williams and her fellow cops assuming suicide after the discovery of a note at the scene, Oliver, Mabel and Charles are not so sure.

They start to recollect some weird occurrences during the evacuation of the Arconia, including a hooded man heading upstairs when residents were filing downstairs.

Setting up their podcast, they initially try to dig deeper into who Tim was and discover he was hugely unpopular with many of the residents.

It also emerges that Mabel had known Tim since childhood, as part of a group of friends who liked to roam around the building in their youth, sneaking into people's apartments and pretending to be 'The Hardy Boys' solving a mystery.

Later as young adults, we learn the group suffered a terrible tragedy when Olivia Reis' Zoe plunged to her death at a rooftop party, with another member of the gang, Aaron Dominguez's Oscar being convicted of her murder.

It transpires Mabel fell out with Tim Kono after he revealed he had seen someone fighting with Zoe moments before her death but failed to disclose this information to the police, resulting in Oscar's wrongful conviction.

Charles, Oliver and Mabel's podcast meanders around the life and death of Tim Kono, with the trio even considering the building's most famous resident Sting, who plays himself, may have had a motive to murder Tim.

Oliver secures funding for the podcast from an old benefactor, Nathan Lane's deli chain owner Teddy Dimas who also falls under suspicion at one point with his deaf son, James Caverly's Theo.

And when Tina Fey's celebrated but egocentric true crime podcast host Cinda Canning goes on Jimmy Fallon's 'The Tonight Show' and ridicules Charles, Mabel and Oliver's efforts, the 'Only Murders' podcast starts to build a fanbase.

This annoys some Arconia residents, including Jayne Houdyshell's perpetually grumpy Bunny, who feel it is impacting on the reputation of their residential building and undermining their livelihoods.

Eager to evict Oliver for rent arrears, Bunny rounds up the apartment board to try and force him, Mabel and Charles to stop making it.

However when Oliver receives a threat posted on his door and his bulldog Winnie is poisoned, the trio realise someone is determined to hide the truth about Tim Kono's death.

They may even kill to stop the podcast ever unearthing it.

Hoffman and Martin's script is very much in the mould of a movie like 'Galaxy Quest' affectionately parodying a genre while playfully adopting many of its tropes.

But they also build a well constructed murder mystery that will keep many viewers guessing as to the identity and motives of Tim Kono's killer.

The writers and their directors Jamie Babbit, Gillian Robespierre, Don Scardino and Cherien Dabis also make great use of their three lead actors' comic capabilities.

Martin's flair for physical comedy and his 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' brand of outrage gels perfectly with his old sparring partner, Martin Short's slapdash, down at heel charm.

Gomez is the real revelation, though, as she delivers snarky asides and more than holds her own alongside two battle hardened comic performers.

The three leads and their directors also show a willingness to push the boundaries of comedy.

One entire episode plays out with no audible dialogue, telling the story for large parts of its narrative from the perspective of Caverly's deaf character Theo.

Sting gamely allows himself to be sent up throughout the series, with many quips coming at his expense - not just in the one episode he appears in.

There's an amusing episode too where Jane Lynch guest stars as Sazz Pataki, Charles' old stunt double from his 'Brazzos' days - enabling her and Martin to indulge in well observed, physical comedy.

Nathan Lane and Tina Fey are dependable additions to the supporting cast, as is Amy Ryan who plays Charles' love interest Jan, a bassoonist in the New York Philharmonic.

Dominguez, Randolph, Caverly, Reis, Houdyshell, Cihi, Broussard, Russell G Jones, Zainab Jah, Jackie Hoffman, Vanessa Aspillaga and Michael Cyril Creighton as the cat owner Howard also play their part.

With its enthusiastic performances and its delightful playfulness, 'Only Murders in the Building' sustains its premise pretty well over the course of its ten episode run.

Occasionally, it shows signs of flagging but those moments are brief and rare, with Martin and Hoffman and their cast able to pluck a laugh out of the air just when it is desperately needed.

They also occasionally generate sufficient intrigue to get the show back on track quickly.

Some viewers might be tempted to think of 'Only Murders in the Building' as a more sweary, comic version of 'Murder, She Wrote'.

However Woody Allen fans will immediately think of 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' and especially 'Msnhattan Murder Mystery' which also played with the notion of amateur sleuths solving a crime - albeit in the pre-podcast, pre-social media influencer era.

A preamble in the first episode featuring a bloodied Mabel is revisited in the final episode, building a great springboard for another season.

And it has to be said, Martin, Gomez and Short earn the right for another shot at this venture, working hard for their laughs and enjoying the interplay.

The challenge facing 'Only Murders in the Building' will be to come up with another series with a mystery as intriguing and humour as rich and varied as the first.

I for one, though, cannot wait to hear Siddhartha Khosla's spine tingling theme tune again and see Laura Perez's clever, always changing, Easter Egg laden, animated credits sequence. 

('Only Murders in the Building' was released on Hulu in the US on August 31, 2021 and with weekly episodes on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland from August 31, 2021-October 26, 2021)

Lokasi:

Berbagi :