Staff Picks: A hero-free Hollywood satire and another round for Mojito fiends

For this week’s Staff Picks, TV critic Saloni Gajjar heads west for a Hollywood satire starring an unlikable Simp, and staff writer Matt Schimkowitz takes a go-fast boat south for a new cut of Michael Mann’s Miami Vice. 

Saloni Gajjar: The Simp by Raj Ladlani

For anyone who doesn’t prefer books with unlikable protagonists, Roshan Sethi’s The Simp—which reminded me most of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface—might prove to be a challenge. But if you’re able to get past this hurdle, or if you’re just a fan of flawed yet sympathetic characters, then this cynical and gripping Hollywood satire will leave you wanting more. In his debut book, the author and filmmaker doesn’t hold back any punches about the tireless and grueling churn of trying to claw your way into a powerful industry that doesn’t always make it easy for outsiders, especially if they’re people of color. 

The book centers on sullen 31-year-old Raj Ladlani, who moved from New Delhi to Los Angeles to become a Hollywood star. Years later, his career hasn’t taken off, he loathes his job at a frozen yogurt store; and is hardly friends with his three roommates. The only meaningful relationship isn’t with a man of his dreams, but with his older, supportive former acting coach. Raj’s life turns around when, after weaving a web of wild lies, he becomes the personal assistant to a Hollywood power couple: Jim H, a Leonardo DiCaprio-esque superstar, and his much younger, aspiring screenwriter wife, Anna. 

However, Raj’s duties aren’t limited to managing their schedules, calendars, interviews, and travel plans. The poor guy has to babysit, dogsit, grocery shop, coordinate household and vehicular repairs, among a laundry list of responsibilities that slowly strip away Raj’s identity. But he doesn’t mind because his job brings him closer to Hollywood than ever before: trips to studio lots, sitting in important meetings, and even a glimpse of Timothée Chalamet. Still, Raj’s gutting loneliness and simmering resentment threaten to boil over at any point, particularly as he witnesses the failing marriage of Jim and Anna. 

It’s a titillating premise that Sethi mines to the fullest. The inspiration for this story is threefold: A viral 2023 job posting; stories he heard from his husband, actor Karan Soni (Deadpool, Abbott Elementary); and finally, William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, to which Sethi often tips his hat in The Simp. And yet, Sethi crafts an entirely original and gripping tale, particularly once Raj’s life intertwines with his employers. The more he works with them, the more he thinks about his parents (who died during COVID-19 and could never come to terms with his sexuality). Through the three of them, Sethi seamlessly grapples with race, class, power imbalance, celebrity worship, colonial history, and assimilation troubles, without being preachy in a “I told you so” way. 

Raj’s actions throughout the book, frequently driven by anger and vengeance, still evoke empathy for him. It’s quite a tightrope, but Sethi aces it, while also keeping The Simpa breezy, entertaining read, with a final couple of twists that made me wonder if Sethi will somehow adapt this into a thrilling limited series.

Matt Schimkowitz: Miami Vice: The Director‘s Final Cut

Like many millennials, Michael Mann’s work has grown in importance for me over the last decade. In a world run by maniacs, I find comfort in Mann’s work where competence and professionalism reign supreme. Thankfully, in the 2020s, years after Blackhat‘s box-office failure, Mann returned with full force. After directing the gripping pilot for HBO’sTokyo Vice and a prickly passion project, a biopic of Enzo Ferrari, the writer-director is staging an action-packed, mega-budgeted sequel to his most famous film, Heat. But the action is the juice, and Mann isn’t sitting idle while production ramps up. He’s tying up loose ends. Earlier this summer, he released a long-awaited director’s cut of Manhunter, and now he’s done the same with 2006’s Miami Vice. 

Screened as part of Beyond Fest at American Cinematheque in West Hollywood earlier this month, Miami Vice: Director’s Final Cut is a 4K restoration that’s a minute shorter than the theatrical cut and six shorter than the director’s previous retolling. Mann is no stranger to director’s cuts. He’d never stop tinkering if he had his druthers, and a new transfer is as good a time as any to correct “mistakes,” as he called them in a post-screening Q&A. “It was always supposed to open with the go-fast boats,” he said, to audience applause, after presenting the Final Cut‘s new opening scene. 

The film still follows Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Foxx), the Miami-Dade Police Detectives made famous by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas on the seminal ’80s TV series. As they infiltrate a drug trafficking ring, Crockett falls for a cartel leader’s lover, Isabella (Gong Li), and loses his sense of self while under deep cover. The new cut is undoubtedly more coherent. The go-fast boats do, in fact, open the film now, better contextualizing the bust Crockett and Tubbs would abandon shortly into the film. It also spends more time with Tubbs up top, giving his relationship with Trudy (Naomie Harris) more depth before her kidnapping. The movie looks better than ever, but some alterations are more interesting than rewarding. 

I still prefer the immediacy of the theatrical cut, which wastes no time needle-dropping viewers into the story with nothing but Jay-Z and Linkin Park to orient them. It’s an invigorating opening scene that dares the audience to keep up with Crockett, and that attitude persists until the movie’s final shot, when the cop abandons the film and disappears into a hospital corridor. Still, detractors of the original’s controversial final shot will find more to love in the new one.

Though I miss the original’s abruptness, it’s still Miami Vice, one of the 2000s’ great action films. As a longtime fan, I appreciated the more audience-friendly narrative, aided by some never-before-seen footage pulled from Mann’s dailies. Being a Mann fan (fann?) means separating the wheat from the chaff on director’s cuts. His new Manhunter is a lesser version of the theatrical, but his recut Blackhat is vastly superior to the one audiences ignored in theaters. Thankfully, the upcoming five-disc 4K release contains both versions of Miami Vice. Mojito fiends should be pleased.