Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
November 28, 2023 8:28 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
It is 1985, Ronald Reagan is in the White House, and AIDS is causing mass death in the Americas. In Manhattan, Prior Walter tells Louis, his lover of four years, that he has AIDS; Louis, unable to handle it, leaves him. As disease and loneliness ravage Prior, guilt invades Louis. Joe Pitt, a Mormon and Republican attorney, is pushed by right-wing fixer Roy Cohn toward a job at the US Department of Justice. Both Pitt and Cohn are in the closet: Pitt out of shame and religious turmoil, Cohn to preserve his power and image. Pitt's wife Harper is strung out on Valium, causing her to hallucinate constantly (sometimes jointly with Prior during his fever dreams) and she longs to escape from her sexless marriage. An angel with ulterior motives commands Prior to become a prophet.
(Description from Wikipedia)
I’ve been watching this repeatedly for the past few days.
Al Pacino’s Roy Cohn’s vocal cadences and bragging jump out at me as reminiscent of a recent president.
Ethel Rosenberg prompting Louis through the Kaddish and ending with “you son of a bitch.”
posted by bunderful at 4:06 PM on December 2, 2023
Al Pacino’s Roy Cohn’s vocal cadences and bragging jump out at me as reminiscent of a recent president.
Ethel Rosenberg prompting Louis through the Kaddish and ending with “you son of a bitch.”
posted by bunderful at 4:06 PM on December 2, 2023
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Al Pacino as Roy Cohn
Meryl Streep as Hannah Pitt / Ethel Rosenberg / Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz / The Angel Australia
Patrick Wilson as Joe Pitt
Mary-Louise Parker as Harper Pitt
Emma Thompson as Nurse Emily / Homeless woman / The Angel America
Justin Kirk as Prior Walter / Leatherman in park
Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Lies / Norman "Belize" Arriaga / Homeless man / The Angel Europa
Ben Shenkman as Louis Ironson / The Angel Oceania
Brian Markinson as Martin Heller
James Cromwell as Henry, Roy's doctor
Michael Gambon as Prior Walter Ancestor No. 1
Simon Callow as Prior Walter Ancestor No. 2
Robin Weigert as Mormon Mother
....Emma Thompson gets one of my favorite lines ever - in the PERESTROIKA section there's a throwaway scene where Prior is taken to the hospital by Hannah Pitt, and introduces her to the nurse with: "This is my ex-lover's new lover's Mormon mother." The nurse blinks, and then says, "okay, even in New York in the 90s, that's weird."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:03 AM on November 29, 2023 [2 favorites]