‘Irma Vep’ Is Shrewd Industry Commentary, Anchored by Alicia Vikander: TV Review
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Deep down, you are an outlaw yourself,” a director tells his leading lady. “It’s what we share.” His star thanks him, taking the remark as a compliment, but insists she’s nowhere as daring as the character she’s tasked with playing.This moment, in the first episode of HBO’s new series “Irma Vep,” is tossed-off and casual; the actors playing auteur and actress, Vincent Macaigne and Alicia Vikander, are believably weary, film-industry warriors just trying to get through the conversation, and the day.
But — as is typical of the work of writer-director Olivier Assayas, who is adapting his 1996 film of the same title — there is a tricky and serpentine truth in the most offhanded of on-set talk.
Vikander’s Mira begins the series as a rule-follower — obediently hitting her marks as part of a stage-managed superstar career.
And it’s through a new role in independent cinema that she’ll find the rebel within. Assayas, a French filmmaker who’s a regular at the Cannes film festival (where this TV series debuted in May), is a perennial commenter on the state of the entertainment industry.
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