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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Palmer’ on Apple TV+, a Melodrama in Which Justin Timberlake Finds Redemption in a Gender-Nonconforming Boy
Apple TV+ exclusive movie Palmer attempts to defibrillate Justin Timberlake’s acting career, which in recent years has dwindled to voicing a singing gnome-dude in Trolls and a role in a Woody Allen movie that’s better off forgotten. He headlines this weirdly R-rated melodrama, playing an ex-con who strikes up a friendship with a young boy who lives next door. It’s probably not going to put an Oscar on JT’s mantel, but maybe it’ll warm a heart or two this weekend.
WATCH GUIDE: Palmer
The Gist: Smalltown Louisiana. Eddie Palmer (Timberlake), or just Palmer unless you’re his grandmother (June Squibb), is fresh out of prison. His brow furrows; his face is a perma-half-scowl. Once, he was the high-school football star, a quarterback with a college scholarship and a bright future. Obviously, that all went to heck in a handheld hellbasket, and now, he’s an adult, hardened by a dozen years in the big house, lowercase, because his football career was kaput. He’s living with his grandmother, and side-eyed by the townsfolk no matter where he goes — to the grocer for Grandma, to church because she makes him, to the parole office, to wherever he applies for a job. The supermarket manager says the position posted on the window is already filled, but he sure seems to be lying. Palmer has a better go at the janitor job at the elementary school, where he gets forthright as all git-out during an interview. It works, and we believe him too.
He convenes with his old buds at the bar, including a somewhat notable crumb named Daryl (Stephen Louis Grush), to open a can of whupass on some Coors Light tallboys. The evening ends with a sweaty humparoo with Shelly (Juno Temple), who just so happens to be renting a trailer from Grandma Palmer, right next door to Grandma Palmer. Palmer walk-of-shames across the lawn the next morning, past Grandma Palmer, and past the boy she’s babysitting. That would be Sam (Ryder Allen), who happens to be Shelly’s son. The only way this whole sitch could be more embarrassing was if Palmer’d lost his pants and hoofed it back bare-assed. Shelly’s dating a mulleted human fart played by the pager salesman on 30 Rock (Dean Winters), and she does a lot of drugs, and sometimes just disappears for days, leaving Sam with Grandma Palmer. And that happens again, so Palmer’s life gets even more awkward.
