Tippingpoint

Our pick & pans

Road House Amazon Prime

They said it couldn’t be done. More intimidatingly, they said it BETTER NOT BE DONE, DAMMIT! Try to remake “Road House” at your own peril, they said. Patrick Swayze will go full “Walking Dead” on you if you try! And yet ... director Doug Liman, with Jake Gyllenhaal starring, has pulled off a damned fine “Road House” with humor, respectful homage, magnificently choreographed action and fresh vision for our times. Gyllenhaal is self-tortured ex-MMA fighter Elwood Dalton, who stumbles into a job as a bouncer at the eponymous night club in the Florida Keys. Rich scum-sacks want the property and will employ all manners of increasing thuggery to get it. Gyllenhaal is perfect — a more wounded cubby bear than Swayze’s zen philosopher — but his gentle friendliness (naturally) masks a viciousness in defense of the weak. The main hired brute — the adversary we all know Dalton will face in the showdown — is played in ridiculous fashion by Ultimate Fighting Championship star/frequent sexual-assault-chargee Conor McGregor. As Knox, McGregor has only one facial expression — a Jack-o’-lantern grin — and a relentless, curious stride that seems part Jason Voorhees and part John Travolta in the “Saturday Night Fever” video.

— Rick Koster

The Women Kristin Hannah

When I was reading this latest novel by Kristin Hannah, I could easily imagine it as a TV miniseries. Lo and behold, it’s already been optioned. No wonder: the story is full of dramatic scenes and images, and it delves into a shameful part of history, when Vietnam vets returned to the U.S. from serving their country, only to be treated like outcasts. Hannah focuses on privileged, searching young Frankie McGrath who, unaware of what she’s getting herself into, volunteers to become an Army nurse. The evocative sequences of her being thrown into the trauma of the Vietnam War are the best in the book. Hannah charts Frankie’s growth, with the latter part of the novel finding her returning to California and dealing with PTSD and a prickly homecoming. Even her country-club parents want to ignore what she went through in Vietnam; in fact, they told people their daughter had been away studying in Florence. The weakest part of “The Women” is Frankie’s relationships with men, which feel not far removed from a romance novel. But Frankie’s anguish and ultimately her spirit are what makes “The Women” worth reading. — Kristina Dorsey

Texas Hold ‘Em Beyoncé

Forget the social media discourse of the cultural, aesthetic and political ramifications of “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé’s new country album. For one thing, it’s not a country album, says Beyoncé. OK, well, fine. But I will say “Texas Hold ‘Em,” an early single from “Cowboy Carter,” is one of the better modern country tunes I’ve heard in a while. It’s got the twangy “Hee Haw” banjo fitting marvelously against totally contemporary synth work and production, with a hooky melody and chorus, plenty of honky tonk/hoedown lyrical references and requisite hardship/party allusions. Twang on! — Rick Koster