The Streaming Zeitgeist

Latest Must-See Streaming Blockbusters

And Some Movies You May Want to Avoid

Although many movie theaters reopened and while there is a palpable yearning for that greasy popcorn, nachos and supersized diet coke experience, most of us are still catching our first run flicks at home. Streaming services dominate and even when fully vaccinated, many of us are not entirely comfortable venturing forth to the multiplex just yet.

There are some great movies that have been released online in the past few months with mega stars like Tom Hanks, Glenn Close, Gary Oldman and Eddie Murphy to name a few. Here is a quick guide to some of the new offerings and whether they’re worth your time, and in some cases, the extra money.

News of The World (★★★★★)

Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel in “News of The World.”

In “News of The World” Tom Hanks delivers the kind of star performance you’d expect from one of America’s most versatile and beloved actors. Have you ever seen a bad Tom Hanks movie?

Westerns are not the most popular genre of film these days. Making them so they’re not cartoonish, patronizing or condescending is no small feat. Director Paul Greengrass delivers a period piece that is true to its time and place while also packed with pathos, action and wit. “News” is probably one of the five best Westerns of all time. It’s in the same league as Clint Eastwood’s The Unforgiven (★★★★★, 1992) and the power couple of John Ford directing John Wayne in The Searchers (★★★★½, 1956). “News” shares some themes with “The Searchers,” most notably the kidnapping of a white girl by Native Americans along with the deep darkness imbuing the souls of both Wayne and Hanks’ characters as a consequence of the Civil War.     

“News” is set in 1870s Texas where Hanks ekes out a living as an itinerant news reader – he buys newspapers along his travels – expensive and scarce items in the Old West – and he curates and delivers the news in public readings to paying audiences in towns small and large across the prairie. Hanks is running away from heartache, his past and battle-related PTSD. Redemption comes in the character of Johanna Leonberger who was kidnapped by Kiowa Indians as a young child and needs to be returned to her next of kin clear across Texas. Hanks’ character, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, is reluctantly impressed into the service of escorting Johanna to her family and therein lies the drama and adventure of the film as they traverse the Wild West. Johanna is played by 12-year-old Helena Zengel in a tour de force performance where she holds her weight alongside Hanks in most of the movie.

If you can see this in a theater by all means do – but – it’s equally worth watching on your home 42, 55 or 60-inch TV as well. Streaming on Prime.

Hillbilly Elegy (★★★★)

Glenn Close and Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy.

Many Americans comfortably ensconced in their affluent bubbles have no idea of the struggles, poverty, desperation and addiction which besets many to this day in “Flyover Country” and most particularly in Appalachia. This region stretching from Pennsylvania to Georgia has borne the brunt of the Opioid Crisis but even before that alcoholism and other substance abuse was rife.

“Elegy” is the autobiographical drama about a young J.D. Vance, growing up with a seriously defective mother in a death spiral of privation and addiction. Our hero manages to overcome extreme poverty and a plethora of disadvantages to become a Yale-trained lawyer who wrote a bestselling book from which this movie is based. Vance’s salvation was made possible through the intervention of his maternal grandmother, played powerfully by Glenn Close in the role of “Mamaw,” who rescues him from the depredations of his addict mother (played very unglamorously and convincingly by Amy Adams).

Most of the action takes place in Rust Belt Ohio and Kentucky with lots of flashbacks to our hero’s childhood and adolescence. To say that Glenn Close embodies the role of a grizzled character is an understatement. This is not the beautiful Glenn Close we saw in Fatal Attraction (★★★★, 1987) or The Natural (★★★★★, 1984). You totally believe in her as a struggling grandmother.  No end of common-sense grit and self-sacrifice. This is no light movie but it is highly inspiring and there is also a happy ending. This film may also remind you of the Tobias Wolff biopic This Boy’s Life (★★★★, 1993) starring Robert DeNiro, Ellen Barkin and a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Streaming on Netflix.

Coming 2 America (★★)

Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes in “Coming 2 America.”

They say some wines get better with age and some after too many years become vinegar and undrinkable. So is the case with the 33-year delay from Eddie Murphy’s hysterical Coming to America (★★★★, 1988) and this cringe-worthy sequel. No matter the return of the original cast plus great additional cameos. No matter Murphy and his sidekick Arsenio Hall playing a dozen different characters. No matter the lavish sets and costumes. The story is flimsy and completely non-credible even for a comedy farce. The writing is dismal, so much so that you’d be hard pressed to find more than two really good jokes in the whole film. A comedy that’s not very funny. Really? Really. How a comedic talent like Murphy didn’t see the lack of humor in this film is astonishing.

The only saving grace and bright spot here is Wesley Snipes as General Izzi, warlord of neighboring African nation Nexdoria (as in “next door”).  As Izzi, Snipes dominates the screen and brings 90 percent of the charisma. Izzi is an exaggerated hip-hopped-up Idi Amin-like tinhorn dictator full of outrageous bellicosity accompanied by a praetorian guard of exceptional street dancers who intimidate merely by virtue of their excellent choreography. The movie gets two stars thanks in great measure to Snipes.

The black stereotypes in “Coming 2 America” if they’d been produced by and starring whites would be viewed as highly offensive. In fact, if I were black, I would be very put-off by some of the visuals which in many cases cross a line to tastelessness. Streaming on Prime.

Mank ★★★★

Gary Oldman as “Mank.”

Herman J. Mankiewicz (or as his friends called him, “Mank”) was a brilliant Hollywood screenwriter during the studio heyday of the 1930s. He was also intemperate, constantly inebriated and often impertinent. A real character. So why a movie about him? Because he was the unsung and real literary genius behind one of the best movies ever made, Citizen Kane (★★★★★, 1941) directed by and starring the then 24-year-old wunderkind Orson Welles.

Welles hired the fading Mankiewicz (portrayed masterfully by Gary Oldman, who is 62 and playing someone three decades younger) to ghost-write the screenplay for his first big Hollywood outing. The drama here is the torturous road from concept to actual script; the efforts made by William Randolph Hearst and his media empire to have the film shelved or not made at all and the tension between Mank and Welles when Mankiewicz realizes it’s the best thing he’s ever written and wants screen credit for it. In between are flashbacks to Mank’s life in New York and California and his relationships with Hearst, his then wife Marion Davies (played by an increasingly impressive Amanda Seyfried), studio honcho L.B. Mayer (MGM) and other Hollywood swells. In the middle of the bio sandwich is the relationship with his own long-suffering wife.

Laid-up in bed due to a car accident, an ailing Mank is shuttled to the California desert with a nurse, secretary and prodding producer and told to write the script via dictation which we saw Oldman do frequently while playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (★★★★½, 2017). With the help of this entourage and an unhealthy supply of smuggled booze, Mank turns out one of the best screenplays of all time. In the process he makes enemies of and alienates almost everyone in his life. This is a very grown-up movie that will leave you contemplating the nature and scope of power, ambition, talent and waste (as in much of Mank’s life). Streaming on Netflix.

Wonder Woman 1984 ★★★

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

In 2017 director Patty Jenkins surprised us all with a superhero movie that was original, fantastic yet believable, well-acted, well-cast, well-written and that had heart and humor. That movie is Wonder Woman (★★★★, 2017). Gal Gadot was a delight as the fierce but incredibly naïve Amazon warrior and Chris Pine was adorable as Steve Trevor. The supporting cast was endlessly interesting and funny and the setting, World War I, was rendered with verisimilitude so that you bought into that reality.

For a second act, instead of perhaps setting the film during World War II, Jenkins opted to make a giant leap forward in years to 1984 (a big jump from 1918) where we’re supposed to believe that Diana a/k/a Wonder Woman has for decades been living a life of quiet desperation and solitude pining away for the late Steve Trevor while occasionally doing some rote super hero stuff like rounding up criminals. In “WW84,” the fate of the world hinges on defeating a deranged megalomanic businessman who steals an ancient artifact with magic powers to grant wishes (I’m over simplifying) which ultimately creates world wide chaos. Somehow Steve Trevor is brought back from the dead because Diana wished for him (as did the producers so the two can recreate their prior on-screen chemistry).

The world of 1984 is not reproduced as convincingly as was 1918 or as well as the 1950s were in Back to The Future (★★★★½, 1985) and the premise or nemeses of loneliness, unrequited love and success don’t carry as much weight as defeating the Germans and the god Aries on the Western Front. “WW84” is so much of a sequel that one really must watch the 2017 original in order to know much of the back story which limits the audience. Another drawback is the length of the film which at two hours and 30 minutes really is a half hour to 40 minutes too long. Many of the scenes of Diana as a child on Paradise Island could have been edited out to make the movie tauter. The film is worth seeing and you will be entertained, but better to see it with your own pause button at home than to invest 150 minutes in a theater. Streaming on Prime and other services.

The Streaming Zeitgeist

Binge-Worthy Streaming Shows

Detours, Diversions and Escapes to Surreal Places and Times Long Past

Traditional network TV and even some venerable cable networks have been having a hard time lately holding on to viewers. The television audience is increasingly becoming fractured into hundreds of mosaic bits with each fragment representing some micro-interest. Never have there been so many choices of series and mini-series to watch. The profusion of offerings however isn’t necessarily a guarantee of quality or worth hours of your time. In an attempt to separate the binge-worthy from the worthless, here are some recommendations for couch-deserving  programs.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (★★★★★ 3 Seasons, Amazon Prime).

Rachel Brosnahan as Mrs. Maisel

Were you enamored of Don Draper and the rest of the ad honchos on Mad Men? Have a nostalgic hankering for late 50s/early 60s New York City heyday of The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (★★★★, 1956 starring Gregory Peck) or Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (★★★★★, 1961)? Well, “Mrs. Maisel” gets the setting, scenery, attire and sensibility just right along with an extra bonus, “Maisel” is really, really funny.

“Maisel” is the story of a late 20-something contented, pretty, Jewish Upper West Side housewife whose life is totally upended by the idiocy of her husband. This sets her off in a seemingly unlikely (to her and everyone else) and unplanned trajectory as a stand-up comic at a time when this field (like most others) was dominated by men.

Midge Maisel is played with aplomb, sparkle and wit by Rachel Brosnahan with both good natured ferocity and good taste. You won’t feel like the show is over-the-top campy. Brosnahan is backed up by a sterling cast of characters (really, characters!) including Kevin Pollak (Casino ★★★★★ 1995, A Few Good Men ★★★★ 1992, The Whole Nine Yards ★★★★ 2000),

Tony Shalhoub, plays her uptight father (Shalhoub won the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Award in 2019 at the Primetime Emmys)  and he’s is channeling “Monk” through a neurotic Jewish-American prism. Shalhoub is also known for Galaxy Quest ★★★★ from 1999 and Honeymoon in Vegas ★★★½ from 1992.

Also outstanding in the cast are Alex Borstein who is hysterical as Midge’s manager and Luke Kirby playing the late edgy comedian Lenny Bruce. Kirby has Bruce down so cold that you’d swear he was standing before you right there and right now in the flesh.

The show ventures to locations galore. Aside from Manhattan the show jaunts to Paris, the Catskill “Borscht Belt,” Vegas and Miami. Each venue is replicated spot-on. From Wikipedia: Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2017 and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2018…Brosnahan won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2018 and two consecutive Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2018 and 2019; Borstein has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series twice consecutively for her work on the series in 2018. Season 2 is my favorite but they’re all eminently enjoyable and I recommend starting with Season 1, Episode 1. Mostly hour-long episodes.

Fauda (★★★★★ 3 Seasons, Netflix)

Lior Raz as Doron (left) and Rona‑Lee Shim'on as Nurit in “Fauda.”

This is not a show for the squeamish. “Fauda” transports the viewer directly into the heads, hearts and traumas of an elite Israeli undercover counter-terrorism squad. It is not an exaggeration to say that after watching all three seasons you may find yourself fighting off mild Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) as though you were actually in the field with these guys. Heavy drama, scintillating action, plenty of violence, edge of your seat suspense and not always a happy ending. If you like dousing your food with Tabasco® Sauce, this is the show for you.

“Fauda” is the Arabic word for “chaos,” the word is a metaphor for the violent insanity embodied by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and ISIS terrorists along with a local population that encourages and enables their activities. Full-on repugnant hatred is not sugarcoated here in any way. Disregard for the value of human life is ubiquitous in each episode. The show is based on the real-life military experiences of Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff and takes place in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, all of which can seem like different planets even though they’re in close proximity to one another.

Lior Raz plays the main character of Doron Kavillio. Doron is who Vin Diesel or Pitbull might be if they were Israeli and served in the Israeli Army, which is to say Diesel in particular seems like a cartoon wuss compared to Doron. Doron leads a field team of passionate eccentrics who blend seamlessly into Arab cities and towns. In Doron’s case, he is so deep undercover that he often can’t differentiate if he’s Arab or Israeli. There is a supporting cast of officers, wives, lovers, children and diplomats which give Fauda a 360-degree view of human intensity on every level.

The verisimilitude of the show (which also portrays a nuanced Arab perspective as well) is such that there’s really nothing to compare it to. Original is an understatement. Winner of a bazillion Israeli Academy Awards and in December 2017, The New York Times voted Fauda the best international show of 2017. Hour-long episodes.

Norsemen (★★★★ 3 Seasons, Netflix)

Silje Torp as Frøya in “Norsemen”

Are you a fan of Monty Python and The Holy Grail (★★★★, 1975)? Well imagine Python-like historical absurdity applied to eighth century Norway and the Vikings and you have “Norsemen.” Made in Norway with an all Norwegian cast and crew (shot in two identical versions back to back in English and Norwegian, Netflix is showing the English-language series, so no subtitles) this is perhaps the best thing to come out of Scandinavia since Abba and Ikea.

Twenty-first century Western norms, values, morality and culture is overlaid onto an ancient Viking palette which results in a very funny show. Who knew Vikings could be such a laugh riot?

There is a silly Gay village chieftain (not that there’s anything wrong with that) who’s main fixation is to bring outdoor art installations and live theater to this primitive armpit. You have a Valkyrie Viking warrior who goes on raiding parties (primarily to England) and in addition to participating in murder and pillage also rapes men. There is a wondrously and hysterically evil rival village chief who schemes to steal a coveted map showing how to sail to England which is rich in booty and poor in its ability to defend itself.

The show also pokes great fun at modern marriage, relationships, dating and workplace issues all done in delightful singsong Norwegian English. The location shots, wardrobe and makeup are very believable as being from 1,200 years ago so the contrast between that and today’s humor makes the “Norsemen” a lot of fun and a trenchant lampoon of our modern world. Half-hour episodes so you can digest this in small bites.

Britannia (★★★½, 2 Seasons, Amazon Prime/EPIX)

Kelly Reilly as Queen Kerra in “Britannia”

As befits a show with this title, “Britannia” is an import from the UK and originally aired on Sky TV. It’s the year 43 A.D. and Britain (really Southeast England) is being conquered by those pesky, nefarious Romans. Swords, sandals and sorcery abound. Standing in the way of total Roman domination are disparate Celtic tribes led by fierce warrior women allied with mystic blue-faced Druids who commune with the underworld (often with the aid of psychotropic mushrooms and other herbs).

This is historical fantasy (not a comedy) analogous to HBO’s Game of Thrones (★★★★★) but made with a much lower budget. Shot on location in Wales and the Czech Republic there’s plenty of meat here to chew on but no flying dragons. Set at the very beginning of Rome’s 400-year British foray, this predates the Arthurian legends by many centuries (King Arthur, ★★★★, 2004, starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley is also very much worth watching). The producers do a good job particularly with the Druids and the Romans. The mostly British cast does lends gravitas to the stories simply by virtue of their British accents. Episodes run between 40 and 70 minutes.

Steve Carell in “Space Force”

Also worth watching:

Space Force (★★★½, 2020, One Season, Netflix) starring Steve Carell, Lisa Kudrow and John Malkovich. This is essentially “The Office” set at the new Trump-created military branch designed to fight in outer space. Absurdities and wry humor abound. Carell is a pleasure to watch doing just about anything or nothing at all. Carell is playing Steve Carell in the guise of an Air Force General put in charge of creating a fighting space force. Kudrow is in the role of his wife and Malkovich is the head scientist. Half hour episodes.

The Pre-2020 Election Zeitgeist

The Lion or The Lamb?

A Stark Choice for President

This appeared during the last week of October 2020 in various publications and websites.

President Donald J. Trump is annoying, abrasive, irritating and somewhat of a jerk, in other words he’s a typical brash, loud and pushy New Yorker of the kind that was prevalent through much of the 20^th Century, the kind of person who gave New York a bad name. The kind who made most Americans hate New York the way they do Frenchmen in Paris.

New York City was once rife with hungry “take no prisoners” shtarkers (big shots). They were endemic to the garment center, to finance (many are the wolves on Wall Street), to media, entertainment, fine dining, advertising, fashion, sports and real estate. New York didn’t become the biggest and richest city in the nation and one of the most important in the world because of milquetoast middle managers and bureaucrats. Skyscrapers soared in tandem with edifice complexes and outsized egos. You could see the hustle, bustle and jockeying 24/7 in real time. “The city that never sleeps” as Sinatra put it. And Donald Trump is the embodiment of that ethos, of that culture, of that milieu, it suffuses every cell of his DNA.

He has been grating as President these past three and a half years. He’s probably been grating his whole adult life. That’s the nature of entrepreneurs and most particularly of billionaires. They didn’t get to the top of the heap by playing patty-cake or being Mother Theresa. Business in New York and especially real estate development is a gritty, no holds barred hourly slugfest that doesn’t pity the weak, the meek or the failed. There are no trophies for coming in fifth place. It’s Darwinian to the extreme where only the strongest thrive and rise to ethereal heights. You either get stuff done or you’re road kill and it can happen in a New York minute.

Trump doesn’t know from niceties when he has a job to do or a deadline to meet. It’s all nonstop bare fisted brawl where often you get battered as badly as the guy you’re pummeling. Most Americans born after 1985 have no recollection of these guys but when I was a kid, teenager and young adult they were ubiquitous and if you went to work for some of them you needed to get tough fast and have a thick skin. Work was a four-letter word; you were expected to give 110 percent and fools were not suffered gladly if at all.

For all his gruff manner and bull in the china shop ethos, Trump has gotten a lot of stuff done:

The Economy

On the economic front Trump ignited the biggest boom in decades by lowering personal income taxes for most Americans, slashing corporate taxes and cutting reams of government red tape that impeded business from creating jobs, leading to the lowest unemployment rate since 1969, or, in other words, in most Americans’ lifetimes. More Blacks and Hispanics and women were employed than ever. The percentage of Americans in the workforce was at a big high and believe it or not, the wealth and income gap between rich and poor shrank significantly as those in the lower income brackets saw real wages and the value of their investments rise by several multiples while those at the top experienced little to no growth from 2016-2019. Manufacturing of real things returned to U.S. shores as factories reopened and capital investment grew. Under Trump, America has become energy independent for the first time in 50 years. The stock market hit all-time highs which has a direct impact on nearly all Americans through their pension funds, 401k’s or IRA’s. Residential real estate values had exponential growth. And he was the first President to stand-up to China’s unfair trade relationship with the US which included their wanton theft of American intellectual property. He also renegotiated NAFTA and signed a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico that protects American jobs.

Covid

Regarding the Covid Pandemic, despite some initial fumbling the Trump Administration solved the mask shortage, solved the PPE shortage, solved the ventilator shortage, opened military field hospitals in critically hit cities and states in record time. He also got “Operation Warp Speed” going which has fast-tracked both a vaccine for Covid and needed therapeutic treatments. By barring travel from China on January 31^st (much to the consternation of his critics) and then closing off Europe a few weeks later he probably saved hundreds of thousands if not nearly two million American lives. Original projections were for 2.2 million dead. The roughly 200,000 fatalities are a huge tragedy but without the steps taken by the Administration through May, the numbers would have certainly been far worse. Europe’s fatalities are comparable to those of the US and does anyone really believe only 3,300 people died from Covid in China? The CARES Act pumped $3 Trillion into the economy to keep America afloat. Because of the lockdown some 22 million jobs were lost almost overnight but nearly 12 million have come back in the past two months. Job growth will plateau until there is a vaccine or the disease withers away. The leisure, travel, entertainment, event and dining industries all have taken a horrible blow from lost jobs and these won’t return for a while. But the existential question is “who is best qualified to return us to prosperity and a booming economy?”

The Courts

On the judicial front, Trump has appointed nearly 200 Originalist/Constitutionalist federal judges along with two Supreme Court justices with a third likely on the way. Originalist judges interpret the constitution as the original framers of the constitution intended and do not create new laws and legislate from the bench, thereby upholding the legal traditions that bind our country and government together.

Foreign Policy

The Trump Administration has achieved historic breakthroughs in peace between Israel and other Arab nations for which he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He also made good on his promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital. He also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights from which Syria used to bombard and terrorize Israeli civilians. He wiped out the ISIS “Caliphate,” and has put enormous pressure on the radical Iranian Ayatollahs to stem their nuclear and global terrorist ambitions. He has forced our NATO allies to pay their fair share of defense spending and he’s been disentangling us from never-ending intractable foreign wars, bringing our troops home. He managed to build or strengthen hundreds of miles of border walls and barriers and most significantly, convinced Mexico to post their own troops on the US-Mexican border to stop waves of illegal immigrants from flooding into our country. In a way, Mexico is paying for a human wall.

Veterans and Military Affairs

Trump managed to finally straighten out the disgracefully poor Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals and permit the VA to fire incompetent employees along with allowing veterans to access private healthcare so they don’t have to wait weeks or months for treatment. The military has been fully refunded and is being rebuilt to Reagan-era levels. Our soldiers have received successive pay raises. There are hundreds more accomplishments but space inhibits the ability to list them all.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden is a wonderfully avuncular and pleasant grandfatherly figure who would be soothing to the psyche for the year or two he’d probably last in office. Are you ready for President Kamala Harris? Biden is a lot easier on the ears than Trump but are we voting for “favorite grandpa,” a Homecoming King or student council president or for someone who will get the job done? Biden has promised to raise income taxes, business taxes, estate taxes, capital gains taxes and even create wealth taxes. He has adopted the Bernie Sanders “Green New Deal” which seeks to eliminate fossil fuels in 10 to 15 years and your cars along with it. He’s signed-on to the notion of effectively eliminating private health insurance and private health care for the 180 million Americans who now have it. He’s for defunding the military and he’d roll back Trump policies in the Middle East and China.

In a Biden Administration you’ll have a lot of members from the far left wing of the Democratic Party – people who have been pro-indefinite draconian lockdowns and who have been permitting and abetting the last six months of rioting in Democrat-run cities along with supporting the “defund the police” and other soft on crime policies that have been in vogue in certain trendy circles as of late. They are also for racial preferences, quotas and set-asides as opposed to equality of opportunity, equality before the law and advancement based on merit.

This is an existential choice between two dramatically different visions for our country. We have the lion on one hand and the lamb on the other. For a stronger and more prosperous America we need the lion, even though he roars.