End of June Swoon on the Streaming Services
It may be the end of the month but it’s the start of our chance to watch several new shows on our favorite streaming services.
Though we’ve reached the end of June, Netflix and Amazon have some noteworthy releases! These new ‘drops’ should find the male subscribers happy. We know the women are already tuned in.
Without further ado—here are 12 titles that we checked out, most of which had us glued to our screens!
End of June Swoon Streaming
End of June Swoon Streaming
The Politician - Season 2
Ryan Murphy is in with Netflix for 3 seasons of this series; and thankfully, this second season is stronger, and more tonally consistent than the first. It helps that we’re now set in the world of New York politics where Payton Hobart (Ben Platt) is running for the State Senate. No longer is it a case of late twenty-somethings playing high school kids. And with Judith Light playing Dee Standish, the incumbent state senator, and Bette Midler as Hadassah, her campaign manager, there are a lot of delightful acting chops on display. In fact, the two veteran actresses scene-steal left, right and center; and we’re pining for their scenes.
Photo Credit: Netflix
The Politician - Season 2
The big takeaway here is that Ben Platt no longer has to carry the series by his lonesome; and it helps strengthen the series as a whole. That this is a Presidential election year in the USA would have made this especially timely; but with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter; the satire feels pretty tame—so let’s be especially thankful that Light and Middler provide their own brand of fireworks. For Murphy, at the very least, this doesn’t reach the lower depths of Hollywood (Holly-weird to me). Just wish they’d done more with Infinity (Zoey Deutch) and Payton’s mother, Georgina Hobart (Gwyneth Paltrow).
Photo Credit: Netflix
7500
Directed by Patrick Vollroth, this could be described as an unambitious, but well-executed, sky high thriller. It’s executed with a minimum of frills, almost like a documentary, and that actually helps give this a different feel. 7500 is the distress code used by pilots when communicating with Air Traffic Control to indicate a high-jacking. We’re on a Berlin-Paris flight, and the film basically relates how a terrorist attack happens, and the reaction taken by the captain and co-pilot in the cockpit.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
7500
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the co-pilot Tobias, and he becomes the central character as the captain is put out of commission in the course of the hijack attempt. What’s interesting to note is that after the initial airport scenes of the terrorists boarding the flight, the cameras are left securely in the cockpit. The dilemma Tobias has to face, the moral choices he’s forced to make, and the claustrophobia of the ‘secure’ area, all add to the suspense of this modest, but effective, film.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
Sniper: Ultimate Kill
Can I be totally candid on this one? Just like 365 DNI, I don’t get how this one manages to reach the very top of the Most Watched in the Philippines on Netflix. I know that more often than not, the women who dominate the viewers of Netflix, have a hard time finding options that will keep the men in their lives glued, watching with them. But this is at the very best, a B-action movie that’s totally predictable and doesn’t deliver much in the suspense department. Shot primarily in Colombia, it even ‘exhumes‘ Billy Zane and Tom Berenger to guest star in the film.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Sniper: Ultimate Kill
Ok, there’s some futuristic ballistic technology that could be of interest to a segment of our audience; but I’d rather head back to past action flicks that truly deliver, than sit through these two hours of relative tedium. There’s some skin to try and heighten interest, but by and large, this is a paint-by-numbers exercise that could have found some viewers, but not zoom to #1. Or perhaps Netflix does truly know its audience; and that on a week when the likes of Spike Lee’s excellent Da 5 Bloods debuts, it’s this Sniper, a 2017 film, that reaches the top.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Marcella - Season 3
Anna Friel has made the mildly psychotic and unhinged police detective Marcella her very own creation. It impressed enough award-giving bodies to earn nominations; taking an International Emmy in 2017. This is the third season of a series noted for its multi-strand narratives, and if you recall the end of the second season, we were teased with the notion of Marcella planning to accept working as a deep undercover operative. And given the damage she had done to herself, both in a mental and physical manner, and how others had presumed she had passed away, it was interesting to see how things would develop.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Marcella - Season 3
In this 8-episode 3rd season, we find a blond Marcella in Belfast, now known as Keira, infiltrating a Northern Ireland crime family—one that handles the docks, with all kinds of contraband passing through their hands. It’s a dangerous cat and mouse game; and things get complicated when some old faces from the first two seasons show up, ‘on loan’ from the London Police. As always, it’s about the tenuous balancing act Marcella has to play with sanity, her temper and black-outs, and this time out, keeping the Keira persona intact. While this sticks to a tighter narrative; if this proves to be Marcella’s last season, it’s an exceptional note on which to bow out with.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Wasp Network
Boasting of a quality name director in Olivier Assayas, and with a Spanish speaking cast that looks like it’s struck gold—Penelope Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana de Armas, Wagner Moura, and Edgar Ramirez—you’d be forgiven for thinking this film delivers in a big way. Set in the 1990’s it chronicles the true to life infiltration of Cuban spies in the Miami Cuban emigre community, who were still pining for a return to their homeland by destabilizing the Castro regime. As can be expected, the shadow of Fidel Castro looms large over the film’s plot line.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Wasp Network
The problem for me arises with how so many characters and narratives are plugged into the film’s exposition. And given we’re talking of Cubans in Miami hoping to restore democracy in their homeland but resorting to criminal activity and the wasteful carnage of innocent lives, it’s not easy to decide who are the heroes, and who are the villains in this film. A better appreciation of motive and sacrifice on the part of the main players might have been helpful; and this is actually one of the few times that a limited series, and not a hurried full length feature, might have served the director’s purpose much better.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Athlete A
Here’s a strong-punching, disturbing expose of USA Gymnastics; and how for over two decades, a systematic cover-up of sexual abuse by the team doctor was perpetuated by the highest echelons of the official Olympic organization. What and how Dr. Larry Nassar was able to do for over 20 years is examined thoroughly in this gripping documentary; and we feel for the fourteen and fifteen year old young girls who will always have to live with lives with Dr. Nassau’s ‘medical care’ as their first sexual encounter. How he covered up his perversity under medical and anatomical terminology and so-called therapeutic care is carefully dug up; including an incident when the mother of the athlete was actually present in the consulting room.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Athlete A
Interesting when the documentary goes on to examine the culture of intimidation, obedience and blind faith in the system. The Romanian coaches of Nadia Comaneci defected to the USA and instilled a culture of winners, even at the price of practically dehumanizing the young girls, and allowing this doctor’s abuse to fall under something most of these young girls were scared to even voice out, fearing they would be cut from the team of Olympic hopefuls. We follow a small city newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, lead the investigative journalism that was largely ignored at first, as USA Olympics head Steve Penney, fought to brand this a smear; and the girls who first came forward we’re actually vilified and attacked on social media.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Lost Bullet
Think of this initially as a small budget, lowlife, French version of the 'Fast and the Furious'; then allow the story to unfold. The twists and turns that Director Guillaume Perret injects into this film, along with the car chase scenes, give this action thriller an unexpected frisson of genuine pleasure. The story is straight up cliche-ridden; Lino (Alban Lenoir) is a low rent genius in souping up the most mainstream and conventional of cars. Sent to jail for driving a Clio through a jewelry store and getting stuck behind the wheel; he’s given a reprieve of sorts when the head cop of a special squad pulls him aside and offers a quick release opportunity by tinkering with the cars the squad employs.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Lost Bullet
What makes this modest thriller interesting is when dirty cops, double-crosses, and desperation set in, with Lino in the center of all that’s happening. We actually can sympathize with his predicament—the crooked petty criminal trying to go straight but getting mixed up in something darker than what got him incarcerated in the first place. If you approach this French product without much expectation, you’ll enjoy the fight scenes and car-chasing which come on cue with practiced regularity. if you bewail the Netflix paucity of options for male viewers, this one satisfies in a solid way. It can get far-fetched, but keeps its head above water.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Last One Laughing: Australia
A concept of reality comedy that hails from Japan, LOL is brought to Australia and native film star, funny woman Rebel Wilson is flown in to host this Limited Series. The idea is not that original, but depending on your penchant for closed doors, captive audience catharsis, holds some promise. Ten popular Aussie stand up comedians are locked into a chamber for 6 hours; and the idea is that each funny person tries to make the others break into a wide smile or outright stifled laughter.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
Last One Laughing: Australia
Whenever one comedian ‘breaks’, he or she is ushered out the chamber by Wilson, until only one is left standing, and takes home the briefcase of substantial cash. I’ve watched the first two episodes and they feature one buck-naked comedian, going all out to break the composure of his fellow comedians. One issue going forward with this series is that some of the stars have strong Aussie accents, and there’s a number of specific cultural references that may get lost beyond Sydney and Perth. There’s earnestness a-plenty, but I wonder whether this will be the global hit Amazon may have had in mind when they backed this show.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
Disclosure
An interesting documentary about transgender persons, that initially examines how they’ve been depicted in film and television history since the early 1910’s; Disclosure makes a strong case for how they’re misrepresented, and continue to defy proper definition. It’s especially touching when you realize that for so many of them, at a young confused age, there would have been no role models or even truthful balanced depictions to help them understand their own bodies and psyches. Transwomen on film are often seen as either two things: unhinged criminals/serial killers, or fatalities/victims for being different. Rarely, would any real trans people play the roles—instead, it would fall to straight men or women who would then garner acting awards.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Disclosure
Personally, I liked that they gave only fleeting mention to Caitlyn Jenner; as one resource speaker said, Caitlyn can only speak about the privileged, white version of what they had to go through. Even with the regularity of trans roles that populate our edgier TV series today, the plea is made that only by creating more, can better understanding, tolerance, and entry into the mainstream evolve. Funny how it’s noted that during the 1970’s, trans people were even rebuffed by the Gay Liberation movement, as they seemed to belong to a different agenda. It was an enlightening experience watching this documentary.
Photo Credit: Netflix
El Presidente
This one will be a shorter review; as basically, this limited series is one that fans of soccer, and FIFA, will enjoy. Done up in Wolf of Wall Street-style; it’s all about the corruption in high places, and the high stakes played at the level of FIFA heads of South American member-countries.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
El Presidente
Based on actual facts, I’ll hand it to the producers and director for using a very stylized approach and turning the series into an entertaining, satirical attack on the FIFA system, soccer team owners, and the powers-that-be who control the money strings that make each weekend a celebration of the sport.
Photo Credit: Amazon Prime
Eric André: Legalize Everything
Angry comedy, confrontational comedy, plus shameless drug use and abuse as your terms of comedic reference. That pretty sums up Eric André’s comedy routine; and we’re asked to enjoy that. At less than an hour, it may look like that’s not too much to ask of the audience, and this live recording of his New Orleans show is packed to the gills.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Eric André: Legalize Everything
But I just found it all a bit tiring and repetitive; with most of the shtick done at shouting level—with not much of a hint of subtlety or more reflective comedy. I know there’s an audience for this, but it all seems rather dated, and I’m personally surprised he’s this popular.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Eurovision Song Contest: the Story of Fire Saga
As Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel MacAdams), the Icelandic duo Fire Saga, sent to bring home the bacon at the Eurovision song competition; one may have held hope for a comedy like The Wedding Crashers—where we last saw these two together. As most will remember, this is the European song contest that made ABBA a household name.
Photo Credit: Netflix
Eurovision Song Contest: the Story of Fire Saga
Meant to be a satire and comedy, this film misfires on so many levels, with the grand musical production numbers the one possible saving grace. Defanged, and made as tame as a teacup poodle, there are so many opportunities missed here that you’ll feel frustrated that so many talented stars have been brought together for a comedy dud.
Photo Credit: Netflix
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