The most famous few minutes of Adam Sandler’s career might be the Hanukkah song he wrote for Saturday Night Live 30 years ago, and his musical talent is on display again in his new Netflix special, Adam Sandler: Love You, which was just released here.
The special, which was directed by Josh Safdie (who is one half of the Safdie brothers), is a typical Sandler stand-up – with a lot of risqué jokes about stuff that I can’t write about here – and many songs, including one flamenco-influenced guitar solo. It’s basically stand-up complaints mixed with music, including one song that is a tribute to comics who have inspired him over the years, punctuated by him telling the audience how much he loves them.
I can’t explain why I enjoyed seeing Jerry Seinfeld complain week after week on his series more than I like Sandler doing it here. I guess it was because I could somehow accept Seinfeld, who I had never heard of before I saw his show, as an ordinary guy beset by everyday woes – more than I can with Sandler, who has been a movie star for decades. But judging by the audience’s reaction to the special, his fans will love this.
‘Underground Mea Shearim’ – Kan Digital
Rap might not seem to have a place in the haredi world, but Underground Mea Shearim, a new series currently running on Kan Digital (kan.org.il) proves otherwise. It’s a docu-drama about a group of formerly secular rappers who start a rap group to extol their ultra-Orthodox lifestyle in Jerusalem.
The bandmates open an underground club, where they get attention from music-industry types, who want to promote them. Eventually, the well-known Israeli rapper Subliminal gets involved in trying to produce a show with them. While they want their music to reach more people, they find that trying to get this show off the ground brings them back to the anxiety-filled secular life they thought they were escaping when they became observant.
How much you enjoy this series will depend on how much you like rap in general, and how interested you are in the ultra-Orthodox world. But there is no denying that the black-clad rappers are talented, and as they rap their way around Jerusalem, in the Mahane Yehuda market and other locations, passersby stop to listen and sometimes dance with them. It features several new rap songs written especially for the series.
‘Lost Islands’ – Netflix
While there may be a perception that most Israeli movies are political or focused on war, this has never been the case, and Lost Islands, which is now available on Netflix with English subtitles, proves this.
The 2008 Lost Islands, directed by Reshef Levi, looks at a working-class family, not coincidentally named the Levis, in the 1980s in Kfar Saba. The five children are raised to put family loyalty above all, but when twin brothers played by Michael Moshonov and Oshri Cohen hit their teens, they begin competing for the affection of their gorgeous classmate (Yuval Sharf).
After a family member is injured in a car accident for which one of the brothers blames himself, their rivalry intensifies, as one gives up his dreams to devote himself to the family. It’s a melodrama that could take place in any country in the world, starring attractive actors who are now among Israel’s biggest stars.
‘She Said’ – Netflix, Apple TV+
She Said, which just became available on Netflix and which is also on Apple TV+, tells a story where there is no ambiguity – it’s about the two New York Times reporters who wrote the article about Harvey Weinstein’s rapes and assaults – and you know the end going in.
That said, it’s watchable, because it’s interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of how they managed to take down one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry. Ronan Farrow, who broke the story about Weinstein the same month in The New Yorker, was featured in a documentary about how he got the story called Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tape, a few years ago.
It’s hard to resist movies where newspaper reporters pursue a story and, at the end, an article (or a series of articles) is published that changes the world, like Spotlight and All the President’s Men. I’m not sure how many more such stories there will ever be, since every day, the number of publications that have the resources to fund investigative journalism is dwindling.
When the two reporters in She Said, Megan (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi (Zoe Kazan), need to have face-to-face meetings with reluctant sources in London, Wales and Silicon Valley, their editor, Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson), simply asks, “Can you get on a plane?” Reporters around the world struggling to get compensated for cab fare or even bus fare as they cover stories will sigh in envy.
Andre Braugher, the actor known for roles in comedies such as the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and who died last December, plays New York Times editor Dean Baquet; one of the highlights of the movie is his tough talk to Weinstein.
Some of Weinstein’s rape convictions were overturned not long ago and he faces a retrial in New York this fall, although the convictions from California stand and it seems likely that he will spend the rest of his life, or most of it, in prison. The movie explains how he got away with so much for so long, and details how a powerful legal team that included Lanny Davis managed to keep the allegations against him out of print for years.
‘Why Him?’ – Netflix, Disney+
If She Said sounds too serious for you, you could always try Why Him?, which is on Netflix and Disney+. It stars Bryan Cranston, best known for playing the lead on Breaking Bad (which is also available now on Netflix), going back to a more average-guy comic role. Cranston played quite a bit of comedy before Breaking Bad, including the role of Tim the dentist who converts to Judaism on Seinfeld. Jerry thinks he did it cynically, so he can tell Jewish jokes, leading Kramer to label Jerry an “anti-dentite.”
The opening of Why Him? is a little more R-rated than you might expect for a mainstream comedy, but soon it settles into gentle predictability as it tells the story of Ned Fleming (Cranston), a name which conjures up Ned Flanders, the neighbor on The Simpsons. Ned is the owner of virtually the only printing plant in the Midwest that has managed to thrive well into the 21st century but which is now in trouble.
At the same time, Ned and his family fly out to northern California to see their daughter, Stephanie (Zooey Deutch) and meet her new boyfriend, Laird (James Franco), who turns out to be a billionaire video-game entrepreneur. Laird will do anything to impress his girlfriend’s parents, and part of the movie plays like Silicon Valley as it spoofs his New Age, opulent lifestyle.
You can guess just about every moment before it happens, but a movie like this is not supposed to challenge you. Spoiler alert, sort of: It features an appearance by the band, Kiss, who sing a Christmas carol.