With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Blame (Quinn Shephard)
Written, directed, edited, and starring 22-year-old Quinn Shephard, Blame premiered at Tribeca Film Festival last spring. We said in our review, “It’s an impressive debut feature that’s confident and assured, yet feels less like a feature film and more like an effective television drama with a few well-drawn characters and a multi-episode arc. Its asymmetric narrative doesn’t always work as it withholds information...
Blame (Quinn Shephard)
Written, directed, edited, and starring 22-year-old Quinn Shephard, Blame premiered at Tribeca Film Festival last spring. We said in our review, “It’s an impressive debut feature that’s confident and assured, yet feels less like a feature film and more like an effective television drama with a few well-drawn characters and a multi-episode arc. Its asymmetric narrative doesn’t always work as it withholds information...
- 1/12/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Jack Black appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday — or, to be precise, Jan Lewan appeared, with the actor in character for his new comedy “The Polka King”. In the fact-based Netflix movie, the “Shallow Hal” star plays the titular performer, a popular star on the polka circuit until he was...
- 1/11/2018
- by Brent Furdyk
- ET Canada
Author: Zehra Phelan
Netflix has released a trailer for The Polka King, which stars Jack Black as Jan Lewan, the Pennsylvania entertainer who “inadvertently” pulled a Ponzi scheme on his fans.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Netflix picked up The Polka King to bring to the streaming service in January.
Based on a real-life story of Jan Lewan who moves from Poland to America Jan Lewan, he fast becomes the “King of Pennsylvania Polka,” as he becomes more popular, along with his beauty queen wife (Jenny Slate), he starts accepting donations from his fans who want to invest in his company, which has no way of making them money as Jan promises.
Jason Schwartzman, Jb Smoove, Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver and Willie Garson join Black, who will next be seen in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle this week, and Slate on the cast. Black also produced the film alongside David Permut,...
Netflix has released a trailer for The Polka King, which stars Jack Black as Jan Lewan, the Pennsylvania entertainer who “inadvertently” pulled a Ponzi scheme on his fans.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Netflix picked up The Polka King to bring to the streaming service in January.
Based on a real-life story of Jan Lewan who moves from Poland to America Jan Lewan, he fast becomes the “King of Pennsylvania Polka,” as he becomes more popular, along with his beauty queen wife (Jenny Slate), he starts accepting donations from his fans who want to invest in his company, which has no way of making them money as Jan promises.
Jason Schwartzman, Jb Smoove, Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver and Willie Garson join Black, who will next be seen in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle this week, and Slate on the cast. Black also produced the film alongside David Permut,...
- 12/18/2017
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Netflix seems to be taking a more proactive stance these days in terms of cutting original shows, but it has no qualms about continuing to throw money at original movies. Earlier today, we reported that the streaming service had bought the rights to the art world drama from the team behind Nightcrawler, and now Variety says that Netflix has also picked up the Jack Black-starring comedy The Polka King. As we noted when the project was originally announced last year, The Polka King is based on Joshua Brown and John Mikulak’s documentary The Man Who Would be Polka King, which centered around a Grammy-nominated artist named Jan Lewan who scammed millions of dollars out of his fans in an elaborate, Poland-themed Ponzi scheme.
Black is playing Lewan, and The Polka King will also star Jenny Slate, Jason Schwartzman, Jacki Weaver, J.B. Smoove, and Vanessa Bayer. The film was...
Black is playing Lewan, and The Polka King will also star Jenny Slate, Jason Schwartzman, Jacki Weaver, J.B. Smoove, and Vanessa Bayer. The film was...
- 6/26/2017
- by Sam Barsanti
- avclub.com
Netflix has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the Jack Black-starrer The Polka King, which first debuted at Sundance.
The feature is based on the documentary The Man Who Would Be Polka King from directors Joshua Brown and John Mikulak, which follows Grammy-nominated polka sensation Jan Lewan, who ended up running a Soviet souvenir-based Ponzi scheme that landed him in jail.
Black stars as Lewan and also acted as a producer under his Electric Dynamite banner. David Permut, Stuart Cornfeld, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson, Wally Wolodarsky and Priyanka Mattoo also produced.
Infinitely Polar Bear helmer Maya Forbes and former Simpsons writer...
The feature is based on the documentary The Man Who Would Be Polka King from directors Joshua Brown and John Mikulak, which follows Grammy-nominated polka sensation Jan Lewan, who ended up running a Soviet souvenir-based Ponzi scheme that landed him in jail.
Black stars as Lewan and also acted as a producer under his Electric Dynamite banner. David Permut, Stuart Cornfeld, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson, Wally Wolodarsky and Priyanka Mattoo also produced.
Infinitely Polar Bear helmer Maya Forbes and former Simpsons writer...
- 6/26/2017
- by Rebecca Ford
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kudos to Jack Black for trying new things. The actor seems to be on a mission to expand his comedic (and dramatic) palette with interesting turns in smaller fare like Bernie, The D Train and now The Polka King. Written and directed by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky (also responsible for recent Sundance flick Infinitely Polar Bear), the film tells the true story of Jan Lewan, famed Polish polka singer and Ponzi scheme scammer in Pennsylvania (try saying that five times fast). Based out of a novelty store in Hazleton, Jan wraps himself up in the American Dream. Playing everything from weddings to county fairs and other senior citizen-heavy venues, his polka fanbase grows as he continues to expand the number of band members, much to the chagrin of friend and band clarinetist Mickey (Jason Schwartzman).
Jan is a untenable ball of ambition, determined to become rich and famous while remaining well-loved by all.
Jan is a untenable ball of ambition, determined to become rich and famous while remaining well-loved by all.
- 1/27/2017
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
He has played an ape’s showman in King Kong, a sweet mortician-turned-murderer in Bernie and now a polka maestro/Ponzi scheme impresario in The Polka King. Larger-than-life characters seem embedded in Jack Black’s DNA, so playing the real-life Polish immigrant Jan Lewan — a Grammy nominee, friend of Pope John Paul II, gift shop owner, ex-con and loving husband — makes perfect sense. Black received a copy of The Man Who Would Be Polka King, the documentary on which Polka Ki…...
- 1/24/2017
- Deadline
Exclusive: Jacki Weaver and Jason Schwartzman are set to join Jack Black in The Man Who Would Be Polka King. The feature project is based on Joshua Brown and John Mikulak's 2009 documentary, which follows the rise and fall of Jan Lewan, a Pennsylvania polka sensation who unwittingly brought a town to its knees in a Ponzi scheme. Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky (Infinitely Polar Bear) write and direct the amazing true story. Permut Presentations, Red Hour Films and…...
- 7/14/2016
- Deadline
Halt and Catch Fire
Manish Dayal ("The Hundred-Foot Journey," "Rubicon") will recur as a brilliant yet awkward young coder on the third season of AMC's period computer drama "Halt and Catch Fire". The third season shifts the action of the 1980s-set series to Silicon Valley. The third season is expected to premiere this summer. [Source: THR]
The Man Who Would Be Polka King
Jack Black is set to produce and star in "The Man Who Would Be Polka King" for Permut Presenations, Red Hour Films and Shivhans Pictures. The story follows Jan Lewan, a Polish-born Pennsylvania polka sensation who unwittingly brought a town to its knees in a Ponzi scheme.
Based on Joshua Brown and John Mikulak's documentary, "Infinitely Polar Bear" duo Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky will pen and direct the true story tale which aims to begin production in July. [Source: Deadline]
You Get Me
Bella Thorne and Halston Sage are...
Manish Dayal ("The Hundred-Foot Journey," "Rubicon") will recur as a brilliant yet awkward young coder on the third season of AMC's period computer drama "Halt and Catch Fire". The third season shifts the action of the 1980s-set series to Silicon Valley. The third season is expected to premiere this summer. [Source: THR]
The Man Who Would Be Polka King
Jack Black is set to produce and star in "The Man Who Would Be Polka King" for Permut Presenations, Red Hour Films and Shivhans Pictures. The story follows Jan Lewan, a Polish-born Pennsylvania polka sensation who unwittingly brought a town to its knees in a Ponzi scheme.
Based on Joshua Brown and John Mikulak's documentary, "Infinitely Polar Bear" duo Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky will pen and direct the true story tale which aims to begin production in July. [Source: Deadline]
You Get Me
Bella Thorne and Halston Sage are...
- 3/11/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Exclusive– Jack Black is set to produce and star in The Man Who Would Be Polka King. It is based on Joshua Brown and John Mikulak’s documentary of the same name, which follows the rise and fall of Jan Lewan, a Pennsylvania polka sensation who unwittingly brought a town to its knees in a Ponzi scheme. Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky (Infinitely Polar Bear) write and direct the amazing true life story. Permut Presenations, Red Hour Films and Shivhans Pictures are beginning…...
- 3/10/2016
- Deadline
The polka revolution is dead! And the one who put the stake in its cold, dead heart is this man: Jan Lewan, who is the subject of the wickedly fun documentary The Man Who Would Be Polka King, embedded above. Ironically, Lewan was the one who could have turned polka into a post-Lawrence Welk international sensation. That is, until greed convinced him to milk his fans for thousands of dollars in a cruel Ponzi scheme. Think Bernie Madoff backed by accordion music.
The story that filmmakers John Mikulak and Joshua Von Brown have told is all true, especially the bizarre little details that are too insane to make up. An unmistakeably charismatic man, Lewan was able to convince dozens of his fans that a goofy little gift shop selling cheap Polish trinkets was some kind of multi-million dollar empire. And he did it through such schemes as organizing trips...
The story that filmmakers John Mikulak and Joshua Von Brown have told is all true, especially the bizarre little details that are too insane to make up. An unmistakeably charismatic man, Lewan was able to convince dozens of his fans that a goofy little gift shop selling cheap Polish trinkets was some kind of multi-million dollar empire. And he did it through such schemes as organizing trips...
- 10/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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