The Israeli television industry continues to release series at a breakneck pace, and the latest one to be coming our way is On Standby, which will be coming up on Yes on July 21.
While episodes have not yet been released to the press, the premise sounds interesting: It’s a comedy about a depressed security screener at the airport, played by and starring Gitit Fisher, who lives with her father and has given up on her personal life, until a series of events pushes her to come out of her shell.
It seems like those endless rounds of asking, “Did you pack by yourself?” might be a perfect subject for some black comedy. We’ll find out soon how well this works.
Some fight for the right to party, while others, specifically Larry David, fight for the right to kvetch. Kvetching has worked well for David, whether it was when he was writing complaints for characters on Seinfeld or for himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
While it may be redundant to kvetch about kvetching, that’s what his new series, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, on HBO, has inspired me to do.
Don’t you just hate it when comedy isn’t all that funny? This series, which was produced by the Obamas, consists of sketches that feature David taking part in key events in US history, which is a funny idea, and there are some laughs.
Larry David writes the first draft of the Constitution
David plays Richard Livingston, a member of the Continental Congress, who gets to write a first draft of the Constitution, which he wants to load with David-like wisdom, like a prohibition on sharing umbrellas. “You forgot your own umbrella? Too bad!” he insists, to the dismay of Benjamin Franklin (Chris Parnell, who played Dr. Leo Spaceman on 30 Rock), John Hancock (Henry Winkler), and Thomas Jefferson (Alan Tudyk). Of course, it’s amusing to find a guy as down-to-earth as David at an event where the others are concerned with the highest ideals. But it goes on. And on.
That’s the trouble. Each skit could last for two to three minutes and be good, but they outlive their funniness. A sketch about David as a World War I soldier telling a fellow soldier that his girlfriend isn’t good-looking after the doomed soldier proudly shows him her photo falls completely flat.
Another one with David as Alexander Graham Bell, who invites a crowd to hear him speak on a telephone for the first time, only to have the onlookers ask whether the new invention will have all the features of a cellphone, a woman asks if she can choose her own ring, etc., as David seethes in response, reminds me of something you might see in a college revue.
At these college shows, everyone’s friends laugh, but it doesn’t mean it’s that funny. David and his buddies, including Jerry Seinfeld, who plays Clark to his Lewis in the second episode, seem to have had a good time making this, but it isn’t much fun to watch.
The second episode features the final performance by Rob Reiner, who was murdered in December by his mentally ill son.
He plays President George Washington announcing that he will not run for a third term and suggesting that a constitutional amendment be passed to forbid presidents from staying in office more than two terms.
David plays a heckler in the crowd who raises the possibility of the emergence of a con man president, who would not accept the results of the election and would try to foment a January 6-like insurrection. Reiner plays Washington straight, convincingly showing how the leaders of that day could not envisage an unprincipled man like the current US president ascending to the office.
It stings to remember what a good actor Reiner was, as well as a writer/director, but it’s some consolation that his last role was about issues in which he believed deeply.
Sheep take on crime in England
Audiences have embraced the new live-action movie The Sheep Detectives, which tells the story of a flock in England that can speak, although only they understand each other, and love to hear detective stories that their shepherd/owner, George (Hugh Jackman), reads to them, and eventually get busy solving an actual murder.
The movie, which was just in theaters, is already available to stream in Israel on Amazon Prime Video, and while the meadows are scenic, it hasn’t lost much in its move to the small screen.
I am not as charmed by talking animals as some people. Other than Charlotte’s Web and Animal House, I haven’t always loved this genre, and at first, The Sheep Detectives seemed too cutesy to get through.
But the clever writing and the voice actors, who include Patrick Stewart, Brett Goldstein, Chris O’Dowd, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Regina Hall, and Bryan Cranston, won me over, as did the human cast members like Jackman, Emma Thompson, Molly Gordon, and Michael Wildman eventually won me over.
The movie is at its best when the sheep try to understand human ways, such as who this guy, God, who lives in the church, is. Sebastian (Cranston), one of the flock, explains that God is a shepherd, but also a lamb, who “dams” things, and the parishioners eat him on Sundays.
It’s also funny to hear them expertly sketch out theories for the murder, the police always say it’s a drifter at first, the will is always read, and the beneficiaries are always the prime suspects, etc. Some people will want to watch this with children, but I would caution them that there is an actual murder, and young kids are not likely to be charmed by hearing about British detective-story cliches.
A new biography of Alfred Hitchcock, A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy, by Tony Lee Moral, was just published, and it contradicts decades of rumors and accusations that he sexually harassed Tippi Hedren, the star of The Birds and Marnie, and that he behaved sadistically toward his actresses in general. So, it’s the perfect time to watch the new documentary, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, a portrait of Novak, who starred in Vertigo, one of Hitchcock’s most iconic films, which is streaming on Hot VOD and Yes VOD.
Novak is one of the only stars of Hollywood’s golden age who is still alive and compos mentis, and the movie is a loving portrait of this actress, who bowed out of movies gracefully when she was still in her prime and devoted herself to living a quiet life on the Oregon coast and painting.
She is modest, forthcoming, and funny, and is perfectly fine with the fact that people are most interested in her today because she starred in Vertigo and other classics, such as Pal Joey with Frank Sinatra and Picnic with William Holden. She has mostly kind words for Hitchcock, and she is honest about how the bizarre psychodrama in Vertigo mirrored her life as an actress, and also showcased Hitchcock’s and the movie studios’ penchant for transforming and manipulating actresses, although she does not accuse him of any inappropriate behavior.
Novak played a showy double role in Vertigo, as Judy, a tough, working-class girl, and Madeline, a worldly socialite, in a performance that gave her a place in the pantheon of Hollywood icons. “Of course, [Vertigo] is the story of Madeline and Judy, but it’s my story, too,” she says.
“I was so green in the business, I had never seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie, so I didn’t fully appreciate what I was getting into until I got into it. But when I read that script, I felt it was so right for me. I was Judy, in a lot of ways. I think I’ve always resented being made over. That’s why I was so right for the role in hb because it’s all about that.”
About Jimmy Stewart, her costar in the movie, who played a traumatized detective suffering from vertigo, she says, “Jimmy Stewart, he was always himself, he always brought something to it. We had so much to react to with each other. He was reacting off of me, I was reacting off of him. We weren’t acting, we never acted.”
For Hitchcock fans, this documentary, which shows her unboxing her costumes from Vertigo, is a must-see.