🏆 An Oscar nomination already streaming on Netflix
Another one (/Round) on Hulu, plus a sitcom also on Netflix
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Dear friends,
This week, the Academy Award nominations landed with many firsts: Steven Yeun became the first Asian-American to be nominated for Best Actor, it’s the first time two women are considered for Best Director (Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell), and Judas and the Black Messiah is the first Best Picture nominee made by an all-Black team of producers.
As it happens, one of my favorite events of the season so far was this Actors on Actors chat between Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun. Recorded before the Oscar news, it’s such a thoughtful and interesting take on both actors’ films and identities, for Ahmed as the son of first-generation immigrants, and Yeun as a first-generation immigrant himself.
I hope this e-mail finds you well. Stay safe.
OUR TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
The Present
New on Netflix everywhere except France.
Keeping within the Oscars theme, this 24-minute film from Palestine has been nominated this year for Best Live Action Short Film.
Yusef sets out with his daughter Yasmine to buy groceries and a wedding anniversary gift. This seemingly simple and joyous task is challenged by busy checkpoints and harassment by Israeli soldiers.
It’s a simple film, both in the way it is made and the ideas it conveys. It’s not sad and it doesn’t complain. Instead, it’s a portrayal of routine under a long-lasting occupation, and how the occupied find ways to still go about their day.
📰 Middle-Eastern publication Jadaliyya: “The film subtly and sensitively captures the danger and degradation that Palestinians in the West Bank face daily under occupation … Disappointment, relief. Despair, hope. And so Yusef and Yasmine’s experience goes. And so life under occupation goes.”
📺 On Netflix almost everywhere; 🍅 rating: -
OUR TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Toast of London
On Netflix U.S. and select other geographies.
This silly British sitcom is about a middle-aged theater actor who is, as the cliché often goes, broke, divorced—and most importantly— crazy.
But Toast is trying to get things back on track. In the first episode, he goes to a table reading for a new play. Only problem, the guy he’s supposed to rehearse with is in jail for Holocaust denial.
It’s this kind of premise that makes for a specific kind of show, full of profane, sometimes sleazy humor that, probably judging just from the first episode, you’ll either love or hate.
📰 The Guardian: “In Toast they have created a monster, a fabulous thespian one. The whole thing is of great imagination and surreality.”
📺 On Netflix U.S. and other geographies.; 🍅 rating: 84%
Top picks outside of Netflix and Amazon
Another Oscar nominee, and one of the best films this year, Another Round with Mads Mikkelsen is now streaming on Hulu. It’s about a group of friends who are high school teachers going on an experiment of permanent alcohol intoxication. It’s a wild ride.
The library-streaming service Kanopy has added around 40 notable recent films, like Columbus, The End of the Tour, Victoria, Bacurau, Mustang, and Mid90s. You can find the full list here.
That’s it for this week, I hope there is something in there for you.
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The next edition of this weekly letter will be in your inbox Friday, March, 26th.
Until then,
Bilal
Thanks for another outstanding newsletter Bilal !
News of the World is also streaming on Netflix UK. It's the first time in a while that we've had a film out before the states, let alone one that's Oscar-nominated!