✝️ What to Watch: Christianity and Travel Man
Plus a Scandinavian show on the murder of Kim Wall, and the movie Detroit
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Dear friends,
As some of you already noticed, the picks in recent emails have all been on Amazon Prime. I’m sorry to report that’s the case in this email, too. Every week for the past month my goal has been to find one noteworthy, non-blockbuster pick on Netflix U.S., to no avail. They’re just not adding those at the moment.
But I won’t give up, and I will report back next week. Until then, I hope you have a great weekend.
OUR TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Strange Negotiations
New on Amazon Prime this month.
“Any issue in American society, religion is, if not at the very center of it, an important aspect of it.” But, “people don’t want to talk about it.”
So says David Bazan, the ex-leader of the Christian indie rock band Pedro the Lion who dropped out after a loss of faith, and the central protagonist in this documentary.
Bazan wants to talk. Strange Negotiations is his testament to the price of losing faith, from a shattered sense of identity to the backlash from one’s religious community. For Bazan, there is also a material price: having alienated his fanbase, he has to tour the country in his van playing living rooms, away from his family for most of the year.
The singer himself displays nothing of the anti-religion cliché of a newly converted atheist and is rather smart, observant, and self-deprecating. Watching this is joining a personal and vulnerable journey which, as intimately as it is filmed, offers far-reaching conclusions on the place religion occupies in America.
📰 Dennis Harvey of Variety: “There's something endearingly earnest and straightforward, but not simplistic, about Bazan as both personality and musician, lending "Negotiations" dual sources of viewer enjoyment.”
📺 On Amazon Prime U.S.; 🍅 rating: 100%
OUR TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Travel Man
Three seasons are now on Amazon Prime almost everywhere.
This fun travel show follows the famous British TV personality Richard Ayoade as he visits famous world cities with famous people. He goes to Helsinki with Paul Rudd, Tenerife with Lena Dunham, and Dubrovnik with Stephen Merchant, among others.
Ayoade’s usual brand of humor is there, always giving you the feeling that he’d much rather be at home on his couch than doing whatever he’s doing. But the show’s formula of finding a 48-hour itinerary in each city actually makes it full of interesting facts. It might just be the man’s first truly informative docuseries, which provides an added layer of material (and discomfort) for him to display his deadpan wits.
📰 Sarah Larson of The New Yorker: “The potent, savory series combines TV's particular efficiency in revealing the sights and sounds of a destination with the sense of what an amiable neurotic might experience while there.”
📺 On Amazon Prime almost everywhere.; 🍅 rating: -
Top picks outside of Netflix and Amazon
An incredible new Scandinavian series called The Investigation is now playing on HBO Max. It’s about the famous case of Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist who went missing in a private submarine built by Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen. The show gives him almost no attention but instead focuses on the investigation itself and the emotional toll on the families involved. An immaculate show that feels completely fresh thanks to the slow pacing and toned-down focus on crime.
The 2017 movie Detroit is new on the free streaming platform Tubi. It stars John Boyega, Algee Smith, and John Krasinski in a difficult portrayal of the 1967 Detroit riots and an ensuing police brutality case.
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, 12th.
Until then,
Bilal