Because of the news about a possible hostage deal, two Israeli spy shows were postponed: the latest episode of Tehran on KAN 11, and the debut of Trust No One on Channel 12, both of which have not yet been rescheduled as of press time.
Fans of Tehran, which always ends on a cliffhanger, can go onto the KAN website (kan.org.il) and get a sneak preview of moments from the latest episode. Those interested in seeing Yehuda Levi as the youngest-ever head of the Shin Bet in Trust No One will have to wait a little longer, but the trailer can be viewed on mako.co.il.
THERE ARE other options if you want an escape from the news. One, for those who have Apple TV+, is Saturday Night, the feature film about the creation of the iconic comedy show Saturday Night Live. Inexplicably, this movie has not been scheduled for a theatrical release in Israel, although it was shown at the Haifa International Film Festival.
It’s a feature film, not a documentary, with actors playing the comedy greats – among them John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd – who were on the first season of the iconic show. The entire movie is about the 90 minutes of chaos backstage before the first episode aired.
I remember that first season, and it’s hard to explain now what a breath of fresh air it was compared to the staid, safe shows that passed for comedy on network television in those days. So I was prepared to hate this movie for not doing justice to the comics and the team that brought the show to life, but I was pleasantly surprised by the entire cast and the way the concept was executed by director Jason Reitman, who made Up in the Air and Juno.
The movie opens with a quote from the show’s founding producer, Lorne Michaels: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30.”
And that’s really all you need to know, except that Michaels, whose real last name was Lipowitz, is played by Gabriel LaBelle, who does a great job here, just as he did portraying the character based on a young Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans. Rachel Sennott, best known for Shiva Baby, plays his wife, Rosie Shuster, one of the show’s writers.
Often, when a drama portrays real people, the actors emphasize that they are performing characters inspired by these people, not imitating them, but here they are imitating them and they do it really well – especially Dylan O’Brien as Aykroyd, Matt Wood as Belushi, and Cory Michael Smith as Chase.
I’m not sure what people who don’t know anything about the original SNL will make of this movie, but for aficionados of the show, it’s an entertaining look at the show’s origin story.
The Japanese master
HIROKAZU KORE-EDA is a Japanese director who is one of the world’s most acclaimed filmmakers, known for such movies as Shoplifters, After the Storm, and The Truth, and he has made a series, Asura, now available on Netflix.
It resembles my favorite of his movies, Our Little Sister, and like that film, it tells a story about four very different sisters dealing with life. The inciting event is that the bookish sister discovers that their father is not only having an affair but also has a 10-year-old son with his mistress.
She gathers her other sisters to tell them. One is a disgruntled housewife who knows that her own husband is cheating, another is a flower arranger having an affair with her married boss, and the third is a waitress whose husband is an aspiring boxer. All have different reactions to the news and how to handle it.
It’s a bit soapier than Kore-eda’s movies but features wonderful performances by the entire cast and gives an interesting glimpse into middle-class Japanese life in 1979, when it is set.
I’M NOT SURE if the new fact-based series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth qualifies as escapist entertainment, but it’s very good. It stars Colin Firth as Jim Swire, a British doctor whose daughter was killed along with 269 others when Pan Am 103 went down after a bomb planted by terrorists exploded on it in 1988.
The series is running on Hot HBO on Mondays at 10 p.m. and on Hot VOD and Next TV, as well as on YesVOD and Sting+. Firth is excellent as always as the bereaved father who teamed up with a journalist to pursue justice and eventually confronted the terrorist. He is probably the best actor of his generation at portraying sad heroes. He also gets to use his comic timing, as the doctor does not lose his wit when he goes on his quest for answers.
The first episode features graphic scenes of the plane crash, which killed a number of residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as the passengers and the crew, and while these scenes are well done, they are very difficult to watch, so be forewarned.