WHAT TO WATCH IN JULY By Howard Barbanel Here are my suggestions for streaming films and series that are worth your time and maybe your money. HOUSE OF DAVID Prime brings us an eight-part series on the early life of King David and the late lives of King Saul and the Prophet Samuel. Adhering closely to the Book of Samuel (including much verbatim dialog which you may find yourself mouthing along with) this is an ambitious dramatization of the beginnings of Israel’s greatest king. We meet Saul, Jonathan, Michal, Goliath, the Philistines and many other characters straight from the Bible. Solid production values – respect for Jewish law and tradition (they even refer to God a lot by the word “Hashem,”) the composing and singing of psalms (in Hebrew) and the like. Also in Hebrew are many chapter and segment titles that then morph into English. A stronger recent cinematic Philo-Zionist show you’ll not find anywhere else on TV. They make the case here better than a hundred TikTok videos that Jews have been in Israel for over 3,400 years. Good acting from a cast of relative unknowns. Episodes five through eight have a faster pace. Worth watching even if just to up the numbers on Prime and let them know the show is popular (it actually generated millions of views and was in the Top 10 most-watched streaming shows in its initial debut). The series has been renewed for a second season where we’ll get to see David as king.
NONNAS Do you love Italian food? Who doesn’t? This is an endearing film about creating an Italian restaurant out of a bombed-out crap-hole of a storefront in Staten Island by a middle-aged single guy (played straight by Vince Vaughn) who terribly misses his late mother’s cooking. (Again, who doesn’t?). This is based on a true story and is mainly set in 1970s Brooklyn. What’s the joint’s special sauce? It’s right there in the name the movie, “Nonnas,” which is Italian for “grandmothers.” Yes, Vaughn staffs his kitchen with Italian grandmothers. Home cooking. The cast really cooks with a roster of character actors such as Lorraine Bracco (“Sopranos,” “Goodfellas”), Talia Shire (Yo, Adrian! and “The Godfather.”), Brenda Vaccaro (“Cactus Flower” on Broadway, a Tony Award, “The Golden Girls” and a guest spot as Al Pacino’s wife in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”), Drea de Matteo (“Sopranos”) and even Susan Sarandon (“Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Thelma & Louise” and “Dead Man Walking.”). A feel-good movie with many fabulous female actors in encore/twilight performances. Netflix.
FLIP SIDE This is ostensively a documentary about a suburban New Jersey record shop that filmmaker and director Chris Wilcha worked at as a high school student decades ago. But it’s not. Not even close. Yeah, the record shop appears throughout the film but “Flip Side” really is a heartwarming treatise on the meaning of life, love, family, friendship, work and loyalty. The film careens back and forth through several decades, interviews with a disparate and eclectic group of artists, musicians, the filmmaker’s parents, you name it. Wilcha narrates throughout jibed by as nice bunch of characters as you’ll ever meet on-screen. “Flip Side” will leave you feeling warm, fuzzy and appreciative of your own life. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 97%. I agree. An excellent use of 92 minutes. A no-name cast except for people like Judd Apatow, David Milch, Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, Jason Siegel, David Spade and others making cameos from archival footage shot by Wilcha over many years and a lot of real people being just themselves. Available on Prime. THE LAST SHOWGIRL Remember Mickey Rourke’s bravura performance as an obsessed, aging and ailing professional wrestler in 2008’s “The Wrestler?” (If you’ve never seen it, do so.). “The Last Showgirl” is the female equivalent. Released in 2024 in limited art theater screens, Pamela Anderson (“Baywatch,” “Barb Wire”) who is now (gasp!) 58 years-old shows she has major dramatic acting chops as she essentially replicates Rourke’s experience. Anderson plays a Las Vegas showgirl who’s been working the same chorus line for several decades and is having a lot of trouble coming to terms with the end of that line. This is by far and away Anderson’s very best piece of acting. You feel her pain. Nobody stays young forever and she doesn’t want to face reality until reality hits her in the face. Co-starring here is the always amazing Jamie Lee Curtis (“Freaky Friday,” “True Lies,” “A Fish Called Wanda”) who is running on a parallel track as a casino cocktail waitress also petering out of gas. Also in the cast are Kiernan Brennan Shipka (Sally in “Mad Men,” “Twisters”), Billie Lourd (Carrie Fisher’s daughter, “Star Wars” sequel trilogy and “American Horror Story.”) and in a kind of reference to “The Wrestler,” David Bautista who is a retired WWE professional wrestler himself. Where can you see it? Disney, Hulu or PPV on Fandango at Home. This should have had wider distribution and you can help by watching it. DADDIO and MATERIALISTS Dakota Johnson is having quite the run. The spawn of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith is a happening star who happens to look a lot more like Dad than Mom. Her two most recent flix are worth watching. First-up is late 2023’s “Daddio” — a very grown-up two-person movie where Johnson and her lower-billed co-star Sean Penn (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Being John Malkovitch,” “The Thin Red Line.”) spend more than a hour and a half talking to, at and with each other in a taxi from the airport to Manhattan – about the time such a ride can take from JFK in traffic in real life. Penn is the wise old cabbie and Johnson is a hip, with-it NYC chic with relationship issues. Another good name for this would have been “true confessions.” Sharp, snappy and occasionally witty dialog which will be catnip for current and former New Yorkers. Only non-believable part? Penn as a cab driver. All cabbies today are immigrants. Penn as a great actor and a great performance here? Absolutely. Netflix, Tubi, Prime or Apple TV. Johnson is a blonde is “Daddio” and switches her tresses to Manhattanite brunette for “Materialists,” her latest movie still in theaters and also on Prime, Google Play, Apple TV and YouTube TV. In “Materialists” she plays a hard-charging successful matchmaker at an agency specializing in attempting to assuage the deep and desperate loneliness of New York’s professional class. We see many of her clients, matches and even a wedding. Her own personal life is a bit of a cynical, narcissistic train wreck and her character is often unlikable but nevertheless is constantly being lusted over because of her physical profile. On full display is the dating dysfunction of our era, especially in New York but similar elsewhere. This is a rom-com with strained romance and subtle comedy. Johnson gives a great performance as does the very likeable Chris Evans (“Human Torch” and “Captain America”) and Pedro Pascal (“Game of Thrones,” “The Last of Us”). Spoiler alert – there is a happy ending that you probably won’t expect.
