Netflix is coming into 2018 after a successful year of Stranger Things and other stuff. Sure, they completely whiffed with shows like Gypsy and Disjointed, were forced to end their award winning drama House of Cards without Kevin Spacey, had a hard time winning over critics with films like Bright and almost every Adam Sandler "movie" they produced, but all in all, they hit big with The Crown, fans flocked to Ozark, stand up dominated their viewership and Peaky Blinders took out the last week of 2017 like a powder keg with a lit fuse. This leads us into 2018, the year of Netflix's true assimilation into the film industry and it began on January 12th with the release of the Jack Black led true story comedy, The Polka King.
Netflix has pushed plenty of money into their film division. They spent over $100 million on Will Smith's Bright (and what seemed like nothing on the script), produced movies with Adam Sandler and Brad Pitt, but never found a strong footing in 2017. Most of their films were misfires because of what seems to be an overwhelming freedom they let their filmmakers work with. With Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, they found the perfect team to write and direct the insanely true story of Jan Lewan, famed Pennsylvania polka singer and ponzi scheme mastermind. At it's core, the film revolves around who Jan Lewan was as a person, played by Jack Black, and how things spiraled from needing to make more money to pay his polka band to stealing millions of dollars from elderly people. Black bends his ability to play silly with an instilled form of deception and manipulation that makes you sort of root for "Jan the Man" while shaking your head at his nonsense. It is this area that Black has shined in before, playing a lovable murderer in Bernie or the big talking fame seeking director in King Kong. Black shines with the strong writing that has perfect pockets for comedy and utilizes the kind of over the top character Lewan was. With fine surrounding acting from Jenny Slate and specifically Jackie Weaver, Black has plenty of moments to act and not just chew scenes for a gag-reel.
What propels this film to interesting levels is the actual content. What happened with Jan Lewan and his "investments" is as strong of a true tale as something like The Informant, but just off the mark of The Big Short. With great joint effort from Forbes and Wolodarsky, who are obviously both comfortable with one another to avoid pointless scenes or poor directing choices, the film benefits from having two sets of eyes and two writer's pens in charge of it. This is a rare film that hits all it's marks and comes to a satisfying end...all in under one hour and forty minutes. So many films have pacing problems or dead spots or don't build enough on the characters, especially with comedies, but here is a smart and meaty balance of all things filmic. The result is a fun, laughable but real plot and strong bodies all around it boosting the entirety of the project beyond just another comedy to watch and forget.
Where Netflix has been just fine letting Adam Sandler hang with all his friends that can't get work outside of him, The Polka King works as a sign of good things to come on the film side of Netflix in 2018. As bizarre as it is true, The Polka King is precisely what Netflix needs to build a bigger streaming giant. Definitely worth the watch and with little to no fat around it's edges. This is a solid streaming steak.
7 of 10
Tyler Baker
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