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Zoë Kravitz as Rob in "High Fidelity": Your record store defies digital playlists
Photo:
Phillip Caruso / Starzplay / Hulu
"High Fidelity", Starzplay
Time budget:
ten episodes of 35 minutes each
for fans of:
Fleetwood Mac, Dexys Midnight Runners
"My top 5 worst break-ups," says Rob straight into the camera, rattling down five ex-names who were particularly painful to break up with.
Including: white and black men, a guy who finds out that he is actually gay and a woman.
And Rob himself?
Is a music nerd, owns a record store in Brooklyn - and is a woman.
Welcome to the update of Nick Hornby's 1995 novel "High Fidelity" and its film adaptation with John Cusack from 2000. Much has remained the same: speaking directly into the camera, the specialist debates on marginal topics of pop culture - such as the early Fleetwood Mac - and of course the search for highly individualized urban people for happiness.
But everything has become much more diverse, the possibilities are greater, not only because of digital playlists, but also between people.
Zoë Kravitz shines in the main role, but how things will go on for Rob after a rather open ending will never be found out.
Because despite good reviews, the series, which started in the US in February, ended after the first season.
Sometimes it hits the good guys too.
Oliver Kaever
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The next speaking animal from the computer: Ivan is looking for freedom
Photo:
Disney +
"The one and only Ivan", Disney +
Time budget:
90 minutes
for fans of:
"The Jungle Book", "The Lion King"
The Disney people are very familiar with computer-animated animals, the real-life version of "The Lion King" grossed almost $ 1.7 billion.
The adaptation of the novel "The Only True Ivan" should have followed on from this success.
It is about a gorilla who has been terrifying children in a circus show for many years.
However, like the Disney productions "Artemis Fowl" and "Mulan", it is not coming to the cinema because of the corona pandemic, but instead is shown directly on Disney +.
The British director Thea Sharrock takes the viewer into the depths of entertainment and shows the ringmaster Mack (Bryan Cranston), who announces rather modest sensations, both screaming and passionate.
His ring is in a mall, and the tiers are usually pretty empty.
He is happy when he gets his animals well fed.
They watch him from their cages, sometimes worried, sometimes amused, because they can talk to each other.
The fact that the viewer, together with the animal heroes - including an elephant, a seal and a street dog - looks through the bars at the bustling Mack like a strange creature in its habitat is a nice change of perspective.
The film, with its animal staff, to whom Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito and Sam Rockwell, among others, lend their voices, is not exactly full of originality, but it unfolds charm and wit.
Lars-Olav Beier
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Sarah in "Jugendland": A hell of a lot to regulate
Photo:
Jannis Keil / heyfilm / NDR
"Jugendland", NDR on YouTube
Time budget:
24 episodes, each just under ten minutes
for fans of:
"Kids", "Bungalow"
The community of Uetze on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath may be a beautiful piece of earth.
One of the sights is the Church of St. John the Baptist from 1863. An onion festival is celebrated every two years.
For 19-year-old Timo it is a highlight when, after four years, a kiosk finally reopens where you can stock up on cigarette butts and beer in the evenings.
He is one of the protagonists of a web documentary series produced by NDR that accompanies young adults who have missed the jump to the nearest larger city.
Like Timo, who paints the garage door for his grandma and is allowed to take away baked chicken legs.
And his friend René, who provocatively offers the camera team a joint and whose mouth is as loud as his criminal record.
At night they sit on a park bench and drink vodka with fruit juice, and Timo says: "If you know the right people, you can get everything here."
So far, two episodes are online, they spread a certain Larry Clark-like hopelessness.
As in his films ("Kids"), the camera is uncompromisingly close - but also in the touching scene with grandma.
So it is quite possible that this will create a thoroughly charring and not necessarily gloomy portrait of life in the provinces.
The project definitely arouses curiosity.
Oliver Kaever
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Grill master Rodney Scott: Mountains of meat à la carte
Photo:
Netflix
"Chef's Table: Masterful BBQ", Netflix
Time budget:
four episodes of 45 minutes each
for fans of:
"Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown", "Ugly Delicious"
In the meantime, David Gelb, the man behind "Chef's Table", has served so many courses that viewers can get the feeling that they are really full, given the overabundance of cooking shows on Netflix alone.
The new offshoot is counted as the second spin-off (after "Chef's Table: France") of the documentary series, which has now grown to six seasons.
And it is similar to another format that also comes from yellow: the "Streetfood" series, in which food from the roadside is celebrated rather than haute cuisine.
"Chef's Table: Masterful BBQ" is now also about the joy of simple food.
Here mountains of meat end up on gigantic grills, against which even the small car-sized stainless steel appliances on domestic terraces and balconies look modest.
Home cooking like suckling pig and Texas barbeque with all due respect, but the fascination with "Chef's Table" has so far been how biographies and careers materialize on the plates of culinary artists.
This element is largely missing here - except for the really exciting second episode with the barbecue genius Lennox Hastie from Sydney.
It is not just meat that ends up on the grill, but also lettuce, mussels and caviar, among other things.
Of course, it cannot be determined whether it really tastes good, but that's not the point here either.
But, as in all exciting art, about boundaries that are shifted, to make things visible that were previously hidden.
Oliver Kaever
And here you will find the current "crime scene".
Icon: The mirror
