Penn Jillette recommends ‘Patriot,’ starring Michael Dorman, right, who plays John Tavner, a folk singer who is also a spy. He is pictured above with Kurtwood Smith who plays Leslie Claret.
Photo: Amazon StudiosBig stars are in two new movies being released on streaming services this week.
The first, is Tom Hanks in Apple TV+’s ‘Greyhound,’ a World War II sea battle film that stars Mr. Hanks as the captain and is out Friday. Captains, it turns out, are a popular role for Mr. Hanks. He’s played one in at least four other movies—displaying a specific kind of crisis-management skillset that we unpack here.
In the second, Andy Samberg stars in “Palm Springs” with Cristin Milioti, out on Hulu also on Friday. The rom-com, a hit at Sundance, follows a pair of self-destructive wedding guests in a ‘Groundhog Day’-like cycle.
Which Streaming Services Are Right for You? Take the WSJ Quiz.
Meanwhile, a spate of new documentaries focus on the inner lives of child stars—both among Hollywood actors and athletes—and are streaming now. (For more on those read here.) If you’re looking for escapist fiction, why not try a few shows about the...Great Depression. And screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (best known for “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”) tells us why he thinks old Hollywood—not Netflix—ruined movies.
Ahead, we offer recommendations from two experts.
An Expert Recommends: ‘Giri / Haji’
(Netflix)
Kevin Kwan is best known for his bestseller, “Crazy Rich Asians,” which was turned into a movie in 2018. His new novel, “Sex and Vanity,” was released in June. Here, he recommends a series in which East meets West.
“I absolutely have been in love with ‘Giri / Haji,’ a series that takes place in both England and Japan. It’s about a Tokyo cop who’s sent to London on a special mission to find someone who is hiding there. He infiltrates the Japanese underworld that exists in London and meets an amazing cast of characters who help him and become like family.
To me, it’s such an amazing fusion of East and West. There are Japanese characters who are so authentically Japanese. And British characters who are so authentically British. I was just in awe watching it and also a little bit jealous. So much of what creator Joe Barton accomplished I’m also trying to do. I’m trying to create TV projects that really are a fusion of East and West, and he sort of beat me to it and did it so beautifully. He was able to authentically portray all these people in a very real, very honest, beautiful way that shows off differences in cultures, but also the universal commonality in all of us. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but there’s something so spectacular that happens in the final episode that takes it from a level of just great TV to absolute brilliance.”
An Expert Recommends: ‘Patriot’
(Amazon Prime Video)
Magician Penn Jillette is the co-star of “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” which returned to CW for its seventh season last month. Here, he recommends two novelistic TV shows created by Steve Conrad
“I had a friend in the ’90s who said that movies and television were going to flip and the stupid stuff would be done in movies and the smart stuff would be done on TV. We considered him to be insane. It turned out he was entirely right, and I think mostly because of length. The idea that you could do a 20-hour story changed television from short stories into novels. I thought you really couldn’t get better in the novel form of television than ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ or ‘Fargo.’ Then I stumbled upon two shows created by Steve Conrad— ‘Patriot,’ and ‘Perpetual Grace, LTD’ (available on Amazon and Epix), which he created with Bruce Terris.
Michael Dorman as John Tavner in ‘Patriot.’
Photo: Amazon Studios‘Patriot’ is about an intelligence officer—a very good spy—named John Tavner (Michael Dorman) who’s also a folk singer. His psychosis from being a spy trips out into folk songs. So you have essentially James Bond going on stage in coffee houses and pouring out his heart. It has something I’ve thought about, but never this deeply, which is that if you made the decision to forsake personal morality for the bigger picture, what damage would that do to you psychologically? So, you have a lead character who is destroyed by the fact that he’s helping this country by doing things that are deeply, deeply immoral and repulsive, but he has his mind on the bigger picture, and that’s destroying him. It is the show that I’ve laughed the hardest at. It’s a show that I’ve cried over. And it’s a show that has kept me on the edge of my seat in every way.
‘Perpetual Grace, LTD’ is the same heart and the same mind, but this time starring Ben Kingsley and Jimmi Simpson. It is about a con man running a church and someone trying to rip him off. Together, the two shows are just the greatest things I’ve seen.”
—Icons by Rob Wilson
We Want to Hear From You
What are you watching? Is there a show or film you think has been overlooked and is a must-see for others? Tell us what’s been on your screen in the comments below, and we’ll feature a recommendation in a coming piece in this series. You can also email us at voices@wsj.com and include “streaming” in the subject line.
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