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On the program of our weekend suggestions, adventures with the most famous duck family in the world, sentimental therapy led by comedians at the top of their game and a poignant documentary on the American homeless.
Like every week, here is a small selection of programs – a series and two films – to watch during your weekend or to add to your (probably) already very long list of things to see. Don’t hesitate to watch the video if you want to know more, especially about the films and series released this week on Netflix, Prime Video and company.
This weekend, we bring you a journey with the richest duck in the world in the rehabilitation of The Scrooge Band, released in 2017 and now available on Disney+. We will then go to meet Pat and Tiffany, the two heroes in poor condition of the excellent Hapiness Therapy, available on Canal+. We will end with a short documentary produced by Netflix, Homeless Liveswhich returns unfiltered to the nightmarish conditions in which thousands of homeless people live in the United States, and which unfortunately echoes many comparable situations around the world.
© FR_tmdb / Netflix / StudioCanal
The Scrooge Band on Disney+
Balthazar Scrooge was originally a secondary character in the entourage of Donald Duck, his nephew. But in the 1950s and 60s, the designer Carl Barks took the richest duck in the world under his wing to make him a hero in 1000 adventures in the company of Donald but also his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. It is from these comics that was inspired The Scrooge Band first of the name, a very good animated series broadcast at the end of the 1980s. During the following decade, the little genius Don Rosa in turn looked into the fate of Scrooge, even telling his personal story in The Youth of Scrooge. In 2017, the remake of The Scrooge Band promised to mix these different generations, the characters invented by Barks and those of Rosa, even adding protagonists from the pen of other cartoonists, and taking up those installed by the 1987 cartoon. The result is a real success in three seasons and 69 episodes of 22 min. Dynamic, superb, faithful to the adventurous spirit of its two main inspirations, the series is also carried by an impressive voice cast in the original version: David Tennant (Doctor Who), Danny Pudi, Jim Rash (Community), Giancarlo Esposito (breaking Bad), Martin Freeman (sherlock, Fargo), Catherine Tate (The Office)… In short, an immense pleasure absolutely not guilty.
Hapiness Therapy on Canal+
It’s been almost 10 years since it came out Hapiness Therapy, and it strangely seems to have disappeared from the radar a bit. However, David O. Russel’s film had won over critics when it was released, winning several awards along the way. We follow the story of Pat, a bipolar and depressed teacher just released from a mental asylum he had joined after attacking his wife’s lover. Determined to prove his good will to win her back, he will get closer to Tiffany, a young widow who is also unstable following the death of her husband and a brutal dismissal from her last job. These two broken beings will heal in contact with each other, in particular by preparing a dance contest that looks like a symbol of redemption. This extremely touching romantic comedy works in large part thanks to particularly endearing characters, interpreted by actors at the top of their game. Bradley Cooper is overwhelming as a somewhat candid man constantly on the wire. Just out of the first part of The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence almost manages to steal the show by giving Tiffany all the anger, despair and fragility necessary for the character. Add Robert de Niro, Jacki Weaver and Chris Tucker, and you have a fine cast directed by David O. Russel.
Homeless Lives on Netflix
It is said that a picture is sometimes worth more than 1000 words. This is exactly the effect we had Homeless Lives (Lead Me Home in original version), a 40 min short film produced by Netflix which immerses us in the difficult daily life of a dozen homeless people in the United States. Followed over a period of three years by directors Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk, these homeless people abused by life depict in few words, but very accurately, the obstacle course that their existence looks like, in an America where half a million people sleep on the streets every night, and where major cities have seen homelessness double in the past four years. A brutal plunge into the violence of the street, its broken faces, its shattered destinies, its sordid stories, with so few hints of hope, which makes you think about the help given to these people in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.