Seen in July

Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson Jr.

A busy and hot month full of boxing, selling, donating and recycling an old life, led to a shallow watch list. Here's what I saw.

42
Crave
Chadwick Boseman is Jackie Robinson Jr. as the ball player who broke Major League Baseball's colour barrier. It's a fairly typical biopic - good but perhaps not as powerful as a documentary might be. It's strange how you can feel the difference, but this film has that "made for TV" feeling. I'm not sure what makes me say that other than every scene has a certain formulaic economy to it, as though what we are seeing are a first run-through without any rehearsal. Particularly Harrison Ford, who portrays the larger-than-life Brooklyn owner Branch Rickey as a kind of one-note good-natured curmudgeon.

Alan Cumming's Most Luxurious Train Journeys: Scotland
TVO
Well-known actor and Scotsman, Alan Cumming was paid to sleep on a train with a group of older tourists all enjoying an unbelievably fancy sleeper train through some stunning Scottish landscapes. Not everyone can afford such a holiday, but everyone can have a wee holiday from their couch.

Aren (Justice Smith) with his mentor Roger (David Alan Grier).

The American Society of Magical Negroes
Prime Video
It's become a popular trope in many American films of a character, a Black American, who appears to support the protagonist - always white - to reach their full potential, often using a little magic or magic realism to help the character along. The one that comes to mind for me is the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy, wherein Tim Robbins' small-town stooge is aided by a custodian who maintains a large clock, which he uses to stop or start time to save Robbins' character from certain death. The conceit in this film is that there is a real society of magical negroes who are trained to help make white people more comfortable and support them in their goals. It's a funny idea, but along the way, you begin to wonder, isn't the love interest in this movie just another kind of "Magic Pixie Dream Girl" stereotype, until the end, when you find this has been intentional all along. Thus, the film deconstructs one stereotype while using another.

Despite being a Peruvian bear, Paddington displays quite a lot of Englishness.

Paddington in Peru
Crave
Another playful, imaginative, fun-filled Paddington adventure. Paddington is drawn back to visit his Aunt Lucy in Peru in a sinister ruse, but manages to solve the riddle with help from his human family. Again, it's another heart-warming, light entertainment that will pick you up when you need it.

There's a surprising amount of tripe in the first episode. I'm still surprised he hasn't done a show called, Tucci in Gucci.

Tucci in Italy
Disney+
Need more cheap trips from the comfort of your own couch? Try this foodie tour of Italy hosted by the Internet's boyfriend Stanley Tucci. It's another travelogue escape, mostly to places you're unlikely to afford or visit, but there are plenty of other places that are easily accessible. This would pair nicely with the Giro d'Italia bike race that happens in May and has a peloton of cyclists racing through the mountains and small towns of Italy.

Giamatti and Hahn waiting.

Private Life
Netflix
Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) are a New York-based couple in their 40s trying to have a child. It's a funny and moving film that helps you realize what an intense experience trying to have a child can be, especially when it's difficult for a couple desperate to conceive a child who is a part of them. I think this is probably the best "Netflix" original film since Alfonso Cuarón's Roma.

Derry Girls S03
Netflix
A fitting final series that ends with The Good Friday Agreement bringing peace to Northern Ireland and the violent hotbed that was Londonderry at the time. This show successfully wove together the absurdity of being a teenager and the serious absurdity of political violence. If you're uncomfortable with the thick Londonderry accents, you may want to watch with subtitles and a dictionary of Irish slang handy.