Woof. Another deeply dark day in America.
This week, instead of asking you to share The Sunday Stream with a friend, we humbly ask readers to follow the link below and consider donating to a local abortion clinic that is in need of your support.
Outside of that call to action, there is not much to be said that hasn’t been already. We hope to help in our own way as we continue to point you to the best 30-60-minute vehicles of escape the streaming landscape has to offer, offering a brief respite from the near constant sorrow found both online and in the news these days.
With that, let’s get into our content balm for the week.
The Old Man
Current 🍅 Rating: 94%
What It’s About: In this old-style thriller an aging, former CIA operative living off the grid is forced to violently reconcile his past when an assassin arrives to take him out.
Why You Should Watch: For fans of No Country for Old Men, twilight-of-your-life-reflection-monologues, and old men busting heads in with the help of some well-trained Rottweilers.
It’s easy to dismiss The Old Man as another Liam Neeson-style revenge thriller, but that wouldn’t be giving this enough credit. Don’t get me wrong - Jeff Bridges does relentlessly and efficiently kick ass as a grizzled, wisened, cold-hard killer, but in the way that Jason Bourne would if he was in his 70s. He may know exactly how to kill you, but he really wish he didn’t have to, since he’s weary from both his long life of violence and that he had to take 3-4 trips to the bathroom last night.
Rather than a non-stop action shoot-em up, The Old Man is really an acting showcase for both Jeff Bridges and his former, tenuous, ally-turned-rival played by John Lithgow, someone whom I never would have thought of for a role like this, but who has no problem holding his own on the other side of the table as a questionably-motived FBI bigwig tasked with taking Bridges down. As these two play cat-and-mouse, they debate the ambiguous morality of the choices that brought them here, and the consequences of decisions they made during their part in the U.S.’ shadow war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention Bridges’ two beastly dogs (Don and Carol!), who are too fun as they follow him around and patiently await the go-ahead to viciously open some throats (just like Dad). So, if anything, watch for those two.
Who’s In It, and Where You Probably Know Them From:
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski, Crazy Heart, Hell or High Water, True Grit, and lest we forget, the first-ever villain in the MCU as Obadiah Stane in 2008’s Iron Man - a role in which he has repeatedly and openly acknowledged he was simply making up as he went along.
John Lithgow - 3rd Rock from the Sun, The World According the Garp, Lord Farquaad in Shrek, The Crown, Orange County, and of course, hating dancing in Footloose.
Alia Shawkat - She will forever be Maeby from Arrested Development, but you may also know her from Search Party and Transparent.
Who Made It, and What Else Have They Done:
Robert Levine and Johnathan E. Steinberg, both of whom most notably co-wrote and created Black Sails.
Where You Can Watch: Hulu