Ty Watches "The Polka King"

On our recent mini vacation, every night after the kids went to bed, we would pick a movie to watch at the Airbnb we stayed in. Each person chose a different night. On the last night we were there it was my father's choice, and he picked a movie called "The Polka King". I remembered seeing stuff on Netflix for this movie. I believe I had it on my list to watch, it has Jack Black in it, so that makes me instantly in, and it was, deemed by critics, similar to another Jack Black movie I love called "Bernie", I guess it has the same feel to it. So I was down when my dad asked to watch this movie. My wife and mom didn't seem too crazy about it, but it was dad's choice, and we watched it.

“The Polka King” is a solid movie. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit. And while, for me, it isn't on the same level as "Bernie", that movie is criminally underrated, it was still a well told story with a great Jack Black performance. The movie is about a polish gentleman named Jan Lewan, who is a polka musician, moves to Pennsylvania and gets sent to jail for running a ponzi scheme that preyed on the elderly. It seems like a very by the book crime movie, but it took a different approach than others. The fact that Lewan was this polka musician, and spoke with a thick accent, it made him seem aloof to what he was doing. You almost felt like he was doing now wrong. He seemed to be a nice guy, that just dug himself into a hole that he couldn't get out of until too many things went wrong and he landed in jail. Black embodied the character. Seeing him go about his everyday life as Lewan was great. He crushed that. But the polka stuff, my goodness did he crush that. He was electric. I am not a polka fan, in fact the only person I know who truly liked polka music is my now passed away Grandpa. I have met no other people who list polka as a favorite genre of music. But dammit if I wasn't bouncing my leg and humming along to the music when Black performed it in the movie. It was fun. Black was through and through perfection in this movie. I totally bought him as Lewan, I loved his musical performances, I bought his earnestness and his downfall, I was all in. He was tremendous. So was every other big time actor cast in this movie. Jenny Slate played his wife, and she was great. She talked about how she fell for him because he seemed so sad. She then really loved him, but struggled with his fame over hers. I loved the stuff with the Miss Pennsylvania pageant involving Slate. She was awesome. Jacki Weaver was wonderful as Slate's mom, and Black's mother in law. She didn't like Lewan, always thought he was up to something, and let him know every chance she could. And when she stood up for him, that was a dynamite scene. Jason Schwartzmann as his band mate and friend, he is becoming one of these actors that you can always count on for a solid performance, no matter if the movie is good or bad. It definitely helps when it's a good movie like this. Even JB Smoove, in a very small role, with a full head of hair, he was excellent and stole his scenes.

I didn't know if I would like this movie when we started it, but I can say very loudly now that I truly enjoyed this story and this movie's way of telling it. It was also a quick 90 minutes, which I very much appreciate. So, if you are looking for a quirky, funny, real life crime story, I highly recommend "The Polka King". It is a very, very solid movie. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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