The HBO film no one is talking about, but you need to see

Netflix’s Eric and HBO’s The Great Lillian Hall were both released this week to meet the cut-off of Emmy eligibility (yesterday was the last day).

Eric, a limited series that stars Benedict Cumberbatch, has received middling reviews, but it seems almost certain that Cumberbatch himself will likely score an acting nomination. Real talk though: Baby Reindeer seems almost a lock to take the entire limited series category.

More worthy of your time is HBO’s acquired film The Great Lillian Hall. An acting showcase for Jessica Lange, the film is about a broadway actress struggling with dementia. Reviews are very strong for the film, with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Buzz around the film is non-existent, but I suspect it will be that one title at the Emmys which keeps winning that has most viewers scratching their heads as they wonder what it is.

Benjamin Lee at The Guardian sells it nicely with this:

It’s a small, focused character study centered around a knockout lead performance, the kind of film that might have been given a limited theatrical release two decades prior by Sony Pictures Classics with an Oscar in mind. It tracks that now this would be for the small screen but, mercy be, it’s thankfully not as a bloated miniseries at a time when that has become the eye-rolling go-to. It feels like a throwback in mostly the very best ways – scenes of Lange and Bates, two women in their 70s, softly sniping at each other in a luxe Manhattan apartment are a real rare joy to see – and with theatre pros in front of and behind the camera (director is Tony-winning actor-writer-director Michael Cristofer), it’s a film that takes seriously, and with detail, the act of stage performance and the perils that come along with.

There’s also a couple of good documentaries for pop culture enthusiasts - a Jim Henson doco on Disney+, an HBO doco about the collapse of the US MoviePass service, and an star-packed UK music documentary Camden about the musical influence on North London neighborhood Camden Town.

The rest of the week is dominated by international Netflix programmers.

In terms of returning shows, there’s more value to be found there. The rather funny Australian comedy Colin From Accounts returns, as does the funny Canadian Letterkenny spin-off Shoresy.

I’m happy to see the return of the surprisingly very good My Adventures with Superman cartoon, while my daughter was very happy to see new episodes of Apple TV+’s Frog and Toad - yet another reminder of how good the Apple library is for kids shows (seriously, put your kids down in front of Stillwater - that show is delightfully low-fi and charming as heck).