Weekend Watchlist: What to Watch According to Film Professor Jack Lechner

In this series, we catch up with Columbia Film Professors and ask them to dish on what they're watching right now, which movies and shows blew them away or didn't live up to expectations, and what it's like to watch through a filmmaker's eyes.   

Professor and Chair of the Film program Jack Lechner is this week’s guest and is here to share what he thinks about what's airing now. 

Here are the things he’s watching right now and why he recommends them.

She-Hulk 

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is an American television series created by Jessica Gao for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character She-Hulk. The show follows Jennifer Walters, played by Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) who has a complicated life as a single, 30-something attorney and who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk.

Where to Watch it: 

 Disney+. 

Why Professor Lechner recommends it: 

"It's so light that it almost evaporates before your eyes, but I'm intrigued by the way that the superhero genre is now so omnipresent that it's swallowing other genres.  (Westerns did the same in the late 1960s.)  In the last few years, we've had a superhero teen comedy (Spider-Man: Homecoming), a superhero heist movie (Ant-Man and the Wasp), a superhero buddy road comedy (Thor: Ragnarok), and now a superhero lawyer sitcom.  Plus, as a fan of Orphan Black, I will watch Tatiana Maslany in anything.

Jack’s Hottake:

She-Hulk is the kind of show that I think only Marvel could get away with because it's insanely meta. This is a show that has no existence outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and delights in making constant references to even obscure bits of the Marvel Universe. What makes it riveting for me is that it’s essentially a lawyer show with superheroes and supervillains.

Ted Lasso

A show about an American football coach played by Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live) who is hired to manage a British soccer team; what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for in optimism, determination and biscuits.

Where to Watch it: 

 Apple TV

Why Professor Lechner recommends it: 

"My wife and I just finished the second season of Ted Lasso, which we thought was even better than the first.  I love the way the first season posed the challenge of whether it's possible to accomplish anything in the modern world with positive energy; and the second season digs into the cost of positive energy." 

Jack’s Hottake:

"What Ted Lasso has done so smartly is to not lean into the corniness of Ted the character, but instead to reveal how being relentlessly positive puts you at odds with everybody else, because so many of us function from a place of negativity. Anyone who is that relentlessly positive is actually trying to manifest this kind of manic positivity as a way to keep darkness at bay, just like Ted. I think we all know how difficult the world is, how difficult life can be, and it's awfully hard for anyone to be in such a bubble that they don't acknowledge that on some level. Ted Lasso manages to acknowledge that in a really refreshing way." 

Nope

The third feature film directed by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us), Nope follows two siblings running a horse ranch in California who discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.

Where to Watch it: 

In an actual movie theater

Why Professor Lechner recommends it: 

"I was so excited to see this movie, because Get Out is one of my favorite movies of the last 20 years. While Nope is brimming with intriguing ideas, they didn't really add up to enough for me. But I'm still rooting for Jordan Peele to make lots of great movies over many years, and to eventually top his first film."

Jack’s Hottake:

"Jordan Peele is dealing with something that only a few filmmakers have dealt with over the last hundred years. And that is making an outstanding first feature and having to follow it up with another film. Not too many people have made a masterpiece as their first feature. And it's a terrible situation to be in because for the rest of your career, people are always going to be comparing your new film to that film. But Nope unfortunately for me was not a masterpiece. It’s got all these great ideas and pieces—wonderful performances, wonderful film making, really intriguing notions that, frankly, with more development might have added up to something. But I think the problem is at the core, it's a dumb monster movie and it wants to be a smart monster movie, but it's got dumb monster movie in its DNA. Get Out is really about something that's urgent and real and that’s something you can't do every time with every film." 

Jack Lechner is the current chair of Columbia School of the Arts’ Film Program. His credits as Producer, Executive Producer, Supervising Producer, or Consulting Producer include the Oscar-winning documentary The Fog Of War; Blue Valentine; The New Yorker Presents for Amazon; Bite Me; Group; Untouchable for Hulu; Explorer for National Geographic; Left Of The Dial for HBO; TruInside for TruTV; Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys for Sundance; The New Public and Playwright: From Page to Stage for PBS; and the pilot of Mad Men for AMC. As an executive at Miramax and Film Four, he was involved in the production and development of dozens of movies, including The Crying Game, Good Will Hunting, and The Full Monty. His book Can’t Take My Eyes Off You was published in 2000, and his picture book Mary Had A Little Lamp in 2008. He also wrote the lyrics for the 2010 off-Broadway musical The Kid.