What to stream this week: Happy Gilmore 2 and five more to watch

This week’s picks include the return of Adam Sandler’s iconic golfer, Marc Maron’s stand-up special, a musical treat from John Lennon and Yoko Ono and Will Forte’s Last Man on Earth.

Happy Gilmore 2 ★★½ (Netflix)

Hollywood is deep in its requel era – the remake masquerading as a sequel. Top Gun: Maverick, The Matrix Resurrections and Ghostbusters: Afterlife all twist the homage dial up. But doing the same with Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler’s scrappy 1996 cult comedy about an ill-tempered ice hockey hopeful crashing the professional golf tour, is an odd choice. Anarchic defiance of the status quo is hard to replicate on the cusp of turning 60 years old.

But in his comedies, which have moved from multiplexes to Netflix, Sandler has always been, well, happy to make do. In a film that celebrates family unity, Happy Gilmore 2 honours its forebear with a swath of self-referential tributes and some amusing callbacks. It’s a little too dutiful, and could have done with more chaos and absurdism before it revs up for a ludicrous but mostly pleasing finale.

Written, as the original was, by Sandler and Robert Herlihy, the plot delivers a rapid-fire update of Happy’s life after becoming an unlikely winner of the US Open. Romantic interest Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) became his wife, further success and a posse of kids followed, before tragedy leaves Happy broke, boozing and hating golf. It’s bad, but not too bad – he can still let real-life golf maverick John Daly live in his garage.

In a reflection of the clash between the golf establishment and the Saudi-backed LIV tour, Happy’s return coincides with the launch of Maxi, the brainchild of energy drink magnate Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie). The oily disruptor sees Maxi as a continuation of Happy’s disruption. After all, he screamed at the ball and literally traded blows with his pro-am partner. But this Happy is, uncomfortably, a traditionalist.

The film’s solution to philosophical quandaries is to pile on the cameos. Famous veteran golfers such as Jack Nicklaus give way to numerous current stars, including Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Characters from the first film are remembered here with offspring. Ben Stiller returns. Margaret Qualley plays a round. Some try too hard (Travis Kelce), some get it right (Eminem), some do not try (Post Malone). The producer who made the schedules match deserves a medal.

It’s jocular as opposed to hysterical; nothing ruptures the mood. Director Kyle Newacheck (Workaholics, What We Do in the Shadows) is in third gear until the final act, where the two rival tours face off on a Maxi-fied course. The fantastical fit-out has the madcap gravity of Stephen Chow circa Shaolin Soccer. It gives Happy Gilmore 2 a welcome burst of energy, but you could still chalk it up as Adam Sandler’s mulligan.

Washington Black ★★★ (Disney+)

Jules Verne meets Charles Dickens in this sweeping adaptation of Canadian author Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel, which on the screen grapples with how to frame a coming-of-age adventure set in the shadow of slavery’s horrors. Creator Selwyn Seyfu Hinds acknowledges systemic ills but in telling the title character’s tale, he leans into the propulsion of wonder: epic journeys, first love, and horizon-lifting inventions are prominent. It’s a valid take in a trauma-laden screen era, but the lack of friction matters.

Beginning on a Barbados sugar plantation in 1829, the narrative jumps around to tell the story of Washington Black as a gifted child (played by Eddie Karanja) born into slavery, and the hopeful young man (played by Ernest Kingsley jnr) he becomes when forced to flee. Those around him have a melodramatic divide: aspiring scientist Christopher Wilde (Tom Ellis) encourages and befriends Washington; his brother, Erasmus Wilde (Julian Rhind-Tutt), torments and pursues him.

With executive producer Sterling K. Brown (Paradise) as Medwin Harris, the leader of a community of freed slaves in Canada who serves as the audience’s de facto storyteller and an inspiration to Washington, the plot traverses the Caribbean and North America. The location cinematography is genuinely striking, but this family-friendly limited series can struggle with the fine line between uplifting and glibly reassuring. It only just evens out.

Marc Maron: Panicked ★★★½ (HBO Max)

“If my brain rests for even three seconds, some other part of the brain goes, ‘You want me to open the worry folder?’” notes comedian Marc Maron in his latest stand-up special, which finds him rummaging through his own psyche and America’s many – literal and metaphorical – wildfires.

Having recently announced that his landmark podcast, WTF, will conclude later this year, Maron’s self-analysis is in a jumpy, transitory phase, but he easily twists sharp retorts and funny segues out of his mordant monologue while avoiding partisan positions.

It’s Fine, I’m Fine ★★★★ (Netflix)

Hopefully, the Netflix megaphone spreads this terrific Australian drama – which debuted on NITV in 2022 and is now in the process of exiting SBS on Demand – far and wide. A quartet of 20-minute episodes, creator Stef Smith’s show is set in the nondescript suburban office of therapist Joanna (Ana Maria Belo), a professional who just might be struggling as much as the various patients she sees. The show is tender and telling, with fantastical flourishes that are deeply connected to the characters. There are no easy resolutions, but this intimate exploration rarely falters.

One to One: John & Yoko ★★★ (DocPlay)

Ably directed by filmmakers Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Marley) and Sam Rice-Edwards (Meet Me in the Bathroom), this feature-length documentary adds some welcome detail to the myths and misconceptions that have hung over John Lennon and Yoko One in the years after the Beatles split.

Living in a Greenwich Village apartment in the early 1970s, the couple fervently explore politics and popular culture, illustrated by phone calls Lennon taped, culminating in a 1972 benefit concert that was one of the few solo gigs that the musician ever played.

The Last Man on Earth ★★★★ (Stan*)

A four-season box set new to Stan, this post-apocalyptic comedy from 2015 stars the perfectly cast Will Forte (MacGruber) as the apparent lone survivor of a calamitous virus that has finished off the rest of humanity. Existential horror meets absurdist relief as Forte’s Phil Miller runs wild in Tucson, Arizona, looting, living large, and debating God from a margarita-filled kiddie pool, before his circumstances change again. It’s a very funny show, with a well-calibrated mix of humanist warmth and silly contrivance – Phil is plainly not the best candidate to relaunch civilisation.

Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

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