10 Lesser Known Movies To Look Forward To In 2017
7. The Polka King
Jack Black's latest is based on the real-life events of Jan Lewan, the once
and future Polka King of Pennsylvania and his rise and dramatic yet bizarre
fall from grace.
Lewan seems like the prototypical big man about a small town as he built an empire around Polka; a traditional Eastern European folk music that sounds like the music that plays at the carnival before you get brutally slaughtered by asylum escapee. But the people of Pennsylvania ate both it and Lewan up and he was very much the golden boy of the keystone state.
He raised boatloads of money, organised trips to a still communist Poland, played at the Trump Taj Mahal and was even a friend of the Pope. This guy was comrade to Popes and Presidents alike until everything began to unravel around him and his empire began to fall apart like a punctured accordion.
Money started to go missing, cheques started bouncing and evidence of a Ponzi scheme became all too apparent. Now I know what you’re all thinking, Trump and the Vatican, involved with people committing dubious acts, it’s unthinkable. But it was all true.
Featuring and produced by Jack Black as well as being directed by golden age The Simpsons writer Wally Wolodorsky, this seems unmissable if only for the words ‘Polka related crimes’.