Sundance 2017: 10 Films Everyone Is Buzzing About

9. The Polka King

Jack Black Polka King
Red Hour Productions

Directors: Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky

The Plot: Based on a true story, The Polka King follows Pennsylvanian musical sensation Jan Lewan (Jack Black) as he develops a get-rich-quick scheme that ultimately lands him in serious trouble.

The Buzz: It's been a while since Jack Black has had a meaty dramatic role to chew on, and The Polka King very much represents a return to that space for the actor.

The film details the rise and fall of Lewan in a quirky, offbeat fashion, featuring a lead character who does terrible things but is impossible not to like.

Black excels in roles like this; his Dewey Finn from 2003's School of Rock was a bit of a scumbag, but the actor made him likable and easy to root for, and The Polka King treads a similar line.

The Guardian gave it three out of five stars, mentioning that "Jack Black shines" and the film is "full of heart", so at the very least, you should go into the theatre expecting an amusing, enjoyable ride.

The Polka King does not yet have a wide release date.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!