Eighth grade
NPO 3, 4.47 pm
(Comedy, Bo Burnham, 2018) Masterful coming-of-age film, written and directedby the American multi-talent Bo Burnham. Insecure adolescent Kayla (fantasticbreakout role by Elsie Fisher) is in the second grade of high school and makesendearing, bumbling vlogs in which she calls on her few viewers to bethemselves. Something she can’t do herself. Eighth grade is an admirablyempathetic descent into the brain of a modern adolescent girl, with socialcriticism often cleverly packaged as a mildly wry joke and woven into the filmso subtly that it can often be overlooked. The genuine honesty and curiositywith which Burnham chooses Kayla’s perspective is a relief.
Media Inside New Year’s Eve Show
NPO 3, 8.25 pm
This year, many well-known Dutch and international stars fell off theirpedestal. Will we see them again next year, or have they been canceledpermanently? In a festive New Year’s Eve special of their talk show MediaInside Gijs Groenteman and Marcel van Roosmalen review the past media year.With Emma Wortelboer and other guests, they look back at memorable programsand programs that they would rather forget as quickly as possible. There isalso an extra long ‘Letter from Marcel’, and the protagonists of the note areguests in the broadcast.
A-ha: The Movie
NPO 3, 9.33 pm
Norway had never produced a significant pop band until the three young men ofA-ha scored a world hit in 1985 with Take on Me. The band remained activeinto the 1990s, before making a number of comebacks. In front of A-ha: TheMovie director Thomas Robsahm followed the band members during theiractivities and tours for four years. With separate cars, hotels and changingrooms, Morten, Pål and Magne only see each other on stage. The very differentpersonalities talk about their working relationship, dreams anddisappointments.
My Old School
BBC2, 10pm
In 1993, the 16-year-old students of class 5C at Bearsden Academy, a secondaryschool in Glasgow, get a new classmate. Brandon Lee soon proves to be a starwho scores high on his exams. He also won the lead role in the school musical.Then a bizarre discovery is made about the student. In the documentary My OldSchool director Jono McLeod interviews the then students of class 5C andBrandon Lee himself. Lee did not want to appear on screen and is thereforeplayed by actor Alan Cumming.
Top 2000 a gogo
NPO 1, 10.10 pm
Leo Blokhuis and Herman van der Zandt present in Top 2000 a gogo again somestories behind the hits from the ‘list of lists’. OMD is the band behind thesong Enola Gay and was a major driver of synthpop in the 1980s. Vocalist andbassist Andy McCluskey is still active with the band to this day. There isalso the story behind the song Luggage carrier by Spinvis, which became anice hit in 2002, much to the surprise of the artist himself. Monic Hendrickx,Tim den Besten and Sophie Hilbrand are the bar guests today.
Becoming Astrid
NPO 2, 11:03 PM
(Drama, Pernille Fischer Christensen, 2018) She loves to tell made-up storiesand is not asked by any nice guys at dances. Behold the young Astrid Lindgren,in the Danish-Swedish costume drama Becoming Astrid ( Unga Astrid ). It’sas if the film is looking for answers in those flashbacks, without making tooobvious a connection between Lindgren’s life and work. The makers refuse tostep through Lindgren’s history in seven-league boots: a smart choice, thisfocused focus on the great writer’s formative and remarkably dramatic teenageyears.
Alba August in Becoming Astrid by Pernille Fischer Christensen.
Undine
ZDF, 11:10 p.m
(Drama, Christian Petzold, 2020) Special adaptation of the ancient fairy taleabout water nymph Undine, largely set in contemporary Berlin. Fittingly,Undine (Paula Beer) falls for a professional diver who checks beachheads(Franz Rogowski), and their romance is literally baptized by the miniaturetidal wave of an aquarium bursting apart. A magical, mature romantic image,just kept in check by Christian Petzold’s characteristically restraineddirection. Undine just doesn’t (or just does) become fantasy, while legendsand sagas resonate in the plot without losing the intimacy of the love drama.