The trailer for Jenny Slate and Jack Black’s new Netflix movie is here, and it’s ridiculously absurd (in a good way)
Netflix just dropped the first trailer for The Polka King, your new favorite movie about a Polka Ponzi scheme.
The film follows Jan Lewan (Jack Black), a Polish immigrant desperate for his own piece of the American dream. Lewan forms a Polka band with best friend Mickey Pizzazz (Jason Schwartzman) and marries aspiring beauty queen Marla (Jenny Slate). Lewan quickly becomes something of a sensation and as he expands his brand — which includes a store filled with Polish trinkets and souvenirs for sale — he begins to offer investments of sorts to fans, who quickly fall prey to his rising Ponzi scheme.
Sounds like the most outrageous and unbelievable concept, right?
Well — and you’re going to want to sit down for this — The Polka King is actually based on a true story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGh7si0Y50?feature=oembed
In the ’90s, Lewan was on his way to being the biggest name in Polka when he started raking in hundreds of thousands from fans under the guise that they would see a return on their investment. When Lewan was accused of tampering with the Miss Pennsylvania pageant — which his wife was competing in — things started going downhill for the Polka singer and soon after, his nefarious financial practices came back to bite him.
We’re not sure, but there’s a pretty good chance this is the biggest scandal in Polka history. And with a true story like this at its core, this film should be perfectly dramatic.
If we weren’t already excited to watch Black and Slate take on the scheming couple, The Polka King also boasts a talented supporting cast of Jacki Weaver, Vanessa Bayer, Willie Garson, and J.B. Smoove.
Needless to say, we’ll have to check out the film to see if Lewan was actually a cunning money hustler or accidental Bernie Madoff of Polka when the film hits Netflix on January 12th.