Stan & Ollie

Stan & Ollie (2018) is Jon S. Baird's biographical comedy-drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Their Hollywood heyday gone, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy set off on a grinding variety-hall tour across Britain and Ireland, hoping to scrape together the money for one last picture.

Steve Coogan plays Stan, the fussy joke-writer who never stops tinkering; John C. Reilly disappears under prosthetics as the warm, ailing Ollie. Early on the houses are half empty and the fees are an insult, while an old grievance neither man has named in fifteen years simmers underneath. Their wives Lucille and Ida, played by Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda, form a sharper double act than the comedians themselves.

Baird skips the greatest-hits reel and tells a quieter story instead, about two aging men who spent a lifetime making strangers laugh yet could barely talk to each other. Reilly vanishes so completely into Hardy that you forget the makeup within a minute. Sad, tender, and free of easy sentiment. Stream Stan & Ollie (2018) online on iFILM.