The wait for 'Stranger Things' continues. But there's a new doc to tide fans over

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who still remembers the Upside Down.

It’s now been 35 months since Netflix’s megahit horror series “Stranger Things” released new episodes. And while the eerie nostalgia hit is set to return for its fifth and final season this year, there are at least some options to help fans grapple with the last stretch of waiting. In this week’s Break Down, Ashley Lee gives a look at a new documentary about the making of its stage show, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” which opened on Broadway earlier this week.

Also in Screen Gab No. 178, filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden drop in to discuss their film “Freaky Tales,” plus several titles to add to your watch list.

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

A rare snowy owl appears in a California suburb.

(Henry Tran / PBS)

“SoCal Snowy Owl” (pbs.org)

Chris Angel’s moving short film is centered on the mysterious arrival and monthlong residence of a magnificent female Arctic snowy owl on a suburban street in the Orange County town of Cypress from mid-December 2022 through mid-January 2023 — a rare event that drew crowds to the neighborhood and made national news. Broader scientific context and various hypotheses are briefly, not quite authoritatively offered, but above all this is a story of human connection and community, of challenged individual lives changed for the better by a bird, and of wild nature transforming the suburban environment. Residents, birders of all ages, nature photographers and local officials recall the magic days before “Snowy,” as the regulars called her, took off again, like something out of a fairy tale. — Robert Lloyd

David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow in director George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005).

(Melinda Sue Gordon / Warner Independent Pictures)

“Good Night, and Good Luck,” (VOD), “Glengarry Glen Ross” (Prime Video)

Most people will never see the recently opened Broadway productions of “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” two of the hottest — and expensive — tickets on the Great White Way. But there’s no need to fret. The excellent film versions of the narratives can be seen from the comfort of your living room. Set in the era of 1950s broadcast television news at the height of McCarthyism, the stage production of “Good Night, and Good Luck” borrows heavily from the 2005 film featuring George Clooney, who also directed and co-wrote the screenplay. In the film, David Strathairn plays CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. In the stage version, Clooney — sporting a dark brunette dye job — takes over the lead role of Murrow. As for David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” the impressive Broadway cast includes recent Oscar winner Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean in the newest portrait of desperate real estate salesmen dealing with personal and professional crises. The cast of the 1992 film is just as dazzling — Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris and Jonathan Pryce — and the drama is quietly explosive. — Greg Braxton

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Pedro Pascal as Clint in Freaky Tales.

(Lionsgate)

There’s a movie out right now that combines an NBA star-turned-kung fu master, the gory murder of Nazis, teen punks, racist police and old-school rap battles. “Freaky Tales,” which is now streaming on Prime Video, is a pop-culture fever dream from filmmaking duo Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden that is set in 1987 Oakland, where Fleck grew up, and tells four interconnected stories about underdogs — an aging hit man (Pedro Pascal) and Golden State Warrior Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (Jay Ellis), Gilman Street Punk rockers and freestyle rappers. The film was inspired by Bay Area rapper Too Short’s song of the same name, which appeared on his 1987 album “Born to Mack.” In this week’s Guest Spot, Fleck and Boden discussed the joys of leaning into the bizarre, what they’re watching and more. — Yvonne Villarreal

You have worked together for more than two decades, on projects like “Half Nelson” and “Captain Marvel.” The idea for “Freaky Tales” has been swirling, at least in Ryan’s mind, since age 10. What was it like to tap into the enthusiasm of your younger selves and lean into the chaotic fun?

Fleck: We’ve LOVED movies and HATED Nazis for as long as we can remember. So, yeah, it was a total blast to tap into those visceral feelings of both celebration and joy for a time and place and specific type of movie, while also tapping into violent rage against hateful motherf—.

Unpack your process of deciding which historical events would set the foundation for the film and how you would create your fictional world from there.

Boden: The movie walks a path with one foot in a familiar world and the other foot in a wildly alternate dimension. The title is inspired by a Too Short song, so we knew his music would be a big part of the story. It was when Ryan introduced me to “Don’t Fight the Feeling,” this battle-rap song between Too Short and Danger Zone, that our version of “Freaky Tales” started to fall into place. I just loved that this 20-something hip-hop star had the confidence to put a song on his album where these two women totally cut him down. So part of “Freaky Tales” becomes our reimagining of how this song might have come to be.

Fleck: Everyone in the Bay Area who was alive then remembers the Sleepy Floyd game where he went off against the Lakers. I heard the game on the radio as a kid, and the Warriors play-by-play was electrifying — the announcer literally shouted “Sleepy Floyd is Superman!” and that resonated for years in my imagination. We knew “The Legend of Sleepy Floyd” had to be the basis for a heroic story as well. 924 Gilman in Berkeley in the ’80s was a world I always knew about peripherally but got more interested in over time. The events that inspired the first chapter we only learned about in recent years, and they helped us pull together the final missing pieces of our East Bay underdog puzzle. Gilman was an anti-racist, anti-violent punk community that was being harassed by neo-Nazi boneheads, so they decided to fight back. We pushed the fight way beyond reality, of course, and invented our own love story around it.

It must have been surreal to have Too Short and Sleepy Floyd perform cameos in the film. What’s a memory that stands out from those days of production?

Boden: We always knew we wanted to pepper the movie with amazing Bay Area cameos, but getting Too Short and Sleepy Floyd in the mix was particularly memorable. Too Short played Ben Mendelsohn’s cop partner, which was a particular treat for Ben, who was as big a Too Short fan as anyone on set. It was so fun watching Ben Mendelsohn fanboy over Too Short! We had Sleepy at Giant Burger congratulating Jay Ellis (playing Sleepy) after his record-breaking 4th quarter. Apparently, each take, Sleepy would go up to Jay and improvise an entirely fresh new way to fawn over how amazing “Sleep Floyd” was! He was cracking Jay up, and Jay could barely keep a straight face!

What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?

Fleck: “Once Upon a Time in Queens” (2021). This was an ESPN “30 for 30” series about the 1986 Mets that I only recently watched, and it knocked me out. Similar to “Freaky Tales,” which is set in 1987, the show beautifully transports you to a special time and place. I was a 10-year-old kid living in California, but I’ll never forget watching Game 6 of that World Series. This show had me in tears. Pure magic.

Boden: “I’m Still Here” [VOD]. Yes, it was nominated for multiple Academy Awards last year, and even won best international film. And yet I still find that most people I talk to haven’t seen this movie. I was just floored by it — the texture of the world and the family, how lived-in the relationships felt, how immediate and disorienting the pivotal disruption to it all; and so very relevant. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you must.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the film or TV show you return to again and again?

Fleck: “Dazed and Confused” [Prime Video]. I first saw this movie in high school and wished it would never end. But that’s what we love about movies: We get older, and they stay the same age.

Boden: “Running on Empty” [VOD]. I like a good cry. And this movie provides it for me every time without fail. Even better, it’s not a tragic cry but a good old-fashioned hopeful cry. I mean … the ending! And that scene between Annie Pope (Christine Lahti) and her own father! So good. I first saw it when I was younger than its lead, River Phoenix, [who was] 18. But even then, the film not only drew me to him as a character but also to the complex emotional mazes of his parents. [Screenwriter] Naomi Foner and [director] Sidney Lumet absolutely killed it!

Break down

Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between

A still from “Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things the First Shadow.”

(Netflix)

“Stranger Things” fans eagerly awaiting the fifth and final season of the sci-fi phenomenon can momentarily appease their anticipation with “Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things The First Shadow” (Netflix), the documentary that goes behind the scenes of the buzzy new stage show.

Written by Kate Trefry, a writer on the series since its second season, the play is a prequel that’s set in 1959 Hawkins, Ind., when Dr. Brenner is just getting his start in his lab and Bob Newby, Joyce Maldonado and Jim Hopper are in their last year of high school. It’s also a connector of sorts for the series’ fourth and fifth seasons, since the play introduces a new student named Henry Creel, who arrives alongside a wave of shocking crimes around town. But even if you haven’t seen an episode of the hit series — and are unfamiliar with the phrases “The Mind Flayer” or “The Upside Down” — the behind-the-scenes film is still a compelling watch. It captures the race-against-the-clock endeavor to debut the ambitious stage production on the West End last year, complete with the numerous scary and spectacular moments intended to enthrall the franchise’s most die-hard fans. (I recently spoke with Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher, who designed the play’s illusions and visual effects and are, of course, featured in the documentary — funnily enough, one of the trickiest bits in the play is the on-demand nosebleed.)

Netflix released the documentary in time for the opening of the play on Broadway earlier this week, likely as a tactic to entice casual “Stranger Things” viewers to purchase tickets to see the stage show in either London or New York. But I found it thrilling to watch a cast and creative team build a production from the ground up and overcome the countless hurdles that come with putting on a show — even one as moneyed as this. — Ashley Lee

READ MORE >> Designing illusions for ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’