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The Dutch action-comedy Almost Cops has premiered on the Netflix streaming service, blending crime, mystery, and thriller elements within a buddy-cop format set in Rotterdam. The film’s original title, Bad Boa’s, holds a specific cultural meaning in the Netherlands that informs the premise. A “Boa,” or Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaar, is a Special Investigating Officer with limited police powers, tasked with handling minor infractions to support the primary police force. These officers can issue fines, check identification, and make arrests, with some authorized to carry handcuffs and batons. The title Almost Cops, chosen for the international release, directly plays on this distinction.

Almost Cops

A Strategic Pairing of Dutch Stars

The film’s dynamic is anchored by the deliberate casting of its two leads, whose public personas in the Netherlands create an immediate and clear contrast. Jandino Asporaat, one of the country’s most recognized comedians, stars as Ramon, an...

Movies and TV shows about the police, or featuring the police, have been made ever since the medium has been in existence. But I think your opinion on “copagandas” depends on the kind of cop films and shows that you were exposed to growing up. In my case, I think I was introduced to the very concept of law enforcement through Batman: The Animated Series. And even though I didn’t explicitly understand the reason why a vigilante like the Caped Crusader should exist in the first place, I think the notion that the police will not always be there for you when you need them the most was planted in my head. Yeah, some of them will probably help you, but since most of them are as human as the rest of us, and hence susceptible to corruption, they’ll prioritize the rich and powerful over the regular folk.

Peter Hoogendoorn brings a gentle touch to examining family tensions in his sophomore feature, Three Days of Fish. With this film, the Dutch writer-director delves once more into personal themes, exploring a father-son dynamic not unlike his own concerns for his aging parent.

Gerrie makes his yearly trip from Portugal to the Netherlands. There he will catch up on medical affairs and attempt to spend time with his adult son, Dick. Though residing apart, distance has done little to heal the disconnect between these two reserved men. Both struggle to express what they want from one another.

Under Hoogendoorn’s sensitive guidance, what emerges is an intimate portrait of familial awkwardness many can relate to. When loved ones with fraught histories try reconnecting, normal interactions take on new intensities. Empathy and apprehension color each exchange between Gerrie and Dick during these brief days together in Rotterdam. While searching for closeness,...

If Alexander Payne’s home discomforts weren’t Nebraskan but instead the soft climate and flat sidewalks of Rotterdam — if his name were Alexander Peijn, perhaps — his films might turn out a little like Peter Hoogendoorn’s hangdog charmer “Three Days of Fish.” At once universally familiar and so quintessentially Dutch in flavor that it should come with a side of fritessaus, this story of a brief, fraught reunion between a distant father and his unmoored son is an intimate, closely examined character piece rooted in the director’s own family history — much like his debut “Between 10 and 12,” which premiered at Venice in 2014 but never found the international distribution it deserved. Bowing in competition at Karlovy Vary, this decade-later sophomore feature may be modestly built, but has enough emotional heft and wry humor to raise Hoogendoorn’s profile on the arthouse circuit.

It takes a little time to work out...