There’s nothing like a sudden death to bring a community together, and there’s nothing like a tragedy to make people realize what’s truly important. This Icelandic movie, When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot), is about the worst 24 hours in the lives of a group of young friends because, in the course …
Ryusuke Hamaguchi has never made the same film twice and has always approached each project he takes on with a different lens and perspective on what he did previously. It’s highly apparent just by watching his Oscar-winning feature, Drive My Car, a nearly three-hour-long, slow, and meditative drama, and his latest project, Evil …
The sun-soaked seediness of LA is immediately apparent in Sugar, Mark Protosevich’s neo-noir crime drama. Sugar follows Colin Farrell’s eponymous private detective hired for one case, which quickly spirals into a wider network of rich girls gone wrong, drugs, questionable law enforcement, polaroids, self-destruction, and other such Hollywood crime and its visual signifiers. John Sugar: A Golden-Hearted Detective …
AppleTV+ seems to be carving out a nice niche for itself in prestige period miniseries that combine the holy trinity of the genre: star-studded casts, rich production design, and a topic of historical importance delivered with a glossy respect. Franklin, created by Kirk Ellis – perhaps previously best known for creating HBO’s magnificent miniseries John Adams – fits the …
How do you illustrate for the screen a life lived with physical limitations? You illustrate the life of the mind. In this biopic of writer Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke), the inventor of the ‘southern Gothic’ genre of literature, director Ethan Hawke (also the producer, co-writer, and Ms. Hawke’s father) chose to enact sequences from …
Author/Vietnamese-American Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a spy novel unlike any other. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book balances many different themes and ideas. Following an unnamed narrator, it tells a story that is equal parts political thriller, romance, and occasional comedy. That helped make the novel a resonatory and powerful piece of …
Directed by Hannah Marks (Don’t Make Me Go) and written by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker (Love, Simon), Turtles All the Way Down is the adaptation of John Green’s novel of the same title. It tells the story of Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced), a teenager who strives to be a good daughter, …
Acclaimed Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Devdas, Black) just ventured into the digital realm with Netflix’s Heeramandi, marking his inaugural digital endeavor. Released on May 1st, the eight-part period drama series is already a hit and has captivated audiences with its lavishness and visual splendor. We recently had the chance to participate in an …
I’m as much a fan of rom-coms as of any other genre mix. As long as the narrative doesn’t fall into the usual formulaic traps and quickly becomes just another cheap, forgettable variation of a story watched and rewatched countless times, I always find myself open-minded and ready to be …
The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan is a 2023 action-adventure film, serving as the opening installment of a two-part series inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 novel, The Three Musketeers. This French adaptation directed by Martin Bourboulon and written by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière chronicles the journey of D’Artagnan (François Civil), a …
There are times when we get to watch a film that makes us realize what our future might look like and paints a very dark picture in front of us. In Alex Garland’s Civil War, viewers find themselves in the middle of a gruesome fight between the people and the state. Throughout …
It seems you can’t turn a corner at the moment, whether online or in your social circles, without someone mentioning Netflix’s new hit Baby Reindeer, a psychological thriller-cum-dark comedy about a man and his stalker. The show, which chronicles the ‘true’ story of protagonist Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd), a failing comedian …
Challengers was one of the most anticipated films of 2023, but it was postponed to the following year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, the enormous anticipation for Luca Guadagnino’s new movie (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, Bones and All) never faded, especially considering it stars one of Hollywood’s biggest young celebrities of today, Zendaya (Dune: …
It’s been six or seven years (not that we’re counting) since White Collar was on the air on Netflix and ten years since the show finished airing on the USA Network. As of April 1st, the show is back in the streamer’s library. Starring Matt Bomer as debonair former criminal Neal Caffrey and Tim DeKay as …
The Apple TV+ original series The Big Door Prize hit the ground running with its debut in early 2023. It received massive praise from critics, and the first season hit 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate. The series was quickly greenlit for a second season, which is set to debut on April …
It is likely that 99% of the audience for Manhunt will push play on the first episode knowing roughly how the events play out. Monica Beletsky’s seven-part adaptation uses James L. Swanson’s book of the same name as a rough starting point to chronicle the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators after the …
Alex Garland has a penchant for mutually assured destruction. His writing and, in recent years, his directing revolve around this theme; the Danny Boyle sci-fi masterpiece and Garland written Sunshine (2006) consists of characters debating the moral repercussions of saving another spaceship at risk of losing humanity; Garland’s Annihilation (2018) climaxes with a symbiotic reflection of …
I consider biographies – better known as biopics – to be one of the most challenging narrative types to adapt for the big screen. From the inevitable bias towards the usually eponymous person, especially if the production involves family members, to the common trap of only telling what best serves …
Amy Winehouse was arguably one of the greatest singers of the 21st century. Her remarkable voice, combined with her ability to tap into emotional authenticity, made her a force to be reckoned with in the modern music scene. At 27 years old, she left this world far too soon, leaving …
Sasha Nathwani’s brilliant coming-of-age film Last Swim is set in London during the sweaty swing of summer, as young astrophysics enthusiast Ziba (Deba Hekmat) has her eye set on experiencing a meteor shower in person. Last Swim chronicles a day with Ziba and her friends as they celebrate their A-level results amongst their fading youth. …