So you want to watch something...
Doob (No Bed of Roses): This 2017 Indo-Bangla movie has stellar performances by both Irrfan Khan and Nusrat Imrose Tisha that centers on infidelity. According to Hollywood Reporter, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s direction allows for “subtleties and shades of meaning with realistic detachment that never slips into melodrama.” You can check out Variety’s review for more. Available to watch on Netflix today!
Bliss: If trippy sci-fi dramas are your jam, then you are really going to enjoy this edge-of-the-seat thriller starring Owen Wilson as a man who discovers that he has been living in a computer simulation all along. Also recommended if you are a fan of director Mike Cahill of the 'Another Earth' fame. Hollywood Reporter calls it a “puzzle-game of a film” that raises intellectual questions while Collider describes it as a “mind-bending” love story. It drops on Amazon Prime today.
Little Big Women: This Taiwanese flick marks writer/director Joseph Chen-chieh Hsu’s much awaited directorial debut. When her estranged womaniser husband dies, the stubborn matriarch has to navigate a familial minefield with her three adult daughters. South China Morning Post says the movie may not break new ground but recommends it as a “celebration of the hard-fought emotional battles faced by women of all ages.” It drops on Netflix today.
A list of good reads
- The Atlantic has a wonderfully written piece about the history of the earth—to put in context the climate change catastrophe we face. A taste: “All of recorded human history—at only a few thousand years, a mere eyeblink in geologic time—has played out in perhaps the most stable climate window of the past 650,000 years. We have been shielded from the climate’s violence by our short civilizational memory, and our remarkably good fortune.”
- We were delighted to learn about Zarina—an adventurous Bengali woman who was once an international hat model (?!)—thanks to Times of India, despite the weak research🤷🏽♀️. We hope it will serve as inspiration for a better writer to do justice to what seems to be a fascinating life.
- We love this piece in Tricycle on the spiritual lessons offered by the classic movie ‘Groundhog Day’—which pretty much summed up our pandemic lives.
- Al Jazeera did an excellent investigative piece on the murkiest side of Bangladeshi politics. The title ‘The gangster, the general and the prime minister of Bangladesh’ totally delivers on its promise.
- Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a Dutch musician, spawned more than 175 children as a sperm donor. New York Times looks at the unacknowledged hazards of having hundreds of half-siblings in a tiny country—who may well meet, fall in love/lust and even have babies together.
- The Guardian’s ‘The tyranny of passwords—is it time for a rethink?’ had us madly nodding our heads in agreement all the way through.
- Bloomberg News (via NDTV) has an excellent analysis of how climate change and poor city planning left Chennai—one of the world’s wettest cities—grappling with a water crisis.
