So you wanna watch something…

One Cut Two Cut: A bumbling art teacher walks into a rundown Byatarayanapura school on his first day at work—when the school is taken hostage by a group of social media activists. It is up to the timid Gopi (Danish Sait) and his broken English to save the day. Written by Sait and Vamsidhar Bhogaraju, the film pokes fun at all the pop culture targets—Instagrammers, veganism and of course, Bangalore traffic. Danish Sait is endearing as Gopi and is backed up by a talented cast, from Prakash Belawadi to Samyukta Hornad to Vineeth Kumar. Firstpost found the film hilarious, albeit with too many subplots. Scroll, OTOH, says it “could have been a series of tweets with a few amateur videos thrown in.” We’ll leave it to you to decide. Streaming now on Amazon Prime.

Murderville: A remake of the British comedy ‘Murder in Successville,’ this six-part series pairs up loud and clueless detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett) with a celebrity guest in each episode to solve a murder. The catch: the guests are not given a script and need to improvise their way through the episode—and do their best not to break character in the face of Seattle’s over-the-top antics. Part procedural comedy, part improv exercise, ‘Murderville,’ may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The Guardian calls it “torturous cringe” and prefers the British original—while Chicago Sun describes it as “breezy and creatively goofy.” Catch it today on Netflix.

Looop Lapeta: Savi and Satya are a carefree couple—until Satya gambles away a gangster’s money, leaving Savi scrambling to scrape together 50 lakhs in 50 minutes. Based on the 1998 German film ‘Run Lola Run,’ this Taapsee Pannu-starrer follows the heroine as she finds herself stuck in a time loop trying to save the life of her “useless boyfriend.” There are no reviews as yet, but the plot sounds fun—and fresh for Indian cinema—and we can’t wait to watch it. Premiers today on Netflix.

Reacher: Adaptations of Lee Child’s popular crime thriller are not new. Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher in 2012 and now Amazon’s version has followed suit. Fans appreciate that Alan Ritchson better resembles Child’s character—a tall, big-built soldier-turned-detective than Cruise. Hollywood Reporter thinks the series is “overly faithful” to the books—and replicates its plot holes. Paste Magazine declares it is “made for bingeing” and takes “an existing franchise beloved by many in a fun new direction.” Drops today on Amazon Prime.

A list of good reads

• MIT Technology Review has an exclusive on an AI startup that claims it can reconstruct people’s faces from their DNA—though many experts doubt its claims.
• Theatre Room profiles playwright Ayesha Susan Thomas and her play ​​‘The Amazing Flabby-Breasted Virgin & Other Sordid Tales’—which critiques depictions of female anatomy in medical books.
• This Guardian essay calls out the ‘age of intimacy famine’—when we interact with our phones rather than our loved ones.
• Also in The Guardian: Why Gen Z is turning its back on the previous generation’s sex-positive feminism.
• Everyone is talking about Rahul Gandhi’s 44-minute speech in Parliament—including liberals who love it and the BJP which has torn it to shreds. Check it out if you want to see why he hit a nerve.
• The producer of ‘Pushpa,’ Manish Shah tells Scroll why dubbed regional films are kicking Bollywood’s ass.
• Also in Scroll: How the Hindutva agenda hijacked the leading child protection body in India.
• Vanity Fair unpacks the appalling mess that is Prince Andrew’s legal defense—in the civil lawsuit where he is being accused of sexually assaulting an underage Virginia Guiffre.
• Scientific American uncovers the mutation that causes great variations in dog sizes—from little terriers to great danes.
• The Atlantic looks at what happens to your brain when your heart breaks.
• Andy Mukherjee in Bloomberg News explains why the government’s post-pandemic economic strategy is risky.
• Marking the 100th anniversary of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, BBC News looks at the backstory of one literature’s most celebrated stories.
• Want to delete your Spotify without losing your music? Washington Post explains how.
• Entrackr has yet another solid analysis of Netflix India’s failures—looking at its failure to produce an out-of-India global hit like ‘Squid Game’.
• MaxRead explains why the celebrity NFT marketplace is broken.
• Indian Express has a nice profile of the runaway success ‘Shark Tank India’.
• Founding Member Akanksha Sharma sent along this excellent thread that tells the story of Mabelle and Rajanikant Arole—and their groundbreaking project that changed the face of community health in India.