We recommend: The best new movies and TV series
New releases
Master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson directs an ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and newcomer Chase Infiniti. Loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, the nearly three-hour action film follows a washed up Leftist revolutionary (DiCaprio) regrouping with his old colleagues to save his daughter (Infinity) who has been kidnapped by an adversarial military colonel (Penn).
Critics have been near-unanimously positive; review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes has a 98% Certified Fresh rating. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times writes, One Battle After Another is "...a carnivalesque epic about good and evil, violence and power, inalienable rights and the fight against injustice; it’s also a love story. The film speaks to the failures of the past and of the present but insists on the promise of the future. It’s brilliantly directed, but what makes it exhilarating is that it engages with its moment as few American fiction films do. It feels shockingly urgent. It’s also snort-out funny, even when its laughs tremble with rage."
Where to watch: Theatres
Masaan director Neeraj Ghaywan's second feature in 10 years, Homebound is inspired by Basharat Peer's 2020 NYT article about two best friends, a Muslim and a Dalit migrant worker, one of whom passed away while walking back to their Uttar Pradesh home together from Surat where they worked, during the covid-induced lockdown. Stars Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa, and Janhvi Kapoor. The Guardian notes, "...it’s admirable that the film isn’t dumbed down or sanitised for westerners. Bring tissues for a doozy of an ending that will have everyone bawling in the aisles."
Where to watch: Theatres
Two Much with Kajol and Twinkle
Kajol and Twinkle Khanna cash in on their reputations as talkative, spunky girlbosses in this talk show featuring their Bollywood friends as guests. Episode one featured Salman and Aamir, where the bhaisome Khan was contemptuous towards young ’uns crying over lost love and pointed to the twice-divorced Aamir as inspiration for moving on. Future episodes will include Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Karan Johar, Kriti Sanon, Vicky Kaushal, Janhvi Kapoor, Govinda, and Chunky Panday.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Shin chan: The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers in India
The naughtiest five-year-old ever lands up in India with his friends in the 33rd film in the extremely popular Shin-Chan franchise. The plot follows a song-and-dance festival where Shin-chan's runny-nosed friend Bo-chan finds a mysterious bag which transforms him into a tyrant. It's up to Shin-chan to save the day! Releasing in India in multiple languages.
Where to watch: Theatres
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
The all-time blockbuster anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle has barely left Indian theatres; now another highly awaited anime feature has hit our screens this week. The dark fantasy action film is based on the manga of the same name and is a direct sequel to season of the television series adaptation.
Scroll called the film a breezily entertaining ride with crackpot comedy, a host of cool-cat supporting characters and thrillingly kinetic action", and added, "...while ardent fans will make the most sense of the characters and their relationships to each other, Hiroshi Seko’s screenplay is cogent enough to be understood by the uninitiated."
Where to watch: Theatres
Yet another monster-budget Telugu action film with growling men, firearms, and pyrotechnics. The star is Pawan Kalyan, also the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The villain is Emraan Hashmi, expected to bring audiences up North for the Hindi dubbed version. Reportedly, excited Pawan Kalyan fans tore up a screen in a Bengaluru theatre with a sword to celebrate the film’s release.
Where to watch: Theatres
This has everything: mysterious idyllic town, inside which there is a reform school for "troubled" teenagers led by a possibly evil woman (Toni Collette), and a police officer (Mae Martin, also creator) who moves into said town with his pregnant wife (Sarah Gordon). Horror, mystery, suspense, all in eight episodes.
Where to watch: Netflix
Fresh off the big screen…
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Current Hollywood darling Pedro Pascal spearheads, along with his fellow fantastic superheroes, this latest superhero franchise reboot from earlier this year. The film explores the world of Earth-828, in which our superheroes exist. It received favourable if not glowing reviews; The New York Times called it Marvel’s “most earnest attempt at something daring in years, bumpy as it may be.”
Where to watch: Available to buy and rent on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+
Here’s a new chapter…
Jackson Lamb, the sloppy, obnoxious, smelly, perpetually drunk spy genius, is back solving impossible conspiracies in the fifth season of Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses, about a group of MI5 wastrels who are forever in over their heads. While Lamb, played with gleeful scorn by the great Gary Oldman, remains much the same—a cantankerous and fearless idiot savant—there has been plenty of upheaval around him, especially in the life of River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), the second lead.
On the fifth season, The Guardian has already declared that “not even Gary Oldman can salvage this TV mess”, while Washington Post claims the show has only gotten better and funnier. Sorry, but as fans, we’ll have to go with the Yanks on this one.
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Arisu and Usagi, our two protagonists in this Japanese sci-fi thriller based on a manga with the same name, have returned to the real world. They have no memory of their time in Borderland and all the chaos of that world, as they cross paths, in the third season of this series on Netflix, with a professor with a strange obsession, named Ryuji.
Where to watch: Netflix
souk picks