We recommend: The best new movies and TV series

 

Editor’s note: Two gripping thrillers in the theatres. Dhurandhar is a spy-gangster drama set in Pakistan, crafted with precision to get your adrenaline pumping. Mammootty stars in a chilling role in the Malayalam-language Kalamkaval. Thrillers galore also on streaming. Don’t miss The Price of Confession (Korean) and Kuttram Purindhavan: The Guilty One (Tamil). Paul Thomas Anderson’s unsentimental but deep romance Phantom Thread is on MUBI. And some cheerful Christmas season picks are streaming as well.

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New Releases

 

Dhurandhar (Hindi)

 

A 214-minute spy-gangster drama largely set in Pakistan shows its internal machinations whose side effect, or, perhaps, raison d’être is to “bleed India with a thousand cuts.”

 

An all-star cast includes Ranveer Singh as an Indian spy infiltrating the Karachi underworld, Akshaye Khanna as the big bad in these parts, Arjun Rampal as a chillingly malevolent Pakistani terrorist, Sanjay Dutt as a funny and terrifying supercop, and Madhavan in Ajit Doval-make-up. This is Uri: The Surgical Strike director Aditya Dhar’s second directorial.

 

Critics across the board have acknowledged the film’s aesthetic rigour and monomaniacal focus, while also finding it ultraviolent and politically dangerous. Uday Bhatia of Mint writes, “Dhurandhar has plenty of squirm-inducing violence, but with a nasty edge that sets it apart from Animal and the like. Dhar is an authentic sadist, willing to lose the viewer in an escalating show of brutality.”

 

Where to watch: Theatres

 

Kalamkaval (Malayalam)

Very, very, interestingly, there is another solid (and long) thriller in the theatres right now that’s also broken into chapters. First-time filmmaker Jithin K Jose directs superstar Mammootty in what the winds are saying is his most dastardly role yet. Vinayakan, who played an entertaining antagonist in Rajinikanth’s superhit Jailer (2023), plays a cop investigating a communal riot. His search leads to a killer of women. Hello, Mammootty, the great one.

 

Where to watch: Theatres

 

My Secret Santa (English)

 

If you’ve been waiting for an unhinged Christmas movie to drop, you’re in luck. The romcom follows single mom Taylor (Alexandra Breckenridge) as she assumes the appearance of an elderly man in order to get a job as the local ski resort’s Santa Claus, just so that her daughter can afford her dream school. When the resort owner’s son, Matthew, begins to develop a crush on her (Taylor, not Taylor disguised as Santa Claus), things start to get messy.

 

While Netflix decided to market it as a “reverse Mrs. Doubtfire”, Decider suggests that you go into the movie without expecting the same things from it.

 

"...that distracts from the fact that this movie has a lot of fun things going for it, number one being Breckenridge’s performance. She’s not going for big Robin Williams comedy with her drag performance, but the comedy that does result as a product of her awkwardness is fun to watch."

 

Where to watch: Netflix

 

Jay Kelly (English)

 

This comedy-drama by indie darling Noah Baumbach features a glittering ensemble including George Clooney, Laura Dern, and Adam Sandler. Clooney plays the titular Jay Kelly, a hotshot cinephile movie star. Jay’s single-minded pursuit of stardom has left him a hollowed out mess, with no one to call his own. All he’s left with is the company of Ron (Adam Sandler), his manager and, perhaps, his friend. Alissa Wilkinson at The New York Times writes:

 

"The film is about what it means to be famous, but it is also about what a life in show business takes out of you: all the running around catering to someone’s whims, the strange fakery, but also the occasional realization that what you made can be meaningful in ways you never expected. People live alongside the movies, after all; a good film, or even just an enjoyable one, takes on a life bigger than its running time."

 

Where to watch: Netflix

 

The New Yorker at 100 (English)

 

Wes Anderson already made a thinly disguised version of this, but head over to Netflix for a taste of the real thing: The New Yorker at 100. As the name suggests, this is a behind-the-scenes documentary by Marshall Curry that celebrates the 100th year of this illustrious American magazine that’s become the benchmark for both quality and snobbery. It looks at not just its legacy and history but also provides a glimpse into its daily operations.

 

As is to be expected perhaps, “The New Yorker at 100 is a glossier, more star-studded, but generally less substantive documentary take than the magazine’s devoted readers probably crave,” writes The Hollywood Reporter. That said, Variety points out that for fans of the magazine who “want a backstage tour of how the supremely refined sausage gets made, ‘The New Yorker at 100’ draws back the curtain in an enchanting way.” 

 

Where to watch: Netflix

 

Fugue State 1986 (Spanish)

 

In December 1986, Campo Elias Delgado carried out a massacre in Bogotá, Colombia, killing 29 people in a day, including his own mother. The shootings by the Vietnam War vet, spread across three locations, is considered the worst of its kind in Colombia.

 

This series blends fact and fiction as it explores the friendship between a character inspired by Delgado (Jeremias Salgado, played by Andrés Parra) and a literature student who gets a peek into Salgado’s mind in the period leading up to the massacre. 

 

Decider praises Parra’s performance and calls the series an “interesting case study in how a friendship can turn into a situation where one person controls the other in that relationship, and how that can turn tragic.”

 

Where to watch: Netflix

 

The Price of Confession (Korean)

 

Mystery-thriller series from South Korea has an art teacher's life turned upside down when she is the prime suspect in her husband's murder. All evidence points to her. She is sent to prison, where she meets an enigmatic inmate with a chilling proposition: she will confess to the murder if the art teacher can kill someone on her behalf on the outside.

 

This is Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave (2022) crossed with the Patricia Highsmith classic, Strangers on a Train, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a hit film in 1951. A potent combination.

 

Where to watch: Netflix 

 

Kuttram Purindhavan: The Guilty One (Tamil)

 

Bhaskaran's (Pasupathy) life unravels when his neighbour's young daughter goes missing, possibly the victim of a serial killer. Cop Gautam (Vidaarth), demoted, and with a point to prove, digs deep into the case. The Tamil web series is "twisty" and "twisted", argues Scroll.

 

Critic Nandini Ramnath writes, "Designed as both a thriller and a moral inquiry, the show rolls out revelations all the way until the final frame of its seven episodes […] the refusal to offer a neat solution is admirable. Kuttram Purindhavan also benefits from amply fleshed-out characters who grapple with relatable moral dilemmas."

 

Where to watch: SonyLIV

 

 

Fresh off the big screen

 

Thamma (Hindi)

 

Starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandana, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Paresh Rawal, this horror romantic comedy has a hack journalist, Alok (Khurrana), as its protagonist. Alok gets lost in the woods one day, and runs into Tadaka (Mandana), a vampire who saves him from his untimely death at the hands of a bear. Obviously, he falls in love with her.

 

Firstpost writes that both Siddiqui and Khurrana “display taut timing”.

 

"So what does the world of Thamma offer? This time, the makers aim for brain rot humor about vampires. The visual effects are neat as always and the characters are intentionally OTT."

 

Where to watch: Available to rent on Prime Video

 

Phantom Thread (English)

Is a heterosexual romantic relationship at its heart, power games? Of course it is, any adult will know. Paul Thomas Anderson’s sharply observed romance starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps was released in 2017 to acclaim. The film has popped up on streaming, and it would be a crime if we didn’t inform you.

Where to watch: MUBI

Good Boy (English)

 

This fresh take on the supernatural horror film is now available to you at home—Indy, a dog (yes, a dog!) leads the film as he watches his owner Todd's health worsen over time after they move into his late grandfather’s rural home. He senses a supernatural entity in the home, and has to work against time to save his owner.

 

According to The Guardian,

 

“Leonberg finds some nifty ways to tweak the construction and perspective of familiar haunted house scenes, late-night shadow exploration and basement checking led by a protagonist handicapped by his instincts and priorities, as well as an unwavering loyalty that risks his safety.”

 

Where to watch: Buy and rent on BookMyShow Stream

 

The Life of Chuck (English)

 

The Life of Chuck, based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King, is a fantasy musical that plays out in reverse. Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) is a dance-loving accountant. Without giving too much away, the film is split into three acts and switches across timelines to draw a heartwarming, perhaps schmaltzy, portrait of Charles “Chuck” Krantz and all those around him.

 

Rogerebert.com says it “straddles the edges of both greeting-card oversimplifications and sentimentality, but does not cross over, leaving the audience to discuss what, exactly, the takeaway might be.”

 

Where to watch: buy and rent on BookMyShow Stream