We recommend: The best new movies and TV series
A Spike Lee remake, starring Denzel Washington, of an Akira Kurosawa classic. Said classic being the iconic 1963 crime thriller High and Low. The original was a sharp exploration of class divide, where a man kidnapped the son of a businessman's chauffeur and demanded ransom, mistaking the child to be the businessman's.
Played with solemnity by Toshiro Mifune, the businessman was left to choose between saving the kid and spending his life savings on taking back control of his company. Lee's reinterpretation punches up the plot with a meditation on what Black culture means today in contemporary America.
Our take: It's a gourmet meal, frankly. We are blessed to have this. The director-actor combo has previously given us Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998), and Inside Man (2006). Here's hoping Lee, 68, and Washington, 70, make at least one more film together.
Their take: While Kurosawa's film was all police procedural, Lee's joint, critics say, is far more complex. For one, Denzel Washington's Black music mogul protagonist himself steps into the "low" to face the antagonist, an ex-convict and rapper, played by ASAP Rocky. In Kurosawa's film, Mifune's hero recedes into the background in the second half.
The New Yorker notes: Lee "spins out the multiple threads of action with startling swiftness and characteristically rapid-fire, confrontational dialogue. The cinematography, by Matthew Libatique, has a sense of swing, and Highest 2 Lowest often plays like a sassy duet for camera and star. Washington’s invigorating performance goes far beyond charisma and technique to enrich the role with an imaginative repertory of seemingly spontaneous gestures... Washington delivers the dialogue with a thrilling range from purrs to roars, all imbued with an authoritative swagger. In the few moments when his swagger falters, he nearly rends the screen with anguish."
Where to watch: Apple TV+
It's an interesting time for content packaged around inter-class antagonism. Perhaps Squid Game and Parasite opened the floodgates. Or, maybe, the writing is on the wall: late stage capitalism has become unbearable. While Lee tackles this in Highest 2 Lowest, here's a reality show which puts one half of 16 celebrity contestants into a luxury penthouse, the rest into a basement. They have to forge alliances and fight one another to move into or stay put in the penthouse.
Rise and Fall is the Hindi version of the season-old British reality show of the same name. Our host is Ashneer Grover, the enterprising but garrulous BharatPe co-founder, who has milked his celebrity from the Hindi Shark Tank season one really well.
Where to watch: Amazon MX Player.
Thrissur, in Kerala, serves as backdrop to this Malayalam crime thriller series. Directed by Shan Thulasidharan and starring Sudev Nair, the six-episode Kammattam is reportedly inspired by real-life financial crimes from the area. Nair plays the burly cop Inspector Antonio George, who has to investigate the death of one Samuel Umman (filmmaker Jeo Baby; The Great Indian Kitchen). The trail soon has Goerge following the money.
Beyond being an exercise in layered storytelling, Kammatamm is also a formal experiment. The team took all of 11 days to shoot six full episodes. They stacked the cast with feature film directors, like Baby and Ajay Vasudev, who would come with a strong grasp on the process. This helped them pull off mammoth 24-hour shifts to complete the production.
Our Take: We always champion artists who try to innovate, play around with form, stretch the limits of their medium of choice. The making-of story of Kammatamm is compelling enough; beyond that, the show seems to offer depth and a desire to tell gripping stories.
Their take: The protagonist cop, Antonio (Sudev Nair), is deemed to be “heavily muscled and menacing, with a chilling smile” by Scroll; he is “not to be trifled with”. Mint liked it, but not enough: “There’s a sense that Kammattam is aiming for depth, but never quite reaches it.”
Where to watch: Zee5.
The Conjuring makers could have just rolled out one more and capped the series at a round figure. Instead, the ninth Conjuring film is supposedly the final. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as the ghosthunting couple Ed and Lorraine Warren. The plot… does it matter?
With every subsequent sequel, filmmakers are forced to go wilder, often at the risk of drifting too far from the emotional core of a franchise, just to keep diminishing returns at bay. With a series closer, yank all that up to 11. Promising(?) then that The Guardian says “the series’ underlying mechanics have proved stubbornly resistant to change” and, ruh-roh, the elements that worked for the films earlier have now become a “liability”.
Where to watch: Theatres.
The Paper makes you wonder how long you can be squeezing a lemon. (Actually, an unfair question, given STAR WARS!) This 10-episode sitcom is a spin-off of the Steve Carrell-led The Office, itself a remake of the far bitter British original created by and starring Ricky Gervais.
The Paper Ctrl C-Ctrl Vs the parent show’s mockumentary format on to a struggling local newspaper in the digital age. Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nuñez), the accountant at Dunder Mifflin, serves as the throughline between The Office and The Paper by appearing at this new dysfunctional workplace.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned Sampson, the idiosyncratic editor-in-chief with a heart of gold. Sabrina Impacciatore, whose deliciously cutting performance in the second season of The White Lotus established her as a fine actor, also finds her way to Ohio’s Toledo Truth-Teller (yes, that’s what the newspaper is called).
Where to watch: JioHotstar.
UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Borralho
Time for some blood, sweat and tears. Statistically, both middleweight MMA fighters Imamov and Borralho are well matched on paper, having a similar height, reach, and a variety of finishes each.
Nassourdine Imavov is world no. 2. He is riding high on the momentum of a four-fight winning streak that includes a TKO win over former champion Israel Adesanya. Meanwhile, world no. 7 Caio Borralho has remained undefeated in his last 16 bouts. But this contest is not so much about personal rivalry as it is about professional stakes. Both men will be looking to get their next title shot against current champion Khamzat Chimaev.
Where to watch: SonyLIV (livestreamed at 3:30 AM IST, September 7 Sunday)
For good reason, the enigmatic Charles Sobhraj has become the safety blanket for Indian streamers—his story has filmic intrigue, charisma, and Machiavellian hijinks. On Inspector Zende, Netflix’s new comedy thriller written and directed by Chinmay Mandlekar, the supervillain forms the basis of Jim Sarbh’s Carl Bhojraj (a brilliant and outrageous mutilation of the name). Manoj Bajpayee plays Madhukar Zende, a man who—in real life—arrested the notoriously flighty Sobhraj not once but twice, over 15 years.
While the lure of Sobhraj is inescapable, this film draws attention to the equally fascinating story of Madhukar Zende, a committed Crime Branch officer with a storied history that goes far beyond the tale of the headline-hogger Sobhraj.
In fact, Zende has been the subject of an entertaining documentary, directed by Akshay Shah. It tracks his career with great detail and joy, going beyond the Sobhraj, and paints a rounded portrait of an earnest and tough lawman.
Where to watch: Netflix
The extremely nice and warm Gen Z chef Matilda ‘Tilly’ Ramsay, daughter of the extremely angry and demanding Gordon Ramsay, headlines Dish It Out. Tilly picks up recipes from influencers, renowned chefs, and her closest people, and serves them with her characteristic friendliness that followers of her ’Gram and her fans from Celebrity Masterchef Australia S02 have been familiar with.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime.
What is a good commercial potboiler if not a well-executed remix? AR Murugadoss transports the psychologically disbalanced protagonist from his Ghajini films into the kind of low-lit, grungy, action-packed worlds Lokesh Kangaraj (Vikram, Kaithi, the recent Coolie) has made his own.
The leading star is the very capable Sivakarthikeyan. The villains are a gun-running syndicate. The slickly edited and scored trailer promises a good popcorn muncher. The Tamil actioner has been dubbed in Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada.
Where to watch: Theatres.
Fresh off the big screen…
On the first day, god said let there be a video game. On the second, he demanded this intellectual property become a blockbuster because if Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog can, why can't Minecraft? The cast includes Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, and Emma Myers. The blockbuster has minted close to a billion dollars worldwide.
Where to watch: Jio Hotstar
A live-action remake of the 2002 animated classic from Disney. Hawaiian girl Lilo must teach Stitch, a chaotic alien experiment, what it means to love, belong, and be part of a family.
The cast: Maia Kealoha as Lilo, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as her sister Nani, and Chris Sanders, the original voice of Stitch, reprising his role. Also, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen and Tia Carrere.
Where to watch: Jio Hotstar
Here’s a new chapter…
For those of you who have been living under a rock, or have a different taste, Wednesday Addams from that cartoon show we all loved has her own live-action series now. Featuring rising star Jenna Ortega in the lead role. The final four episodes of the second season are out.
Notably, Lady Gaga makes an appearance in this season. She contributes her original song The Dead Dance, with Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice) directing the music video.
Where to watch: Netflix
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