Guild Reviews by Film Page 103 of 112
Call Me Bae
Drama, Comedy (Hindi)
Bae, billionaire fashionista is disowned by her ultra-rich family, owing to a salacious scandal and for the first time in her life, has to fend for herself. On this journey, she overcomes stereotypes and discovers who she really is.
Cast:
Ananya Panday, Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra, Mini Mathur, Shiv Masand
Tue, October 15 2024
Created by Ishita Moitra and co-written by Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair, Call Me Bae is a visually stunning series, where apt attention has been paid to sets and Bae’s costumes. The intent and ambition are right, but the execution not so much.
In Bella Chowdhary’s world, there’s no such thing as too many bags and in a world of fakes, she is on a path to become a Birkin. But it’s a path that she hasn’t chosen for herself, rather, a tragedy has led her there.
Fri, September 6 2024
Laughably bad and ludicrous from start to finish, Karan Johar delivers another dud—this time for Amazon instead of Netflix.call-me-bae-2
In Call Me Bae—the new Amazon Prime Video series from Four More Shots Please! writer Ishita Moitra—an extraordinarily privileged coddled young woman falls from grace and ends up on the street. (Except she has enough ultra-expensive possessions that she could get by for years by selling them in the open market.) She stumbles her way into TV journalism and, bafflingly, lands the scoop of any reporter’s dreams on the first day of the job. (Moitra clearly has a soft spot for good-looking, fashionably dressed investigative journalists. After working with Sayani Gupta’s Damini Roy in Four More, she concocts another unlikely one in Ananya Panday’s Bella Chowdhary.) In doing so, Call Me Bae needlessly complicates its fish-out-of-water tale.
Taaza Khabar S02
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
A public toilet caretaker's poverty-stricken life takes a drastic U-turn when he helps an old woman. How long will fate smile upon him?
Cast:
Bhuvan Bam, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Deven Bhojani, Prathmesh Parab, Shilpa Shukla, Nitya Mathur, Atisha Naik, Vijay Nikam, Samarth Kaimliya, Jaaved Jaffery
Director:
Himank Gaur
Writer:
Aziz Dalal, Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal
Tue, October 15 2024
Taaza Khabar Season 2 has Bhuvan Bam reprising his role as Vasant who remains true to his character. But what falters is having a stale approach to the story that leaves little for actors, including Jaaferi, to chew on. It’s the same old cycle of a flashing new update, a new plan, and no consequence.
In Taaza Khabar Season 2, there’s little that’s taaza (fresh). There’s ambition, but not enough drive. There are those next big things, but not the smoothest ways forward. A show, often oscillating between past, present and future, lacks the ‘vardaan’ (blessing) of staying afloat - something that, both the series and Bhuvan Bam’s character Vasant Gawde desperately need.
Mon, September 30 2024
The series certainly isn't a junkpile but it does end up in a puddly heap more often than is good for it. Go in with your eyes open.
Bhuvan Bam’s Vasant Gawde, Mr. Vardaan to the world owing to his ability to see events before they come to pass, is back seeking to make a killing from the prescient news updates that he receives on a mobile phone app. This time around, the Taaza Khabar protagonist is either on the backfoot or, worse still, down on his haunches. His plight necessitates desperate measures as he faces new challenges hurled at him by a man who will stop at nothing. But the show, notwithstanding a series of dramatic confrontations, struggles to skirt around the pitfalls of an idea that is beginning to wear thin.
Angry Young Men
Documentary (Hindi)
Angry Young Men is the story of Salim-Javed, legendary screenwriters of 1970s Hindi cinema. Together, they created the archetype of the Angry Young Man - a brooding anti-hero who captured the imagination of an entire nation with his rage, defiance, and quest for social justice. Like the character they created, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, two outsiders to the Hindi film industry, defied all odds, questioning the position of writers and demanding recognition as much as the reigning stars of that time. Their break-up made headlines for many years and Indian cinema never saw a cultural collaboration as powerful again. This is a personal and candid account of their lives, their writing and their legacy.
Cast:
Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Shatrughan Sinha, Karan Johar
Director:
Namrata Rao
Mon, October 14 2024
Salim Khan, 88, and Javed Akhtar, 79, are the stars of this multi-starrer
Angry Young Men, a three-part series directed by Namrata Rao, is crafted like the many Bollywood blockbusters that its protagonists — Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar — wrote together. Starring their wives, children, colleagues, friends and fans, the series is devoted to not just telling the story of a very successful and almost epochal collaboration, but also to cast them as the best writers Indian cinema has ever had.
Tue, August 20 2024
Mon, August 19 2024
Angry Young Men, the three-part documentary about writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar’s partnership, is a massive missed opportunity. We discuss the show’s cagey approach to its legendary subjects, the overwhelming feeling of self-satisfaction, and the unearned points it tries to score for highlighting the plight of writers in the film business. We also discuss the superficial filmmaking, the lack of insight provided by everybody involved, and more than anything else, express our shock at the creative decision not to put Salim-Javed in the same room together.
Ullozhukku
Drama (Malayalam)
The film is set in a flooded region in Kerala where a woman and her daughter-in-law attempt to bury a loved one. However, due to heavy floods, the burial is postponed. This delay brings long-buried secrets and lies to the surface, threatening the family's unity.
Cast:
Urvashi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Shebin Benson, Alencier Ley Lopez, Jaya Kurup, Prasant Murali, Smruthi Anish, Veenah Naair, Roshan Mathew
Director:
Christo Tomy
Writer:
Christo Tomy
Mon, October 14 2024
Urvashi is a quiet rage throughout the film, stirring the frame even when she is sitting still and staring at the abyss that has opened up in her being
he first few events in Ullozhukku (Under Current), directed by Christo Tomy, happen in quick succession. Life falls through Anju’s (Parvathy) fingers before she can chart a plan. From a wide-eyed sales girl at a textile shop furtively smiling at her lover, she transforms into a bride posing for awkward post-wedding pictures on a backwater boat, her eyes heavy from what was likely a teary night. The film then moves to the old, spacious house of her husband, Thomas Kutty (Prasanth Murali), and his doting mother, Leelamma (Urvashi), in Kuttanad, where time, like a boat engine whirring to a halt at the dock, comes to a pressing stillness.
Mon, September 30 2024
Urvashi and Parvathy Thiruvothu’s effective performances make director Christo Tomy’s debut film a gripping drama on secrets, mistakes, and redemption
Everyone in Ullozhukku is stranded, in one way or the other. Even a dead body remains unburied for days, as flood waters have submerged the burial grounds. The less said of the living, the better. Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) and her mother-in-law Leelamma (Urvashi) are in a life not of their choosing. One has come to terms with it, tempered by the struggles of family life, and even yearns to protect that way of living, while the other still has some spirit left to fight her way out of it.
Agatha All Along
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery (English)
Agatha Harkness gathers a coven of witches and sets off down, down, down The Witches' Road.
Cast:
Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Debra Jo Rupp, Patti LuPone, Aubrey Plaza
Mon, October 14 2024
The new Marvel miniseries follow-up to WandaVision is unlike the studio’s standard fare but it lacks the spirited edge of its anthological predecessor.
With WandaVision, creator Jac Schaeffer made it clear that she wasn’t interested in the standard approach to superhero fare. For most of its running, the Marvel TV show’s exploration of Wanda Maximoff’s grief over the loss of her partner Vision took the form of a sitcom spoof, one that barrelled through decades of the format—from black-and-white 4:3 aspect ratio to the meta recasting and costume choices—in an episodic fashion. Sure, Schaeffer struggled to usher her non-standard superhero show away from the climactic final-third tropes of the genre. But there was still a lot of fun to be had in WandaVision. It was the perfect possible start for Marvel’s new television-heavy era on Disney+ (though what has come after has been more miss than hit).
Love Sitara
Drama, Romance (Hindi)
Tara and Arjun travel to her hometown to work on their relationship before marriage. What happens when her family starts sharing their darkest secrets?
Cast:
Sobhita Dhulipala, Rajeev Siddhartha, Sonali Kulkarni, Virginia Rodriguez, Jayashree B., Rijul Ray, Tamara D'Souza, Ikhlaque Khan, Sanjay Bhutiani, Sudhanva Deshpande
Director:
Vandana Kataria
Mon, October 14 2024
Sobhita Dhulipala and Rajeev Siddhartha are a couple gearing up for their wedding in this uneven relationship drama
Love, Sitara begins with a nod to Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” says Sitara (Sobhita Dhulipala). Unlike Leo Tolstoy’s great novel — whose opening line these words are — the writing in Vandana Kataria’s film isn’t as quotable, though it tries hard. You can assemble a slim volume of pithy self-help slogans from Abbas and Hussain Dalal’s dialogue: “Happiness lies in honesty.” “Dysfunction means they are making an effort.” “I’ll fix myself, before I can fix my relationships.”
Tue, October 1 2024
The Tribe
Reality (English)
The Tribe is a story of the young and unafraid who are chasing an epic dream. It revolves around the lives of a group of Indian influencers, who have been set up to crack global fame in Los Angeles and it is for the audience to find out whether they are brave or foolish.
Cast:
Alanna Panday, Aryaana Gandhi, Srushti Porey, Alaviaa Jaaferi, Hardik Zaveri, Alfia Jafry
Director:
Omkar Potdar
Sun, October 13 2024
Black
Mystery, Thriller (Tamil)
Vasanth and Aaranya, a couple move into a serene row house, eager for peace and privacy, but a violent storm leaves them trapped inside, unsettling supernatural disturbances threaten to unravel their marriage. Vasanth must uncover the truth behind these supernatural occurrences before everything falls apart.
Cast:
Jiiva, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Vivek Prasanna, Shah Ra, Swayam Siddha, Yog Jappie, Sindhoori, Raja Rudrakodi
Director:
Balasubramani KG
Writer:
Balasubramani KG
Sun, October 13 2024
Powered by compelling performances and a strong technical team, director KG Balasubramani presents to us a very knotty affair, and does a decent job of unravelling it all.
The best part of Black is how it reels you in right in the first ten minutes. The film starts in 1964. There is a couple eloping with the help of a friend (Vivek Prasanna). It is raining like crazy. Their journey is briefly interrupted by a vehicle in the ditch. This vehicle carries a marble statue of a guardian angel. There is thunder and lightning. Soon enough, this friend, who has sinister intentions, hears two gunshots. He rushes in to ask the couple what happened? Cut to black. Literally. The title credits pop up, and we are in 2024.
Citadel Diana
Action & Adventure, Drama (Italian)
Milan, 2030: Diana Cavalieri is a double agent for the secret syndicate Citadel, who infiltrated Manticore, the rival agency that destroyed Citadel eight years ago. Trapped behind enemy lines, Diana has a chance to leave the agency forever, but she has to decide whether to trust a surprising ally: the heir of Manticore Italy, Edo Zani.
Cast:
Matilda De Angelis, Lorenzo Cervasio, Maurizio Lombardi, Julia Piaton, Thekla Reuten, Giordana Faggiano, Daniele Paoloni, Jun Ichikawa, Filippo Nigro
Sat, October 12 2024
Citadel, an independent spy agency, is wiped out by Manticore, a powerful syndicate that’s desperate to take charge of the world. Diana, an undercover Citadel agent, works as a mole in Manticore. She forges an unexpected rapport with Edo Zani (the heir of Manticore Italy), who is keen on taking the mantle from his father Ettore, grooming himself to be a capable leader.
Fri, October 11 2024
Intense drama with suspense that doesn't bring the usual thrills
Citadel Diana is one of the many spin-offs set around the American Citadel led by Priyanka Chopra. The series explores the world of a covet organisation across the globe trying to take down the world’s most evil organisation Manticore. While Citadel carried the story more straightforward, Citadel vs Manticore, we get to see a different side in Diana. The Italian show led by Matilda De Angelis, Lorenzo Cervasio and Maurizio Lombardi explores more on the side of how things are done at Manticore. Released in Italian, with few dialogues in English, the show is expected to have a stronger opening than Citadel.
Janaka Aithe Ganaka
Comedy (Telugu)
When his wife announces a surprise pregnancy, a man decides to sue the condom company he deems responsible.
Cast:
Suhas, Sangeerthana Vipin, Vennela Kishore, Goparaju Ramana, Vijaya Lakshmi, V. S. Roopa Lakshmi, Rajendra Prasad, Prabhas Sreenu, Murali Sharma, Srikanth Goggi
Director:
Sandeep Reddy Bandla
Sat, October 12 2024
An earnest Suhas cannot salvage ‘Janaka Aithe Ganaka’, which ends up as a messy courtroom comedy
Telugu cinema has consistently portrayed stories where protagonists embody middle-class values — from Needi Naadi Oke Katha and Middle Class Melodies to Middle Class Abbayi (MCA) and The Family Star. Interestingly, Dil Raju, the producer behind two of these films, also backs Janaka Aithe Ganaka this week. The Sandeep Reddy Bandla directorial, starring Suhas, aims to acknowledge and appreciate the bread-winners of middle-class households, in the guise of a courtroom drama.
Lonely Planet
Romance, Drama (English)
At an idyllic writers retreat in Morocco, a newly single novelist finds an unexpected connection with a younger man who's reevaluating his life choices.
Cast:
Laura Dern, Liam Hemsworth, Diana Silvers, Bellina Logan, Sami Fekkak, Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Rachida Brakni, Younès Boucif, Francesco Martino, Ben Youcef
Director:
Susannah Grant
Writer:
Susannah Grant
Fri, October 11 2024
Directed by Susannah Grant, the romantic drama has no real spark between its leads.
A foreign locale, two individuals at a crossroads… on the surface, the Netflix film Lonely Planet had the right ingredients. But the Susannah Grant film does nothing with it. Starring Laura Dern as an established writer and Liam Hemsworth as a finance guy who meet at a retreat in Morocco, the film wastes our time with their ineffectual romance. It ends up being a tourism guide for the country.
Abbot Elementary S04
Comedy (English)
In this workplace comedy, a group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — are brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible public servants may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do — even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.
Cast:
Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, Janelle James, William Stanford Davis
Fri, October 11 2024
The Emmy-nominated comedy series is back to school with a new season and plenty of hijinks.
After a shortened season earlier this year due to the Hollywood strikes, Abbott Elementary is back on schedule with a full season. This time, the teachers’ gang at the Philadelphia school convene for a new school year with plenty of hijinks. The biggest change this season is that the perennial will-they, won’t-they couple Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) have made it official. But what does this mean for the rest of the season? Let’s find out!