The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime)
Every year, Isabel "Belly" Conklin and her family (brother Steven and mother Laurel) spend their summer vacations at Cousins Beach with Laurel's best friend Susannah Fischer and her two boys, Jeremiah and Conrad. Belly has turned 16 and she knows things are about to change: "They've (the Fischer boys) always seen me as a little kid, but this summer, it's different." Based on Jenny Han's trilogy, the series has been updated to current times: Jeremiah is sexually fluid, and at a debutante ball, one of the girls' is allowed to bring her girlfriend as the escort. It's a young summer playing out in a seaside town, with a love triangle and lots of Taylor Swift, Arianne Grand and Olivia Rodrigo thrown in. The series has already got the go ahead for Season 2.—Nipa Charagi
R. Madhavan's film about scientist Nambi Narayanan is too purposeful for its own good. We wrote in our review: “When everything feels predestined, the journey loses its appeal. There’s barely a scene that doesn’t further the plot. I kept hoping for a pointless scene—Nambi sitting and thinking, drinking coffee, listening to music; something that might reveal the character for what he is instead of showing us what he did. But the film is full of dull purpose from start to finish. When there's a smaller gesture, it's usually unsubtle, like the orange, green and white backdrop behind Nambi when he rejects NASA and returns to India.”
Money Heist: Korea (Netflix)
A remake of the Spanish series, this one is set in 2025, with South and North Korea inching towards unification—DMZ is now Joint Economic Area (JCE). There is smell of hope: BTS concert in Pyongyang is sold-out. It has the Korean themes of rich-poor divide, and loan sharks preying on migrant workers. Professor's (Yoo Ji-tae) team of thieves takes over the unified Korean mint in JCE. Their goal: to print four trillion won and disappear like the wind. Visually, the boiler suits and masks kind of remind you of Squid Game—Park Hae-soo, always a delight to watch, plays Berlin, a sadistic control freak. But if you have seen the original, is there still an element of surprise?—NC
God’s Favorite Idiot (Netflix)
This series with its pop-culture friendly themes of existentialism is what The Good Place would be as a workplace sitcom. Clark (Ben Falcone), an average guy working in tech support has been chosen as God’s messenger. This gives him random abilities like spontaneously playing songs and sprucing up wilted flowers. Amily (Melissa McCarthy), Clark’s love interest, and their co-workers help him in his task to spread the Word and fight off Satan. Falcone and McCarthy, real-life husband and wife, have an endearing dynamic and there’s even a mini Gilmore Girls reunion if you enjoyed watching McCarthy as Sooki.—Angela Matthew
Hole in the wall (Netflix)
Rian has terminal cancer—we see him swimming in freezing waters and using marijuana and cannabis oil. He embarks on a road trip to Transkei with his son Ben, whom he's seeing after three years, and Ava, a stranger he met on the beach. "Did you ever love mum?" Ben asks his father. "Yes, I still do. I loved someone else as well. A man," replies Rian nonchalantly. In Transkei, Rian shows Ben the great landmark, Hole in the wall, at the mouth of the Mpako river. The local Xhosa people believe the archway in the cliff is the gateway to their ancestors. While the Eastern Cape scenery is beautiful, this South African film by André Odendaal and Johan Vorsterfilm leaves you baffled: Why does Rian paint his face like a clown or what is the relevance of the landmark to Rian and the story?—NC
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