Ludo is an Entertaining Black Comedy that Blends Four Different Narratives to Great Effect
Ludo has all the hallmarks of a signature Anurag Basu production: loud color palettes, a almost whimsical brand of dark comedy and multiple intersecting narratives. This is Basu’s first film after Jagga Jasoos, which met mixed reactions. Over the course…
Emily in Paris: A Voyage into Fashion, Food and Fantasy
I tuned in to Emily in Paris, Netflix’s new rom-com series, expecting a European love affair between a young woman and her enviably stylish job. Instead the series is, what can be called, a boomer’s fantasy of a lazy millennial’s…
The Queen’s Gambit Weaves an Engaging Narrative around a Coming of Age Tale of a Chess Prodigy in the Sixties
The Queen’s Gambit starts with a young woman in Paris rising out of a bathtub in her hotel room, messily getting dressed and swallowing a few pills. She hurries downstairs to join a chess match with the current world champion.…
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a Love Story Disguised as a Ghost Story, Focusing on the Rich Inner Lives of its Characters
The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan’s follow-up to the unexpected hit The Haunting of Hill House, is a different beast than its predecessor. While the first series focused on grief, The Haunting of Bly Manor weaves its tale around…
The Boys Continues its Charming, Irreverent Streak in Second Season, Building upon New Themes and Characters
When The Boys premiered last year, it’s irreverent take on superheroes soon gained a strong following. Using superheroes as a filter, the show took on the entertainment industry, celebrity culture and the military industrial complex. In the second season, it…
Serious Men is an Entertaining Satire of a Ambitious Con-Man Whose House of Cards Starts to Come Apart
Adapted from a novel of the same name written by Manu Joseph, Serious Men is a satire that touches on casteism, endemic problems in the education sector and how ordinary people thrust the weight of the world onto their children…
Amazon Prime’s Utopia is a Conspiracy Thriller Involving a Comic Book (and a Pandemic) That Doesn’t Quite Measure up to Its Source Material
Amazon Prime’s Utopia is, perhaps, the most coincidentally timely series of the Coronavirus pandemic so far. Like the real world, it also features a national pandemic quickly taking lives, scientists testing vaccines and people protesting to have said vaccine released…
Raised by Wolves is a Fresh Take on Familiar Sci-Fi Elements, Dwelling on Parenthood and Devotion
Raised by Wolves is very different from everything else currently on television. Set in a future world where the Earth has been destroyed by a war between the religious Mithraics and atheists, the show focuses on a group of humans-…
Ratched is a Twisted Origin Story that Looks Gorgeous (Despite its Flaws)
Keeping an eye out for something new to stream during the pandemic is becoming something of a norm. If we’re being honest, our radar is constantly on alert for anything that’s trending or getting massive buzz from both our social…
Netflix’s Enola Holmes is a Young-Adult Take on the Sherlock Mythos, Anchored by a Fun Lead Performance
Enola Holmes isn’t out to reinvent cinema. Set against a backdrop of Victorian patriarchy, it often raises questions about women’s changing role in society, especially as key characters are involved in the suffragette movement. However, the film isn’t nearly as…
