Mon, June 30 2025

Mining India's mythology and religious beliefs to craft a horror that's contemporarily relevant is a nifty idea, but to do so frighteningly well is another thing altogether

Mothers are a resilient lot. Harm their kids, then be ready for a battle. In Maa, Kajol’s maternal instincts face their toughest test as she contends with superstitions as well as a girl child-feasting, tree-residing monster who has eyes on her adolescent daughter. Kajol’s Ambika is an ordinary woman trapped in extraordinary circumstances, but then the film’s title isn’t just a nod to her but also to the powerful and dangerous deity who should not be messed with—Kali Maa. Mining India’s mythology and religious beliefs to craft a horror that’s contemporarily relevant is a nifty idea that’s been attempted before, but to do so frighteningly well is another thing altogether. Maa takes the tried and tested not-without-my-daughter formula and spins it round and round until audiences are left frustrated at the actions of characters.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sun, June 29 2025

Smashing patriarchy is a task that films need to keep taking up, and Kajol has the heft to get the job done.

Do not mess with a mother. She can go to any extent to save her family. Mixing mythology and technology, ‘Maa’ presents Kajol as a contemporary woman fighting with all her might to keep at bay the dark forces targeting her young daughter. Ambika (Kajol) and Shuvankar (Indraneil Sengupta) have succeeded in keeping his family’s troubled history from the artistically-inclined Shweta (Kherin Sharma). But the 12-year-old’s constant curiosity coupled with a tragic incident leads the mother and daughter to travel to their ancestral haveli in Chandrapur in the Bengal countryside, where time seems to have come to a stand-still.

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Mon, June 30 2025

The larger ideas never fully click into place, even when 'Love Marriage' tries to surprise you with the writing

The core plot of Shanmuga Priyan’s Love Marriage surely deserved a better film. Like Sooraj Barjatya’s Vivah (2006), Love Marriage too is written around the various stages between engagement, marriage and the relationships that form or get broken along the way. The engagement is said to take place between Ram (Vikram Prabhu) and Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat), and we get the feeling that they’re being forced to get married, just hours after they first meet each other. From a distance, it appears to be a film that romanticises the concept of an arranged marriage. In one place, we’re told that both Ram and Ambika belong to different castes, but their getting together isn’t an issue for their elders because they both belong to similar class groups in the hierarchy. However, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an entirely smooth ride for Ram and Ambika.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Director Shanmuga Priyan's 'Love Marriage', starring Vikram Prabhu, Sushmitha Bhat and Meenakshi Dinesh, is a Tamil remake of the Telugu film, 'Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam'. The pleasant romantic comedy is a perfect canvas for a laughter riot but bogged down by redundant ideas.

When Indian cinema is dominated by action dramas with a newfound love for extreme violence and gore, there’s always something soothing about heartwarming dramas. Be it a simple love story or a family drama or a comedy drama, they remind you of the good old times. Director Shanmuga Priyan’s ‘Love Marriage’, a remake of the Telugu film, ‘Ashoka Vanmulo Arjuna Kalyanam’, has all the elements to be that cutesy film that will leave a smile on your face. Did it succeed in its mission? Let’s find out! Ramachandran (Vikram Prabhu) is a 33-year-old bachelor who is waiting to get married. A thorough gentleman, the only progressive man in a family of regressive people, goes through arranged marriage. He, along with his family and extended family, travels to a different town to meet a potential bride, which is followed by his engagement. One meeting is all it takes for Ram to get engaged to Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat) old-school style.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Love Marriage is held together by likeable and earnest performances, especially from the leads — Vikram Prabhu, Sushmitha, and Meenakshi — who make do with the superficial nature of their roles

The moment we commodified weddings and started calling it the marriage ‘market’, many brides and grooms became products that came with a selling price, a buying price, and unfortunately, an expiry date too. They are depreciating assets, and it is one such asset that is the protagonist in director Shanmuga Priyan’s debut film, Love Marriage, a rather faithful remake of Vishwak Sen’s Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam. Ramachandran (Vikram Prabhu) is in his early thirties and is already considered to be past his sell-by date. He is part of a misogynistic and casteist family, which has relaxed its rules since they haven’t found the right suitor within their caste and class. That is the scheme of things in many a family in the arranged marriage setup. And after multiple rejections due to his age, greying hair, rumours of balding, and his profession, Ramachandran’s family decides to travel far away from home and get engaged to Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat), who is from a different caste.

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Mon, June 30 2025

Each of the film's sub-plots has been written around one broad joke, but the casting is so perfect that we’re constantly looking forward to the reactions of these actors

When Vipin Das, the producer of Vyasana Sametham Bandhu Mithradhikal (With Condolences, Friends and Relatives), last directed a film, he made Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil (2024), a hilarious confusion-comedy that culminated in a million things going wrong at a wedding. The hit comedy was something a master like Priyadarshan would have been proud to call his own. But if he were to watch Vyasana Sametham Bandhu Mithradhikal, he’d be prouder. Made by another Vipin (S Vipin), he borrows the chaos of a Priyadarshan-esque comedy and plants it within a dark comedic setting that is already primed for the wildest of laughs. So, instead of a wedding like in his guru’s film, Vipin sets up his comedy on the day on which the film’s protagonist Anjali’s (Anaswara Rajan) grandmother passes away. What makes the timing impeccably imperfect is that she’s just a week away from getting engaged to her toxic fiancé. On one hand, you feel deeply for Anjali for having lost the one person in the family she connected strongly to; in the other hand, her grandmother’s passing is a blessing in disguise, giving her hope that she can get out of a marriage she was never interested in.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sun, June 29 2025

Maargan is a great example of a genre film that engrosses its audience and makes one buy into the supernatural or pseudo-scientific framework.

Kolai, Raththam, Mazhai Pidikathavum Manidhanum, Hitler… after such a barrage of misses, a sense of prejudice is expected to set in when Vijay Antony comes up with another crime thriller. But a few minutes into the film, Maargan assures you that the streak will be broken. It exhibits good craftsmanship despite ticking all the boxes of genre films and treads carefully without breaching the territory of clichés. To top it all, it sets up an engrossing supernatural premise involving Siddhars and astral projections that effortlessly win you over. Tamil cinema tends to get overly didactic and self-congratulatory when it ventures into such themes of ancient knowledge. However, Leo John Paul’s success lies in the way he effortlessly sells you his ruse. The trick, after all, is not to convince you to believe but to entertain enough that you don’t mind. To give the context, Maargan is an investigation thriller where an archetypical resigned police officer, Dhruv (Vijay Antony), takes up a case that looks similar to the murder of his daughter. A Chennai girl, on her birthday, is murdered by an unknown killer using a chemical cocktail which, when injected, burns the body from the inside, turning it black. Dhruv takes over the case unofficially and arrests a suspect named Tamilarivu (Ajay Dishan), a brilliantly written role. As Tamil is subjected to police interrogation, it is realised that he is innocent but has supernatural abilities that would aid the investigation. With his astral projection abilities, he puts himself at risk of finding the killer, which also turns out to be an effective surprise.

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Sun, June 29 2025

A convoluted mess of a crime thriller with high ambitions. With a crisp runtime, the whodunnit relies heavily on the twists and turns.

Music director-turned-actor Vijay Antony has a knack for picking interesting stories. However, his choices in the last few years have been questionable. The actor now returns with ‘Maargan’, a crime thriller about a serial killer. Will ‘Maargan’ provide a much-needed respite to Vijay Antony from a string of underwhelming films? Let’s find out! Dhruv (Vijay Antony), ADGP in Mumbai, is grieving the loss of his daughter, who was murdered by a serial killer. He is notified of another similar murder in Chennai. One connection between both cases is that the killer seems to have injected a drug which blackens one’s body. Dhruv expresses interest in transferring to Chennai to investigate the murder. However, his superiors don’t let him as he is recovering from the loss of his daughter. His left side is blackened after he gets injected with the drug while trying to nab the killer.

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Sun, June 29 2025

A textile supervisor turns wild after a horrible insult at the workplace that results in humour, punishments, shame, and revelations.

Good Day starts with a line from Tamil writer G. Nagarajan’s existential novel Naalai Matrum Oru Naalae, which is about a labourer and the things that pan out in his life on a single day. The novel gives an eagle-eye perspective of the non-person as he goes about his day getting some work done and indulging in vices. Good Day is also about one such person from the fringes of society. Shanthakumar (Prithiviraj Ramalingam), a supervisor at a textile factory, begins his birthday with distress as his monthly salary is yet to hit his account. He asks his housemate to lend him a thousand rupees, but when the friend asks him to run an errand, Shanthakumar refuses. His ego is hurt. Hours later at his office, he gets slapped by his manager in front of a co-worker. We aren’t told why, but we understand that Shanthakumar is facing the fire for backing the co-worker, who was facing sexual harassment at the hands of the manager. The manager, being the son-in-law of the factory’s owner, leaves Shanthakumar to swallow his ego and endure the humiliation. And his salary is still yet to reach his account.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sun, June 29 2025

F1: The Movie has all the aspects that make for a summer blockbuster. It takes Racing fans on the circuit, it presents Brad Pitt in all his glory, it talks of an underdog who rises to the occasion and it talks of friendship and brotherhood.

When you combine two of the most popular entities of the world – Brad Pitt and Formula One racing- in a film, you can expect it be a big blockbuster hit. One of the most popular stars of Hollywood, Pitt has been credited with some of the biggest hits of all time and earned an Oscar award for his performance. The man splashing comes back in F1: The Movie as a Sony Hayes, a rule breaker, a has-been driver who left the circuit years back after a freak accident. When Sony is pulled back into the circuit- this time by an old friend and fellow rider (Javier Bardem in a delightful role) and Sony has to face his demons, move past personal setback, and even befriend a weary rookie driver (Damson Idris) to win F1.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Joseph Kosinski's F1 is an obituary posing as a hymn. It's designed to make us realise that this is the last gasp of superstardom in an age where influence is a profession rather than a halo.

I have this vivid image of the future in my head. It’s a bit like the opening vignettes of Interstellar. People buy tickets and shuffle into a museum. This museum was once an out-of-business IMAX theatre. On its giant screen — a screen that’s alien to an ultra-digitalised planet — rushes of a bygone era flicker to life. There’s a long queue outside a section called “Stardom”. The term is strange and antiquated, like a sound of history that current generations have only heard of. They think it has something to do with space travel; perhaps it does. As the kids take their seats, a curated montage of two ‘old’ titles begins. The crowd goes “ooh” when a dashing chap named Tom Cruise lights up the screen in Top Gun: Maverick; the crowd goes “aah” when a hunky guy named Brad Pitt lights up the screen in F1. The men no longer exist, but these two movies are the closest approximation of a world in which aura mattered. There is polite applause. The guided tour moves on to the next section. Maybe more Jurassic Park than Interstellar.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Fri, June 27 2025

Barring a few moments driven by Prabhas and Vishnu Manchu, ‘Kannappa’ struggles with a dull, uneven narrative

At one point, well into the second hour of the Telugu film Kannappa, Prabhas appears on screen as the deity Rudra. His extended cameo includes lines that cheekily nod to his larger-than-life image — one even references the endless speculation around his bachelorhood. These ‘meta’ touches serve as deliberate fan service, injecting energy into an otherwise uneven narrative. It is a shame, because Kannappa, led by Vishnu Manchu, sets out with the earnest ambition of reintroducing the devotional legend to a contemporary audience. Rooted in folklore, the story follows Thinna, an atheist hunter believed to be a reincarnation of Arjuna, who transforms into a devout follower of Lord Shiva. In a final act of faith, he offers his own eyes to the deity, earning the name Kannappa.

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Sun, June 29 2025

ओटीटी प्लैटफॉर्म्स को अपने दर्शकों को पकड़कर रखने के लिए लगातार नया कॉन्टेंट लाना पड़ता है, मगर इतनी कहानियां कहां से आए? इसके लिए अच्छा तोड़ है रीमेक। दुनिया का कोई भी हिट शो उठाओ, उसके राइट्स लो और हिंदी में अडॉप्ट कर डालो और इस कड़ी में नया नाम है ‘मिस्त्री’। राम कपूर की मुख्य भूमिका वाली यह वेब सीरीज मशहूर अमेरिकन शो ‘मॉन्क’ का देसीकरण है। कहानी क्राइम विभाग से सस्पेंडेड एक ऐसे कमाल के जासूस अरमान मिस्त्री (राम कपूर) की है, जो केसेज सुलझाने में उस्ताद है। वह उन सुरागों को झट से पकड़ लेता है, जो दूसरे देख भी नहीं पाते। लेकिन वह गंदगी जरा भी बर्दाश्त नहीं कर पाता, किसी भी चीज को बेतरतीब नहीं देख पाता, क्योंकि वह ओसीडी यानी ऑब्सेसिव कंप्लसिव डिसॉर्डर से जूझ रहा है। ऐसे में, उसकी असिस्टेंट शरण्या (शिखा तलसानिया) हर वक्त सैनेटाइजर और टिश्यू पेपर लिए उसकी मदद के लिए तैयार रहती है। दरअसल, अरमान अपनी आंखों के सामने पत्नी सुष्मिता को बम ब्लास्ट में खोने के बाद से ओसीडी का शिकार हो गया। इस वजह से लोगों के बीच उसका बर्ताव सामान्य नहीं रहता, लेकिन उनके तेज दिमाग के चलते क्राइम विभाग की इंचार्ज और अरमान की पुरानी कलीग एसीपी सहमत सिद्दीकी (मोना सिंह) केसेज सुलझाने के लिए उसकी सेवाएं लेती रहती है। 30-35 मिनट के हर एपिसोड के दौरान अरमान एक केस क्रैक करता है, इसमें एक नेता, एक ड्रग डीलर, एक गजल गायक, एक बिजनेसमैन आदि से जुड़े केस सामने आते हैं।

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Fri, June 27 2025

In Mistry, director Rishab Seth reimagines the popular American drama Monk in an Indian setting but waters down everything that made the procedural drama fun, resulting in a damp squib of a series.

The current landscape of the Hindi language streaming space is so dire that for every bad show, there is something worse waiting in the wings. This not just complicates comparisons but makes objective criticism impossible. For every “this is really the worst show” thought in your head, there is another informed thought that counters with “but don’t you remember that?” Mistry, the new JioHotstar show, is a little of this and that. Which is to say, it is an objectively bad series, but a worse series than it exists. Directed by Rishab Seth, Mistry is the remake of the popular American drama Monk. And while Seth reimagines it in an Indian setting, he also waters down everything fun in the procedural drama, making a damp squib of a series. The premise is the same: a detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder, grappling with the sudden death of his wife, helps the police force to solve cases. Much of the allure of Monk resided in its character development and in using humour not as a means to make light of mental illness, but as a vessel to make it accessible. Mistry goes for cheap thrills.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Starring Ram Kapoor, the official adaptation of the Emmy-winning ‘Monk’ is incurious and functional

I remember binge-watching Monk back in the day. It wasn’t at the top of my American-sitcom-comfort-viewing list (Scrubs and Frasier were), but I was a Peter Sellers fan looking for the next Pink Panther-coded legacy. I was also curious about Tony Shalhoub’s Emmy-winning performance as an OCD-afflicted detective with all sorts of tics and phobias. Shalhoub was an uncanny mix of funny and sad, turning Monk into an oddball portrait of a grieving husband whose trauma became his superpower. Mistry is a scene-by-scene Hindi remake of Monk, starring Ram Kapoor as Armaan Mistry, a neurotic former Mumbai cop who is regularly roped in by the Crime Branch so that he can declare “the case is cracked” before the end of every episode. Mistry’s assistant-cum-nurse is single mother Sharanya (Shikha Talsania), who follows him around with wet wipes and hand sanitizers, protecting the man from himself while aiding his ‘freelance’ career. Of all the Hotstar adaptations so far, Mistry is perhaps the most uninspired one yet. I feel like I’ve written this line in a previous review before, but such is the business of long-form remakes. The lack of originality isn’t a problem — that’s just the nature of the beast, and who am I to question the commerce of conveyor-belt storytelling? Mistry is likely for anyone who hasn’t seen Monk, and unfortunately for those who have, the comparisons are crippling.

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Sat, June 28 2025

Starring Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett, the new thriller mini-series has an Apple-level budget but the soul of an MX Player original.

After knocking it out of the park with the excellent prison drama Black Bird a couple of years ago, writer Dennis Lehane and star Taron Egerton have reunited on the new Apple mini-series Smoke. The nine-episode thriller follows a mismatched pair of investigators tasked with tracking down a couple of arsonists. Gudsen, the character played by Egerton, is an expert of some kind. He lives and breathes fire. His new partner Calderon, played by Jurnee Smollett, is a detective with a horrific past. In a contrived piece of writing that even Mahesh Bhatt would have drawn the line at, it is revealed that Calderon’s mother tried to set their house ablaze when she was a child. It’s like Dexter, with an Apple-level budget but the soul of an MX Player original.

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Wed, June 25 2025

Created by Dennis Lehane, Smoke is an unusually framed narrative drama that grows more complex with each episode.

In recent years, shows based on podcasts, such as The Dropout and Dr Death, have been breakouts. While the trend is still gaining traction, the new Apple TV+ series Smoke is the latest on the block. Inspired by the podcast Firebug, the new drama created by Dennis Lehane follows an arson investigator (Taron Egerton) and a detective (Jurnee Smollett) teaming up to find the culprits of two serial arsonists. The ambitious show flips everything you know about a traditional investigative drama and turns it on its head. However, with nine episodes, Smoke overdoes it at points, revisiting certain themes and abandoning others. But the cast’s compelling performances are the main reason to stick around for this unusual narrative. The series starts off slow and predictable with a troubled detective, Michelle Calderone (Smollett), and a former fireman turned arson investigator, David Gudsen (Egerton), who are on the case of two serial arsonists. Smoke is not just about these two arsonists; it’s also about these two main characters, their pasts, and motivations as they uncover the chilling truth of who is behind the devastating fires. The drama thriller does a deep dive into these characters, giving viewers a story that may waver about but will always have you guessing what’s next.

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Sat, June 28 2025

Each actor, major or minor, continues to shine like a gem

When ‘Panchayat’ first dropped on Prime Video in 2020, it marked a refreshing departure from the crime-based dramas, triggering a new trend, and has since spawned a few clones too. Unlike violence and gaali-infested web shows which rule the OTT space, the offering from TVF (The Viral Fever), the original web content creator of shows like ‘Permanent Roommates’, won hearts and appreciation. With its perfect rural setting, an unusual premise and stellar performances, it figured high on the critics’ meter. Five years later and into its fourth season, it retains the series’ major strengths. Ever since Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar), an engineering graduate, landed in the fictional village of Phulera in Uttar Pradesh as Sachivji (the panchayat secretary), all eyes have been on this roller-coaster ride of emotions, drama and laughter. An authentic slice of hinterland, it has brought forth the joys of simple things and the beauty of rural life, laced with subtle political commentary.

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Tue, June 24 2025

अमेज़न प्राइम वीडियो की सफल और लोकप्रिय वेब-सीरिज़ ‘पंचायत’ के तीसरे सीज़न में फुलेरा गांव में राजनीतिक सरगर्मियां शुरू हो गई थीं और माहौल बदलने लगा था। प्रधान जी पर गोली चली थी, रिंकी और सचिव जी की नज़दीकियां बढ़ चुकी थीं और भूषण व क्रांति देवी ने प्रधान व मंजू देवी के विरुद्ध कमर कस ली थी। ऐसे में यह तो साफ था कि इस चौथे सीज़न का फोकस राजनीति पर ही रहेगा लेकिन इस फोकस के चलते ‘पंचायत’ अपना मूल स्वाद खो बैठेगी, यह अंदेशा नहीं था। लेकिन ऐसा हुआ है और यही कारण है कि ‘पंचायत’ का यह चौथा सीज़न अच्छा तो लगता है, मगर इसे देखते हुए वह ‘मज़ा’ नहीं आता जिस ‘मज़े’ के लिए यह वेब-सीरिज़ जानी जाती है और जिसके चलते इसने हमारे दिलों पर कब्जा जमाया था। ‘पंचायत’ के पिछले तीनों सीज़न के रिव्यू में मैंने ज़िक्र किया है कि इसे लिखने वाले हर चीज़ को खींचने में लगे हुए हैं जिससे साफ लगता है कि वे लोग कई सारे सीज़न बनाने का लालच अपनी मुट्ठी में लिए बैठे हैं। बावजूद इसके यह सीरिज़ हमें पसंद आती रही है क्योंकि एक तो यह हमें ओ.टी.टी. पर मौजूद अधिकांश कहानियों से परे एक छोटे-से गांव में ले जाती है जहां की मिट्टी में अभी भी सौंधापन बचा हुआ है और दूसरे यह इस उम्मीद को कायम रखती है कि अभी सब कुछ उतना खराब नहीं हुआ है। लेकिन ‘पंचायत’ का चौथा सीज़न देखिए तो लगता है कि इसे बनाने वाले कहानी को जबरन खींच-खींच कर सुस्त रफ्तार से कहानी कहने का कोई विश्व रिकॉर्ड बनाना चाहते हैं। इस बार के आठों एपिसोड में सिर्फ चुनावों की ही बात है जिससे इसमें एकरसता आई है और कुछ बहुत नया या हट के वाली सामग्री न होने के कारण बोरियत हावी रही है।

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Tue, June 24 2025

Mirzapur?

Panchayat season 4 settles down more into its tone after an intense conclusion to season 3. At the end of the previous season we witnessed the politics in the village taking a new turn as violence grew into an everyday occurrence. Over the years, the show has changed a lot. It first started with everyday adventure format where different incidents took place in the village and explored how it affected Abhishek. Now, the series in more about two political parties fighting against each other to rule the village. The season begins in the aftermath of Pradhanji being shot at. With the village elections coming closer, both parties try to pull each other down and de-influence the villagers. On the other hand, Abhishek appears for his MBA exam and is awaiting the results. The show does explore his dilemma about his future outside the village. However, he is determined to stay back and help Pradhanji and his family for as long as he can. His relationship with Rinki also grows steadily with an imminent separation in the future.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Set in a world that has outcast the British entirely, Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later is a stark indictment of British Empire that will perhaps pair really well with Lagaan.

While promoting his new film, 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle expressed retrospective reservations about Slumdog Millionaire. By far his most successful movie, it delivered the box office performance of a Marvel blockbuster and won him the prestigious Best Director Oscar. Boyle was already famous thanks to his boundary-pushing past work, but he wasn’t Bollywood famous. And yet, while reflecting on Slumdog a decade-and-a-half later, he declared that he would never make something like it again; instead, he said, he would appoint a young Indian director at the helm. It seems like Boyle, who also spearheaded the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, has developed an acute case of ‘white guilt’. This guilt can be felt in every frame of 28 Years Later.

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Sun, June 22 2025

With its lush palette and bursts of violence, ‘28 Years Later’ is both haunting and invigorating

Danny Boyle’s 2002 film 28 Days Later is widely considered one of the most influential entries in the zombie genre. By stripping out the supernatural and replacing it with a scientifically plausible viral outbreak, Boyle gave the genre a visceral realism. Now, in 28 Years Later (2025), Boyle reengages the genre with his trademark jittery digital aesthetic, matched by Alex Garland’s bleak yet poetic screenplay. (28 Weeks Later, the 2007 sequel was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, but this new instalment brings the original team back into play.) 28 Years Later isn’t just a sequel; it’s a resurrection—a smart, stylish, and often brutal return to a world that reshaped zombie cinema back in 2002. The post-apocalyptic UK remains in indefinite quarantine, its landscape overrun by the infected. Small uninfected communities survive in isolation. One such pocket is a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, cut off from the mainland and clinging to normalcy. Garland’s script focuses on one family: Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his ailing wife Isla (Jodie Comer), and their 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams).

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Sat, June 21 2025

Boyle – a one-person British cinema movement, among the slowly disappearing MTV generation of filmmakers – brings back the frenetically-cut montages.

One tends to forget how formal and dull a majority of mainstream filmmaking has become until a true-blue swashbuckling director comes along and destroys our notions of what films should look like. It happened to me during the opening stretch of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which begins with a strange corner-angle shot (by Boyle’s regular, Anthony Dod Mantle) showing a bunch of children, cramped into one room, watching an episode of Teletubbies. The handy cam aesthetic paints dread into the visual – as does the commotion outside as we hear elders scream at each other. And suddenly the door breaks, and in classic Boyle fashion, we’re racing through narrow hallways, to open fields with the “infected” chasing a young boy called Jimmy. It’s a sublime opening sequence filled with paranoia, thrill and weighty subtext, as Jimmy’s father – a priest praying inside the local church – awaits these undead (zombies), calling it his judgement day.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the bingeworthy Korean series finally reveals its last chapter and the fate of its beloved characters.

After four years, 22 episodes, and countless character deaths, the most popular Korean series in the world, Squid Game, finally comes to an end on Netflix. Writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s deadly saga pitted vulnerable people against one another to win riches beyond their dreams but at a cost that could haunt them forever. Over three seasons, the filmmaker has presented two very different winners of the Squid Game: Hwang In-ho, aka the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who becomes the host of the games after his victory, and Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who wants to save as many people as he can from the games. It’s this larger picture of humanity and morality that is explored in the third and final season that answers the question, what remains in the end, greed or integrity?

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