We recommend: The best new movies and TV series
Editor’s note: Something for everyone this week, except patriots. Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D is back in theatres for a final hurrah. Michael Jackson has a biopic. Two terrific crime thrillers: Fuze offline, Apex online. A bunch of true crime documentaries, including one on Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Peter Capaldi is reportedly brilliant in Criminal Record S02. MUBI has a must-watch Gothic drama, Sound of Falling. Funnyman Zach Galifianakis is teaching the kids gardening. There’s a wacky Kannada series, Xerax. There’s bonus Gerard Butler too.
*****
New releases
Dev.D (Hindi; rerelease)
Anurag Kashyap’s 2009 cult hit Dev.D—the film that made him headline material and sought after, following a decade of crashing out—is back in Indian theatres. This could be a move to rediscover and cultivate the Kashyap audience for his new film Bandar, written by Sudip Sharma (Kohrra, Paatal Lok), and starring Bobby Deol. It’s supposed to hit theatres in late May.
Bengali author Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas has ceased to be just a literary and cinematic touchstone. It is now understood as a state of mind—of self-destructive narcissism, usually following a self-induced heartbreak. The word “Devdas” can now be sputtered as an affectionate or contemptuous insult or description, pick the combination.
Kashyap and co-writer Vikramaditya Motwane, understanding the postmodern life of The Devdas, deejayed an unabashedly postmodern remix packed with the energy of a rave blitzkrieging way past the early golden hour.
This is the film that birthed Kalki Koechlin and Amit Trivedi. This is among cinematographer-director Rajeev Ravi’s most sensational works from his early period. Mahie Gill from Punjab, starring as Paro, was a discovery. Above all, Abhay Deol flips his trademark wryness and dimpled cynicism and projects haughtiness and scorn from that perennially boyish face.
For The Hollywood Reporter India, journalist Anushka Halve interviewed Kashyap and co., and wrote a very entertaining oral history of how the film happened.
The origin story of Dev D sounds suspiciously like a drunk idea that stuck. Abhay Deol remembers it clearly: a hotel, a match on TV, and a story he pitched without naming it. “I basically contemporized Devdas. I didn’t tell him it was Devdas. I just narrated a love story… and he didn’t put two and two together,” says Deol.
Kashyap, on the other hand, was coming off a losing streak—films shelved, banned, or ignored. “I was in survival mode… I said, okay, the best love story is Devdas. Everybody loves Devdas. I’ll give you Devdas with lots of great music.”
Where to watch: Theatres
Sound of Falling (German)
A most ghoulish and haunting Gothic drama featuring four female characters—girls and women—living on the same farm in Germany over a period of a hundred years. Mascha Schilinski’s second feature won the Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The characters are, in different time periods, observing the secrets and cruelties of those holding power, and are increasingly moved to scratch the reality they witness and almost invite death as a means to get away.
Shot in dark earthy tones, the film’s look is inspired from the ghostly photographs of American photographer Francesca Woodman (1958-1981). Cinematographer Fabian Gampar helped bring about Schillinski’s vision of the “wraith-like imagery” she was trying to nail down.
About the inspiration behind the 155-minute film, Schillinski told Screen Daily:
My co-author Louise Peter and I spent the summer in the Altmark region in Germany, staying on the farm that became the farm in Sound Of Falling. We started to wonder who might have lived in this place before us. We found a photo, perhaps from the 1920s, that was unusual and very striking. It showed three women standing in the farmyard who were looking straight into the camera — or, as it seemed to us, straight at us. I’ve always been interested in the concept of synchronicity, of several time periods merging into one.
Beginning in the 1910s and lasting till the 2020s, the film bypasses the big wars and upheavals Germany found itself in, and strictly stays confined to the first-person perspectives of its four protagonists. Schillinski told Variety she was interested in “the simultaneity of time”.
There are spirits and ghosts in us, and ghosts that live on this old farm (...) When you enter a room, you don’t know what happened there, but you still feel it. That’s how it was when we were writing. This place had been abandoned for 50 years, but everything was still there, including a spoon a farmer put down for the last time.
Where to watch: MUBI
Lawrence of Punjab (Hindi)
Here comes a potboiler of a documentary from seasoned hands at masala true crime—producer Raghav Khanna (Netflix’s The Hunt for Veerappan and Mumbai Mafia: Police vs the Underworld) and director Raaghav Dar (Mumbai Mafia)—about 33-year-old gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who is currently lounging in Maharashtra's Tihar Jail.
Bishnoi's crimes against humanity include threatening to kill sexagenerian star Salman Khan, allegedly orchestrating the assassination of rapper Sidhu Moosewala, assassinating Khalistani leader Sukhdool Singh Gill in Canada, claiming responsibility for the assassination of Mumbai politician Baba Siddique, and supposedly operating over 700 sharpshooters throughout India.
Bishnoi is also said to have ties to the Indian government. As of April 25, the Delhi High Court has halted the streaming of the documentary which was due to release on Monday. The streaming platform’s lawyer said they may challenge the court order.
Never say never. The trailer promises moralising interviews about the state of youth and crime in Punjab, punctuated with Mirzapur-style dramatisations.
If you are rather in the mood for something incisive from where you can quote information at parties, do not miss journalist Atul Dev's terrific long read for the Guardian about Bishnoi.
In the absence of any verifiable information, Bishnoi lives most vividly in the stories and myths that swirl around him. When I went to meet his lawyer in a fancy part of Delhi, I found lawyers sitting outside the office, sipping cups of tea after the courts had closed for the day. They smiled when I told them I was writing a story about Lawrence Bishnoi. “Here is what you should write about him,” said the best dressed among them, who wore a spotless neckband. “He has done nothing wrong. Most of the people he is accused of killing had it coming one way or another.” He explained: “Moosewala, a known gangster who only liked women and fast cars; Baba Siddiqui, a corrupt politician; Salman Khan, less said about him the better; and Khalistanis [who have been campaigning for a separate Sikh state carved out of Punjab], who are traitors.” He stared at me: “Understand? Lawrence is not a gangster. Lawrence is karma,” he said, casting Bishnoi as a divine agent of Hindu morality who ensures that everyone gets what is coming to them.
Where to watch: Zee5
Ginny Wedss Sunny 2 (Hindi)
A heterosexual romcom (in this economy!?) starring Avinash Tiwary and 12th Fail star Medha Shankr. The usual North Indian comedy of manners featuring an insufferable brat and a slightly less insufferable woman. Lots of high-contrast colours, conservative parents who say mean things but mean well, and Hinjabi tunes. Recommended for those who would like to watch Avinash Tiwary be cute on a multiplex screen.
Where to watch: Theatres
Jerax (Kannada)
This is the kind of web series whose outrageous premise could pop up in anybody's head, so then it becomes a matter of who gets it done and released fastest. The lucky man is writer-director Srinidhi Bengaluru.
The plot: A small-towner, Prakasha (Nagabhushana), finds he has the power to photocopy actual humans; he uses this to create multiple clones and have them do his bidding. Scroll loved it, even wishing for a big-screen version.
The surreal premise is intriguing enough to sustain interest. The small-town setting inspires a typical gallery of desperadoes. The ensemble cast gamely mugs away as Prakasha’s plans go haywire. This is the fine print in the prophecy that he didn’t quite read.
With limited resources and a bottomless appetite for slapstick moments, Srinidhi Bengaluru keeps the chaotic comedy coming. While biting off more than it can chew, Jerax is exotic fare at the very least.
Where to watch: Zee5
Michael (English)
Hard-edged American filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, whose most popular work deals with Black individuals in the intersections of crime, law, and celebrity, has directed a Michael Jackson biopic the critics are unhappy with. Because?
The argument is, it whitewashes Jackson’s controversial past of allegedly molesting children. The film plays on like a greatest-hits tribute, with Michael’s demanding father, Joseph—whose abusive behaviour robbed his son of his childhood—made the villain.
Michael’s real-life nephew Jaafar plays the pop supernova. The exceedingly talented and always watchable Colman Domingo plays Joseph Jackson, the family’s patriarch and manager of the pop group The Jackson 5, which yielded the King of Pop.
Critic Alison Wilmore of Vulture was scathing.
Forget insight into its subject’s strange, warped personal life, or his artistry as an entertainer, or his family’s famously fraught dynamics — Michael barely manages the momentum needed to propel itself between the many musical numbers that are its main reason for existing. Watching it feels more like being frog-marched through a wax museum than watching a movie, each milestone restaged with an off-putting, uncanny-valley resemblance and no interiority.
Where to watch: Theatres
This is a Gardening Show (English)
You can tell the apocalypse is near when there's a show about learning how vegetables and fruits are grown in a farm and how you can grow them yourselves instead of relying on the supermarket, the corner stone of American civilisation which has possibly never been this hated since Vietnam.
The host is Zach Galifianakis. There are six 15-minute episodes. Krishi Darshan is fun now, kids.
Stuart Heritage in his five-star review for The Guardian wrote,
Time and time again, Galifianakis states that “the future is agrarian”, because humankind cannot possibly maintain its unsustainable march of consumption unless it learns to grow its own food. It’s clearly a cause he passionately believes in, but he knows better than to force it down people’s throats. Better to show them how much fun it is, and how rewarding it can be to eat things that you grew yourself, and the perennial joy of a well-timed poo joke.
Where to watch: Netflix
Fuze (English)
A lean and mean high-octaine thriller featuring cops and robbers. Don't we just love a good one at the theatres every two weeks? Picture this: an unexploded WWII-era bomb is discovered in London. A bomb disposal team is sent to save the day. Meanwhile, a group of diamond thieves are also drilling underground. The forces collide. Oh-em-gee. Wrapping up at very close to 90 minutes. The cast includes exactly the type of faces you'd want in this sort of a movie: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, and Sam Worthington.
The director is an old war horse with tight and intelligent macho thrillers, David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water). The critics loved it as much as we hoped they would. Here's Glenn Kenny for rogerebert.com.
A good part of the fun of this movie, though, is that what the viewer thinks is probably wrong. In addition to serving up heaping helpings of suspense and action, Fuze abounds in twists.
Where to watch: Theatres
Unchosen (English)
Between a rock and a hard place. Rosie (Molly Windsor) is part of a Christian splinter sect, led by Christopher Eccleston, the British film industry's best bet for a cult leader. Her husband is a nasty, squirmy piece of work played by Asa Butterfield.
All is well, until a handsome and possibly dangerous stranger (Fra Fee) shows up at their doorstep. While Adam (Butterfield) rises up the ranks and Sam (Fee) starts to reveal his layers, Rosie (Windsor) is caught between yearning for god and godlessness.
Where to watch: Netflix
Flunked (French)
This is Good Will Hunting punched with Main Hoon Na in France. Swiss and sexy standup comedian Alexandre Kominek plays Eddy, a math savant and a decent enough criminal who is allowed to escape jail time by policewoman Lucie (Laurence Arné). Only if he agrees to infiltrate the school the kid of a Russian bad guy is studying and find the brat. Eddy is, of course, a nuisance, and the screenplay gives the school’s inhabitants fresh ways to hate-love him through eight episodes.
Where to watch: Netflix
Apex (English)
Icelandic action film specialist Baltasar Kormákur (Jar City, Contraband, Everest) makes prime use of his stars Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton in a gnarly survival thriller. Rock climber Sasha (Theron) has to escape the crosshairs of a psycho-ritualistic killer Ben (Egerton) in some no man's land in the Australian Outback.
Critic John Nugent of Empire magazine wrote, "Just a solidly made cat-and-mouse thriller, with muscularly committed performances from its two leads. It’ll make you want to explore the Great Outdoors and simultaneously never leave your house again.
Where to watch: Netflix
If Wishes Could Kill (Korean)
A group of high school students discover a smartphone app that can grant its users' wishes, until it is revealed to bring supernatural deaths in a series of shock-heavy scenes. Reviews are mixed, so this is possibly strictly for horror fans. Critic Pierce Conran of South China Morning Post waxed philosophical near the end of their review.
Today’s youths have never known a world without phones. They are inundated with each other’s images and information, and increasingly have to question whether what they are seeing is even real. Phones and the internet have become our digital extensions, daily tools through which we interact with modern life.
They distort our reality, but without them, are we still able to recognise ourselves? It is a horrifying question, precisely because it has no clear answer.
Okay, sure.
Where to watch: Netflix
Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event (English)
The American industrial complex is a superbly oiled machine making billions off the backs of its youth and rolling out redemption stories for them in their twilight years. Boy Band Confidential is about the soldiers of the '90s onslaught of NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, O-Town among others.
Featuring first-hand accounts, the docuseries looks behind the doors at, let's see, racism, sexual abuse, substance abuse, mental illness, predatory contracts, bitter rivalries, professional misdemeanours, you name it.
Variety has a fantastic report on all that the production has uncovered. "...Boy Band Confidential takes a look beyond the leather jackets and gelled hair at the darker side of being that level of famous, especially at a young age," writes Arushi Jacob and Payton Turkeltaub.
Where to watch: Discovery+
Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill (English)
Former Olympic trainer Michael Barisone shot his student Lauren Kanarek twice in 2019 at his New Jersey equestrian farm. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Why did this happen? Not the usual story of cryptic social media posts, 911 calls, accusations of spying, and a feud that escalated into terrific violence. Netflix is here to clear the air in a 73-minute documentary.
Where to watch: Netflix
Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders (English)
America keeps giving serial killers and serial killer documentaries just when you foolishly begin to believe they have run out of them. The Gilgo Beach serial killings of women occurred between 1993 and 2010. At least 11 victims were confirmed. The perpetrator was a white-collar devil, one Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann.
The Guardian noted:
The confessed killer of eight women relays via a therapist that he maintained a four-day ritual of preparation, building trust with his victims, murdering them in a basement “kill room”, a day of “playtime” with their bodies, and then using a stopwatch to perfect dumping them on a beach 20 miles from his home. He would use the fourth day to deal with any unforeseen complications.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Kevin (English)
"Are we really going to mope over people?" wisely asks a suitably gruff and regally mustachioed Persian cat, voiced by the inimitable John Waters, to this new animated show's harried protagonist. The cat Kevin (Jason Schwartzman) is at sea after his owners get separated. He moves into a pet rescue full of misfits who teach him what life's all about: not humans.
The eight-episode series has been created by Joe Wengert and Aubrey Plaza. Also featuring voices of Amy Sedaris, Aparna Nancherla, and Whoopi Goldberg. Reviews have been mixed but Variety's Alison Herman loved it.
The world-building of how the Kevin universe, in which animals and humans converse freely and geese use their corkscrew-shaped genitalia to open wine bottles, can be a bit all-over-the-place. (As is its prerogative — no one’s coming here for realism.) But its sense of Kevin’s journey from a shy, kept cat to one ready for whatever life hands him is clear, a North Star to guide all the otherwise enjoyable chaos.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Funny AF with Kevin Hart (English)
Funnyman Kevin Hart headlines the search for a fresh comedian who will have their Netflix special. His co-judges include Keegan-Michael Kay (the better half of the comedy duo whose Jordan Peele is now one of Hollywood’s major filmmakers) and a very inconspicuously buff Kumail Nanjiani.
Where to watch: Netflix
Stranger Things: Tales From '85 (English)
There’s now a ten-episode animated spin-off of Netflix’s golden goose whose five seasons lasted from 2016 to 2025. The trailer is 162 seconds long.
Where to watch: Netflix
Fresh off the big screen
Nukkad Naatak (Hindi)
First-time filmmaker Tanmaya Shekhar has directed this low-budget indie about two engineering students doing double duty as theatre activists. When they get expelled from college, they are given a chance to redeem themselves by getting five slum kids to join school.
The film's makers did elaborate promos in the run-up to its February theatrical release, performing street theatre and sharing the videos online. Their production company is How to Enter Bollywood. The road is via Silicon Valley.
Where to watch: Netflix
Greenland 2: Migration (English)
Gerard Butler, who caused women to swoon all over in films like PS: I Love You and The Phantom of the Opera, has turned into a relentless low-budget action-movie machine, a sort of ’90s Mithun Chakraborty for Hollywood. And like prabhuji’s films, Butler’s actioners are all for the fans. The plot? The world is under threat from electromagnetic storms. There’s also radioactive fallout. Butler has to save himself, his family, and the world, hopefully in this order.
Critics hated it. Not Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times. Here’s how she began.
Gerard Butler is the Prince of January. You could print calendars now with the knowledge that the Scottish actor will invariably open the year with some kind of action bombast, ranging from the goofy (i.e., last year’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera) to the earnest, like this year’s disaster movie sequel Greenland 2: Migration. Butler reunites with his Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh for the film and, much like Den of Thieves 2, it sees our star setting out for the south of France — of course, under very different circumstances.
Where to watch: Lionsgate Play
One more chapter
Criminal Record S02 (English)
"No one remembers the saves," ponders detective Daniel Hegarty, "It's the ones you miss." Peter Capaldi's lawman Daniel and rival cop June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) reluctantly join forces to get to the bottom of a far-right bombing operation in London.
Reviews have mostly been positive. In a four-star review for The Guardian, critic Sarah Dempster wrote, "But at Criminal Record’s heart – its scrunched-up, ossified heart – is Capaldi: chin smushed into his chest; mouth ajar; eyes the colour of a bruise. This is Capaldi’s signature look – and quite devastating it is, too."
Where to watch: Apple TV
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