We recommend: The best new movies and TV series
Editor’s note: The Duffer Brothers are back with a new series after Stranger Things. Mohanlal is winning hearts as ever in Drishyam 3. A new football doc for Liverpool supporters and fans of unforgettable comebacks, as Netflix builds up hype for the World Cup. Sonakshi Sinha as a nepo kid lawyer trying to find her way in the System. Jim from The Office is fighting the war on terror reluctantly and single-handedly, as Jack Ryan. Ananya Panday stars in a cutesy romcom-turned-relationship drama in the theatres. A deliciously profane dark comedy by comedian Tom Segura. Oh, and a new Star Wars film is in the theatres again.
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New Releases
A cutesy college romance between Aarav (Lakshya) and Chandni (Ananya Panday) turns into a rather more messy relationship drama in Chand Mera Dil. The couple falls instantly in love as two engineering undergrads at a college in Hyderabad, living the perfect Instagram life. And then they get pregnant. And she decides to keep the baby.
It’s a sharp plot turn by director Vivek Soni (Aap Jaisa Koi), who likes to get his hands dirty with honest, intimate portraits of love and romance. But the film has had a mixed reception with the critics. Rahul Desai at The Hollywood Reporter calls it “one of the strangest-looking films I’ve seen in a while”, where the filmmaking doesn’t seem to trust the script and performances. Rediff suggests that Chand Mera Dil has glimmers of ambition in tackling heavy subjects with sensitivity, but “... those hopes come crashing down the moment the film reveals its faux-emotional grittiness that only pretends to cut deep, but actually says very little.”
Where to watch: Theatres
Damien Sachs (Sacha Baron Cohen, better known for his outlandish parody and satire work) is a suave fellow who, as that lot often is in films like this, is also a raging misogynist. And then there’s single mum Alex (Rosamund Pike). In a poetic twist of fate/hacky plot turn (depending on how you see it), Sachs bonks his head and the world turns upside down, inside out. Sachs is now a lowly employee at the ad agency where he was previously a smooth talking exec, being sexually harassed and his work unrecognised. Alex has now transformed into a powerful executive figure. Nothing makes sense, everything is ass backwards. The Guardian is not very enthused: “I did learn a lesson here, but it was less about male chauvinism (bad, in case you didn’t know) and more about the heinous state of comedy films in 2026.” But worth a gander if you’re looking for mindless fun… maybe?
Where to watch: Netflix
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
A new Star Wars film—what’s not to love? This one, part of the broader franchise but more directly a continuation of the series The Mandalorian, is a live-action film starring the much in demand Pedro Pascal, with director Jon Favreau manning affairs here. As the name suggests, it’s about Pascal’s Djarin (the Mandalorian) and his apprentice Grogu out and about upon the fall of the Galactic Empire. They’ve been roped in by the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt (played by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White). It’s an uneven film, falling prey to the pitfalls of franchise cinema. On the other hand, it’s still a new Star Wars film. Rogerebert.com wonders: “Will ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ the first theatrical ‘Star Wars’ feature in seven years, prove to be the beginning of the end of this mini-empire’s dominance over science fiction, or the end of the beginning?”
Where to watch: Theatres
The Duffer Brothers (of Stranger Things fame) have produced this new Netflix sci-fi/murder mystery series set in a quiet, seemingly innocent retirement community in New Mexico. It stars Alfred Molina as Sam Cooper, grieving the loss of his wife a few months ago. He arrives at this spiffy community where everything seems great. Except for a lurking monster. The Guardian has found the fun in the series:
Like the best hokum, The Boroughs speaks, via monsters and electroplasm, to eternal human fears. Death is one, but The Boroughs parses it further – the fear of dying alone and friendless, after all one’s loved ones have gone, or after years of living in a terrifying, memory-less present – and then gives us comfort, that together most monsters can be defeated.
Where to watch: Netflix
Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a newly divorced mum and a magazine fact-checker who, through a series of unfortunate events, finds herself trapped in a world of blackmail and murder. She’s on a video chat with a fellow, Trevor, who’s a cam model of the adult variety. Just as things are getting hot and steamy, a masked intruder walks in on the guy, and beats the living daylights out of him. Soon, Trevor reaches out to her asking for financial help; he’s in trouble and will be killed if he doesn’t pay up. Paula begins to investigate. The reviews of this tense dark comedy are largely positive. Writes The Guardian: “It’s a sure-footed and completely bingeable thriller with an edge of unpredictability that holds you doubly fast to your seat. And in Maslany – who won an Emmy for playing 17 different roles in Orphan Black – they have the perfect actor to capture Paula’s mixture of volatility and focus, intelligence and stubbornness.”
Where to watch: Apple TV
Untold UK: Liverpool’s Miracle of Istanbul
Netflix has been upping its football output in the lead up to next month’s World Cup in the US. We do wonder though: will American audiences finally take to the sport that they share a, let’s say, complicated relationship? Or will the tournament be a big fat flop, thanks in no small part to Donald Trump’s constant chattering around it?
Anyway, this one tells the story of that fateful night in Istanbul, over 20 years ago, when Liverpool made history with one of the greatest comebacks ever. Three down in the Champions League final at half time, all but over. And then they rallied. Scored one. A second. Then the third. Eventually, they won the trophy—one of the greatest nights in the club’s history—on penalties.
Via several of the principal players of that night, the documentary pieces together the events: Rafael Benítez, Liverpool manager at the time; club legend and captain Steven Gerrard; defender Jamie Carragher; all speak on the emotions and pressures that had piled up. “The Liverpool voices are understandably emotional,” writes The Times of India, “but the AC Milan players add something equally powerful. Their recollections remind you that miracles only feel miraculous because someone else had to watch them happen in real time.”
Where to watch: Netflix
The latest instalment in Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam crime franchise series, propelled by the powerhouse presence of Mohanlal, hits theatres this weekend. The series is about Georgekutty (Mohanlal) and his family who, after the son of a cop goes missing, are considered prime suspects. Here, set around half a decade after Drishyam 2, Georgekutty is trying to turn over a new leaf, and has ventured into the movie-making business. In fact, he wants to adapt a novel based on his own life.
Unlike the first two films in the series, this one has less of a cat-and-mouse chase energy to it, instead spending time with the emotional and psychological complexities of its chief characters. In a mixed review, The Indian Express praises the concluding sections of the film: “...Jeethu cleverly impresses the audience in the final act of Drishyam 3 as well, almost making one forget the several shortcomings the crime thriller had until then. The slow and steady tension-building in the final hour is impressive, and the scenes here genuinely evoke a heaviness in our chests.”
Where to watch: Theatres
Jim from The Office—or John Krazinski, if you’d prefer—is back to playing patriotic CIA analyst-turned-reluctant-field-operative Jack Ryan in this latest update on the rolling franchise. It’s a continuation of the Prime Video series, with Jack now peacefully living life as a civilian working a Wall Street job. Until he’s drafted in for some a small job. Except that it’s not really a small job, and now there’s a threat on his life. And a whole conspiracy brewing. So, yes, Jack is in it once again. He must come to the rescue before things get catastrophic. The reviews are mostly meh—The Guardian is not particularly pleased by it—but it’s got high stakes and lots of action in case you’re looking for that specific kind of adrenaline rush where the world is about to end. And only one man can save it.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Two women, on opposite ends of the class spectrum, come together on System, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari. Sonakshi Sinha plays Neha—a righteous and rebellious public prosecutor who is the daughter of a hotshot defence lawyer (a nepo kid, if you will)—while Sarika, played by Jyotika, is a lowly court reporter with a pretty sharp understanding of the law. Her husband is in a wheelchair; her young daughter goes to school—she needs just a bit extra to keep things going.
The two women come to an under-the-table agreement: Sarika will help Neha with the law, in exchange for some money. “The strength of Iyer’s film is just this, showing the two women bent upon earning their living their way, and making their choices, right or wrong,” writes The Indian Express. Things take a turn as Neha retreats to her father’s camp, and the film lays bare the lived realities of women in law across societal class structures.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Seasoned comedian, actor, and writer Wanda Sykes—whose perfectly timed death-stares to Larry in Curb Your Enthusiasm must go down in sitcom folklore—has an enjoyable new comedy special out, taped at her alma mater, Hampton University. There’s a warmth to her delivery that endears her to audiences, while the material remains hard-hitting: she takes aim at the socio-political establishment of America, attacking Trump at length, going after Big Tech, discussing the Epstein Files, and so forth. And then she retreats to her personal life, talking about her wife and two kids, to expand the themes of the special.
Where to watch: Netflix
Fresh off the big screen
A light-hearted Malayalam film by Vishnu Aravind that’s now set to hit the smaller screen via streaming. An inter-religious couple (played by Sharaf U Dheen and Kalyani Panicker) are faced with a series of escalating hitches as their mutual disdain-turned-attraction-turned-engagement keeps running into some trouble or the other. The film keeps its breadth narrow, comfortable in a slice-of-life space with affability and intermittent humour—alongside the strong performances—making this an enjoyable (if not especially challenging) watch.
Where to watch: SonyLIV
One more chapter
Profanity and provocation are comedian Tom Segura’s weapons of choice in this returning sketch comedy anthology where he repeatedly and insistently confronts dark, taboo, or controversial subjects with a transgressive and cavalier spirit. The series employs a vignette structure, with Segura placing himself inside daring fictional plots that aim to discomfit and provoke the viewer. To paint a picture, from Rogerebert.com’s review of the first season:
Some sketches are plays on arthouse cinema (or Segura’s notions of them, at least), like fake A24 trailers about an Italian janitor at an old folks’ home who brings the residents joy by indulging all their kinks, or a black-and white yarn about a divorced guy who has a decidedly pervy encounter with a conjoined twin.
Where to watch: Netflix
souk picks