Space Jam: A New Legacy (BookMyShow Stream)
In the part-live action, part-animated Space Jam: A New Legacy, LeBron James joins an all-star team — Bugs, Daffy, Lola Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil, Foghorn Leghorn. The desire to emulate the original Space Jam with Michael Jordan is transparent. As Lounge wrote in its review: “On the basketball court, LeBron James donned the number 23 in tribute to his idol, but went on to create his own astronomical legacy, surpassing some of Jordan’s achievements in his wake. The Jordan-versus-James debate is endless and impossible, a debate that is beneath both those trailblazing icons. It may not have been wise of James to reboot one of the most peculiar projects of Jordan’s career, but this misstep shows that the King is, at heart, still a fan. It’s heartening.”
Also read: 'Space Jam' beats 'Black Widow' to lead weekend US box office
Yesterday (Netflix)
Danny Boyle's Yesterday imagines a world in which the Beatles never existed —and only one person remembers their songs. In its review when the film released, Lounge had written, “Based on a brilliant concept by writers Jack Barth and Richard Curtis, Yesterday is full of dry British wit and one-liners. It’s not a headlong tribute, but fantasy fiction that celebrates the spirit of John, Paul, George and Ringo. The overarching sentiment is summarised in this line: ‘A world without the Beatles would be infinitely worse’. One would agree.”
Modern Love Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video)
The popular New York Times column was spun off into this anthology series in 2019, developed by John Carney. The series is now back for a second season, with eight episodes, all around the half-hour mark. The directors include Carney and John Crowley (Brooklyn) and there’s a talented, eclectic cast, with Kit Harington, Tom Burke, Tobias Menzies, Minnie Driver and Anna Paquin, among others.
Bell Bottom (in theatres)
Though audiences were tentative, mainstream Hindi movies returned to theatres this weekend. Akshay Kumar plays a RAW agent sent to foil a highjacking; his codename—Bell Bottom—gives the film its title. Ranjit M Tewari’s period action thriller stars Lara Dutta (as Indira Gandhi!), Huma Qureshi, Vaani Kapoor and Adil Hussain.
Along the Coast (MUBI)
A young Agnes Varda turned this assignment for the French office for tourism into a delightful short reverie. The subject is the Riviera, its architecture and golden beaches—though the chief delight is Varda’s incomparable eye for colour and eccentricity. Varda made this short in 1958, three years after her debut feature—it anticipates the glories of Le Bonheur (1965), her first full-length colour film.
Also read: Japanese martial arts film star Sonny Chiba dies at 82
