Good Girls (Netflix)
This painfully underwatched show about three suburban Detroit housewives who take to a life of petty crime (and then increasingly more serious crime) just had its fourth and last season drop on Netflix. Starring Christina Hendricks, who is absolutely incandescent, and the uniformly superb Retta and Mae Whitman, this show is more than a girl-boss version of Breaking Bad — it has its own tonality and structure, quirky but dark humour, and a certain effervescence that doesn’t come in the way of its tension as the cast lurches from one catastrophe to the next. What does the end hold for our not-so-good girls? Watch season 4 to find out.
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Cinderella (Amazon Prime Video)
Popstar Camila Cabello plays the lead In Kay Cannon's reworking of Cindrella. Our review of the film says: “An explosion of song (some old rap, pop, rock songs and some new), dance (been there, seen that) and colours (a bit much) attempt to paper over an irregularly paced screenplay. The script is more concerned with upending the tropes of the fairy tale, giving Cinderella greater agency and creating a new Gen Z-friendly happily ever after, than reinventing the story into something wildly audacious. Coincidence or strategy, but it turns out that British actors play the royals whereas Americans are cast as the village folk and fairy godmother. Each one gets into the groove of their character, with Cabello radiating optimism and allure and Galitzine matching her beats as the encouraging and charming prince.”
Bhoot Police (Disney+ Hotstar)
This horror comedy, as its title suggests, may contain more than a hint of Ghostbusters. Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Kapoor star alongside Jacqueline Fernandez and Yami Gautam in this film by Pavan Kirplani, who helmed the excellent horror drama Phobia (2016).
The Chair (Netflix)
The six-episode comedy The Chair is the right mixture of combative and irreverent. Our review of the Sandra Oh-starrer said: “The Chair, created by actress Amanda Peet with Harvard PhD Annie Julia Wyman, explores how the vacant classroom, like the tree falling in the woods unheard, is a bonafide fear. Now students rate their professors online, anonymity enabling their profane comments. Are teachers allowed to say whatever they like to illustrate their points? Are students allowed to film and meme teachers, robbing actions of context? At a time when we are challenging those entrenched in positions of privilege, is tenure too safe (and too permanent) a blanket? Is a university campus the least appropriate — or the most appropriate — arena for cancel-culture?”
Genus Pan (MUBI)
Filipino director Lav Diaz is one of modern art cinema’s most highly rated and distinctive voices. His latest, Genus Pan, is now on MUBI, a story about three gold miners who make a difficult journey home, only to find a tragedy has occurred once they arrive. The 157-minute runtime is actually quite short for Diaz—his A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery is eight hours long.
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