Heartstopper (Netflix)
Based on Alice Oseman's graphic novel, this series is wholesome and heartwarming; it handles its LGBTQ+ theme with great sensitivity as it follows a bunch a 15-year-old school kids. Charlie is gay and has a crush on Nick Nelson, the school rugby star, who appears to be straight. As they start hanging out, Nick is confused about his feelings. "Am I gay," he googles. There's Elle who has transitioned, and lesbian couple Darcy and Tara. Some scenes will cause that slight flutter in your heart, like when Charlie kisses Nick in pouring rain. But the most poignant moment is when Nick comes out to his mum: "Thank you for telling me that...I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't tell me that," she says.—Nipa Charagi
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Nagraj Manjule's rousing film comes to streaming. We wrote in our review: "Sports isn’t life in Jhund, it’s a lifeline. Time and again, the film reminds us: these are the stakes, this is what it means to be playing. On the one hand, there’s the same hard life, but with some self-respect and acclaim; on the other is disappointment, incarceration, even death. Most Hindi sports films dedicate themselves to the glory of the school, the nation, the struggle of the talented underdog. Jhund is about barriers erected by caste and the lengths those without privilege must go to surmount them. That it tells a tough story with colour and humour and style more than justifies the hopes placed on Nagraj Manjule’s Hindi debut."
The Matrix Resurrections (Amazon Prime Video)
It might be a few years before we find some consensus on whether The Matrix Resurrections was a heartfelt revisitation or a too-clever-by-half riff. Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann-Moss returned as the leads, not Neo and Trinity but ordinary humans who experience a strange pull towards each other. There's a bunch of trippy set-pieces but what stands out is the unabashedly romantic treatment.
Jayeshbhai Jordaar (in theatres)
Ranveer Singh stars as a timid man looking to save the life of his unborn girl child in this comedy-drama. Divyang Thakkar writes and directs; Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah play the protagonist's formidable, conservative parents.
Tehran (Apple TV+)
In season 1, Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a Persian Jew, infiltrated Tehran on a mission to help Israel bomb the Iranian nuclear reactor. In the cat and mouse game between Mossad, Tamar and Iranian intelligence officer Faraz (Shaun Toub) and some double crossing, the mission bombed. Tamar also did some very un-Mossad like things, like contacting her estranged aunt and endangering her family; taking part in an anti-government college demonstration; and giving the thumbs up sign to an Iranian policeman—she's not capable of cold, dispassionate judgement. In the new season, Tamar is looking at ways to extricate herself and her Iranian hacker boyfriend Milad. But she's drawn back into a new mission. In this slickly produced espionage thriller from Fauda writer Moshe Zonder, Marjan Montazeri (Glenn Close) is the new local Mossad agent. But can Tamar trust her?—NC
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