Tabbar (SonyLiv)
The slow-burning Tabbar has been gathering word-of-mouth praise. We wrote in our review: “Tabbar is a triumph of atmospherics and filmmaking. Director Ajitpal Singh highlights textures not only of the region but of wrinkled brows stretched back by tight pagris, of parathas rolled into son-sized bites. The treatment is desaturated and washed out, creating a fly-on-the-wall authenticity. No bright colours, and — when it comes to these characters — even fewer bright ideas. All is scratched, used, yellowed. Heat and dust. Turbans and tribulations.”
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Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (Netflix)
Yoon Hye-jin (Shin Min-a), a dentist, moves to a picturesque seaside village, where the community is at the heart of everything and anything and your business is everybody's business. Hong Doo-shik (Kim Seon-ho), called Chief Hong by local residents, is the village handyman for all kinds of jobs, from plumbing to playing a barista. The dentist and he are polar opposites—love is inevitable. That Koreans are good at romance is a given—the lead pair here have crater-like dimples—the charm of this series lies in the laid-back vibe of the village and the individual stories of its residents. Meanwhile, Kim has recently been embroiled in a controversy, following which he was dropped from some projects.—Nipa Charagi
Eternals (in theatres)
Chloe Zhao directs her first film with Marvel. We wrote about it: “All the talk of representation obscures the real innovation of Eternals: situating superhero action in believable natural settings. Zhao stages conversations and fights in canyons and jungles and beaches, on frozen rivers and tundras, in front of exploding volcanos. These backdrops have a timelessness that complement the ageless nature of the protagonists, and also form a link with Zhao’s earlier nature-focused films.”
After The Wedding (Netflix)
Ideally a honeymoon should follow, but this is a train wreck. Directed by Bart Freundlich, it's adapted from an Oscar-nominated 2016 Danish film by Susanne Bier. Isabel (Michelle Williams) works in an orphanage in India and is invited to make a pitch in New York to Theresa (Julianne Moore), who runs a highly successful media company, for a $2 million donation. Theresa's daughter Grace (Abby Quinn) is getting married and Isabel gets an invite. At the wedding, Theresa finds out that Oscar (Billy Crudup) is the bride's father and Grace is their daughter who they had given up for adoption right after she was born. More twists and turns follow, but by now, you really don't care. Watch it for the stellar cast and some beautiful cinematography.—NC
Feathers (Dharamshala Film Festival)
An austere comedy from Egypt. An overbearing husband is transformed, through a magic trick at a birthday party, into a chicken. His wife must try and provide for her two kids while also taking care of the husband-chicken. Omar El Zohairy’s film is the most Kaurismakian of comedies, with deadpan performances and surreal twists grounded in the everyday.
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