Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 92
June 28, 2024
A Family Affair Review – Platonic Bonds Outdo Romance
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“He’s living a double-life an a superhero and an asshole”
24-year-old Zara Ford hates her boss, Chris Cole, a demanding movie star who makes her run all his errands, including getting break-up gifts for his many girlfriends. So when Zara finally quits her job, she is horrified to find Chris in bed with her author mom, Brooke Harwood, the very next day. Can Zara nip this unexpected romance in the bud? Or will she have to tolerate her “diva” (Zara’s words, not mine) boss forever?!
Directed by Richard LaGravenese and written by Carrie Solomon, the 2024 romantic comedy “A Family Affair” pairs Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron for the first time as romantic leads Brooke and Chris. However, it’s Joey King as Zara—Brooke’s bratty daughter and Chris’ hardworking assistant—who steals the show. Joey is equal parts adorable and annoying as the young Zara, who freaks out, as one would, when she finds out her mom is sleeping with her dreaded boss.
Even though the primary premise of “A Family Affair” is similar to Anne Hathaway’s “The Idea of You,” – both movies are about a single mom dating a much younger celebrity – the age gap between Chris and Brooke is not an issue in the movie at all. Zara’s paranoia and worry that Chris will just treat her mother like all the other women he has been with form the central conflict of the tale. Zara hilariously says, “My mom Love in the Afternoon-ed my evil boss,” referencing the 1957 age-gap romance film “Love in the Afternoon,” where Gary Cooper was paired with Audrey Hepburn, who was 28 years his junior.
Zac Efron is 21 years younger than Nicole Kidman, and the pair looks like a G.I. Joe doll wooing an older Barbie Doll. Their onscreen chemistry just doesn’t work. Instead, all the other relationships in the film are much cuter, even Zara’s chaotic work equation with Chris! Kathy Bates plays Brooke’s mother-in-law, Leila Ford, and the two women have one of the sweetest onscreen relationships you will see as far as mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law go. Brooke and Leila are more gossipy best friends who tell each other everything. As a long-term Nicole Kidman fan, it was nice to see her in a romantic-comedy after a long time, especially after watching her play a anxious, grief-stricken mother in the drama “Expats”.
All that said, “A Family Affair” is a romantic comedy that, despite having some really fun self-aware dialogues (like Chris constantly dissing his own film scripts), gets its most important ingredient wrong—the romantic spark is just not there. The writers just give viewers the usual spiel about how Brooke is the only woman that makes Chris feel like himself. Why? Nobody knows. Unless it’s because Brooke extensive knowledge of Greek mythology (which sure as hell doesn’t seem the case). At least Brooke’s attraction is simple – Chris is young, handsome, successful, fit star.
Given its three distinct leads, the film ends up as a half-baked, contrived story. It should have either focused on Zara’s journey of growing up, moving out of her mother’s house, and accepting her mother’s individuality, or on Brooke’s journey of self-discovery as an author and screenwriter, learning to see herself as more than just Zara’s mother. The climactic conflict is very predictable, but at least the climax is a little different than the sweeping, grand gestures of never-dying love. And thanks to a talented cast, this makes for a decent one-time-watch.
Rating: 5 on 10. You can watch “A Family Affair” on Netflix.
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Drawing Closer Review: Your Next Weeping Fest Is Here
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“And so, the boy who was afraid to die, met the girl who was looking forward to it.”
The 2024 Japanese drama “Drawing Closer” is about a 17-year-old with only one year left to live befriending a girl with even less time on earth. I wondered if I really wanted to see another sad film about two teens with life-threatening health problems falling in love with each other. “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Five Feet Apart” seemed enough. But it was a gloomy, rainy day, and a depressing tear-jerker sounded like a good idea. Was I a weeping mess through the runtime? Yes. Absolutely. Even though I kept cynically hoping at least one death in the tale would come sooner rather than later. Tsk. Tsk.
Directed by Takahiro Miko, “Drawing Closer” is based on the Japanese novel “Yomei Ichinen to Senkoku Sareta Boku ga, Yomei Hantoshi no Kimi to Deatta Hanashi.” It opens with the sight of a beautiful clear blue sky, only to turn to a young boy standing on a terrace, contemplating jumping off. The boy is high-school student Akihito Hayasaka (Ren Nagase), a brilliant budding artist whose zest for life is cut short when he is diagnosed with a rare heart condition and the doctors say he might have only a year to live. Fortunately, he is distracted by a sound, leading him to Haruna Sakurai (Natsuki Deguchi), a teen girl who is drawing something in a sketchbook on the same hospital terrace. Haruna reveals she has six months to live with a smile, claiming she is looking forward to dying as she hopes for a better afterlife. Inspired by her positive approach, Akihito starts visiting Haruna regularly at the hospital, and the two become close friends. However, Akihito chooses to hide his heart condition from her.
Natsuki Deguchi is immediately endearing as the cheery Haruna Sakurai, a dying girl who loves to escape her reality by drawing in her sketchbook. On the other hand, Akihito Hayasaka stops painting after his diagnosis, choosing to dwell on the futility of a life that’s on a one-year deadline. The title “Drawing Closer” is thus both metaphorical and literal for the leads, as the two bond over their love for art and drawing. Mayu Yokota plays Ayaka Miura, a feisty popular girl at school who also happens to be an estranged childhood friend of Haruna. In a heartwarming subplot, Akihito attempts to orchestrate an emotional reunion between the former friends.
Because of the leads’ health conditions, there are plenty of health scares in the 2-hour runtime. Apart from the hospital scenes, the writers ensure they put in as many sad twists as they can to make viewers cry buckets of tears. At one point, the unfortunate events get too soppy, and I honestly just wanted the characters to catch a break and have some fun. Thankfully, they do. Besides, despite the dominant gloomy themes in “Drawing Closer”, the cinematography is consistently bright, colorful, with shades that lends a hopeful tone to the tale. Even Haruna’s hospital room doesn’t give off a macabre, clinical death-like vibe, instead, she makes the room her own by hanging up pictures all over.
Apart from the budding friendship/romance between the two teens, it was refreshing to see both kids having a loving and supportive family. Akihito Hayasaka’s parents actively encourage his pursuit of art and are heartbroken when he refuses to take part in a prestigious competition he had been looking forward to. The plot doesn’t break any new ground as far as movies about terminally ill people go, but it’s a stormy emotional journey that’s backed up by a talented cast of actors. Ren Nagase is stoically resilient as Akihito, who at first loses his will to live but keeps learning new lessons from the hopeful Haruna about appreciating every day he has. The two latch onto each other’s friendship to see through the next day, becoming a beacon in each other’s lives.
In the end, “Drawing Closer” comes to a close with several melancholic events, but it’s the little moments of joy the protagonists are able to snatch together that make it worth a watch. Definitely check it out if you enjoy a good tearjerker.
Watch “Drawing Closer” on Netflix.
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June 27, 2024
Only Boo! Review – Newbie Keen Is Bae of Puppy-Love Series
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If your crush decides to sing you a love song over the school’s loudspeaker (or the office loudspeaker if you’re older), letting the whole world know their feelings, you’d probably be embarrassed and want to dig a hole for yourself to disappear into. However, it would also be one of the most recklessly romantic things someone has ever done for you. Moo from GMMTV’s 2024 romance series “Only Boo!” does just that – sing his original love song to ask his crush out – and is the kind of romantic lead who constantly makes big gestures of love, if not grand. From being exceedingly annoying to incredibly cute, Meen Suwijak Piyanopharoj’s vivacious portrayal of Moo will make most viewers root for his success.
Directed by Golf Sakon Wongsinwiset (Club Friday/Enchante), “Only Boo!” spans 12 episodes and is based on a novel called “Khae Thi Kaeng” (แค่ที่แกง). The show stars Meen Suwijak Piyanopharoj as the primary protagonist Moo, while debut actor Dechchart Taslip plays his romantic interest Kang.
Plot overview: Moo is in his last year of high school, but instead of worrying about final exams and university applications, he is always dancing and daydreaming about becoming a pop-music idol. Worried about his future, Moo’s mother sends him off to a distant town to keep him away from Bangkok’s distractions. However, Moo not only finds a way to pursue his passion in the small town, but he also falls madly in love with Kang, who lives near his new dorm and runs a food business with his mother. But Moo’s aspiration to become a pop idol proves to be a big challenge for his romantic life. Will he be able to balance both loves, or will he have to give up on one of them?
“Only Boo!” is powered by Meen Suwijak Piyanopharoj’s energy. He is bubbly, charming, and completely cheesy as Moo, who blatantly pursues Kang once he realizes his feelings. While they are strangers at first, Moo moves into a dorm owned by Kang’s best friend Net (Pansa Vosbein) next door. Kang helps Moo a lot, including giving him free meals when Moo splurges all of his pocket money on an expensive bike. There are plenty of hilariously bad and corny pick-up lines that Moo uses on Kang, and all those scenes are super cute. Bonus points to the writers for making Moo expressive, he wears his heart on his sleeves, always speaks him mind, and leaves no scope for any kind of misunderstandings. So at least there is no “miscommunication” conflict between the main leads.
Moo’s character is consistently bright, positive, laid-back, honest, and even a tad bit shameless, but in a good way. For instance, one of the funniest scenes in “Only Boo!” is when Moo is called in by his new school principal for a scolding, and at the end of the pep talk, Moo unabashedly asks the principal to lend him some money because he is broke. I almost died laughing at that scene. And while the first eight episodes of the series are mostly upbeat in tone, things get a little serious and complex only in the last four episodes. Meen Suwijak Piyanopharoj gracefully shoulders even the emotionally challenging scenes. From being a hopeless puppy in love to being a heartbroken young man, Meen captures all of Moo’s emotions vividly.
Dechchart Taslip, on the other hand, is quite awkward as Kang. While some of it comes from the character being slightly shy, Kang continues to look self-conscious even when he and Moo become very close. Despite a cute teen love story, the romantic chemistry between Meen Suwijak Piyanopharoj and Dechchart Taslip as Moo and Kang is just about enough to make “Only Boo!” entertaining. Meen manages to keep viewers distracted from his co-star’s flaws with his spirited performance. An actor who was more at ease in front of the camera as Kang would’ve definitely elevated “Only Boo!” Book Kasidet Plookphol (“Only Friends”/“A Boss and A Babe”) has a small cameo role as Kang’s cousin, which was kind of pointless. His part only adds some avoidable drama to the otherwise wholesome puppy-love tale.
Actors Aun Napat Patcharachavalit and Peerakan Teawsuwan play best friends Potae and Phayos, who are in the same class as Moo, and the three of them enter a pop idol contest together as a trio. While a major subplot is about whether the three friends will make it as pop stars, another subplot follows a potential romance between Potae and Phayos. Aun Napat Patcharachavalit and Peerakan Teawsuwan have palpable onscreen chemistry; however, the Potae-Phayos story isn’t explored to its full potential and given the usual “friends to lovers” treatment, where one of them is blissfully unaware of their real feelings until a rival steps in.
For a series with music and dancing as key themes, the “Only Boo!” soundtrack isn’t very memorable, even though it does feature some fun bubblegum numbers. I couldn’t help but compare it to GMMTV’s show “My School President,” which has a fantastic musical score. Even though some of the songs featured in it were covers, the renditions were entertaining. Apart from the music, the choreography for the dance practices by Moo, Potae, and Phayos is very tame and basic. It’s only in the last few episodes that viewers get to see decent dance steps, but until then, the lackluster choreography makes you question the actors’ ability to dance.
For the first eight episodes, “Only Boo!” is a high-spirited, adorable high school love story, and the last four follow Moo’s journey in the music industry and the challenges that come with it. The last four episodes pack in a lot of challenges for the endearing Moo, and it feels like a completely different show. The creators should have either introduced the conflict much earlier, say episode six, or simply saved all the drama for a second season. Regardless, due to the sunny, joyous nature of the first eight episodes, which are mostly about Moo following his heart without any inhibitions, “Only Boo!” makes for a very entertaining series. The climax gives Moo the ending he deserves, so all is well that ends well. Watch the show if you love high school romances with a dash of music, dance, and drama.
Rating: 7 out of 10. “Only Boo!” is available on YouTube.
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Happiness Vol 2 Review – Blood, Betrayal, and Bowling
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
It wasn’t so obvious in the first volume, but Makoto Okazaki, the protagonist of Shuzo Oshimi’s manga series “Happiness,” looks a lot like a Japanese version of Harry Potter. Instead of a scar on his forehead, Makoto has a vampire bite mark on his neck. Okay, let’s look at the plot so far before I keep digressing…
“Happiness” Volume One Recap: “Happiness” Volume One Recap: High-school student Makoto is an average student who is bullied at school by a boy called Yuki and his friends. However, when Makoto is attacked by a strange girl one night, he begins to experience a lot of changes in his body, including super strength and a lust for blood. While he has yet to realize he was bitten by a vampire, things change at school when he punches Yuki in a fit of rage, breaking the boy’s nose. But in another turn of events, Yuki’s girlfriend approaches Makoto one evening, asking him to help her look for Yuki, who disappears after a group of goons target him. This time, Makoto saves Yuki from the clutches of grown men beating him up, and his surprising strength stuns everyone.
Like I said in my review for volume one, it was hard to determine where Shuzo Oshimi was taking the plot in “Happiness”, but things get a lot more interesting, violent, and twisty in volume two. One of the weirdest twists has nothing to do with the supernatural elements of the plot—it’s Yuki’s seemingly genuine interest in wanting to become friends with Makoto. So, the first chapter of “Happiness” Volume Two is titled “The Two Couples,” because Yuki and his girlfriend Shirasaki invite Makoto and Shojo to go bowling with them. Shojo is in the same grade but a different classroom and only became acquainted with Makoto recently after he had a panic attack and practically collapsed on top of her.
While the first half of volume two unfolds like a regular high-school romance, with two teen couples hanging out and having fun (sort of), tension is introduced in the tale when the goons Makoto fought off in volume one are shown to be on the hunt for him. From high school romance to sheer terror that involves violent attacks, blood, and deaths, Shuzo Oshimi takes readers through a myriad of emotions in this edition. The most entertaining aspect is the evolving dynamic between Makoto and Yuki, which shifts from a victim-aggressor relationship to one of friend-protector. I liked the subtle subtext highlighting how easily young boys can let go of past grudges and become friends with those who were once hostile toward them. This might not hold true for long, Yuki might just be taking advantage of Makoto’s new found strength.
Shuzo Oshimi’s black-and-white artwork is exceptional in the more violent scenes, brilliantly capturing the movements of the characters in fight mode. An eerie new teen character called Saku is introduced, who gets a full page to himself in his first appearance. He looks like a patient who has escaped a psychiatric facility, with an unsettling personality that’s a strange mix of childhood innocence and serial killer-like psychosis.
It’s in this volume of “Happiness” that Makoto finally becomes more aware of his abilities, and even though it’s not explicitly spelled out by the creator, it’s evident that he probably realizes he is a vampire. The climactic moments of volume two are laden with gruesome twists, and a surprise appearance by the girl who “turned” Makoto into a potentially immortal monster sets a more intriguing tone for the rest of the series. The last panel serves as an excellent cliffhanger for the rest of the tale—it’s morbid, unsettling, and tragic.
Rating: 4 on 5. You can read “Happiness” on Kindle Unlimited.
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June 26, 2024
Robin Wright, Tom Hanks Go Ageless in ‘Here’ Trailer
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“You know, if you like… you could spend the rest of the night here.”
“I could spend the rest of my life here.”
Awwwwww! A young Robin Wright and Tom Hanks romancing each other in the trailer for Director Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming movie “Here” might be one of the sweetest things you see this week. The actors are digitally made younger for the film, which follows a family’s growth through several decades in the same house.
With big hits like “Forrest Gump” and “Back to the Future” under his belt, Robert Zemeckis, along with co-writers Eric Roth and Richard McGuire, promises to take viewers on a nostalgia-fueled journey through the ages. Their digitally altered younger versions are almost satisfactorily authentic. The trailer is a packed montage of different emotional domestic scenes of the couple’s family, most of them set in the drawing room of the same house. Love, joy, celebration, loss—every kind of human experience possible in a warm home is quickly on display in the emotional teaser featuring veteran actors Robin Wright and Tom Hanks, who play Richard and Margaret. The song “I’ve Seen All Good People” by rock band “Yes” perfectly accompanies the 1 minute 42 second trailer.
“Here” may be more than just a simple tale following a family through different generations. The trailer features surprising elements like dinosaurs and prehistoric men, suggesting the film covers events in and around Richard’s house, even before its construction. Depending on how the creators execute this ambitious concept, it could be either extremely entertaining or confusingly chaotic. Fans will have to wait until the release date to find out.
The trailer for “Here” ends with a powerful scene that feels like a nod to the romantic hit film “The Notebook,” where a much older Richard leads Margaret into a house and says, “This was our home. We lived here.”
The film will be released in theaters on November 15. Watch the trailer on YouTube, it also below.
Do Aur Do Pyaar Review – Fuzzy Marital Math
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Director: Shirsha Guha Thakurta
Writers: Amrita Bagchi, Eisha Chopra, Suprotim Sengupta
If you ever want to go on a roller-coaster ride at a theme park, and the ride is already underway, you must wait for the train to come to a halt before you can step into your seats for the excitement ahead. Ever tried getting on a ride that’s already moving at a crazy speed on the tracks? Probably not. The biggest takeaway from the Bollywood film “Do Aur Do Pyaar” is: don’t get involved with a married person if you’re looking for a long-term relationship. It’s like trying to get onto a moving roller coaster; in the rare chance that you manage to get onto a seat, you’re likely to fall on the tracks before you get to strap yourself to safety.
“Do Aur Do Pyaar” opens with snapshots of Mumbai during monsoons, painting a romantic picture for viewers, complete with the soothing sounds of a soft patter. We first meet dentist Kavya Ganesan (Vidya Balan) having a flirtatious conversation with her photographer boyfriend Vikram (Sendhil Ramamurthy) at a restaurant.
“Love is like a toothpaste,” Vikram tells Kavya.
“Toothpaste? Love is like a toothpaste?” the dentist laughs, amused.
“You ever watch a couple brushing their teeth together? It’s more intimate than sex,” Vikram responds while fiddling with his camera.
Their banter is easy-flowing, and Kavya and Vikram look genuinely smitten with each other. Soon, the scene switches to a tense conversation between Anirudh Banerjee (Pratik Gandhi) and Nora (Ileana D’Cruz). They are also in love with each other, even though the sparks feel milder. But it is Anirudh and Kavya are married to each other, and they’re both secretly having an affair outside of their 12-year marriage, which has been reduced to discussing trash and medicines in the last few years. Their new partners are aware of their marital status, each seeking a divorce for a fresh start. However, Anirudh and Kavya keep finding ways to postpone what might be inevitable. Or maybe fate has different plans for them.
For the first 30 minutes, “Do Aur Do Pyaar” is a straightforward yet engaging tale about a married couple who are no longer in love with each other, yet too scared to admit the evident truth. But the screenplay begins to get slightly confusing once Anirudh decides to accompany Kavya to her hometown for a funeral, instead of telling her he wants to break up.
“Why do you want to come? You are nobody’s favourite,” Kavya asks him, not mincing any words about not needing his company. But their out-of-town trip to Ooty helps viewers understand the couple’s history and Kavya’s fraught relationship with her parents, especially her doctor father Venkat (Thalaivasal Vijay). To make things worse, he looks down upon Anirudh’s family business that deals with corks. Expect a lot of pronunciation jokes about corks. In Ooty, a lot of Kavya’s family is surprised that the couple is still together, which of-course is funnily ironical. The writers swing between clever modern jokes and tired boring cliches about what marriages are like.
Even though the trip subplot didn’t make much sense at first, it sets the ground for a major plot twist and changes in dynamics between Kavya and Anirudh. Pratik Gandhi is convincing as Anirudh, an exhausted working man looking to escape his mundane marriage with a gorgeous model. However, Nora’s attraction towards him becomes a question mark because the character (Anirudh) is quite unlikeable. He has no charm, lacks a spine, and even though the latter can be said for Kavya too, there’s a scene that makes him worse: Nora anxiously reveals to him that she might be pregnant, and a flustered Anirudh asks, “Must be mine?”. In a fitting response, Nora throws him out. Meanwhile, Kavya’s chemistry with Vikram, an international photographer, seems far more romantic. So, moral conundrums aside, Anirudh’s chaotic character makes it easy to root for Kavya and Vikram to end up together.
The second half of “Do Aur Do Pyaar” gets slightly contrived and repetitive, but it’s the actors who keep things entertaining, especially Vidya Balan as the bubbly dentist Kavya. Ileana D’Cruz is also disarmingly cute as model/actor Nora, whose character is a likable balance of both mature sensibilities and childish capriciousness. Sendhil Ramamurthy, as a photographer who largely lived in Cuba and New York, makes an interesting choice for the handsome stranger who snares Kavya into a dreamy affair. The climax is open-ended, and doesn’t give a definitive happy ending to anybody, which might be disappointing for those who prefer clear closures in their movies. While I do enjoy ambiguous endings, I too was hoping for a more conclusive last act.
While “Do Aur Do Pyaar” attempts to explore a few complex themes pertaining to relationships, the direction is largely easy-going in tone, with plenty of low-key comical moments. Its eventual message is straightforward: lack of communication is the biggest disruptor of relationships. This, notwithstanding the clever Groucho Marx quote the movie begins with: “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?”.
You can watch “Do Aur Do Pyaar” on Disney Hotstar.
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Sisterhood Review – Classroom Antics & Girl Squad Tales
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The standout element of Amazon Mini TV series “Sisterhood” is both its strength and weakness—its formulaic simplicity. Set in an all-girls convent school in Mumbai, the five-episode show follows the shenanigans of four ninth-grade girls.
Nitya Mathur plays Nikita Waghmare, the ‘gundi’ of the school, one warning away from being expelled. She is friends with the topper of her class, the clever and hardworking Zoya Baig (Anvesha Vij). Nikita and Zoya always sit together, but this changes when their class teacher makes Ann D’Silva (Bhagyashree Limaye), a dim-witted girl repeating the ninth grade, sit with Zoya. Nidhi Bhanushali plays new student Gargi Oberoi, whose parents are always moving, so she keeps changing schools and isn’t interested in making friends. However, the four end up being close, largely due to Nikita’s antics that always threaten to land them in trouble.
Titled “The First Day,” episode one introduces all the primary protagonists and for a moment, the premise feels like the boarding school drama “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” However, “Sisterhood” is much more bubblegum in flavor since its characters are younger. The biggest villain in “Sisterhood” is a tattletale girl named Kiara (Saumya Uniyal), who vies for Zoya’s spot as class topper and monitor. She is always spying on Zoya and Nikita to get them into trouble with the teachers. There’s no real malevolence at play, just some troublesome rivalries and petty jealousies.
Nitya Mathur’s Nikita Waghmare is the most entertaining character in the show. A typical troublemaker with poor grades, she is always cheating in exams, stealing money to pay her fines, and playing petty pranks to annoy everybody. Influenced by Bollywood, she aspires to become a rapper after watching the movie “Gully Boy.” Anvesha Vij is quite likable as the nerdy Zoya, always buried in books and taking her ‘best friend’ duties seriously. Bhagyashree Limaye, though looking too old to be a repeat ninth grader, playfully captures the essence of a malleable, innocent teen as the religious Ann D’Silva. Constantly mocked for failing her exams by her older classmates in class ten, Ann tries hard to emulate Zoya and believes in the power of prayer to solve all her problems. Nidhi Bhanushali as the new student Gargi is the sassiest among the four. A smart-talker, despite her reluctance, she becomes close friends with the others. The joys of friendship is the biggest theme in “Sisterhood,” as these four girls fight, study, debate, dance, laugh, and cry together.
Episode two, titled “Where art thy periods, Juliet,” is my favorite in this five-part series. It hilariously explores how young girls feel about menstruation. Late bloomer Nikita is stressed over not having her period yet, and her friends try to explain that everyone’s body is different and that she should be glad not to experience cramps and mood swings yet. The episode reminded me of the book-movie “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” which poignantly captures the various confusing stages of adolescence. Besides the period conundrum, the episode also features a funny rivalry between Ann and Gargi as they fight over auditioning for the role of Juliet in a school play. The face-off between the two over “who is more girly” is childishly funny as it should be.
The world-building of the convent girls’ school is on point in the series, especially scenes of the sisters checking students for following the dress code and rules—having their nails cut and hair tied in neat ponytails. Sangeetha Balachandran is endearing in her cameo as Sister Rosie, a senior science teacher with a soft heart, while Meenal Kapoor plays the tough taskmaster Sister Diane, who is always keen on punishing students. Although Sister Diane seems to have an unrealistic personal vendetta against Nikita, having studied in more than half a dozen schools myself, including three different boarding schools, I know teachers can be very unpredictable—from being completely aloof to being infuriatingly nosy.
Things begin to get a little dull and contrived in episode four, which introduces a clichéd conflict—a fight between the two best friends over an unintentional mistake, so the other two girls try to patch things up between them. Regardless, “Sisterhood” has some genuinely funny school moments throughout its runtime, with relatable banter between its characters. Some of the jokes aren’t necessarily in sync with the characters’ personalities and seem like the writers’ attempt to slip in a funny joke for older viewers. For example, Nikita is a complete slacker who thinks the increase in earth temperature is called “Global Warning,” yet she makes a quick adult joke like “it’s so dry down here that the government is ready to give a subsidy,” referring to her delayed period. Although the joke “people are having mood swings and my mood is still playing on the swings” was a fun one.
If a light “slice of life” series about a bunch of school girls navigating through friendships, school projects, exams, and rivalries sounds fun to you, “Sisterhood” offers just that.
Rating: 6 on 10. Stream the show on Prime Video.
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June 25, 2024
Hugh Grant Turns ‘Heretic’ in Horror Movie Trailer
“Are you interested in learning more about the church of Jesus Christ?”
Two young missionaries knock on the wrong door to talk about God, only to find they might have just met the devil!
A24 unveiled the trailer for its upcoming horror movie “Heretic,” directed by Scott Beck and Ryan Woods and starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East. The 2-minute 23-second teaser opens with Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East’s characters walking through a neighborhood, trying to get people to listen to them talk about their church. Unfortunately for them, it starts to rain, but this doesn’t deter them from going door-to-door. They are eventually welcomed by a genial old man (Hugh Grant) who offers them pie. However, as he heads to the kitchen, the girls realize something is amiss, and to their horror, they find themselves trapped in the house.
The girls become pawns in a twisted challenge set forth by the man in his maze-like home. He gives them two doors to exit, but neither might lead them to the outside world. “Do not be afraid. You will witness a miracle,” the old man tells the girls. After playing Oompa Loompa in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and Thurl Ravenscroft in “Unfrosted,” fans are looking forward to seeing Hugh Grant as a psychotic villain in “Heretic.”
Will the girls survive the old man’s trap? The trailer sets an intriguing tone for this faith-themed horror thriller. Watch the trailer on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.
Cooking Crush Review – Easy Reliable Recipe
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Prem, Dynamite, and Samsi are best friends and culinary students aiming to participate in a cooking competition that could change their fortunes. However, Prem lacks the confidence to join, but gets an ego boost when he meets Ten, a medical student who falls in love with Prem’s Tom Kha Gai soup and persistently asks for personal cooking classes. Initially reluctant, Prem agrees to teach Ten for the money, and they gradually develop feelings for each other.
Directed by Golf Sakon Wongsinwiset (Club Friday/ Enchante), the 12-episode Thai series “Cooking Crush” (อาหารเป็นยังไงครับหมอ) is based on a novel titled “Love Course! Suea Gown Rak Suea Cook Rap”. Actor Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat plays the lead role of Prem, a sweet aspiring chef helping his grandmother run a quaint riverside restaurant, but he is insecure about his culinary skills. Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn plays Ten, a wealthy medical student who lost his mother as a child and has a strained relationship with his father. How these two young college students forge a bond and encourage each other is crux of the show.
The friendship between Prem, Dynamite (Aungpao Ochiris Suwanacheep), and Samsi (Dome Jaruwat Cheawaram) outshines the primary romance in “Cooking Crush.” The three friends religiously watch their favorite cooking show “Super Monster Chef” together while wearing fan t-shirts. They are huge fans of celebrity chef Changma (Victor Chatchawit Techarukpong), whom they eventually meet in person. There’s a running joke about Dome Jaruwat Cheawaram looking too old to be a college student, as his character is an older student who has dropped out of multiple courses. The trio is often bullied at college for being clumsy in the kitchen, but they turn out to be underdogs in the long run. The cooking competition storyline is clichéd, with overly dramatic tension that doesn’t blend well with the otherwise fluffy tone of “Cooking Crush”.
Last seen together in the gritty college-based thriller “Not Me,” Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat and Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn’s chemistry in “Cooking Crush” is surprisingly lukewarm, despite several cute romantic scenes. Although their interactions while they cook together is quite sweet, and it’s nice how each episode has a dish as its central theme. The writers introduce a “love rival” subplot to create tension, but it feels contrived. The rival angle wasn’t necessary, as Ten’s father’s issues with Prem had enough potential to generate twists in the plot but is under-explored. Its love, friendship and culinary dreams that takes center-stage in this romantic-comedy and if there’s one theme it does right – it’s to show how support and appreciation from friends and family can make a huge difference in a person’s life. Ten’s admiration for Prem’s recipes and the power of home-cooked meals is the show’s biggest takeaway.
An amusing subplot involves Dynamite romantically pursuing medical student Fire (Neo Trai Nimtawat), with their story providing plenty of laughs. Dynamite is very straightforward about his feelings for Fire, and both Aungpao Ochiris Suwanacheep and Neo Trai Nimtawat are entertainingly cute. Neo, who played a confident, self-centered serial dater in “Only Friends,” is a complete mommy’s boy with zero experience in love in “Cooking Crush.”
The cinematography, like most GMMTV romance shows, is colorful, bright, and screams romantic comedy. More scenes of Prem and his friends cooking authentic Thai dishes would have been nicer. Overall, “Cooking Crush” is a simple, cute college romance that is predictable and might be too bland for viewers seeking something fresh and intriguing. The story could have been wrapped up in ten episodes or even less. And every time I watch a BL romance by GMMTV that feels prolonged, I can’t help but complain about how “Moonlight Chicken,” another of their food-based romances, deserved to be longer than eight episodes.
Rating: 6 on 10. You can watch “Cooking Crush” on YouTube.
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June 24, 2024
Happiness Vol 1 Review – Mix of Terror & Teen Turmoil
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Happiness,” Volume One by Shuzo Oshimi, begins with an intense scene of a girl hovering above a street on what looks like an electricity pole. She then jumps on a man and smashes his head to a pulp on the next page. I started reading this horror manga at 1 am but stopped after four pages, which included the gory scene, because I only wanted to read a little before crashing, and the manga looked like something that might prevent me from having a good night’s sleep.
However, when I resumed “Happiness” the next day, it wasn’t the scary horror manga I was expecting it to be. Instead, Happiness is a vampire fantasy about a schoolboy named Makoto Okazaki, who gets bitten by the same monstrous girl we meet in the first page, he then begins to experience strange bodily changes, including an aversion to sunlight.
The first 2-3 pages feature colored panels, leading me to believe this was a color manga, but it’s not, which resulted in a slight pang of disappointment. However, Shuzo Oshimi’s black-and-white artwork is clean and expressive and won me over. The art feels like it belongs in a Shōjo manga, especially in scenes that do not feature violence, so the regular high-school scenes look like they could be out of a slice-of-life romance.
Volume One of “Happiness” seems to suggest that Makoto Okazaki is the protagonist, a nerdy schoolboy who is bullied by his popular classmates, led by a guy called Yuki. The bullying largely comprises asking Okazaki to buy them snacks, a staple bullying tactic you often see in several Japanese and Korean dramas. His only friend is a sweet boy called Nunota, and they aren’t really friends either, Nunota just likes to keep an eye out for Okazaki because he too used to be bullied by the same group until they decided to change their target.
While Okazaki quietly complies with the bullying, things change when he is attacked one night by a strange girl. He survives with a bite mark but begins to feel extremely different physically, leading to quite some personality changes, the most dominant of which is reacting like a hungry animal around girls. Since it’s implied that he is a vampire now, even though he doesn’t realize it yet, the subtext is that he reacts more viscerally to girls who are on their periods.
Due to the cover page featuring a girl, I had very different expectations from the plot and was hoping to see more of the vampire girl who attacks Okazaki. Unlike other horror manga titles I’ve read in the past, “Happiness” is an interesting balance of regular high-school drama and violent vampire fantasy. Okazaki’s family is pretty amusing, especially his over-protective mom, and it would be fun to see how their dynamics play out in future volumes. I don’t have any strong thoughts about Okazaki yet, except that he is an asocial weirdo who gets off by sneaking a peek at the girls in his school. More character development probably awaits him in the next nine issues.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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