Made in Heaven: Bollywood Drama Gets Real

Last night, I stayed up late to finish the final episode of Made in Heaven. I initially wanted to save the episode as a treat for later but could not resist and had to binge watch my way through once and for all. I never thought I would say this about an Indian TV show, but it is legitimately like watching something on HBO. Or in this case, Amazon Prime.

Created by my beloved writing duo of Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, you are guaranteed to like this show if you are a fan of Akhtar's movies. It deals with Delhi high society and the seedy underbelly of all that class privilege and can basically be summed up as "All that glitters is not gold." Although in the case of the weddings that take place, there's generally a monumental amount of gold. The show centers on Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur), best friends from college who are now running a wedding planning company together. Tara has married into a rich Delhi family, so her husband, Adil (Jim Sarbh), is their main investor as they struggle to keep the new company afloat. In the meantime, Karan is still recovering from the debts incurred from his previous failed business, so there's plenty of machinations afoot as he tries to borrow from one source to pay off another. Also, quick note for non-Indian readers: most of the show is in English, so you won't have to rely on subtitles too much if that's an issue. Though you may still struggle if you can't understand the Hinglish accent that is so peculiar to the upper classes.

Each episode of Made in Heaven pulls double duty as it contains a standalone story about the wedding that is being planned and all of the craziness accompanying that particular couple, but also needs to continue the story arc of our main characters who are going through a ton of behind the scenes drama apart from what they deal with on their day job. Tara's marriage seems rosy, but there are some twists in store; Karan's love life (he is gay, and believe me, the show does NOT shy away from that) leads to various complications; and their employees are going through various family crises and romantic upsets. The show also cautiously doles out flashbacks over the course of nine episodes, drawing out the story of how Tara and Adil met and eventually got married, or how Karan discovered his sexuality, and it is so intricately plotted and perfectly paced that it serves as an ideal model for all other TV shows in the current era of streaming. This is a show that knows exactly how much story it needs to tell in one season and lays it all with precision and finesse. It is the perfect binge watch because every episode ends with a cliffhanger that will force you to hit "Play Next Episode" but at the same time, as you see the episode count dwindle, you will want to stop just so you have more story to savor for a longer time.

Can things get a bit cliched and preachy? Of course - it's an Indian show and has to state a lot of the obvious like asking for a dowry is illegal or that a woman's worth is more than whether or not she can bag a husband. I'm not sure the moralizing is strictly necessary because given how explicit this show is, I don't know that the people who are watching are the ones who need to be told these things. No one in rural India is watching, so they're not going to learn these valuable lessons in feminism, and all the urban folk who are watching are too narcissistic to understand this show is about them and telling them to embrace some basic human decency. But at least they get to revel in this show's glorious soundtrack and spectacular cinematography. Every wedding is a feast for the senses, with unique flourishes in costume and set design that show an attention to detail that you'd be hard pressed to find in a big budget Bollywood movie, let alone a TV series.

The characters in this show are its greatest strength. Every actor is doing brilliant, fearless work, swearing up a storm or rushing into sex scenes with an abandon that I did not understand was possible in Indian TV. To be fair, a lot of them are theatre actors, which I understand is a whole other level of acting in India. But no one comes off as the golden child on this show. Every single person makes huge mistakes, some more forgivable than others, and as you hurtle to the end of the season, it's surprising to note that this might be the most human show on TV. They all do stupid things, regret them, sometimes learn from their mistakes and try to become better people, but oftentimes are doomed to repeat themselves. It's utterly compelling, addictive TV. So, please watch Made in Heaven so I have more people to discuss it with, and also so we can get together and petition the creators for several more seasons. My appetite has been whetted and now I'm jonesing for more. 

Us: Rise of the Doppelgangers

Horror is not my favorite movie genre. But I am always up for prestige horror, i.e. something that stars good people, is written and directed by good people, and most importantly, has an element of humor to it. I don't like being scared, but if the scares comes with enough laughs in between, I can handle it. Therefore, Us is exactly my kind of horror film. If writer-director Jordan Peele keeps up with this quality of filmmaking, I might become a horror buff after all.

The movie stars Lupito Nyong'o and Winston Duke (I mean, with that cast, I'm in already) as Adelaide and Gabe Wilson, who are off to vacation in the family's beach house in Santa Cruz with their two children, Zora and Jason (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). Adelaide experienced a traumatic incident when she was a child at this beach, so she is already on edge as this vacation commences. She is then increasingly spooked by a series of coincidences that suggest something terrible is about to happen. Which, of course, it does.

If you've seen the trailer, you know that the family are confronted by their doppelgangers - four creepy people who look just like them, but attired in jumpsuits and not capable of speech apart from the mother. Who has the most terrifying voice and speech pattern - while I was fine with all the jump scares and general horror tropes of this movie, I think the one thing designed to truly give me eerie nightmares is the way Adelaide's doppelganger talks in this film. Kudos to Lupita Nyong'o for destroying my psyche.

The movie is bloody but fun - let us not forget Jordan Peele's comedy background. The man knows exactly how to terrify you and then cut the tension with a hilarious music cue or a bit of physical comedy on a boat. You will scream and laugh in equal measure, and by the end of the film, my heart wasn't racing, just pleasantly buzzed. Winston Duke is responsible for most of the comedy, while Nyong'o carries most of the terror, and it's a perfect balancing act as they fight a rising tide of horror to save their children from these scissor-wielding doppelgangers who are out for blood.

This movie starts out slow and then keeps building to a terrifying climax. What seems like small stakes restricted to this one unfortunate family quickly grows into a manic national crisis, and that's where Peele gives us a broader mythology to give this crazy story an even grander perspective. As we find out where these doppelgangers came from, there are more connections and intricate Easter eggs to look out for, all of which mean that like Get Out, this is yet another movie that bears repeated viewings. Even though the doppelgangers aren't all named in the movie, they all have names in the end credits, which has already become a source of theorizing to deconstruct Peele's witty name play and what it means for the underlying motivations of these characters.

You can enjoy Us as a straight-up horror film, and then re-enjoy it as you delve into its many layers and break apart the intricate construction to look for deeper meaning and even more questions. The movie has a classic ending that has spawned many more theories, so it's a gift that keeps on giving. This is a glorious piece of cinema, with excellent cinematography, interesting and creepy shots that are designed to warp your worldview and skew your perspective, meticulously detailed costume and set design, and a soundtrack that is both haunting and delightful. Us is an instant classic that will frighten you a little but delight you a lot. If horror isn't your thing, this might be the movie to convince you otherwise.

Gloria Bell: Keep Dancin'

When my friend Katie suggested we go watch Gloria Bell in the theater, I halfheartedly agreed. I think Julianne Moore is great, but I didn't think the movie would amount to much, a post-Oscars release that was being dropped into the void. Thankfully I did go to the theater (the fact that Katie brought cupcakes certainly nudged me along), and I am so glad I did. This movie was a revelation, and in the fall when we get to Oscar prognostication, I wouldn't be surprised if Moore is still in the Best Actress conversation.

Moore plays Gloria, a divorced woman with two adult kids who is out living her life. She works for an insurance company during the day, conducting terribly compassionate phone calls with the people filing claims after they get into accidents. And sometimes at night she goes to a night club to sip cosmos and dance to some classic tunes. It is here that she runs into Arnold (John Turturro), a love interest who will gradually upend her life.

You deserve to see this Julianne Moore performance unfurl over the course of an hour and a half so I will not divulge any further plot details. What I will divulge is that she is magnificent, portraying a woman who is trying so hard to experience life to the fullest, but constantly having to deal with its ups and downs. Written and directed by Sebastian Lelio (based on his 2013 Chilean-Spanish film, Gloria), this movie is a true woman's picture, wholly focused on the actress at the helm of the enterprise and letting her tell the audience her tale. The supporting cast are all wonderful and have their parts to play (special shout-out to Holland Taylor, who plays Gloria's mother and comes to her aid in rather spectacular fashion at one point), but there's never any doubt as to who is the star of this film. We are always focused on Moore's face, needing it to tell us how to feel in each moment - should we be happy, sad, concerned, furious? Sometimes she's all of those things over the course of one minute. It's an emotional rollercoaster you want to keep riding.

The movie features an impeccable soundtrack, with a score that constantly plays on the Gloria motif until you can't wait to hear Laura Branigan belt out the real thing. You know it's coming, but it's such a wonderful revelation when it does, and frankly everything that happens in that one scene is the reason why I go to the movies. So if you're in the mood for something that's a little bit bittersweet but ultimately life-affirming, grab yourself a cupcake and dance along with Gloria Bell. 

Period. End of Sentence: That's All You Need To Know

When Netflix recommended Period. End of Sentence. to me, I rolled my eyes. But then I saw it was only a half hour long and I was in between binge watches, so why not? I never watch Oscar-winning short documentary films, I might as well expand my horizons. Boy, did they get expanded.

The movie is about a group of women living in Hapur, India who learn how to operate a machine that produces cheap, biodegradable sanitary napkins. This is the machine that Arunachalam Muruganantham (affectionately known as the "Pad Man") developed after he discovered the horrors his menstruating wife and other Indian women dealt with on a monthly basis when they didn't have ready access to pads. I already knew about him and his initiative, so I was expecting some sort of hagiographic movie about his work. However, while he does feature in some brief snippets in the film, this is instead a movie about these women, and how this machine changes their lives in a million different ways.

Periods are an extremely taboo topic in India. As the film begins, the filmmakers try to get women and young girls to talk about their periods, and they either look clueless, giggle and won't say anything, or say that it's something God makes happen every month. With the advent of the machine in their midst, the women more freely start to talk about their periods and are fascinated by the notion of having pads instead of dealing with unhygienic cloths or just staying at home for a week when Aunt Flo comes to town. Even the men are curious as to what's going on with the ladies and their machine, which forces them to also have a conversation about women's bodies and what exactly the womenfolk are dealing with.

More impressively, this machine signals a path towards economic independence for a lot of these women. There's an old lady for whom this is the very first job she has ever had in her life. There's a young woman who proudly claims that this year when her brother visits her from town, she will buy him clothes instead of him buying her stuff, thereby upending the traditional (aka patriarchal) brother-sister relationship. And there's the young woman who gathers up the courage to make her first sale and then proudly pockets the few rupees as the first earnings she's ever made. Those earnings will help finance her education as she studies to become a police officer and gain a career instead of waiting to get married.

The machine was funded by kids at Oakland High School, and yes, when they won the Oscar, it was a lot of white ladies on stage. No Indians made this movie (the director, Rayka Zehtabchi, is Iranian-American), and the end credits of the film can feel a bit white savior-ish as they talk about raising the money for this machine by having yogathons. Any time someone speaks in the movie, there's an American voiceover rather than subtitles, which I personally found irritating, because there's so much more you can tell from the tone of the person's voice, even if you can't understand what they're saying. But despite all of that, Period. End of Sentence is a moving and affecting ode to these (extra)ordinary Indian women and reminds us how very simple actions can have powerful consequences. I loved this film, and immediately texted a bunch of my friends to watch it ASAP. Now you should go do the same. 

Apollo 11: Fly Me to the Moon

A documentary about Apollo 11 wasn't a movie I was dying to see. But I ended up in the theater, watching it in IMAX, and I was absolutely blown away. Whether you're a space geek or not, I highly encourage you seek out this film. It is bewilderingly good.

We all know the story - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (the poor man who had to orbit the moon while the other two got to actually walk on it - this movie made me appreciate that sacrifice even more) flew to the moon, landed, and return safely back to Earth. To watch that entire mission unfold on screen in 90 minutes is simply staggering. Director Todd Douglas Miller only uses archival footage, giving us a glimpse at what was going on behind-the-scenes at NASA in the lead-up to the launch and all the way to the successful return. The elation of every NASA scientist's face at every step of this mission is rather spectacular to behold (sadly as is the overwhelming white maleness of it all - I hope today's NASA has more diversity, though of course, they aren't flying to the moon anytime soon). We also get to see footage of all the people who thronged around the launch site in 1969, desperate to see history in the making and be able to tell their grandchildren that they were there the day that men flew off in a rocket to visit the moon.

The movie is quite technical, featuring a lot of staticky radio transmissions between the technicians and the astronauts about angles and velocities, and occasional hilarious snippets about their heart rates (Aldrin seems to be perpetually relaxed while Armstrong is constantly freaking - I particularly enjoyed watching these men in real life after seeing them portrayed in First Man last year). On occasion, there is a visual simulation to explain the maneuvers taking place at each stage of the mission to launch the various modules and get into the right orbits. If you're into data and technical wizardry, I'm sure you'd enjoy, but I was too busy being gobsmacked at how we managed to achieve this feat in 1969. It is an oft-repeated cliche that the computing power of the iPhone sitting in your pocket is superior to the combined power of ALL of NASA's computers in 1969. And yet - they strapped three men into a metal tube and got them to the moon and back.

Watching this movie in IMAX is a particularly surreal experience. The sounds, the visuals, everything envelops you and makes you feel like you're a part of that mission. I found myself overawed by the images of space, none of which were new to me, but felt brand new in this historical context. When the astronauts safely landed back on Earth, I got a bit teary - the whole thing only took up eight days of their life and yet in that eight days, what strides they had made. It boggles the mind that we got so far in 1969 and yet have no appetite to repeat the experience in 2019. If you ever harbored dreams of being an astronaut or simply want so spend some time in space, I cannot recommend Apollo 11 highly enough. Treat yourself to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Captain Marvel: All My Ladies to the Front

In a nice bit of timing, Captain Marvel, Marvel Studios' first movie to be led by a female superhero (yup, let that sink in, since this is their TWENTY-FIRST movie), was released on International Women's Day. Like any dutiful Marvel fangirl, I headed to the theater to watch it, and while I do not think it's the greatest Marvel movie ever made, it is certainly another fun Marvel enterprise. With a post-credits sequence that promises much more fun for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.

I won't bother giving away any plot in this review since you can experience that for yourself. Frankly, my head was swimming for the first half with the vast amount of exposition needed to keep everything straight. I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about the Captain Marvel character, and after two hours, I now feel like I know absolutely Everything. This is a vastly complicated character, and I don't know that the manner in which they chose to explain her backstory was particularly helpful, but if you stick with it, everything does coalesce neatly towards the end, in a manner that I did find quite satisfying. While a lot of moments feel very predictable and you can sense them coming from a mile away, there were some decent twists I did not anticipate, many of which are helped along by the fact that the movie features aliens called the Skrull who are shapeshifters that can adopt anyone's identity. As such, there are MANY fake-outs as anyone you see on screen could turn out to be a green alien at any minute.

Brie Larson does a good job playing Vers/Carol/Captain Marvel (you'll figure it out), trying to suss out her backstory and become a hero. Her stunt choreography is phenomenal, with the Kree (the other set of aliens - you'll figure it out) employing a rather dynamic and balletic fight style that is really fun to watch. I hadn't seen any of the trailers for this movie, so was surprised to find Jude Law also stars in it, which is always promising. As does Annette Bening, who is exactly as kick-ass as you would imagine. And then we have a de-aged Samuel L. Jackson as the young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, pre-Avengers, and pre-eye patch. Let me tell you, in 2019 we have finally cracked the code on de-aging actors, and he does not look creepy at all.

What I loved about this movie is that it fully embraced the fact that it was Marvel's first female-led film. In some scenes, this was done in supremely cheesy fashion, but in a lot of scenes, it delivered a winking nod to the women in the audience. Carol is constantly told not to give into her emotions, and there's the casual harassment when she lands on Earth and a random guy on the street tells her to smile. Of course, the best part is the soundtrack, which culminates with Gwen Stefani singing "Just A Girl" during an epic fight sequence where Carol effortlessly beats up a slew of baddies.

The other surprising thing about this film is the amount of 90's nostalgia. This is evidenced by the soundtrack but also the hilarious moments when the humans on earth are trying to use CDs and dial-up Internet to get information as the aliens impatiently tap their feet. I guess we've had enough reminiscing about the 80's and it's now time for my generation to get its moment in the sun. It makes me feel old, but still, I'll take it.

Captain Marvel is a perfectly entertaining addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character is already teased to reappear in Endgame so I cannot wait to watch her interact with the other heroes in the franchise and bring her talents to bear in the wider MCU. And I can only hope that the success of this film serves as a reminder that there is an audience for female-led superhero movies (I think Wonder Woman taught us that lesson ages ago already?) so let's stop dragging our feet. This was a good movie, but don't let this be the token film to appease the ladies. We're ready for more.