Rating:
Consider the calibre of films that have been adapted from Booker or Man Booker Prize-winning novels: Schindler s List, The English Patient, The Remains Of The Day and Life Of Pi were all festooned with awards of their own, and two of them won Best Picture Oscars.
In truth, though, there have also been a few duds. I thought 2017 s The Sense Of An Ending, inspired by the Julian Barnes book, a terribly dreary affair.
With the new Netflix release The White Tiger, I m happy to say, the list burns bright once more.
Comparisons will doubtless be made with yet another Best Picture, Danny Boyle s Slumdog Millionaire (2008), at which the script makes a sly dig. But this is a cleverer, more complex and more disturbing tale
Psycho Goreman: 2½
THE WHITE TIGER: Here’s a film that’s rich with themes and cutting observations about modern life, mostly about India where it takes place, but in a way just could be about anywhere. It shows the struggle to better yourself, stop being a servant, move up in class and bear the moral sacrifices you have to make to get there. Those ideas are in sharp focus in India’s class system, where, as the main character puts it, the only way out of poverty is crime or politics. Balram, played by newcomer Adarsh Gourav, starts with simple lying. He takes a job as a driver before he even has a licence. It’s OK in his mind because his employer is the son of the ruthless landlord who keeps people poor back in his home village.
★★★★
CHRISTIAN JUNGERSEN’S acclaimed novel Undtagelsen comes to the screen, courtesy of director Jesper Nielsen, in this compelling watchable thriller.
The story of a group of researchers at the Danish Centre for Genocide Information, whose lives are upended by a series of anonymous threats, it follows the rise of troll culture in recent years to provide a timely and unmissable chiller, packed full of twists, turns, and towering performances from its four female leads.
Nielsen stages a robust and rather lavish adaptation of Jungersen’s tome here, though wisely goes for subtlety over splash in allowing his cast to fully engage with the material on offer something they attack with dramatic aplomb. However, there are some disappointingly sensationalist swings in its third act, which soften the blow of an otherwise powerful and incredibly poignant thriller, packed with sterling performances.
What’s new to VOD and streaming this weekend
Including the New Zealand indie Baby Done, the festival hit The Climb and the Fantasia retro splatter comedy Psycho Goreman By Norman Wilner and Glenn Sumi
Jan 22, 2021
Courtesy of Pacific Northwest Pictures
Left to right: Emily Barclay, Rose Matafeo and Matthew Lewis consider their future in Baby Done.
NOW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of January 22. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms.
Baby Done
(Curtis Vowell)
This New Zealand comedy – which counts Taika Waititi as an executive producer, and features actors like Eagle Vs. Shark’s Loren Taylor and Hunt For The Wilderpeople’s Rachel House among its supporting cast – follows young arborists Zoe (Rose Matafeo) and Tim (Matthew Lewis) as they process the news of a pregnancy very differently: he embraces the impending responsibility, while she freaks out and tries to arrange a bucket list of challenging or dangerous
Review: Baby Done takes a charming look at impending parenthood
Produced by Taika Waititi, this New Zealand comedy follows a couple whose world is shaken by an unplanned pregnancy By Norman Wilner
Courtesy of Pacific Northwest Pictures
BABY DONE (Curtis Vowell). 94 minutes. Available for rental and purchase on Apple TV, Google Play and other on-demand services. Rating:
NNNN
Maybe it was the cheerful, light tone; maybe it was the sly commentary on the expectations society places on expectant mothers. Or maybe it was just the protagonist’s goal of getting on a plane and going to Vancouver for an international tree-climbing competition. Whatever the reason, Curtis Vowell’s Baby Done landed just right for me, and I think you might enjoy it too.