The Silent Sea, Don't Look Up and other titles to watch this weekend

Emily In Paris (Netflix)

"Emily wears silly clothes," says the British banker Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), Emily's love interest in season 2. Clashing prints, block colours, fingerless gloves, bucket hats, vintage jackets, retro bags—the fashion is over the top. Her boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) and friend Mindy (Ashley Park) are far sassier and effortless—Emily (Lily Collins) looks bland when in the same frame as them. This American in Paris is still conflicted about Chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo—he with hazel-blue eyes). And like Emily's pop colours, Paris is always sunny and Eiffel Tour is never out of sight.—Nipa Charagi

Dhanak (MUBI)

Nagesh Kukunoor’s gentle Rajasthan-set film from 2016 is on MUBI. We wrote in our review: “Dhanak is a reminder—if one were needed—that this is a hopelessly, incurably movie-mad nation. Ten-year-old Pari, visiting a tent cinema with her younger brother and uncle, sees a poster with her favourite actor, Shah Rukh Khan, asking people to donate their eyes. She writes to Khan asking if he can help her get Chotu’s eyesight back before his ninth birthday. When she learns that Khan is in Jaisalmer, shooting for a film, she sets off from her village to petition him in person, Chotu in tow (he isn’t thrilled; he would much rather meet Salman Khan). The idea that our cinematic idols can be accessed in person, that they would be happy to help us with our problems…let’s just say there’s more in common between Dhanak and Fan than one might expect.”

Don't Look Up (Netflix)

Adam McKay returns with a climate crisis comedy. As we noted in our review, “it’s the supporting cast that pushes the comedy. Meryl Streep is the over-the-top President Orlean, whose commitment to the Oval Office is as sincere as her obsequious son Jason (Jonah Hill) serving as her chief of staff. He is the one with glib lines, the nonsensical ideas, a role Hill is ideally suited for. Blanchett and Mark Rylance submit to major prosthetics and make up transformation while Ariana Grande as Riley Bina has one comically bizarre song.” 

Atrangi Re (Disney+ Hotstar)

Aanand L Rai's film takes some brave storytelling chances. It starts to unravel around halfway through, as we wrote in our review: “Even as Vishu curses his luck, we start to notice there’s something strange about Sajjad. He’s not just a larger-than-life figure, he doesn’t feel real at all. Something doesn’t add up about Rinku’s stories either; it’s hard to believe her family wouldn’t know after 21 attempts that the man she loves is Muslim. The film’s big twist arrives around halfway through, when Vishu’s friend M.S. sees Rinku and Sajjad eating together.”

The Silent Sea (Netflix)

Earth is parched; water is being rationed. The Korean space agency sends a mission to its Balhae lunar station which was abandoned five years ago after a radiation leak killed a crew of 117. The team, led by Han Yoon-jae (Gong Yoo) and including astrobiologist Song Ji-an (Bae Doo Na), has to make an emergency landing on the moon and their spaceship is destroyed. Nothing seems to go right. As the team explores the lunar station, they discover that the samples they have to recover are of lunar water, which acts like a virus—it multiplies inside the human body, killing the person. Other classified secrets are also revealed. This Korean sci-fi drama is slow-paced with repetitive shots, picking up some momentum in the last couple of episodes.—NC