What to watch on October 10: Movies, web series to watch

Helmed by Drew Goddard and co-written by him and Joss Whedon, The Cabin in the Woods is a subversive horror film that takes the hackneyed remote forest cabin premise of so many horror films and turns it on its head. The result is a smartly written and acted movie. Chris Hemsworth plays the role of Curt Vaughan, who is one of the college students who go on a vacation to that forest cabin.

This Martin Scorsese directorial is about the rise and fall of mobster Henry Hill (a real figure) and stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. The film is easily one of the best Scorsese films if not the best.

Jon Favreau creation The Mandalorian is the first-ever live-action Star Wars series. It is about an ace bounty hunter, who due to recession in the wake of Galactic Empire’s obliteration, takes up a near-impossible job from a well-paying client.

Relive your childhood and follow the adventures of ultra-rich Scrooge McDuck, and his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie in the classic series.

This show is based on the children book series of the same name and follows two young siblings as they try to protect themselves and their fortune from the devilish Count Olaf (played with a menacing glee by the inimitable Neil Patrick Harris). The series is the right mix of horror and comedy and you scarcely mind the improbability of the events unfolding before you, since it is incredibly entertaining.

The One and Only Ivan revolves around a silverback gorilla (the titular Ivan) who performs for his human master Mack (Bryan Cranston) in a mini-circus inside a mall. A gentle soul whose preoccupations include hanging out with other captive animals and a stray dog that sneaks into the cages once in a while, Ivan, the headliner of the circus, nevertheless has to look fierce and deadly in front of the audience. Because that is how humans imagine gorillas are, which in turn justifies all sorts of cruelties meted out to these animals.

The animated series follows a mad but brilliant scientist Rick Sanchez and his naive, impressionable grandson Morty Smith's adventures across faraway galaxies, planets, parallel worlds, different realities and so on. Rick and Morty boasts some of the most intelligent writing in the medium currently, with jokes that are easy to miss if the attention wavers even a little. And before you have managed to wrap your head around it, the show has already moved ahead.

This one is among the weirder and eccentric shows. Frodo of Lord of the Rings movies, Elijah Wood, plays an everyman whose life is turned into a veritable whirlwind a flamboyantly British "holistic" detective; holistic because he believes everything in the universe to be interconnected. And indeed, he has a seemingly preternatural ability. The feel of the show is like from one of the more strange comic-books from the 80s came to life. The story is loosely based on the writings of the great Douglas Adams.

There are few good shows on pirates, and Black Sails sits pretty on the top. Although the first season was marred by more talking than action, Black Sails picks up from second, gets better in third, and goes out with a bang with its fourth and final season. The story is the prequel of Treasure Island, classic adventure book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Based on Manu Joseph’s novel of the same name, Sudhir Mishra’s adaptation of Serious Men is a bitingly sharp, satirical look at Aspirational India.

Also Read | Serious Men film review: A bitingly sharp, satirical look at Aspirational India

If Lovecraft Country is one thing, it is blunt. There is no sanitisation here of the reality and even more than Watchmen, this series is true to life on a granular level. To be fair to Watchmen, that DC Comics adaptation also had an entire mythology of superheroes to contend with, and while Lovecraft Country does delve into Lovecraftian lore a little bit, its main emphasis remains on the daily humiliation, violence, persecution that white Americans inflicted on African-Americans just because of the colour of their skin.

Hubie Halloween is a likeable movie. It is fun despite everything. It will make you laugh, and will keep you hooked for every one of those 100 minutes. There are worse ways to spend time.

Also Read | Hubie Halloween review: A likeable movie

A DC TV show that embraced the crazy after tip-toeing around it for a couple of seasons. And it is live-action. There is few things off-limits or too insane for this show. It may not have Batman (Bruce Wayne is a young boy in the show) but it has every single member of Batman's rogues gallery, and this was just as good.

Set in the early ’50s, Lootera tells the story of Varun (Ranveer Singh) and Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). It has Massey in the role of Singh’s companion who visits Sinha’s house. Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, the period drama is based on author O Henry’s 1907 short story The Last Leaf. The strength of the film lies in its spellbinding cinematography, superb performances and its soulful music.

Also Read | Streaming Guide: Vikrant Massey movies and web series

This HBO miniseries is executively produced by two giants of American cinema, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who bring their experience of Saving Private Ryan to Band of Brothers It is an exquisite and sensitive portrayal of a company of soldiers. Future stars like Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, James McAvoy, Simon Pegg made their name due to this series.

Set in 1980s' England, the followup of Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, chronicles the tale of inhabitants of Bly Manor, the titular creepy house in English countryside. Like apparently all big houses in horror fiction, Bly Manor is haunted as well. Henry Thomas, Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Kate Siegel return from the original series.

This Batman movie is the most Batman-esque movie. In fact, if you see only this movie, you will have a pretty good idea as to what the superhero is all about. Will Arnett's superbly written and voiced Caped Crusader is as much a tribute as a parody of every live-action version of Batman. And it is downright nuts. Voldemort and Sauron are two of the villains that the Joker recruits to take down Batman, for crying out loud, and that is not the craziest thing in this movie. Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson and Ralph Fiennes are also part of the film's voice cast.

Set in Kashmir in the 1990s, Haider tackled many sensitive matters pretty deftly without being too judgmental. It was another triumphant entry in Vishal Bhardwaj’s glorious line of Shakespeare adaptations set in Indian context (Maqbool and Omkara drew inspiration from Macbeth and Othello respectively) and was based on one of the most famous works by the Bard: Hamlet. With a taut storyline, strong performances particularly by Shahid Kapoor as the titular character, Haider was relentlessly absorbing.

The classic Doordarshan TV series based on RK Narayan's charming small-town based stories still holds up well. Relive your childhood (if you watched Malgudi Days as a child, that is) with this series.

Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories, which also inspired a hugely popular series of open-world RPG video-games, the world of the witcher resembles Westeros (from Game of Thrones) in many ways. For one, it is a gritty, dirty world full of violence, sex, and so on. For another, there is no clear division of good or bad like in most fantasy tales. However, The Witcher boasts of a lot of magic and fantastical creatures, which George RR Martin’s novels shied away from. The hero itself, Geralt of Rivia, is a mutated human with superhuman abilities. Game of Thrones in comparison had magic, but only on the periphery, at least in the first few seasons.

Netflix’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Victorian-era Gothic horror novel was a surprisingly clever, well-performed piece of entertainment. While it was a considerable departure from the source material, it remains an interpretation that Stoker himself probably would have been proud of.

The standard yet thrilling zombie apocalypse series has a woman being separated from her daughter. She goes on a journey to find her, determined to be reunited come hell or high water.

Starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in the titular roles of Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, the Fast and Furious spin-off movie featured Idris Elba as villain Brixton Lore.

Cursed, based on an illustrated novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler, stars Katherine Langford in the lead role. It pictures a Britain in which Nimue belongs to a race of otherworldly beings called the Fey, who are being persecuted by an order of zealot monks called the Red Paladin, led by Peter Mullan’s Father Carden. There is Merlin, as well, played by Vikings and Westworld star Gustaf Skarsgård.

The world from the perspective of Jeff Goldblum is a really interesting place, and you can experience exactly that in this National Geographic documentary series.

Before Game of Thrones, HBO had Rome, a lavish and no-holds-barred take on Roman Empire around the time of Caesar’s assassination. It is a gorgeously shot show that unfortunately turned out to be simply too expensive and was discontinued after 2 seasons in spite of huge success.

The Imagineering Story is about Walt Disney Imagineering, a little known design and development centre of The Walt Disney Company, which creates Disney theme parks and attractions around the world. Go behind the scenes of the Disney Parks dream.

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One paints the picture of a dystopian society in which most people are poor and have a virtual reality world called OASIS as an escape from their humdrum reality. Ready Player One, starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance among others, is an escapist film in every sense of the word.

If there is one thing to be said about Apple TV+ content, the executives in charge are going out of their way to be audacious. Dickinson is another example. The series is about the 19th-century American poetess Emily Dickinson. Though it is set in that era, it has modern sensibilities and tone (as the show’s logline boasts), and the result is an interesting series fit for the post #MeToo world. It is irrelevant whether you have any experience with Dickinson’s work. That is not the point. But this series may inspire you to check her poetry.

This Anthony Mackie and Samuel L Jackson starrer may not hit all the right spots, but it does a good job in carrying the message across. Also, it is mighty entertaining most of the time (the star power does help) and even handles race pretty well. I would personally love to see Mackie and Jackson together more.

They Shall Not Grow Old is a World War II documentary directed by Peter Jackson. It is an extraordinary experience, which has rightly earned plaudits around the world. Jackson, best known for directing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has used modern post-production techniques, both visual and sound, including new voice-acting, and colourisation to bring alive World War II in all its terrible glory.

One of the few films that dared to take oppressive societal mores that restrict personal independence head on, Masaan was a surprisingly swell directorial debut by Neeraj Ghaywan. It dexterously wove two independent storylines that run parallel and hardly met. Richa Chaddha once again demonstrated why she is a force to be reckoned with by getting into her role with a professional ease. Vicky Kaushal, then a newcomer, was pretty convincing as a shy and awkward small-town boy.

In Margarita with a Straw, Kalki Koechlin’s character is a teenage girl who is not afraid to express her sexual urges and finds herself enjoying getting intimate with both men and women.

HBO's miniseries The Third Day is an effective mystery that rises above its premise's trappings largely due to Jude Law's superlative performance, capable direction and cinematography.

One expects a miniseries based on themes like racism, religion and slavery to be solemn and violent, and it often is, but Ethan Hawke and Joshua Caleb Johnson starrer The Good Lord Bird is also a delightfully funny piece of entertainment with a crooked sense of humour. 

Starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, Broadchurch first aired in 2013. If there was ever a crime show that knew how to perfectly place red herrings without leading or misleading the audience, it was this show. Broadchurch demands to be binge-watched, at least the first season but do try the later seasons as well.

Amazon Prime Video will premiere nine movies which would have hit cinema halls had they not been shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here

Watch the all time favourite 90s sitcom Friends on Netflix and kick-off your weekend in leisure. The story of six friends who live in New York struck a chord with viewers all over the world and even though the last episode of the show aired 16 years ago, it continues to be a fan favourite.

This Adam Sandler horror-comedy is now streaming on Netflix. Also starring Julie Bowen, Maya Rudolph among others, the film is set against the backdrop of Halloween.

Watch the live stream from the Bigg Boss 14 house on Voot Select. You can also catch the previous episodes on the OTT platform.

Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, this Sudhir Mishra film is now streaming on Netflix. “Nawazuddin Siddiqui is very good, channelling Ayyan’s seething rage into something we can empathise with; the tender passion he exhibits with Indira Tiwari rounds off his character. Aakshath Das, as Adi, is perfect, and the real star of the movie,” read Shubhra Gupta’s review of the film.

Starring Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday. This film by Maqbool Khan is available on pay-per-view basis on Zee Plex. Produced by Ali Abbas Zafar, Khaali Peeli is set in Mumbai and follows the two lead characters as they share a cab and get embroiled in an unforeseen set of events. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review of the film, “Khaali Peeli knows that it needs to refresh the tropes it is up against, and manages to do so only some of the time in its two-hour duration. As a pandemic time-pass, it serves. Just about.”

The MX Player series High is available to stream now. The series focuses on the drug nexus that has become a big vice for our society. The Indian Express' Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review of the series, "The series has atmosphere, and a distinctive colour palette: the flashbacks, which take place in the early 70s, are in B&W, and the idealistic group on the trail of a magic plant tramps around dense jungles. Present-day locations range from TV studios, to picturesque rehab centres nestling in the hills, to the hide-outs of noble so-called Naxals, to nightclubs and raves where bad things happen, and villains’ dens which remind you of 70s flicks."

Netflix's three-part documentary series Bad Boy Billionaires India is now streaming on the OTT platform. The three episodes chronicle the stories of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Subrata Roy who have been in the news for charges of fraud and money laundering among other things. Read the review here.

Hansal Mehta's Scam 1992 starts streaming on Sony LIV today. The series follows the story of Harshad Mehta who was involved in the biggest securities fraud that the nation had seen. Check out the trailer here