Shalini Langer
Articles By Shalini Langer
Motherless Brooklyn movie review: Watch it for the impressive cast
Motherless Brooklyn movie review: Edward Norton has an impressive cast that turns up even for bit roles, including Willis, while Norton himself is in superlative, if indulgent, form as the man who has been seeking answers all his life -- encumbered by his own mind, which he once dubs an "anarchist".
Charlie’s Angels movie review: A light, breezy outing
Charlie’s Angels movie review: This time, Charlie’s three Angels are as different as they come, and mostly muscular and lithe.
Motichoor Chaknachoor movie review: Astonishingly regressive
Motichoor Chaknachoor movie review: While it’s clear from the start that this 1 and 1 will eventually equal 2, the film goes out of its way to underline how mismatched the two are, in all department.
Jhalki movie review: The film will leave you unmoved
Jhalki movie review: If the story is tailor-made for tears, Brahmananda S Singh doesn’t try to spare any. However, the film leaves one unmoved due to its cardboard characters, but for the spunky Jhalki, her brother Babu (Jha and Sakpal, respectively), and her village.
Last Christmas movie review: Strictly for fans of Emilia Clarke
There is one thing going for Last Christmas, apart from the generous use of Michael's peppy hits. It poses a question regarding the world's obsession with "being special", and wonders, why can't one just be.
Doctor Sleep movie review: Take the Shine Off
In return to The Shining's indelible hotel, the film only ends up reinforcing Doctor Sleep as a poor successor -- with a Nicholson-lookalike popping up and making McGregor look more ineffectual than he needs to.
JNYou and Me
Love blossomed on the cheap tea and samosas we had by the wayside on the JNU campus, with each of its ‘landmarks’ — the Teflas canteen, the Ganga dhaba, the library (an entire building of it!) — marking a milestone.
The Current War movie review: A stately and rich period film
The Current War movie review: Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, whose work includes assistant-ships with names such as Martin Scorsese and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, mounts a stately and rich period film as well as some breathtaking montages of light and dark.
The Addams Family movie review: A lost opportunity
The Addams Family movie review: The Addams Family loses its way, ironically, chasing the outrageous when most ghosts are now to be found in the ordinary.
Terminator Dark Fate movie review: One long battle against Rev-9
Terminator Dark Fate movie review: More than the future, Dark Fate is prescient about the present.
Zombieland Double Tap movie review: The laughs are still coming
Zombieland Double Tap movie review: While the foursome have been surviving somehow, and getting attached to each other in the process despite vowing not to do so, the zombies have been getting stronger, faster and deadlier.
Downton Abbey movie review: Watch it only for Maggie Smith
Downton Abbey movie review: What may pass off as a nostalgic throwback to genteel times on TV, with always a promise of something to follow in the next episode, is just a sodden apology for royalty in the theatres.
Weathering with You movie review: A little bit of everything
Weathering with You movie review: Even as you are trying to hold on to one appealing thing about Weathering With You -- and there are, admittedly, many -- director Makato Shinkai moves on to something else.
Gemini Man movie review: An unconvincing conflict of the clones
Gemini Man movie review: This Will Smith starrer is dragged down by the fact that elements which might have been novel two decades ago - from government-trained assassins who are now State targets, to secret experiments and off-the-books soldiers - are stale from overuse now.
She said: Here go… a dozen facts about a father
An old men’s club where they all get a little tipsy and dance to old songs is a highlight of his calendar. Granted father is no Elvis, but did the King’s repertoire include the thumka perfected by Indian men from long practice is the question.
Joker movie review: Joaquin Phoenix shines in joyless film
Joaquin Phoenix is the embodiment of nervous, anorexic energy in his role. He just doesn’t act with his face — with or without the joker paint. He acts with his entire body, with its ribs sticking out, its back abnormally arched, its legs leaning away from him, its feet gliding from under him, its arms flailing about.
Breaking down news: Fighting words
Imran Khan’s tweet on a counter-narrative to Islamophobia freaks out the Twitter AI while climate activist Greta Thunberg inspires and provokes in equal measure
Abominable movie review: A predictable fare
Abominable is often beautiful to look at, as the road to Everest is laid out in all its beauty but little of its harshness. However, the story itself is flat, predictable and moves inexorably slowly to its end.
Hustlers movie review: Jennifer Lopez shines in crime drama
Hustlers movie review: When Hustlers is focused on the women, particularly behind the scenes at the strip club, it's refreshing.
Vikram and Pragyan may be lost but that part of the Moon will indeed forever remain Indian
A couple of days is all it took for us to move on from talking about trajectory, deceleration, orbits and Moon terrain, to tying ourselves up in knots asking, by way of gravity, what’s maths got to do with economics.