Our favourite critic, Raja Sen's quarantine prescription is one you'll want to fill out!

Enlightened

The world fell rightly in love with Laura Dern with Big Little Lies and Marriage Story, yet her finest work lies in this underseen series she co-created a decade ago. In this dramedy, Dern plays a woman bouncing back after a nervous breakdown, overcompensatingly trying to force rose-tinted glasses onto an unsmiling world. For the ‘normal’ people around her, this ebullience is, ironically, too much to bear. Superb.

• Find it on Disney+ Hotstar

Marc Maron: End Times Fun

Sometime last year, comedian Marc Maron recorded this blistering set about a possible end of the world — an eventuality he saw coming based on how Los Angelenos have started treating wildfires like a season. Irreverent and insightful, Maron is more focussed than ever, but watching this series while the world faces a pandemic and lurches from catastrophe to catastrophe… that’s something else.

• Find it on Netflix

Avenue 5

Our fiction finds unpredictable ways to resonate with our truths. The idea of imposed confinement and cabin fever is uncannily reflected in Armando Iannucci’s satire about passengers and crew stranded on an outer space-cruise, getting by on video calls and wilful misinformation. The lunacy — and the lines, those scimitar-sharp lines — have a definite Douglas Adams hangover, and the inimitable Hugh Laurie (bouncing from American to British accent and back again, sometimes in the same sentence), leads a terrific cast.

• Find it on Disney+ Hotstar

Trance

One of the most impressive Indian films I have seen in years, this Anwar Rasheed film takes on gods and drugs (and their interchangeability) with an intensity as savage as it is stylish. A traumatised motivational speaker — Fahadh Faasil, the best leading man in the country today — is recruited by a large firm to learn every word of the Bible and pose as a godman. That is all you need to know climbing aboard this ride. Many an Indian filmmaker is captivated by David Lynch, but usually wear his influence superficially. Trance, a fearless Biblical allegory, genuinely goes Lynch-deep in metaphor and symbology. Wild.

• Find it on Amazon Prime

A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood

I found myself recommending this Tom Hanks film — about iconic children’s television host Mr Rogers — more frequently than anything else during this difficult season. Hanks is great, doing enough to make you head to words and documentaries about the incredible Fred Rogers himself. As a film it has its flaws, particularly the cardboard writing of any character who isn’t Mr Rogers, but as a tribute to a phenomenally inspirational man, one who loved and cared and taught, it feels like a balm. Here is a film that heals.

• Find it on Amazon Prime
   

Raja Sen

Raja is a film and television critic, columnist and screenwriter, and has recently finished a screenplay he is not permitted to discuss. He has reviewed films for Rediff.com, NDTV and The Hindustan Times, and has been writing Stream Of Stories, a column on international and Indian streaming content, in Mint Lounge since 2016. His first book, The Best Baker In The World, is an illustrated, all-ages adaptation of The Godfather, and he is currently working on a children’s version of the iconic drug film Trainspotting.

Follow him on Twitter @RajaSen

About Summer Fridays

Summer Fridays is a brand new blog series by Asia Society India Centre, profiling established cultural influencers and rising stars in various fields. Each week we feature conversations, interviews, recipes, playlists, and more—on art, food, music, literature, and film.