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Connect photos.

In a country where the government has imposed a national curfew, single mother Nayanthara notices eerie changes in her daughter's behavior. She seeks virtual help from a pastor, who proposes an online exorcism.

Genre: Mystery & thriller

Original Language: Tamil

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Producer: Vignesh Shivan

Writer: Ramkumar Kaavya , Ashwin Saravanan

Release Date (Theaters): Dec 21, 2022 limited

Runtime: 1h 39m

Distributor: Rowdy Pictures

Production Co: Rowdy Pictures

Cast & Crew

Anupam Kher

Father Augustine

Arthur Samuel

Joseph Benoy

Ashwin Saravanan

Ramkumar Kaavya

Screenwriter

Vignesh Shivan

Ra Sibi Marappan

Executive Producer

Manikantan Krishnamachary

Cinematographer

Kevin. A Richard

Film Editing

Prithvi Chandrasekhar

Original Music

Costume Design

Varsha Varadarajan

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Connect review: Nayanthara’s film offers unadulterated horror experience

Connect review: nayanthara is her earnest best in the film, but it truly belongs to haniya nafisa..

Ashwin Saravanan is fast evolving as one of the most exciting filmmakers with a voice and style of his own. After making a strong mark with films such as Maya and Game Over, he reunites with Nayanthara for his latest outing, Connect. The film is unarguably one of the best horror films to come out of Tamil cinema. Unlike most horror films, Connect doesn’t rely too much on jump scares but it strongly believes in offering an unadulterated horror experience. The film is truly one of its kind as it manages to generate thrills without banking upon the usual horror cliches. (Also Read | Connect trailer: Anupam Kher makes Nayanthara perform exorcism on her possessed daughter in horror film without interval )

A still from Ashwin Saravanan's Connect.

The film opens in a beachside shack and we are introduced to a beautiful family. The teenage daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa) is passionate about music and wants to pursue it by enrolling in Trinity College of London. The father (Vinay) is supportive of Anna’s interest and persuades her to chase her dream. However, the mother (Nayanthara) feels she can’t leave without completing her formal education. The entire conversation is happening 24 hours before the national lockdown. Cut to the next scene, the lockdown is announced with the widespread Covid-19. Nayanthara and her daughter are stuck together for the next 21 days. A few days into the lockdown, both the mother and daughter test positive for the virus and they begin to quarantine themselves. However, the daughter starts experiencing weird symptoms, and her grandfather (Sathyaraj), who is in touch with his daughter via video calls, is convinced that she’s not alright. Their fears come true when they learn that Anna is possessed, and Nayanthara has to deal with the situation all alone.

Connect, as a horror film, is never in a hurry to impress the viewer with jump scares. It takes its time to build the mood and tone which really makes the overall experience unbelievably immersive. Both the visuals and the sound play a key role in making Connect a unique horror film. Since it’s a lockdown thriller that happens in a single location, all the conversations between the characters happen via digital screens. The cinematography is almost like a first-person shooter game because you feel like you’re in the house when the camera moves around. This style of shooting also makes the jump-scare moments truly inventive. There’s a terrific scene where Sathyaraj is trying to explain to Nayanthara that her daughter is possessed, but she’s not convinced. It’s one of the best scenes in the film. Most scenes are shot with the help of limited light and the output is truly pathbreaking.

Nayanthara is her earnest best in Connect, but the film truly belongs to debutante Haniya Nafisa, who has some demanding scenes when she’s possessed. This is a remarkable debut for her. Sathyaraj and Vinay have important cameos and they play their parts very convincingly. Anupam Kher shines in a small but very effective cameo. The music and cinematography play a very key role in making Connect an exceptionally good cinematic experience.

Film: Connect

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj and Vinay

Anupam Kher

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Connect Review: Nayanthara Shines Bright In A Dystopian Drama That Thrives In The Dark

Connect review: the film connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience..

Nayanthara in Connect . (courtesy: YouTube )

Cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Rating: Three stars (out of 5)

A supernatural thriller set in the time of Covid, Ashwin Saravanan's Connect has its share of jump scares as well as other genre tics. But, if you can tide over the ritualistic babble that it culminates in, it isn't one of those predictable, hackneyed horror films that merely seek to shock us out of our seats.

The screenplay, authored by the husband-wife writing team of Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar, alternates between the sombre and the nightmarish. The impact of the range of feelings that the film arouses is heightened significantly by the steady understated power of the lead performance by Nayanthara.

She shines bright in a dystopian drama that thrives in the dark. She uses her eyes and facial expressions rather than shrieks and squeals to convey fear and foreboding as the unknown creeps up on the sorted and unflappable woman she plays.

Connect , produced by Vignesh Sivan's Rowdy Pictures and released nationwide in Hindi a week after the original Tamil version hit the screen, weaves into its story of disease, death, divinity and the devil a complement of unsettling twitches that are triggered by a Covid-related tragedy and girl's response to it.

God and Satan are at war in a world torn asunder by sickness and sorrow. A little girl faces the brunt. A tormented woman fights to save her daughter. A grandfather offers constant advice online. An electronically connected pastor steps in to try and exorcise the evil spirit. Amid all the blather, the film stays firmly focussed on the mother-daughter relationship.

The emotional bond between the two women is thrown into complete disarray by a demonic possession. The script employs the bedevilment as a metaphor for a rampaging, devastating virus. The connect between the two is verbalised by the exorcist himself.

With its loud thuds, persistent knocks on the door, mysterious rumbles, fluttering curtains, flickering lights, eerie shadows in the dark, upturned objects, the works, the 99-minute Connect banks upon all the devices that one would expect in a horror film. Yet it manages to break away at crucial points from the practices ordinarily associated with the spooky business of peddling fear and heightening anxieties.

Connect , which reunites director Saravanan with lead actor Nayanthara after the 2015 neo-noir psychological drama Maya, examines dimensions of loss and grief through an occult phenomenon that that sets off a disquieting chain of events for a quarantining woman, Susan, and her young musician-daughter, Anna.

The pandemic and the lockdown have taken their toll on both. But the nature of the impact on the two isn't the same. The mother, to begin with, seems completely unperturbed by the crisis that hits her - and the world at large. The daughter, severely distressed, goes into a shell, an act that renders her vulnerable to a Satanic invasion.

Talking of an invasion, the possession of a human by the devil is akin in Connect to a home invasion by a hostile force from another world. Disease is a demon, and vice-versa, and it pushes Anna into an abyss from where only an exorcist can rescue her.

The two women are in separate rooms but the changes that Anna undergoes send ripples not only through the entire house in which they isolate themselves from the world and from each other, but also through the spaces that Susan's father Arthur (Sathyaraj) and a pastor-exorcist (Anupam Kher) occupy.

Connect is Saravanan's third directorial venture. He has established himself as a genre filmmaker with a distinct, novel style marked by keen empathy for women fighting off hurtful forces. In Maya, a single mother who works in ad films to make ends meet is haunted by a ghost.

In Game Over (2019), starring Taapsee Pannu, the heroine is a talented game developer grappling with PTSD, a direct consequence of a horrific rape.

In Connect , Saravanan portrays two women - one a mid-career professional in a position of authority, the other a gifted young girl looking forward to making a career as a musician. The latter's youthful hurry to branch out on her own creates friction between her and her mother, who is firm in her belief that the girl must complete her education before leaving home to pursue her dream.

Saravanan, with the aid of cinematographer Manikantan Krishnamachary, engages visuals, an interplay light and shade, skewed camera angles and movements and sound effects to conjure up an atmosphere of great unease and dread.

The film's early scenes, which are happy and filled with warmth as the family vacations in Goa, quickly give way to intimations of the dangers up ahead. The pandemic, and the lockdown that it necessitates, yanks Anna's doting dad, Dr. Joseph Benoy (Vinay Rai), away from the family because the hospital needs him to be on duty 24X7.

The characters from here on are unable to make physical contact with each other. They converse on Zoom calls. The restrictions on physical interactions inevitably lead to unnerving distancing and disorientation. The doctor can connect with his wife and child only through digital means. Anna, the youngest, is the worst affected by the sudden forced separation.

Susan and Anna are suspected to be Covid-positive. As they await their test reports, they isolate within the house while they keep in touch with the girl's grandfather. Susan and her dad soon begin to feel that something is seriously wrong with Anna. They seek help on her behalf.

Nayanthara stellar performance is supported admirably by Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher. Newcomer Haniya Nafisa, cast in the challenging role of a girl possessed, is no less impressive.

Promoted Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

When the confrontation between the devout and the diabolic reaches a crescendo, the pitch of the film is amped up considerably. Connect is never, however, in danger of drowning in shrillness because at all other times, the director does not budge from his controlled and muted methods to tell a story that vacillates between the real and the spectral.

Connect connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience.

Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Ashwin Saravanan

Nayanthara On <i>Jawan</i> Co-Star Shah Rukh Khan: "He Respects Women A Lot"

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'Connect' movie review: Delivers some chills, but misses out on a lot more

From what we’ve seen of Ashwin Saravanan, it is clear that the filmmaker doesn’t really go for the low-hanging fruits when making genre films. In his fascinating debut, Maya, the addition of the ‘movie within a movie’ trope made it all the more interesting. Similarly, in his intriguing sophomore, Game Over, the ‘you are not playing the game, you are the game’ trope made it all the more engaging. So, one can’t really be faulted for expecting his latest, Connect, to be more than just an exercise in exorcism. Although Connect starts strongly with a bright tale freefalling into the depths of darkness, courtesy of the pandemic, the film sparingly hits the high notes of the genre while just about managing past the finish line.

Ashwin introduces the protagonists —a lived-in couple Susan (Nayanthara) and Joseph (Vinay Rai), their daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa), and Susan’s father Arthur (Sathyaraj)— on a holiday, with a breezy song, which betrays a sense of melancholy. We are just a day or two ahead of the nationwide lockdown, and Joseph is a doctor who is asked to return to the hospital to take care of the never-ending crowd of patients. Tragedy strikes the family as Joseph joins the list of the many frontline workers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of the world. An already strained equation between Susan and Anna becomes even worse, and then, we start dealing with a heady mix of seances, possessions, purgations, and of course, exorcisms.

There is no doubt that the buildup to the exorcism in Connect boasts of a few effective scares. It might not be the ones that make us watch the film through our fingers, but it definitely does enough to keep us on the edge of our seats. Even though the type of scares and the timing of it too feel predictable, the usage of electronic screens allows editing transitions to be a novel affair. Whenever the screen goes to pitch black, or the internet connection goes cold and the screen starts buffering, there is a definite increase in adrenaline. Although, we have seen this style of narrative in films like Searching, and C U Soon, Ashwin and his team smartly find a way around the compact nature of the medium to give us a non-claustrophobic feeling. While this does rob us of the tension that pervades through such films, Connect tries its best to achieve this with a constant tussle between the idea of loneliness and seeking help.

Be it in Naane Varuvean earlier this year or Connect, it is interesting how therapy and not exorcism is the first step towards helping the child in trouble. What happens after therapy might not fit into the rationale of scientific thinking, but the normalisation of the treatment is a pertinent reflection of the changing times. Even the Father who comes for a diagnosis of Anna’s predicament says the illness could be one that requires therapy or one that requires a spiritual intervention. However, the film falters a lot when it comes to establishing the urgency of the possession and its after-effects. Surprisingly, Connect really works on the comedy front, and full points for mixing a few laughs amidst all those scares without becoming yet another ‘horror-comedy’ film that is churned out dime-a-dozen from Tamil cinema.

This disconnect stems from the rather stilted acceptance of Susan about the turmoil in her life after the possession of her daughter. Nayanthara plays Susan with an alarming lack of urgency that is so disconcerting. How does she not feel petrified every living moment after seeing her daughter do demonic things? How does she not feel shaken to her core after being ‘chokeslammed’ by her daughter? The emotional distance between us and Susan is perplexing, and it is odd that even Anna’s predicament doesn’t really move us. We are invested in the scares and not the ones who are going through literal horrors. And even the immersive cinematography (Manikantan Krishnamachary), spine-chilling music (Prithvi Chandrasekhar), and brilliant sound design doesn’t help us throw all our weight behind the travails of Susan and Anna.

Connect really feels underwhelming simply because Ashwin, and his co-writer Kaavya Ramkumar, have set the bar really high. The film is underwhelming because we have seen the beats before, and yet our heart anticipates much more. At one point, early in the film, when we see frontline workers making the ultimate sacrifice, one can’t help but think how a lot of them have been almost forgotten now by the majority.

We have so adapted to the post-pandemic world that Connect almost feels like Ashwin and Kaavya reminding us of a rather grim time in the not-so-faraway past of human history. With a brief sojourn into the idea of loneliness, Connect really works in the space where it nudges us to reflect on our own lives during the pandemic. However, when it comes to the horror elements, Connect betrays a sense of superficiality. There is a considerable amount of spook, and a sense of ingenuity, for sure, but Ashwin Saravanan has raised the bar to a decent high that we don’t walk into his films just to be satisfied for a few frights, some gimmicks, and half a heart.

Film: Connect Director: Ashwin Saravanan Cast: Nayanthara, Vinay Rai, Sathyaraj, Nafisa Haniya

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Nayanthara, once again, delivers a convincing act as the mother of a depressed teenager.

Connect Movie Review: A horror film with connectivity issues

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Connect Movie Review : A horror film with connectivity issues

Times Of India

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Connect’ On Hulu, Where A Man Can Still See Through The Eye That Was Stolen From Him

Where to stream:.

Connect (2022)
Korean Dramas

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Blood Free’ on Hulu, A Korean Drama With Miracle Meat, Corporate Intrigue, And Dangerous Secrets

Stream it or skip it: 'parasyte: the grey' on netflix, about a woman sharing her brain with an alien parasite, stream it or skip it: 'a killer paradox' on netflix, where a regular guy becomes an accidental serial killer and is pursued by a tenacious cop, stream it or skip it: ‘doctor slump’ on netflix, a charming korean series where job dramas lead two longtime rivals toward romance.

There are times when a show has two story threads going at once, but strong clues that they’re going to come together at some point. The sooner viewers can discern that, the better. A new Korean series on Hulu (and Disney+ outside the US) is one such show; it deftly handles its dual story, giving viewers a lot to look forward to when the stories inevitably, well, connect.

CONNECT : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man walks down a dark alley, singing a melancholy song about sings clanking

The Gist: Ha Dong-soo (Jung Hae-in), a songwriter who makes YouTube videos of him playing his songs, is ambushed and loaded into a van by a man who keeps saying he has “pretty eyes”. The next we see him, he’s on a table in a warehouse, his chest being cut open. A man is using big tools to extract his organs, including both his eyes. Later than night, the man who did the extraction has a nightmare that the disposed parts come alive and attack him.

In the meantime, a woman named Lee Yi-rang (Kim Hye-jun) has been communicating with people about an urban legend called Connect. As she walks down a street that morning, she sees a crowd around what looks like a statue of a naked woman, which seems to have arrived overnight. But she and everyone else are shocked when the statue starts dripping blood. It turns out there’s a body in there, and as Detective Choi (Kim Roi-ha) investigates, it turns out this is the second body that’s been found this way.

Inexplicably, Dong-soo revives himself, with tendrils coming out of his wounds to heal and reclaim his organs. As he fumbles around to look for his eyes, the tendrils manage to reclaim one of them, but he’s chased out of the building before he can get the other one. Those tendrils are something that he’s had to deal with his whole life; no matter how gravely injured he was, he’d some how pop up after painfully dealing with those tendrils. It’s one of the reasons he keeps to himself.

Somehow, Dong-soo gets visions from the eye he couldn’t retrieve; the eye is in a man named Oh Jin-seob (Go Kyung-Pyo), but the visions painfully come and go with little information. The visions are getting so painful, that he goes back to the warehouse to see if he can find out who got his other eye. Of course, the thugs from the organ harvesting ring chase him, but he’s saved by Yi-rang, who cuts him to see if what she knows about humanoids like him is right.

One of the things Dong-soo sees is Jin-Seob studying something called “corpse art.” He also sees Jin-Seob talk to a young woman who is about to become his next victim.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Connect has the bleak feel of Korean sci fi series like Sweet Home .

Our Take: Written by Masaru Nakamura and Ha-dam, and directed by Takashi Miike, is setting up an intriguing two-part story that seems poised to quickly come together. One one side we have Dong-soo, who has suffered his whole life with this mysterious ability to regenerate from even the gravest injuries. Then there’s Jin-seob, a serial killer obsessed with corpse art. They’re connected by an eye, and Dong-soo’s search to get that eye back will be the crux of the series.

The first episode sets this up nicely, despite not telling us anything about Dong-soo before he gets snatched and cut up. He’s not just your average reclusive songwriter, as we soon find out, but he’s also been haunted by this ability to regenerate his entire life. What the hope is that he’ll find some connection (get it?) with Yi-rang, who seems to know a lot about Connect humanoids like him, and will help him get his eye back.

We wonder, though, if Jin-seob’s side of the story is more interesting. Sure, he’s more of a straightforward psycho, but his fascination with corpse art is something we’ve rarely if ever seen before in serial killer dramas. He’s meticulous; he isn’t slashing and cutting. He carefully kills, embalms the corpse, encases it in material that makes it look like a sculpture, then carves in a horoscope symbol. Do we want to see him keep doing this thing while Detective Choi, whose nose bleeds when he gets a key lead, chases him down?

This is a good problem for Connect to have, though, as both sides of this story are interesting enough to sustain episodes where we go back and forth, waiting for the two of them to come together.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Dong-soo is in front of the building where he saw Jin-seob talk to his next victim and thinks to himself, “He is here. Give me back my eye, you murderer!”

Sleeper Star: Kim Roi-ha leans into Detective Choi’s quirkiness, which makes his character a bit different than the hard-boiled detective stereotype.

Most Pilot-y Line: Dong-soo sees a busker singing his song and asks him where he got it. The singer says he got it from the internet, but changed the melody. Plus the recording is bad and the singer’s voice is trash. Seems like an unnecessary scene that just kicks Dong-soo while he’s down.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The first episode of Connect sets up a good story that will get even better if the writers can pull of, well, connecting its two main parts.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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Home » Reviews » South Indian Movie Reviews

Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara Leads A Good Experiment With Idea & Technique But Suffers A Draught Of Emotions

One cannot ignore how predictable it becomes in parts..

Star Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Sathya Raj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai & ensemble.

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

What’s Good: The idea of the movie and the world it decides to set it into. Also, how technically sound it is.

What’s Bad: It chooses to only scratch the surface and suffocates in its own constraints.

Loo Break: Nothing so bad that it puts you off till a point you ignore. But you can if it can’t wait because there are predictable bits too.

Watch or Not?: I would suggest waiting for its OTT release since you aren’t missing anything big if you miss it in the theatres.

Language: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Hindi (with subtitles).

Available On: In Theatres Near You.

Runtime: 105 Minutes

A mother (Nayanthara) and her daughter (Haniya) are tested positive for COVID-19 after the demise of her husband. In Quarantine the daughter decides to summon her father’s spirit to talk to him and ends up opening a gate for a demon instead. A ghost and the quarantine become a deadly match quite literally.

Connect Movie Review: Script Analysis

Going forward as we live in the post-pandemic world with its effect still feeling strong (God this feels like talking about the Thanos Blip), it is going to be an interesting thing to see how filmmakers see it and how they weave stories around it while reflecting on the time we as a collective went through. Few weeks ago Madhur Bhandarkar released his take with India Lockdown , an unfiltered yet confused take on the phase. Now comes in Connect, a whole new idea and one that has a lot of mettle.

Written by Ramkumar Kaavya and Ashwin Saravanan, Connect is a story so fresh that you can relate to it because most of us have been imprisoned in our own houses in the past two years. Now, what if one of the members was possessed by a spirit and there is no way you can get out of the house? There is a whole lot of substance and power in this idea which the two even partially explore.

The biggest hurdle is to create a perspective. Who exactly is watching this unfold in a house with two participants? So the makers take the Searching or C U Soon route where the majority of the movie takes place through Zoom calls. So the person on the other side of the call is your window into the world. The movie is technically very sound. It uses every possible thing about the Zoom ecosystem to create intrigue. Be it the recording, the buffers that the network creates, or even the noise that it quickly catches. One can see the efforts.

Talking about the haunting part of it might take away the fun. But one cannot ignore how predictable it becomes when it solely gets into that space. This draws your attention to the lack of emotions. For a story about a parent about to lose their child has no emphasis on it or doesn’t let that angle breathe at all. Rather there is a melodramatic scene that lands nowhere followed by an exorcism attempt that we have seen in multiple films. Even the world-building beyond the conflict is weak because it appears like done to just fill a void and give the characters an identity.

Connect Movie Review: Star Performance

Nayanthara is very invested in telling this story and the fact that she is craving some new experiences is evident with the fact that this is much different than her latest outings. The actor tries her level best to make this character work but the aforementioned emotional draught affects her arc too.

Haniya Nafisa plays the possessed daughter is amazing for a debutant. She manages to irk you and even scare you a bit with her few out of the blue. Sathya Raj adds a whole lot of melodrama to the film which does feel like a misfit at points.

Anupam Kher’s performance though is the weakest of the lot. It feels like he was hired the same day he shot because he is literally reading everything out of a paper kept behind the camera. At least it looks like that. He never becomes the character.

Connect Movie Review: Direction, Music

Ashwin Saravanan does walk into this one with a very ambitious vision and one can see it through how he envisions and plots the entire narrative. But only the main conflict will never land well if the world is not built as a whole and with the same conviction.

DOP Manikantan Krishnamachary does have a tough job in hand and he does it well to an extent that idea of watching the film through screens lands well. The background score is apt and good.

Connect Movie Review: The Last Word

Connect is a great idea that deserved much more than just good technique.

Connect Trailer

Connect releases on 22nd December, 2022.

Share with us your experience of watching Connect.

For more recommendations, read our Ammu Movie Review here.

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj, Nayanthara, and Vinay Rai in Connect (2022)

In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played b... Read all In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism. In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism.

Ashwin Saravanan
Ramkumar Kaavya
Anupam Kher
11 User reviews
2 Critic reviews

Arthur Samuel

Father Augustine

Joseph Benoy
Lizzy's Son
Susan's Colleague 1
(as Nithya Kirupa)

Susan's Colleague 3
Susan's Colleague 2
Father Alex
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User reviews 11

vibhus-17780
Dec 23, 2022
How long is Connect? Powered by Alexa
December 22, 2022 (India)
Rowdy Pictures
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Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 39 minutes

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Connect Review: Weak Content, Strong Technique

Movie: Connect Rating: 2.5/5 Banner: Rowdy Pictures, UV Concepts Cast: Nayanthara, Sathya Raj, Anupam Kher, Haniya Nafisa, Vinay Rai and Others Music: Prithvi Chandrasekhar Director of Photography: Manikantan Krishnamachary Editor: Richard Kevin Producers: Vignesh Shivan Directed by: Ashwin Saravanan Release Date: Dec 22, 2022

Nayanthara has actively promoted her film in Telugu for the first time since "Connect" produced by her husband.

Let's take a look at the pluses and minuses.

Story: Teenager Anna (Haniya Nafisa) loves music and wants to pursue it professionally. Dr. Joseph (Vinay), Anna's father, is supportive of her decision, but Susan (Nayanthara), Anna's mother, is opposed to the idea of sending her daughter away to foreign school at such a young age.

A lockdown was announced due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases the day after this conversation takes place in their home.

Dr. Joseph contracted COVID-19 while caring for his patients, and he ultimately passed away from the disease. A few days into the quarantine, both the mother and the daughter have tested positive for the virus.

Anna's grandfather (Sathya Raj) learns that his granddaughter is possessed during a video call. Susan's response to this challenge drives the rest of the plot.

Artistes’ Performances: Newcomer Haniya Nafisa amazes with her natural acting and expressive face. It's a tough part for a debut actress to take on, but she does it with ease.

Nayanthara gives a nice performance as a concerned mother. Veterans Sathya Raj and Anupam Kher carry off their roles with ease, and Vinay Rai makes a brief appearance.

Technical Excellence: The technical crew has put in a lot of work to ensure a visually and aurally stunning experience. Special mention needs to be made for the cinematographer and the music director.

The cinematographer successfully captured the film's experimental narrative style by shooting almost entirely in natural lighting. It has an effective score in the background.

Highlights: Narrative style Newcomer Haniya’s acting Short duration

Drawback: Predictable story Lack of strong emotions

Analysis The movies "C U Soon" and "Searching" are examples of those that tell their stories on computer screens and smartphones. “Connect,” starring Nayanthara, also has the characters communicating exclusively through digital screens.

The majority of our exposure to the drama occurs through digital means, such as tablets, smartphones, and video chats.

Neither the Tamil nor Telugu film industries have ever attempted anything like this. ‘Game Over’ fame Ashwin Saravanan successfully introduces this novel approach.

Having said that, the film's plot is flimsy. In fact, the entire plot is reminiscent of numerous other horror films, especially the parts where the young girl seeks the help of a woman in order to communicate with her recently deceased father, and where a priest performs an exorcism. Not even the scares can surprise you.

There are, however, a few brilliant moments in the movie. When a scary chain of events occurs, the call gets dropped or buffering starts immediately. Suspense has been amplified by those parts. These are deft maneuvers.

Despite the fact that the technical performance and approach to storytelling are cutting edge, the emotions are not strong. There is no compassion shown in the scenes between the mother and daughter. Even the relationship between dad and daughter is superficial.

Despite being relatively brief, the horror thriller spends a lot of time setting the stage. By the time we get to the climactic third and final act, the story has lost much of its momentum and intensity.

On the whole, "Connect" has its brilliant moments, but overall it lacks excitement. It never quite manages to hit the right emotional chord with its audience.

Bottom line: Insufficient Signal

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Tags: Connect Connect Review Connect Movie Review Connect Rating Connect Movie Rating Connect Telugu MovieReview Connect Telugu Movie Rating

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Technicalities: The sound effects created for the film are top-notch as it elevates the mood of the film in an impactful manner. The background score given by Prithvi Chandrasekhar is arresting for the key portions.

Editing by Richard Kevin is okay. The cinematography work by Manikantan Krishnamachary registers. Production values for this tight-budget movie by Nayanthara’s husband Vignesh Shivn’s Rowdy Pictures banner are fine.

Though the film’s runtime is 99 minutes, not having an intermission is also a disadvantage for the film.

Analysis: Directed by Ashwin Saravanan, Kaavya Ramkumar provided the script for Connect in association with Ashwin. While the intention of Ashwin to showcase the sufferings during the pandemic times is appreciatable, the narrative lacks a racy screenplay.

If Ashwin and Kaavya would have taken care in writing a gripping screenplay and effective scene order, the result would have been even better. To summarize, Connect is a horror thriller that addresses how to deal with the devil’s possession. The lack of strong conflict and unengaging narrative with limited characters makes Connect an okayish watch. The film might find takers when premiered on digital space but theatrically it has fewer chances to click at the box office.

Verdict: Struggles to connect!

Rating: 2/5

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Connect Movie REVIEW: Nayanthara starrer is a shoddy drama that gives an absurd connection between COVID and horror

Saheli Maity

December 30, 2022
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Nayanthara, Sathyaraj starrer Connect Movie REVIEW

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Connect Movie REVIEW: Nayantha ...

Anupam Kher, Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Connect, Connect movie review

Film: Connect

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Star Cast: Anupam Kher Nayanthara Vinay Rai, Sathyaraj

Anupam Kher, Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Connect, Connect review

Connect Movie REVIEW:

Honestly, Nayanthara starrer Connect has left me a little bewildered with its story. The one thing I’m doing for sure is getting a good WiFi speed at my home. That’s what I’m drawing from the movie. The movie starts with how the nation is hit with the novel COVID and things have come to a halt; however, the film then jumps to the horror segment and I don’t see the connection at all. If the movie is completely based on horror, then why the writers Ramkumar Kaavya and Ashwin Saravanan didn’t explore that genre instead of adding the COVID touch which has no relevance to it?

The story is about a little girl who is grieving the loss of her father due to COVID. In order to talk to him once, she summons his spirit with the help of an Ouija board and here’s when the problem starts when she is possessed by a demon who refuses to leave the host. With them being in quarantine period, Susan (Nayanthara) strives hard to save her daughter. Susan later decides she needs to contact a father who can help her with the demon. Enters Anupam Kher who informs her that her daughter is possessed by a demon. Considering that it is a nationwide lockdown, the father then suggests doing an exorcism via video call.

Well, an exorcism via video call? I don’t know why but it is quite difficult for me to buy this concept. The exorcism method that we have seen in Emily Rose, Conjuring, Exorcist, Omen, and Constantine is quite different from what I have seen in Connect. It didn’t seem like exorcism is happening but a scripted show is being performed for the amateurs. I wish Indian movies grow a little bit more in terms of exploring the horror genre. Most of the time, it just turns out to be a comedy show than a horror.

First, it is the horror elements that they tried to incorporate in the movie, it looks extremely shoddy. There wasn’t a single scene where I was scared or even startled to see the scene. Half of the time, I just knew what scary element they would add to the scene and well, it didn’t disappoint me there as they exactly added all the right ingredients but didn’t offer anything fresh to the table that would have surprised the audience. So, if you love hard-core horror movies, this could never be your pick and that is for sure.

Second, the editing of the movie and the camera angle are the problems that sort of bothered me. The entire film was shot like the viewers are on a video call which was too much for me. I get it since they are showing the COVID times, it does remind us of the time when the entire world was getting connected with people by face timing but again, I’ll have the same question on why to show the connection between COVID and horror.

The third is the story of Connect, I wish they had not added the pandemic times in the story and I guess, it would have seemed pretty interesting to see. Plus, exorcism held via video call will only make you say ‘kuch bhi’. Not saying this because an Indian movie has shown something like that but saying it seems too difficult to buy it.

In a country where the government imposed a national curfew after the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, a single mother, Nayanthara handles her life with a lot of courage and struggles. However, after a few days, she notices eerie changes in her daughter’s behaviour, leading to strange situations. Later, she learns that her daughter is possessed and needs immediate help when the entire nation is at a halt. She does all virtual meetings with priests and on getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by RiggedIndian (@riggedindian)

Star Performances:

Nayanthara is one of the terrific actors in South movies and she has done a fair job as a grieving wife and helpless mother. After the death of her husband, she tries to come to normalcy but due to her daughter’s health, the situation puts her in a vulnerable position. Nayanthara plays her part with utmost conviction despite some flaws that are avoidable.

Sathyaraj plays the role of Susan’s father and he also plays his part perfectly well. On the hand, Anupam Kher who plays the role of the father and performs exorcism comes in the last 30 mins. He tried to convince us with his priestly acts but falls short I feel.

Direction/ Screenplay:

Ramkumar Kaavya and Ashwin Saravanan have written the movie and I wanted to know if they are trying to tell us that we need a strong WiFi connection or was trying to tell us that there’s also a connection between the pandemic and paranormal activity or last, were they trying to tell us that we people need to stay connected to each other no matter. If it is the latter, then it definitely didn’t come across that way.

Conclusion:

Speaking about Connect in the review, Nayanthara starrer gives an absurd connection between horror and COVID. It doesn’t seem relevant at all to the movie as it could have been made without showing the pandemic connection. Moreover, the horror seems quite shabby and I wish the makers have focused more on the horror element.

Watch the Connect trailer after the review:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vignesh Shivan (@wikkiofficial)

Also read: Cirkus REVIEW: Ranveer Singh and Rohit Shetty’s charm works again but Sanjay Mishra steals the show

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Home » Movies » Connect Movie Review

Connect review: Watch this horror film for debutante Haniya Nafisa

While Nayanthara is okayish as a mother, Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher were convincing in their respective roles.

Published:Dec 21, 2022

Nayanthara's 'Connect' marks her second collaboration with director Ashwin Saravanan after their super hit flick 'Maya'. (UV_Creations/Twitter)

Technical aspects elevate a routine story.

Connect (Telugu)

Cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai, and Haniya Nafisa
Director: Ashwin Saravanan
Producer: Vignesh Shivan
Music: Prithvi Chandrasekhar
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, and Revathy
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes

Nayanthara’s multilingual horror flick Connect is releasing in theatres this weekend, on 22 December. It is taking on biggies like Ravi Teja’s Dhamaka and Vishal’s Laththi at the box office.

Does this horror flick, which rides solely on Nayanthara’s popularity, have enough substance to connect with the audience? Let’s find out in our review:

A teenage girl Anne (Haniya Nafisa) is taken over by an evil spirit when she attempts to speak to her late doctor-father using an Ouija Board. The father had succumbed to Covid during the lockdown.

Anne’s mother Susan (Nayanthara) and grandfather Arthur (Sathyaraj) are worried about her and seek the help of Father Augustine (Anupam Kher).

Father Augustine decides to use exorcism to free Anne from her demons. But he warns Susan and Arthur that it will be a tough one. Since there is a lockdown, he does the exorcism online, which makes things difficult.

How he performs the exorcism to save Anne from her demon forms the main plot of the movie.

Gripping narration makes up for routine story

The audiences have seen enough movies where a character is under the spell of the evil spirit and the kith and kin make efforts to drive them away. Exorcism is not new to horror movie lovers, and Connect is no exception. In fact, several shots and tricks in the film remind us of past horror movies.

Despite the cliches, director Ashwin Saravanan — who also wrote the script — has succeeded in engaging the audience with his narration. Though there are some dull moments, most of the movie is gripping.

Haniya Nafisa shines in her acting debut

‘Connect’, yet another h horror thriller from Ashwin Saravanan, has no intermission. (UV_Creations/Twitter)

Connect got all its attention due to the presence of star heroine Nayanthara. But it is Haniya Nafisa who shines in this flick.

Singer and social media influencer Haniya Nafisa has made her acting debut with this horror film. She impresses with her performance as a girl under the influence of a demon.

Nayanthara plays the role of her mother — and she is okay.

Anupam Kher and Sathyaraj play key roles. With their vast experience, they prove that roles like these are a cakewalk for them.

Technical crafts elevate a regular story

Most of the film is shot indoors and cinematographer Manikantan Krishnamachary has done a good job, within the limits of the storyline.

It is a good decision and also an experimental one to keep the movie limited to 99 minutes. The makers decided to screen the film without an intermission. It is to be seen how this experiment fares.

The shorter runtime ensures that the momentum does not dip. Editor Richard Kevin did a notable job.

Music director Prithvi Chandrashekhar adds to the impact with an impressive background score.

Connect is a horror movie based on exorcism and it gets its popularity from Nayanthara’s presence. But Haniya Nafisa leads the movie.

In a nutshell, it is strictly for horror movie lovers!

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Connect Movie Review & Ratings | Hit or Flop?

Connect Movie Review : Nayanathara, a female superstar, is returning after a hiatus with the movie “Connect,” which focuses on women. After seeing the teaser and trailers for this film, audiences’ anticipation levels skyrocketed upon learning that the Mayuri combo would be reuniting for it. The release of the film coincides with these expectations. Okay, let’s begin without further ado.

Her relatives are dispersed all over the metropolis due to the lockdown. Anupam Kher stars as a priest who helps a single mother save her daughter in the film Connect. The actor’s possessed persona comes dangerously close to performing an exorcism. Of course, the rest of the tale focuses on their miraculous escape.

Cast & Crew

The film stars Nayanthara, Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj, Vinay, and Nafisa Haniya. Ashwin Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar penned it. Ashwin Saravanan oversaw production, and Manikantan Krishnamacharya filmed it. The film’s director is Vignesh Shivan. His company is called Rowdy Pictures.

Movie Verdict

The premise and tone are captivating, and you’ll be eager to find out how the story develops even though it takes a bit to get to the meat of it. Because of the lockdown, she is attacked in various sections of the city, and the plot thickens when a malicious power enters the picture and her family tries to rescue her. Unusually for a horror film, the first act was comprised primarily of sad scenes rather than scary ones.

There is no intermission, but the unexpected change in pace provides a terrific twist, and the rest of the film only improves from there. There are a few issues with the tale, but overall it has a nice premise, and the surprises will keep you on the edge of your seat. You’ll have a fantastic time if you can make it through the 90 minutes of narrative.

Female star Nayanthara gives a fantastic performance as a struggling single parent. There were a lot of moving pieces to her character, but she was able to pull them off with ease since they were written so well. Although he didn’t get as much to do as Anupam Kher, Satyaraj gave it his all in his role as a spiritual pastor. Everyone else in the cast gave it their all as well.

Connect’s technology is well ahead of the competition. By using vivid colors and detailed illustrations, Manikantan Krishnamachary transports the reader to the world of Connect and makes them feel at home there. Prithvi Chandrasekhar performed a wonderful job with the score, while the rest of the technical staff did a fantastic job with the implementation.

In the same vein, Connect is an excellent narrative. This time around, instead of focusing on scary things, he explored how individuals felt during a lockdown while still employing his trademark plot twists. While Connects lacks the sheer terror of Mayuri or Game Over, the director is nevertheless able to elicit a reaction from the audience. Ashwin Saravanan is often taken aback by the originality of his writings, even when they contain frightening elements. He was able to accomplish this because to his excellent writing skills.

In sum, Connect is a fantastic film that everyone should watch at least once.

Plus Points:

Performances
Cinematography

Minus Points:

Snail Paced narration

Rating: 3/5

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Connect Movie Review & Ratings | Hit or Flop?

Connect Movie Review: After a long break, female superstar Nayanathara is coming back with the movie “Connect,” which is about women. People knew that the Mayuri duo would be back together for this movie, and when the teaser and trailers came out, their excitement went through the roof. In line with these hopes, the movie has finally come out. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Because of the lockdown, her family is spread out across the city. In the movie Connect, a single mother tries to save her daughter with the help of a priest, played by Anupam Kher. The character played by Kher almost does an exorcism. Still, the rest of the story is about how they are able to get away.

Cast & Crew

In the movie, you can see Nayanthara , Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj, Vinay, and Nafisa Haniya. It was written by Ashwin Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar. Ashwin Saravanan was in charge of the direction, and Manikantan Krishnamacharya did the filming. Vignesh Shivan is in charge of making the movie. He does this under the name Rowdy Pictures.

Movie Verdict

Even though it takes a while to get to the main story, the premise and tone hook you right away and make you want to know how it ends. The story gets more interesting when a bad power comes into play and her family tries to save her after she is hit in different parts of the city because of a lockdown. The first part of the movie was mostly made up of sad scenes instead of scary ones, which gave it an unusual look for a horror movie.

Even though there isn’t a break, the break comes with a great twist, and then the movie gets even better as things keep happening and keep you on the edge of your seat. There are some problems with the story, but the main idea is good, and there are twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. If you can sit through the 90 minutes of narration, you will have a great time.

As for the acting, female diva Nayanthara does a great job as a single mother. Her character was well-written and had a lot of complicated parts, which she handled with ease. Sathyaraj , who had less screen time than Anupam Kher but played a spiritual pastor, also gave it his all. The rest of the cast members also did their best.

Connect possesses superior technologies. Manikantan Krishnamachary takes you to the world of Connect and makes you feel like you belong there with his beautiful pictures and use of colour. While the rest of the technical team did their best, Prithvi Chandrasekhar did a great job writing the background music.

Connect is also a great story. This time, he focused on how people felt during lockdown instead of scary things, but he still used his signature plot twists. Connects doesn’t have as many scary moments as Mayuri or Game Over, but the director is still able to make people feel something. Even though his books have scary parts, Ashwin Saravanan is always surprised by how unique they are. He did this by writing very well.

Overall, Connect is a movie that everyone can enjoy and that must be seen to have a unique experience.

Plus Points:

Performances
Cinematography

Minus Points:

Snail Paced narration

Rating: 3/5

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'Civil War' review: Kirsten Dunst leads visceral look at consequences of a divided America

We see “Civil War” trending on social media all too commonly in our divided country, for one reason or another, and usually nodding to extreme cultural or ideological differences. With his riveting new action thriller of the same name, writer/director Alex Garland delivers a riveting cautionary tale that forces viewers to confront its terrifying real-life consequences.

“Civil War” (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) imagines a near-future America that’s dystopian in vision but still realistic enough to be eerily unnerving. It's a grounded, well-acted ode to the power of journalism and a thought-provoking, visceral fireball of an anti-war movie.

Played exceptionally by Kirsten Dunst , Lee is an acclaimed war photographer covering a fractured America: The Western Forces led by California and Texas have seceded from the USA and are days away from a final siege on the federal government. Lee and her reporting partner Joel (Wagner Moura) have been tasked with traveling from New York City to Washington to interview the president (Nick Offerman) before the White House falls.

After visually capturing humanity's worst moments, Lee is as world-weary and jaded as one can be. But after saving aspiring photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) during a Brooklyn suicide bombing, Lee becomes a reluctant mentor as the young woman worms her way into their crew. Also in the press van: senior journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), hitching a ride to the Western Forces military base in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Most of “Civil War” is an episodic odyssey where Lee and company view the mighty toll taken by this conflict: the graveyard of cars on what’s left of I-95, for example, or how an innocent-looking holiday stop turns deadly courtesy of an unseen shooter. Primarily, however, it’s a disturbing internal examination of what happens when we turn on each other, when weekend warriors take up arms against trained soldiers, or armed neighbors are given a way to do bad things to people they just don’t like.

'No dark dialogue!': Kirsten Dunst says 5-year-old son helped her run lines for 'Civil War'

Given its polarizing nature, “Civil War" is actually not that "political." Garland doesn’t explain what led to the secession or much of the historical backstory, and even Offerman’s president isn’t onscreen enough to dig into any real-life inspirations, outside of some faux bluster in the face of certain defeat. (He’s apparently in his third term and dismantled the FBI, so probably not a big Constitutionalist.)

Rather than two hours of pointing fingers, Garland is more interested in depicting the effect of a civil war rather than the cause. As one sniper points out in a moment when Lee and Joel are trying not to die, when someone’s shooting a gun at you, it doesn’t matter what side you’re on or who’s good and who's bad.

The director’s intellectual filmography has explored everything from ecological issues ( “Annihilation” ) to AI advancement ( “Ex Machina” ), and there are all sorts of heady themes at play in “Civil War.” “What kind of American are you?” asks a racist soldier played with a steady, ruthless cruelty by Jesse Plemons (Dunst's husband) in a disturbing scene that nods to an even deeper conflict in society than the one torching this fictionalized version. There's also an underlying sense of apathy that the characters face, with hints that much of the country is just willfully ignoring the conflict because they'd rather not think about it. But this hellish road trip also maintains a sense of hopefulness − via the growing relationship between Lee and Jessie – and is pretty exciting even with its multitude of horrors.

'You get paid a lot of money': Kirsten Dunst says she's open for another superhero movie

“Civil War” is a thoughtful movie with blockbuster ambitions, and while it does embrace more of a straightforward action flick vibe toward its climactic end, Garland still lands a lasting gut punch. He immerses audiences in the unpredictable nature of war, with gunfire and explosions leaving even the calmest sort on edge, and paints a sprawling canvas of an America forever changed. Thankfully, it’s just a warning and not a promise, using the movie theater as a public service announcement rather than an escape from the real world.

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Fallout First Reviews: A 'Violent, Fun, Emotional, Epic' Video Game Adaptation, Critics Say

Critics say prime video's new series benefits from strong storytelling, committed performances, and a deft balance of tone, making it one of the best video game adaptations ever..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , streaming , television , TV

Fallout is the latest video game adaptation to hit the small screen. Created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner , and executive produced by Westworld ‘s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy , the eight episode series, inspired by the hit game franchise from Bethesda Softworks drops on Wednesday, April 10 to Amazon Prime Video.

The post-apocalyptic series stars Ella Purnell as Lucy; Aaron Moten as Maximus; and Walton Goggins as The Ghoul. Joining them is an ensemble cast that includes Kyle MacLachlan , Sarita Choudhury , Michael Emerson , Leslie Uggams , Zach Cherry , Moises Arias and Johnny Pemberton , among others.

With nearly three decades of lore under its belt, the video game franchise has drawn a massive fanbase. Needless to say, there’s a lot of hype surrounding the new series. Does it live up to expectations? Here’s what critics are saying about Fallout :

How does it compare to the video games?

Prime Video’s TV adaptation of Fallout does something the games in the legendary franchise never have—put storytelling above all else. — Bernard Boo, Den of Geek

Fallout is the new standard for video game adaptations. This series is violent, fun, emotional, epic, and just plain awesome. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Opting for a new narrative that simply takes place in the Fallout world, the series is a mix of adventure and puzzle-box mystery, with more than enough action scenes to satisfy the RPG faithful. It’s fun, and only occasionally overcomplicated. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today

Fallout takes the ideas of the games and crafts its own story in an already interesting world. Nails the satire, the wackiness, and about everything a fan could want. — Zach Pope, Zach Pope Reviews

Bodies fly, heads explode, and video game logic reigns triumphant. — Niv M. Sultan, Slant Magazine

How is the cast?

(Photo by Prime Video)

All of the performances are great; Purnell is a strong, loveably naive lead, while Moten delivers a fascinatingly, sort-of loathsome turn. Excusing the wonderful pooch that plays CX404, aka Four, Goggins is the runaway MVP, an agent of chilly, smooth-talking chaos somewhere between John Marston and Clarence Boddicker. — Cameron Frew, Dexerto

“I hate it up here,” Lucy mutters early on, and given the horrors to which she’s subjected, nobody could blame her. Yet her quest not only involves no shortage of carnage but also insights into her community and its origins, as well as encounters (some relatively brief) with a strong array of co-stars, including Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, and Leslie Uggams. — Brian Lowry, CNN

The Ghoul serves as the perfect foil for Lucy and Maximus, with Goggins deploying megatons’ worth of weary charisma in his performance as Fallout’ s resident lone wolf, black hat archetype. — Belen Edwards, Mashable

Emancipation’s Aaron Moten and And Just Like That… standout Sarita Choudhury nail the determined, world-weary drive that propels their characters forward while Justified’ s Walton Goggins gives one of his best performances yet as Cooper Howard, a mutated ghoul of a gunslinger who gives everyone a hard time with biting quips and searing bullet work. — David Opie, Digital Spy

How’s the writing and world-building?

The show’s creators have done such an impeccable job fleshing out the world of Fallout that it feels like the characters are treading stories and quests you’ve experienced yourself in one way or another. — Tanner Dedmon, ComicBook.com

Story-wise, Fallout smartly eschews trying to adapt specific storylines or side-quests from any of the games, but rather concocts a new one set in the rich and familiar landscape. — Brian Lloyd, entertainment.ie

There are plenty of Easter eggs, as you might expect from a video game adaptation, but Fallout manages to make them seem like part of the world, too. It all feels real and believable as pieces of a whole existence that these people have scraped together, which goes a long way toward helping the show’s humor land. Even the Easter eggs feel carefully designed to fit into the world and the lives of the characters, rather than drawing focus away from them or sticking out as a glaring distraction. — Austen Goslin, Polygon

Do the violence and humor work?

It’s strong, it’s goddamn hilarious, and it highlights exactly how to swing for the fences while still knowing where Homebase is. It may be a new series, but Fallout is an instant classic of the streaming age. — Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout is among the best video game adaptations ever made. — Matt Purslow, IGN Movies

Finding a tonal balance between the drama and the comedy is a razor’s edge, but Fallout makes it look effortless. As a result, spending time in this hardened world is as fun, engaging, and engrossing as the games. — William Goodman, TheWrap

It’s an equal parts funny and nightmarish show that, like its protagonist, isn’t content to live inside a projection of the past. — Kambole Campbell, Empire Magazine

Crucially, these laugh-out-loud moments of disbelief don’t detract from the harsh reality of this world, which is perhaps even more violent than you might expect, especially for newbies to this franchise. — David Opie, Digital Spy

Any final thoughts?

Fallout is a clever, twisted apocalyptic odyssey that soars as both a video game adaptation and a standalone series. — Lauren Coates, The Spool

For those who have never played the Fallout series, especially those of the time-strapped ilk who can’t just pour hundreds of hours into a game, they should give Prime Video’s Fallout a go. — Howard Waldstein, CBR

Fallout is both totally rad and an absolute blast. — Neil Armstrong, BBC.com

The show’s clearly committed to being the definitive Fallout adaptation, a love letter to fans, no question, while still opening the vault door to welcome in just about everyone else brave enough to step inside. — Jon Negroni, TV Line

There’s really nothing like Fallout on television right now, and that’s ultimately a good thing. — Therese Lacson, Collider

Thumbnail image by Amazon Studios. On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News .

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‘Back to Black’ Review: Marisa Abela Nails Amy Winehouse in Every Look, Mood and Note in a Biopic at Once Forthright and Forbidding

Sam Taylor-Johnson's jazz-meets-rock-star drama exerts an authentic fascination, even as its dysfunctional-addict love story keeps us at a distance.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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‘Back to Black’ Review: Marisa Abela Nails Amy Winehouse in Every Look, Mood and Note in a Biopic at Once Forthright and Forbidding 6 days ago
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Amy Winehouse "Back to Black" Biopic, Focus Features

“ Back to Black ,” the 2006 album that the new Amy Winehouse biopic takes its title from, is a record built on an exquisite contradiction. The music has a crispy delicious retro-bop bounce, a quality that extends to Winehouse’s voice, which takes the growling-cat stylings of jazz legends like Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday and kicks them up into something playfully ferocious. Yet when you tune into the lyrics, they’re as dark as midnight. “Rehab,” the album’s showpiece track, must surely be the jauntiest song ever recorded about an addict who turns the refusal to help herself into a stance of rock ‘n’ roll defiance.

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But the edge is there too. In an episode that provokes a chuckle, but also suggests the lack of boundaries that fuels her art, Amy attracts the interest of Nick Shymansky (Sam Buchanan), a potential manager, when she performs “Stronger Than Me,” a song that basically disses her boyfriend as an emasculated wimp (in the initial meeting with Nick, the boyfriend learns that he’s the dupe of the song and stalks out). Amy, at one point, says that she’s not a feminist because she likes boys too much. But the truth is she’s the incarnation of a new brand of womanly assertion, like Courtney Love reborn as a proudly dissolute jazz diva who has come through the looking glass of hip-hop. The measure of her feminism is that she does whatever she wants; she’s drawn to extremes of hedonistic self-expression, whether it’s how much she drinks, the tattoos she gets on a whim (far more of a novelty and a statement 20 years ago), or the fearless emulation of her jazz heroines. “I’m no fuckin’ Spice Girl,” she tells Nick. That would seem obvious, though it’s a lesson she’s going to keep proving even if it kills her.

Amy records her first album, “Frank” (2003), as a knowingly out-of-time jazz record. She keeps saying that she doesn’t care about making money. The album is named after her idol, Frank Sinatra (though the film never clues us into that), which means that she wants to do it her way. But that’s easier said than done once you’ve climbed onto the record-industry ladder. She meets with the executives, who have a few ideas based on the fact that the album wasn’t very commercial. They’d rather not release it in the U.S. (they want to wait for her follow-up album). They think she should stop playing the guitar onstage. Amy’s reaction to all this is to tell them to fuck themselves, and to say: I need to live to write songs, so I’m going to take a major break before I make my next album.

What living turns out to be is falling for the man who’ll be the love of her life, because he’s as charged an addict as she is. The extended sequence in which Amy meets the sexy, indomitable Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell) at a pub is a bravura piece of mutual seduction in which the film’s director, Sam Taylor-Johnson , shows off her chops. Blake is not an emasculated wimp; his confidence is complete, his suavity bordering on the toxic. Jack O’Connell plays him as a kind of throwback — he’s like a late-’60s British matinee idol (think James Fox or the Michael Caine of “Alfie”) playing a jock with a lightning brain. He knows Amy’s record by heart; he also introduces her, on the jukebox, to the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack,” lip-syncing to it with gender-blending glee.

She spins the album “Back to Black” out of how shattered he left her. And it’s a sign of where the film’s priorities lie that we see her recording the irresistibly heartbreak-hooked title track, yet there’s little to no sense of how Winehouse’s masterful second and last album was created (the producer Mark Ronson gets a name-drop, the producer Salaam Remi gets an image drop, and that’s all). The album is a huge hit, making Amy a celebrity stalked by the paparazzi. And Blake takes the album’s message of melancholy as a signal that she’ll take him back. So he calls her, and they get married (basically a Vegas wedding in Miami Beach), and then they’re breaking up all over again.

“Sid and Nancy,” I’m afraid, this is not. We don’t swoon over the dysfunctional passion, the spectacle of two lovelorn addicts who are destined to bring out the worst in each other. Yet without that burning romantic core, “Back to Black” plays out what feels like an authentic but rather clinical version of amour fou.

What about the songs we love from “Back to Black”? Abela’s in-concert renditions of several Winehouse classics have a dilapidated splendor, and her performance of “Rehab” at the 2008 Grammy Awards is perfection, as is her version of “Tears Dry on Their Own” during the closing credits. Abela did all her own singing; she gets every soaring and scat-souled nuance. But while the songs keep popping up, they’re not in there in a way that feels, at each moment, like they’re expressing something so emotionally necessary that it becomes cathartic. Amy, contrary to her mythology, does end up in rehab. Near the end of her life, she gets clean, as Janis Joplin did. But that isn’t enough to keep her from becoming a member of the cautionary club of pop stars who died at 27 (Janis, Jimi, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain). Her self-destruction is on full display in “Back to Black.” Yet the film presents it, even revels in it, without giving you the sense that it fully understands it.

Reviewed at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lower Manhattan, New York, April 8, 2024. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 122 MIN.

Production: A Focus Features release of a Monumental Pictures production, in association with StudioCanal, with the participation of Canal + Cine + M6 and W9. Producers: Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, Nicky Kentish Barnes. Executive producers: Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern, Joe Naftalin, Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Crew: Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson. Screenplay: Matt Greenhalgh. Camera: Polly Morgan. Editors: Martin Walsh, Laurence Johnson. Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Amy Winehouse.
With: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Juliet Cowan, Sam Buchanan, Lesley Manville.

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Movie Reviews

'civil war' is a doomsday thought experiment — that could have used more thinking.

Justin Chang

Kirsten Dunst plays a battle scarred photojournalist in Civil War. Murray Close/A24 hide caption

Kirsten Dunst plays a battle scarred photojournalist in Civil War.

Releasing a movie called Civil War in this election year is certainly one way to grab headlines. Surprisingly, though, Alex Garland 's ambitious new thriller largely sidesteps the politics of the present moment.

It wants to sound a queasy note of alarm, as if the democracy doomsday scenario it's showing us could really happen, but it's hard to buy into a premise that feels this thinly sketched. The story takes place in a not-so-distant future where Texas and California have improbably joined forces and seceded from the U.S.

Florida, not to be outdone, has also broken away on its own. The president, a third-term tyrant played by Nick Offerman , has responded by calling in the troops and launching airstrikes on his fellow Americans, plunging the country into poverty and lawlessness.

Garland keeps a lot of the details vague; he's less interested in how we might have gotten here than in how we would respond. To that end, he focuses on characters whose job it is to document what's happening.

Kirsten Dunst gives a strong, tough-minded performance as Lee, a skilled photojournalist who's covered conflicts all over the world and is now confronting this nightmare on her home turf. She's headed from New York to Washington, D.C., where many expect that the war, which has been raging for some time, will end with a showdown at the White House.

Accompanying Lee on this dangerous journey are two seasoned colleagues: Joel, a wily reporter played by Wagner Moura from Narcos , and Sammy, a veteran political writer played by the always outstanding Stephen McKinley Henderson.

The America in Civil War looks both familiar and unfamiliar. A24 hide caption

The America in Civil War looks both familiar and unfamiliar.

Per movie convention, there's also an inexperienced young outsider: Jessie, an aspiring war photographer played by Cailee Spaeny, the star of last year's biopic Priscilla . Not long into their trip, the four journalists stumble on a tense scene at a gas station where three armed men are holding two other men captive. The journalists get away without incident, but Jessie was deeply disturbed by what what was happening, started second guessing herself and didn't get the shot.

In time, Jessie gets better at her job; more than that, she becomes hooked. The movie is partly about the addictive thrill of thrusting a camera into a war zone. But it's also about the trauma and desensitization that these photographers experience as they put their emotions aside and do everything they can to get that perfect shot.

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Civil War itself has been quite strikingly visualized by the cinematographer Rob Hardy and the production designer Caty Maxey. They show us an America that looks both familiar and unfamiliar, resembling the battlefields we've seen in footage from other conflicts in other places. There are surreally grim images of bloodstained sidewalks, bombed-out buildings, and a once-busy highway where rows of abandoned cars stretch for miles and miles. Garland has a real feel for post-apocalyptic landscapes, as we saw in his script for the zombie thriller 28 Days Later . In the movies he's directed since, like the brilliant Annihilation , he's shown a real talent for building suspense and anxiety.

A Masterful Glimpse Of Humanity's Physical — And Emotional — 'Annihilation'

But as stunningly detailed as Civil War 's dystopia is, from moment to moment, I hardly believed a thing I was seeing. As Lee and her pals inch closer to D.C., they go from one violent set-piece to another, each one calculated for maximum terror.

There's a nasty ambush at a Christmas theme-park display in the middle of nowhere, followed by a chilling encounter with a gun-toting racist psychopath played, in a mordant touch, by Jesse Plemons, Dunst's off-screen husband. The result is more of a button-pushing genre exercise than a serious reckoning with the consequences of the movie's premise. By the time the characters arrive at their destination, just in time for a daring raid on the White House, Civil War feels ever more like an empty stunt — a thought experiment that hasn't been especially well thought out.

Movie Interviews

Dunst: expressing something blue in melancholia.

If there's one thing that keeps you watching, though, it's Dunst's performance as a battle-scarred professional doing her job under horrific circumstances that she's too numb to feel horrified by. As she showed in her great performance in Lars von Trier 's Melancholia , there's something about Dunst that's particularly well suited to apocalyptic material. I wish her better vehicles than Civil War in the future, but it's gratifying to see her anchor a major movie regardless. She's an actor I'd follow to the end of the world and back.

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Connect Movie (2022) Full Details: Cast
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COMMENTS

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Connect movie review: Nayanthara's latest is technically sound, true
Connect movie review: Ashwin Saravanan delivers breathless thrills during the Nayanthara starrer but the flat end takes something away from it. ... Connect rating: 3/5. Connect director: Ashwin Saravanan. Connect cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher. More Premium Stories.
'Connect' movie review: Delivers some chills, but misses out on a lot more
Reviews 'Connect' movie review: Delivers some chills, but misses out on a lot more. Although Connect starts strongly, it sparingly hits the high notes of the genre while just about managing past ...
Connect Movie Review: A horror film with connectivity issues
Logesh Balachandran, TNN, Dec 20, 2022, 09.43 AM IST Critic's Rating: 2.5/5. Connect Movie Synopsis: The announcement of a nation-wide lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the peace of a family. What follows is a series of bizarre events as one of them tries to invite the spirit of a family member.
Connect (2022)
mohithsuresh-35159 24 February 2023. The film is clever and easily the best horror film made in India in the last ten years. Aswin Saravanan, Vignesh Shivan, and their team have created a story that parallels a demonic possession plot within a doctor's family, a COVID lockdown, and a home footage zoom call.
Nayanthara's 'Connect' Review: Engaging Horror but No Visceral Film
0. The film swiftly switches between fear and faith. However, as much as Connect talks about impiety and questions religion, it also submits to superstitious spiritual practices. And hence, the ...
Connect Movie Review & Rating
Connect Movie Review. The collaboration of filmmaker Ashwin Saravanan and actress Nayanthara in â€˜Mayaâ€™ was a fabulous spell. The film turned out to be one of the most spellbinding flicks under the category of â€˜Best Supernatural Thrillers of Indian Cinemaâ€™, with a new-fangled non-linear premise and gripping screenplay.
Connect Movie Review : A horror film with connectivity issues
Connect Movie Review: Critics Rating: 2.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Nayanthara, once again, delivers a convincing act as the mother of a depressed teenager.
Connect (2022 film)
Connect is a 2022 Tamil-language supernatural horror film directed by Ashwin Saravanan and produced by Vignesh Shivan under Rowdy Pictures, starring Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, and Vinay Rai. Connect marks the second collaboration of Saravanan with Nayanthara, after Maya.The background score was composed by Prithvi Chandrasekhar. The film also marks Kher's return to Tamil cinema after ...
'Connect' Takashi Miike Hulu Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Our Take: Written by Masaru Nakamura and Ha-dam, and directed by Takashi Miike, is setting up an intriguing two-part story that seems poised to quickly come together. One one side we have Dong-soo ...
Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara Leads A Good Experiment With ...
Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara starrer is a good idea but it needs a lot more to become an impressive film. ... Connect Movie Review Rating: Star Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Sathya Raj ...
Connect (2022)
Connect: Directed by Ashwin Saravanan. With Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai. In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism.
Connect Movie Review: Weak Content, Strong Technique
Movie: Connect Rating: 2.5/5 Banner: Rowdy Pictures, UV Concepts Cast: Nayanthara, Sathya Raj, Anupam Kher, Haniya Nafisa, Vinay Rai and Others Music: Prithvi Chandrasekhar Director of Photography: Manikantan Krishnamachary Editor: Richard Kevin Producers: Vignesh Shivan Directed by: Ashwin Saravanan Release Date: Dec 22, 2022. Nayanthara has actively promoted her film in Telugu for the first ...
Connect Telugu Movie Review
Verdict: On the whole, Nayanthara's Connect is a poorly made horror thriller that has nothing new to showcase. The climax is good and Nayanthara helps the audience to sit through. But the rest of the plot, narration, and thrills are unengaging making this film a dull watch this weekend. 123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5.
'Connect' movie review: Quite pedestrian by Ashwin Saravanan's
As a work of horror, Connect offers a giddy experience in parts. But then, that is not just it. About an hour into the movie, you feel a disconnect when you realise that Connect is a movie that ...
Connect Movie Review & Rating
The lack of strong conflict and unengaging narrative with limited characters makes Connect an okayish watch. The film might find takers when premiered on digital space but theatrically it has fewer chances to click at the box office. Verdict: Struggles to connect! Rating: 2/5. Click Here To Read in TELUGU.
Connect Movie REVIEW: Nayanthara starrer is a shoddy drama that gives
Speaking about Connect in the review, Nayanthara starrer gives an absurd connection between horror and COVID. It doesn't seem relevant at all to the movie as it could have been made without ...
Connect movie review
Connect review: Watch this horror film for debutante Haniya Nafisa. While Nayanthara is okayish as a mother, Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher were convincing in their respective roles. By Deepthi Nandan. Published:Dec 21, 2022. Nayanthara's 'Connect' marks her second collaboration with director Ashwin Saravanan after their super hit flick 'Maya'.
Connect Movie Review & Ratings
Connect Movie Review: Nayanathara, a female superstar, is returning after a hiatus with the movie "Connect," which focuses on women.After seeing the teaser and trailers for this film, audiences' anticipation levels skyrocketed upon learning that the Mayuri combo would be reuniting for it.
Connect Movie Review & Ratings
Connect Movie Review: After a long break, female superstar Nayanathara is coming back with the movie "Connect," which is about women. People knew that the Mayuri duo would be back together for this movie, and when the teaser and trailers came out, their excitement went through the roof.
'Civil War' 2024 movie review: Alex Garland depicts a divided America
Most of "Civil War" is an episodic odyssey where Lee and company view the mighty toll taken by this conflict: the graveyard of cars on what's left of I-95, for example, or how an innocent ...
'Scoop,' 'Ripley,' 'Files of the Unexplained' Lead Luminate Ratings
The premiere week of Netflix's "Ripley" elbowed "3 Body Problem" out of the No. 1 slot among streaming original series for the week of April 5-11, according to Luminate streaming ratings.
Fallout First Reviews: A 'Violent, Fun, Emotional ...
Prime Video's TV adaptation of Fallout does something the games in the legendary franchise never have—put storytelling above all else. — Bernard Boo, Den of Geek Fallout is the new standard for video game adaptations. This series is violent, fun, emotional, epic, and just plain awesome. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo's Movie Network Opting for a new narrative that simply takes place in the ...
'Good Times' review: Netflix's animated revival seems calculated to
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'Back to Black' Review: Nails Amy Winehouse in Every Look and Note
'Back to Black' Review: Marisa Abela Nails Amy Winehouse in Every Look, Mood and Note in a Biopic at Once Forthright and Forbidding Sam Taylor-Johnson's jazz-meets-rock-star drama exerts an ...
What to watch: 3 eye-opening documentaries : NPR
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'Civil War' review: Kirsten Dunst stars in a democracy doomsday film
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