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MG Srinivas has been proving himself as a director who gives quality content with every film. With Old Monk, he does not disappoint. The film marks his return to the romantic genre once again after Srinivasa Kalyana. And marriage is the essential theme of this story, which is reminiscent of some of the old-school comedies that one used to see in the 80s and 90s with actors like Anant Nag and Ramesh Aravind in the lead.

Old Monk Movie Review: A clever and entertaining comedy, after a long time

• Times of India

In-depth Analysis

Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.

Old Monk - Official Kannada Trailer

Old Monk - Official Telugu Trailer

Old Monk | Song - Old Is Goldu

Old Monk | Song - Color Color Chitte

Old Monk | Song Promo - Color Color Chitte

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Vikram D 686 days ago

Horrible movie. Hindu Gods have been insulted very badly in this movie. Why invoke Hindu Gods unnecesarily and hurt the sentiments of Hindus. This movie should have been banned. Btw I am a proud Kannadiga and would like to see movies with good content. There is no romance and 0 comedy in this movie.

User 743 days ago

Awesome movie.��

sureshjesusselvam 743 days ago

Srini avreh.....superb movie maadidheerah guru....nimghe thumbha talent idhe...pls e thara movies gal neevu innu maadbeku future Alle and ofcourse nim actingu superb....may God bless you guru..

Banchharam Ganguli 773 days ago

Not at all watchable. Very poor script and direction.

Jyotirling Bharade 777 days ago

super movie review

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• This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor. Share
• This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor.
• This is the second time Arjun Kapoor is playing a double role, the first being Aurangzeb (2013).
• The song ‘Yamma yamma’ from ‘Shaan’ is sampled in the song ‘Partywali Night' for the film.

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Old Monk Movie Review: The comedy-drama will definitely lift our spirits

Rating: ( 3.5 / 5)

With Old Monk as the title and the innovative posters, trailers, teasers, and songs from the film ensured to pique the interests of the audience. Director-actor Srini's latest outing retains his signature style and is a film that will remind the audience of actor Anant Nag's earlier comedy films.

Cast: Srini, Sujay Shastry, Aditi Prabhudeva, Sudesh Nair, Aruna Balraj

Directed by: Srini

The film, which explores the urban middle-class life, is a thorough comedy entertainer that also has a profound message. The plot begins with a touch of mythology -- Krishna fights with Rukmini and ends up cursing Narada to lead a life on earth. The curse will end for Narada only if he finds love and family acceptance. Unfortunately, Narada is born into a family that does not believe in love marriages. He is even named Appanna (Srini) by his strict father (S Narayan) so that girls treat him as their father or brother. As Appanna grows up, he becomes Appu and works as an HR manager of a private company. Even as his family starts looking for a prospective alliance, Appu gets attracted to Abhignya (Aditi Prabhudeva). Will he succeed in love and marriage sums up Old Monk.

The strength of this film is the dialogues, which are comical and profound. The clean lines are worthy of applause. Aruna Balraj, who plays Srini's mother, is the film's soul, and her conversation with her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary is thought-provoking.

Srini’s unconventional story is of high merit and he sure will go a long way as a director and actor. Sujay Shastry as the sidekick brings all the comic relief, and his funny one-liners are brilliant. Aditi Prabhudeva gives a mature and controlled performance and Sudesh Nair as the antagonist brings an interesting twist.

Old Monk is a good entertainer, but not without its loopholes. The film breezes through with funny dialogues, and although there are pacing issues in the second half, all's well that ends well.

Overall, the film featuring a handful of veterans puts you through some nostalgic moments, and delivers a good mix of comedy and drama

Related Stories

Old Monk review: This comedy-drama will definitely lift our spirits

With Old Monk as the title and the innovative posters, trailers, teasers, and songs from the film ensured to pique the interests of the audience. Director-actor Srini’s latest outing retains his signature style and is a film that will remind the audience of actor Anant Nag’s earlier comedy films.

The film, which explores urban middle-class life, is a thorough comedy entertainer that also has a profound message. The plot begins with a touch of mythology -- Krishna fights with Rukmini and ends up cursing Narada to lead a life on earth.

The curse will end for Narada only if he finds love and family acceptance. Unfortunately, Narada is born in a family that does not believe in love marriages. He is even named Appanna (Srini) by his strict father (S Narayan) so that girls treat him as their father or brother.

As Appanna grows up, he becomes Appu, and works as an HR manager of a private company. Even as his family start looking for a prospective alliance, Appu gets attracted to Abhignya (Aditi Prabhudeva). Will he succeed in love and marriage sums up Old Monk.

The strength of this film are the dialogues, which are comical and profound. The clean lines are worthy of applause. Aruna Balraj, who plays Srini’s mother, is the film’s soul, and her conversation with her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary is thought-provoking.

Srini’s unconventional story is of high merit and he sure will go a long way as a director and actor. Sujay Shastry as the sidekick brings all the comic relief, and his funny one-liners are brilliant. Aditi Prabhudeva gives a mature and controlled performance and Sudesh Nair as the antagonist, brings an interesting twist. Old Monk is a good entertainer, but not without its loopholes.

The film breezes through with funny dialogues, and although there are pacing issues in the second half, all’s well that ends well. Overall, the film featuring a handful of veterans puts you through some nostalgic moments and delivers a good mix of comedy and drama.

Old Monk Cast: Srini, Sujay Shastry, Aditi Prabhudeva, Sudesh Nair, Aruna Balraj, S Narayan and Rajesh Directed by: Srini Review: 3.5/5

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Where to Watch

M.G. Srinivas (Hero) Aditi Prabhudeva (Heroine) Aruna Balraj Rramprasadd Banavara (Priest) Mandara Battalahalli (Anu (Hero's Sister)) Satish Chandra Sihi Kahi Chandru Ashok Hegde Meghashree Bangalore Nagesh

M.G. Srinivas

Old Monk is a romantic comedy. It tells the story of a love crossed youngster. Will this young man find his one true love or will Lord Krishna's curse on him prevail?

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Home » Review » Old Monk movie review: MG Srinivas delivers a fun film that’s worth a watch »

Old Monk movie review: MG Srinivas delivers a fun film that’s worth a watch

The romantic comedy, directed by MG Srinivas, pairs him with Aditi Prabhudeva.

• Prathibha Joy

Last Updated: 01.16 PM, Feb 25, 2022

Story: Narada is banished to a life on earth by Krishna, a curse that can be broken only if he has a love marriage, with the blessings of family too. To make sure Narada has his work cut out for him, Krishna ensures he is born into a family that abhors love matches. Can Narada, as Appanna in his earthly avatar, work his way around this?

Review: It’s truly refreshing when the humour in a romantic comedy is its absolute highlight and not just a force-fitted track that could have been avoided. Actor-director MG Srinivas, who has been making a name for himself as a filmmaker who stays off the beaten path, be it with Srinivasa Kalyana or the first in the Birbal Trilogy, now presents Old Monk , a roma ntic comedy that rides high on situational comedy.

And it works perfectly because he doesn’t rely on one or two cast members to do the job for him. This is a team effort, with everyone chipping in and making an absolute fun watch. Srini, as the filmmaker is popularly known, employs a simple subject – He is Appanna, Narada in human form (after being cursed by Lord Krishna), who needs to fall in love, with the approval of family, to be able to return to devaloka. Trouble is that his father, Narayan (played brilliantly by filmmaker S Narayan), follows the family tradition of arranged marriages only. A die-hard romantic whose every attempt at falling in love is foiled, Appanna finally finds the girl of his dreams, only to find out that he has some history with her father, so getting his approval is going to be difficult. But that’s not the only obstacle, as an old foe from his college days resurfaces with revenge on the agenda.

The beauty of Old Monk is that Srini plays to the strengths of each of his actors, including himself. This is a filmmaker who is self-aware of what he can sell convincingly and what he cannot, relying on clever wordplay in punchlines to make the film work. Sujay Shastry as Ranveer Singh and S Narayan as Appanna’s father are absolute riots and perfect foils to the leading man. Aditi Prabhudeva, as the romantic interest, has a limited role, but is a treat to watch. Time and again the actress proves that she’s more than just a pretty face and she does it yet again. It would have been nice to see more of her. The only misstep in the narrative is the political track about the sinister MLA and his son (played convincingly by Sudev Nair and voiced perfectly by Chetan Gandharva), also an aspiring politician. It seems as if Srini was unsure what to do with that plot point and took the easy way out eventually, which was a little bit of a cop out. But that is a minor glitch that can be forgiven.

Verdict: Old Monk is not an extraordinary film, but it comes across as a breath of fresh air amid the plethora of mindless commercial movies at the box office every other week. Srini’s line, “Mass is temporary, but class is permanent”, defines the film. This is the kind of movie you should take the entire family to – so, get some popcorn, have a good laugh and come back happy. This, my friends, is what we call paisa vasool time pass.

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Old Monk (2022)

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2022 Directed by M.G. Srinivas

Narada is cursed and banished to earth by Lord Krishna after he creates a quarrel between Krishna and Rukmini. The only way he can redeem himself is by getting married to someone he loves on the earth. Now, Narada, christened as Appanna, is born into a family that only believes in arranged marriage and he has no chance of finding love with his father playing the villain. When he does find an interest, there are many hurdles.

M.G. Srinivas Aditi Prabhudeva

Director Director

M.G. Srinivas

Producers Producers

M.G. Srinivas Saurav Vaibhav Pradeep sharma

Editor Editor

Deepu S. Kumar

Cinematography Cinematography

Bharath Parashuram

Alternative Title

Comedy Romance

Releases by Date

25 feb 2022, releases by country.

129 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Suhas Chand Godekere ★★★

Short Take - ಸಂಭವಾಮಿ ಯುಗೇ ಯುಗೇ, ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಂದ್ರೆ ಹೊಗೆ ಹೊಗೆ.

Srini's new attempt is filled with funny dialogues to overcome the shortcomings of the screenplay. Everytime the screenplay gets dragged, the comedy bits pulled it through. As the love story took a complete back seat, keeping the runtime in check was another smart move to not let the jokes overstay.

Review by karthikkumarkr ★★★½

Average first half, very good second half. S Narayan outshines!!

Review by Bhargavi Chandrashekar ★★½

A good time-pass & a class (class-e permanent-u) movie to watch with a family.

Review by Rithvik Rao Raghavendra ★★

Somewhat entertaining here and there but screenplay and editing is not the best, very average

The comedy also works sometimes and doesn't sometimes, overall just a one time average watch

Review by CinemaMadness ★★½

#OldMonk (Kannada) {2.5/5} - Old Model. 😑

Genre : Comedy/Dramaa PG : 16+ Runtime : 2 hours 9 minutes  Year of release : 2022

A very regular telugu cinema template story and screenplay with few interesting ideas. That’s it.😑

Srinivas is good 👍🏻

Okay songs and cinematography 😊

Comedy and emotions are okay but not fresh. Gave me the feeling of watching a very average telugu cinema. 😑

Expected a better film from the director who earlier made #Birbal. 

Streaming on AMAZON PRIME 😎

#CinemaMadness2022 #MyHomeTheatreScreenings

Review by Anilll ★★★

Not boring, i think. 🙂

Review by filmycorner ★★★★

Old Monk is feel good family entertainer which consists of good story ,dialogues,comedy and screenplay very well.srini and sujay done a good in their roles.forget about the hustle go with fresh mind and watch the Old Monk movie cinema.

Review by Shashank ★★½

Good thing about movie is it’s runtime and narration which makes you watch it comfortably even though you feel like it’s not grippy in some parts,performance wise everyone has done quite good job but movie lacks attractive part which should bring people to theatres but should appreciate team promotion and their new technique circus 👏

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Old Monk | Review and Explanation | Critic Post-Movie | Amazon Movie 2022 

Summary of the post.

The following summary includes the list of the topics we will cover in our post related to “Old Monk .”

• Why you should watch Old Monk
• Where you can watch the movie
• What did we learn from Old Monk –  (Spoilers Begin)
• What we did and didn’t like about the film  – Pros and Cons Siri

Have you watched Old Monk? – Spoiler Alert

In this post we analysed the film and therefore it contains spoilers. Make sure you have watched the movie. If not,  check our movie introduction  to discover the story, other curiosities and watch the trailer .

Old Monk Review and Explanation.

We have to recognise that Srinivas reached an excellent level of comedy with Old Monk. Then, of course, we may argue and discuss that the film is not perfect, but the movie’s idea is brilliant, and we loved it . India is still one of the best countries to deliver exciting films in 2022 .

What did we learn from Old Monk?

We identified four critical topics while watching Old Monk: love, religion, family and politics.

Srinivas builds a crescendo of episodes that fit together during the movie’s development. Finally, he creates a climax where we know what will happen, but we can genuinely laugh and think about the messages delivered through this story.

Love doesn’t even spare the Gods. 

According to Srinivas, the movie’s beginning is an original representation of heaven. Krishna, the supreme God, is busy watching sports on television. He forgets about his girlfriend’s birthday, and to ruin him and his happiness, Narada comes with his best qualities as a love breaker.

Betrayals, insecurities and jealousies are part not only of our lives but also of the divinities, As well as in ancient Greece, even today in modern India.

We discover from Narada how Krishna was flirting with other goddesses while he forgot about his Ruku, Bhabiji. Love is complex, mainly because it’s impossible to figure out the reasons behind a woman’s anger. In the end, our Gods are not so different from us humans. And love becomes inexplicable even for Krishna himself.

But love has many meanings in Old Monk.

If love is passion and a reason for suffering, on the other hand, it becomes the perfect instrument to unite a family built on arrangements.

If Krishna first and Appu later suffer for the same mistakes, we loved the dialogue between Appu and his mother. And the climax brings us to the scene at the restaurant when Appu’s parents discuss their relationship and share their agreement to interrupt the crazy tradition of marrying only for arrangement instead of love.

Love is a noble concept, so powerful that it goes behind God’s control . Yet, the mysterious gift keeps us alive, ready to risk everything.

Love is within our society.

But love also comes when Appu’s colleagues, tired of all of the abuses he committed preventing love and socialising in the office, listen to Ramu, the new grandpa, to appreciate all the good things Appu did for each of them during the years.

So, love becomes part of our lives under different episodes and circumstances. There is only one effort we need to make, be able to see it in all the beauties around us.

And love doesn’t know limitation; it doesn’t care if you are human or a God, and not even if you are young or old. “The Art of Love” is a real example to keep us dreaming of immortal love stories. What a lovely message Srinivas delivered to us.

Together we build the best version of ourselves.

Appu’s family has a tradition of weddings based on arrangement instead of love. Anyway, his parents taught us an incredible lesson. Even without a “formal love marriage,” they are always there for each other. Together they overcome their differences and help Appu find love and happiness. They are inspiring with their dialogues and characters’ evolution.

Even Appu’s father, the most distant from the idea of love, melts down when thinking about his true love Lalitha. But there isn’t jealousy in her wife, just the desire to let love triumph, at least for his son.

Love is not only passion because they show us that living together for all of those years, without anger, is the perfect expression of a relationship built upon respect, affection and love; yes, love in one of its manifestations. 

And together, “The Free Demo Service” helps Appu win his election. Each of them does his part for the good of the community. Also, this one is love. 

Religion: never challenge a God!

There is a strong parallelism between Indian and old Greek mythology . For example, Narada’s punishment looks very similar to the Prometheus one.

Prometheus is famous because he stole the fire from the Gods. So he basically donated life and civilisation to humans. And, even in this case, Zeus (Krishna of the old Greeks) didn’t like the “hubris” shown by Prometheus in challenging the Gods. Therefore his triumph lasted shortly.

The punishment of the Gods

Zeus punished Prometheus with eternal torment . He was bound to a rock while an eagle (A symbol of Zeus) was eating his liver (thought to be the seat of humans’ emotions). Every night, the liver regenerates so that the eagle can eat his liver every day for the rest of eternity. Not really kind from Zeus, but that’s the price to pay, thinking to be better than Gods.

After he destroys Krishna’s relationship, Narada becomes the victim of God’s revenge. If eating the liver of the starving Prometheus may seem like an atrocity, Krishna punishes Narada even worse in a certain way.

• First , Narada becomes a human;
• Second , He was born with the ability to fall in love with any woman, even in the nursery;
• Third , if he is so quickly a victim of love, his family doesn’t believe in love but only in arranged marriages;
• Fourth , his father names him Appanna, which means Father, so that any girl will never stay with him. Or even Anna, that means brother, so that he can’t have success with women.

How Krishna complete his revenge?

To complete his revenge, Krishna decides that Appu must fall in love, convince her family that he is good for her and marry her. Not an easy task indeed, and Appu will have to strive for eternity, as for Prometheus. But love is something that even Krishna can’t control , so more than once, God becomes scared that the love between Appu and Abhi can succeed.

Therefore, Krishna must intervene to serve his revenge, genially rebuilding the same scene at the movie’s beginning. It’s Abhi’s birthday, and Appu forgot to wish her the best on her special day. To bring the cake this time is Krishna, again with extra cheese. But to ruin Appu’s happiness, his family play a strategic role. Each of them says something to worsen the situation.

Appu was calling another girl the night before and Krishna at the beginning. The climax reaches its peak when Abhi listen to his weak excuses of Appu. Abhi’s birthday was a silly thing, and at that moment, her face beautifully shows the end of their story. The revenge is now completed.

And this leads us to an artistic point. 

The joints in the story’s structure amplify the comedy.

The movie may not cause you severe belly laughs, but it’s undoubtedly intelligent and well-structured. In the film’s first half, Srinivas prepares all the sequences and events that will be completed in the second half.

The Story is circular.

We already told you about the most evident example. The story is circular because it starts and ends with the same event but on different sides. If Krishna is the victim of Narada and love, the revenge takes place in the end. Therefore, Narada suffers all the pains, maybe more when Abhi leaves him, fulfilling Krishna’s revenge. And after the story of Prometheus and Narada, we learned that we never should challenge the Gods.

But this is just one example. There is more, for instance, the secret follower on Twitter, who will help free our teams from jail. Or the new investors who bought Appu’s company threatened to fire him and use the money to support Sashank’s election.

And we can’t end our lessons learned without mentioning probably the most comic episode. Karma seems to be the key in Old Monk. Appu’s strategy of breaking love stories is epic. Finally, the company’s new director must shave his moustache after experiencing his defeat. But actions have consequences; therefore, when Appu is waiting for Abhi and her father to officialise their wedding, we finally discover that Abhi’s father is his mustacheless colleague.

The secret for writing a good story

Every sequence seems to fit the next ones in the story. It’s the secret to writing a well-structured script.

And we can’t ignore the political battle between Appu and Shashank. But also how Appu helps his villain restore a love story previously broken by Appanna. In the rivalry, there is humanity, character evolution and love. We can’t ask for more.

The Deus Ex Machina is Shanshan’s grandpa.

Like in a perfect Latin comedy, Srinivas finds the best way to solve a pre-election chaotic situation. Directly from “The Art of Love”, Shashank’s grandpa comes to solve the puzzle. He gave the idea to let Shashank signs a contract where he moves corrupted money into the IT company used to blackmail Appu. Another genial idea.

What did we like about Old Monk?

We loved the idea behind the script. It’s genial. The different character’s evolutions within the story are heartwarming. The pieces of music add pace to the scenes, where the performance delivered by the whole cast is simply perfect.

And what about Narada’s character?

We want to tell you also another detail: Narada’s character . Narada is a god-sage, famous for travelling as a musician and storyteller. He is one of the mind created children of Brahma, the creator. And Narada really went to earth to spread wisdom and set matters right. At least according to the Hindu traditions.

So Narada’s entrance chanting “Narayana, Narayana” is not only a movie scene. It’s the usual way Narada uses to make his entrance. We see Narada always with a musical instrument in his hand because he is one of the greatest masters of music. The instrument’s name is “Marathi”. We wanted to highlight to you the attention Srinivas put into building the details of this movie.

But, is everything so perfect?

What didn’t we like about Old Monk?

If the script’s idea and structure are genial, we don’t think the final result is perfect. Hence, the only “complains” we have are about pace and dialogues . We felt there was more potential for belly laughs, for more powerful jokes and surprises.

Unfortunately, the feeling is that Old Monk loses its pace in the second half of the political saga. It’s a great idea, don’t get us wrong. We valued how Srinivas wants to inspire us to build a perfect society where we work together for the good of the community. But it seems too much and a bit overwhelming.

Cinematography and Photography

And the last note is about cinematography and photography. We loved the script’s structure and how all the sequences come together, but the photography is a bit poor. Of course, it’s a comedy more than a drama, but lovely shoots are part of the best cinema.

Nevertheless, we loved Old Monk, and it’s an absolute must-watch for 2022. Another good reason to watch it is the beauty of Aditi Prabhudeva (Abhi) . She is sensational, and her presence steals our attention and heart.

Our final rating for Old Monk is:

Did you enjoy old monk.

We hope you enjoyed Old Monk review and explanation.  Let us know your opinion  in the comment section. And  let us suggest you other Indian movies we loved : Mimi , Jai Bhim and Malik .

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Mr. Monk’s Last Case is more like Mr. Monk’s Hallmark movie

The Monk reunion movie highlights how sad Tony Shalhoub’s detective really is, and not much else

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Share All sharing options for: Mr. Monk’s Last Case is more like Mr. Monk’s Hallmark movie

Adrian Monk has always been consistent. He’s never been a fan of germs, heights, loud noises, crowds, elevators, milk, or plenty of other things. But he knows how to solve a murder. Monk , the 2000s USA Network procedural centered around the fictional detective played by Tony Shalhoub, was not as consistent; after a few seasons, the show seemed to reverse-engineer its mysteries from the most uncomfortable situations they could put Monk in for an episode. The quality of the show suffered for it, but Shalhoub’s compassion and meticulous care always tethered the show to something.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie , the new Peacock special bringing back Shalhoub, Monk, and most of the show’s cast of characters, throws away what little consistency Monk maintained. It’s a decade-plus since he finally solved his wife Trudy’s murder, and post-COVID living has not been kind to him. With his memoir canceled, Monk can’t afford to pay for his step-daughter Molly’s (Caitlin McGee) wedding, prompting him to feel depressed and contemplating suicide. He delays his plans when he gets roped into solving one final case on Molly’s behalf, but throughout the movie Monk feels broken, so much so that the ghost of Trudy (Melora Hardin) has to step in numerous times to talk him through low moments.

Unfortunately, what Mr. Monk’s Last Case is built on — the sadness underpinning Monk’s whole situation — falters because it doesn’t feel true. And worse yet: The straight-to-streaming movie revival is a glaring imitation of what Monk did better elsewhere.

The special suffers from a lot of the traditional problems that come with this kind of reunion. The central mystery he’s here to solve sprawls in a way the show couldn’t, a casualty of a longer run time without a real backbone to bolster it. It’s trapped somewhere between concluding Monk’s story (it’s his Last Case ) and rebooting it (he got pulled back in for one last case! ). Your mileage may vary on the stuff in the movie that plays on the nostalgia such reboots are built on: Randy (Jason Gray-Stanford) is still a goober, and real fans still remember his music “project.” Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) is still brassy and doubtful of Monk’s logic. “It’s a gift. And a curse.”

But such nostalgia seems to simply retread Monk’s primary arc from the show. Notably, this isn’t the first time Monk has seen Trudy’s ghost. In season 3’s “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” Monk is particularly despondent about his limitations and pulls Trudy’s old pillow out of a plastic bag in the closet and she appears, ethereal and brightly lit. The conversation they have is a speedrun of everything Mr. Monk’s Last Case is trying to build its emotional throughline on: His fear of change (and his fear of “not changing”), how much he misses her, how he’s afraid that his life is always going to feel this hopeless.

Over the course of that episode, he tries medication — which alleviates his anxieties, but also turns him into an asshole and a bad detective — and resolves to keep muddling through the treatment plan he was on. These could be recurring problems for someone like Monk, and indeed Shalhoub’s portrayal has a graceful, endless weariness to it. But Mr. Monk’s Last Case feels trite in comparison to what a 42-minute episode was able to encompass already.

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In that third season episode, Trudy’s heavenly presence just feels much more true; Monk wasn’t bringing the real Trudy in off the spectral plane, but rather Monk’s imagination of what Trudy could’ve been there to say to him. Coupled with Shalhoub’s cracking voice and bone-deep despair, the moment between them is heartbreakingly earnest and speaks to his connection and conviction better than any cut corners in the movie. By the end of the special, it’s more like he’s wandered into Mr. Monk’s Hallmark Movie than an episode of Monk . This is particularly true when it hamfistedly tries to tie his reflections with Trudy into the case at hand: He bemoans the never-ending crime statistics, but Monk was never driven by his impact, or his legacy, and certainly not by “ending murder.” He was good at puzzles, a damn good detective, and just as rigid when it came to righteousness as he was with cleanliness.

Aside from the obvious comfort of revisiting the Monk crew, Mr. Monk’s Last Case feels wholly built on providing him with closure and a future. But that’s something the final episode of the series already offered him. While “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine” was about ultimately maintaining the status quo for the series to continue, the series finale introduces him to Molly , which prompts him to finally resolve to live his life, not simply weather it. Mr. Monk’s Last Case throws that out the window for a post-COVID world, but it has nothing new, insightful, or even comforting to offer Monk or the viewer.

There was always a tragic undercurrent to Monk’s whole schtick, plunky jazz soundtrack aside. The central cliche of Monk’s life — a brilliant detective who could solve everything except his own wife’s murder — was as much a plot device as it was a trap, crystallizing his growth and keeping him (as he would repeatedly admit) from believing he would ever be truly happy or free from his OCD symptoms again. Driving Monk to the brink, only to be held back by the ghost of his wife, isn’t the solve the special thinks it is.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case is now streaming on Peacock.

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• What is the release date of 'Old Monk'? Release date of Srini and Aditi Prabhudeva starrer 'Old Monk' is 2022-02-25.
• Who are the actors in 'Old Monk'? 'Old Monk' star cast includes Srini, Aditi Prabhudeva, S. Narayan and Sujay Shastry.
• Who is the director of 'Old Monk'? 'Old Monk' is directed by Srini.
• Who is the producer of 'Old Monk'? 'Old Monk' is produced by Pradeep Sharmaa.
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Monk Has Aged Surprisingly Well … With Some Exceptions

With all eight seasons of Monk now on Netflix, it's time to realize that the titular detective could have used some better friends.

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Fans of bingeable mystery shows are in for a treat: all episodes of Monk are now available to stream on Netflix ! The USA Network original series centered around Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), a former investigator for the San Francisco Police Department whose wife’s death exacerbates his OCD, along with his multiple phobias. However, his keen attention to detail makes him a valuable private detective consultant for the force, and he’s called in to help solve unconventional cases. The show won eight Emmy Awards and was notable as one of the early representations of a person with OCD as the protagonist of a series.

In addition to its appearance on Netflix, the show received a movie on Peacock in December 2023. It’s not often that a writer gets to go back and re-imagine what he might have done differently if he were writing a show for a modern audience, but series creator Andy Breckman recently had that chance with Monk , which aired 2002-2009. Preparing for the film gave Breckman a chance to revisit the series. In a USA Today interview , he acknowledged that while still being proud of the show, “20 years ago, I didn’t make the (writing) decisions I would now.”

Though critics noted the movie had a slightly darker feel than the original, more light-hearted series—Monk, like the audience, has to deal with COVID and its consequences—it did give viewers a peek into what Monk might have been like if it were written for an audience with a greater understanding of mental health.

What Monk Did Well

The original series wouldn’t have lasted eight seasons if fans hadn’t loved the character of Monk . Much of this is absolutely due to Shalhoub’s charisma in the role: he performs the character in an endearing way, and his phobias and quirks add to that charm. 

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Adrian Monk is presented as a character who has always been neurodivergent, but the unsolved death of his wife—which is finally solved at the end of the series—causes Monk to become even more vulnerable to his OCD and phobias. The series begins when Monk has not left the house for three years. He has a nurse aide assisting him at all times, because he’s unable to care for himself alone. He also has a therapist whom he has sessions with regularly, and it’s during those sessions that Monk is shown at his most vulnerable. 

Despite the heavy character background and the murders being solved, Monk is frequently played as a comedy—Shalhoub actually won the lead actor Emmy three times in the comedy category, against stars of sitcoms. While Monk’s behaviors are played for their humor value, there’s no sense of the audience laughing at Monk. They’re laughing because the situation Monk’s behaviors cause might be ridiculous, but they love him, as a character, through it all.

There are elements of his character that are more sympathetic to a modern audience, as well. Looking at the character almost fifteen years after the show ended, Shalhoub told a Parade magazine interviewer, “If people watch [Monk] in reruns during and after the pandemic, he’s not gonna look so neurotic anymore. He’s going [to] look more like the canary in the coal mine.” In a post-pandemic world, where the reality of germs cost so many people so much, the depiction of Monk and his phobias rings much closer to home.

What Wouldn’t Work About Monk Today

When Monk first aired, Monk was billed as “Obsessive Compulsive Detective” and “the defective detective,” terms that surely would not hit the same note with modern viewers. Audiences in 2024, especially members of Gen Z , are far more aware of mental health issues—and have more frank discussion about their own mental health—than the majority of viewers in the early 2000s. Considering someone with OCD “defective” just doesn’t fly.

Some psychologists took issue with the presentation of OCD on the show over a decade ago—after the show was off the air, but well before the pandemic shaped conversations about mental health and germs. Fletcher Wortmann in Psychology Today wrote about one particularly egregious episode, the Emmy-nominated “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” in which Monk finally agrees to be medicated for his OCD and is immediately cured. “Sadly, use of the medication comes at a terrible price … Monk’s medication totally changes his personality — nuMonk is abrasive, egocentric, and oblivious to social cues.” 

He also completely loses his crime fighting superpowers, because he no longer has his OCD to make him pay attention to the details. (This falls into the “ Magical Disabled Person ” trope, where a character’s seemingly superhuman abilities are due to their disability, and they must therefore suffer or lose what makes them special.) Obviously, medicine doesn’t work that way, and OCD doesn’t work that way either.

Monk’s Friends Were the Problem

Viewers of the show with OCD have had mixed reactions to whether Monk offers good representation. In some cases, the fact that there was representation with a positive character, rather than a villain, was enough to forgive any flaws. Others saw their own issues well-shown on the screen, without lingering too long on moments of anxiety or introspection.

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One of the larger issues on the show that would likely be handled differently today is the way others responded to Monk’s behaviors. Some of his supposed friends reacted constantly with frustration, tolerating Monk rather than supporting him. While this behavior is true to what many neurodivergent people experience, that the show itself never offers a critique on this tolerance suggests that greater understanding isn’t needed. A new incarnation would be more likely to show friends who truly act as friends, loving Monk with support and kindness rather than just tolerating him.

Another issue is the way that, rather than helping Monk deal with his phobias, his assistants provide him with negative coping mechanisms. Mary Sue contributor Sarah Barrett, who has OCD, pointed out how much better Monk would have managed with Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, which was already well known when the show was being produced. “Whenever I watch Monk , I do get feelings of, ‘Monk’s assistants are making life so much worse for him, my god,’” Barrett explained. 

An updated version of the show would be more likely to focus on teaching Monk to manage—and cope—with the anxieties of his OCD, rather than just playing off many of his behaviors as comedic. This wouldn’t mean taking away from the comedy, but rather providing more empathy for a character who was struggling to become healthier.

OCD has gotten more representation in media over the years, and two middle grade graphic novels, Just Roll with It and Buzzing , both present a nuanced version of what it’s like to live with OCD as a young person. If graphic novels aimed at a young audience can offer that kind of insight with nuance and compassion, there’s no reason a comedy show aimed at adults couldn’t offer the same.

In the meantime, it’s fun to sit and watch the old episodes, knowing that while they’re imperfect, they’re a product of their time, and they remain solidly entertaining despite their flaws.

All eight seasons of Monk are available to stream on Netflix now.

Alana Joli Abbott | @alanajoli

Alana Joli Abbott is a reviewer and game writer, whose multiple choice novels, including Choice of the Pirate and Blackstone Academy for Magical Beginners, are published…

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie’ On Peacock, Where Monk Solves A Case Close To His Heart While He Thinks About Ending It All

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• Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie

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Monk , which ran on USA Network from 2002-09, was the signature show of that network’s “Characters Welcome” era, which was full of light mysteries that emphasized quirky characters over deep, involved storylines. Fourteen years after the series ended, Emmy-winning star Tony Shalhoub is back as OCD-addled detective Adrian Monk in what is touted as his “Last Case”.

MR. MONK’S LAST CASE: A MONK MOVIE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is having a hard time being Adrian Monk right now. After seeing a scene from one of the many murders he solved for the San Francisco PD in the 2000s — along with a glimpse of his former assistant Sharona (Bitty Schram) — we see him in the current day in the office of his memoir’s publisher (Brooke Adams). Tired of Monk waxing rhapsodically over the oven he had in his apartment instead of of talking about his cases, and the fact that he hasn’t finished after a decade, she tells Monk that they’re going to take back the advance he got for the book.

One problem: He had earmarked the money to pay for a wedding for Molly (Caitlin McGee), the daughter of his late wife Trudy (Melora Hardin). They’ve grown close over the past fifteen years, and she took care of him during the pandemic — we see Monk sitting in a beekeeper suit, sipping smoothies through a hole in the mask. As he leaves the publisher’s office, he contemplates throwing himself out a window, but his vision of Trudy persuades him to take a moment and not give into the impulse.

But Monk isn’t done contemplating ending it all, and when his therapist, Dr. Neven Bell (Hector Elizondo), notes that he’s been refilling a prescription for Lorazepam, Monk denies he’s hoarding them to kill himself.

Molly’s wedding goes forward as a smaller affair, and she and Monk meet old friends Natalie Traeger (Traylor Howard), the assistant he had after Sharona left, and former SFPD lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) at the airport. They want to meet Molly’s fiance, Griffin (Austin Scott), but he’s busy interviewing Rick Eden (James Purefoy), the world’s richest man.

Eden is testing the rocket that will launch him into space, and Griffin confronts him about the diving accident that killed his former business partner. In response, Eden offers Griffin the editor-in-chief position at a newspaper he just acquired. Griffin turns it down.

The day before Griffin and Molly get married, Griffin is measuring the bungee cord he’s going to use to go on his semiannual jump off a local bridge. He’s a meticulous, “measure twice and cut once” type, so he knows exactly how long of a cord he should use. But the next day, when he jumps off, the cord ends up being too long; he crashes to the ground and dies.

Molly is convinced that Griffin was murdered, and that Eden had something to do with it; she wants Monk to help her prove it. But Monk hasn’t worked on a case in quite some time, and doesn’t think there’s much evidence of foul play here. But when Molly recalls someone on the bridge saying the cord was “six feet too long,” Monk takes that specific info and starts his investigation.

The investigation eventually gets Monk, Natalie and Randy in front of Eden. For that, they have another old friend, Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), to thank. He retired from the SFPD and is now Eden’s head of security, a cushy position to say the least. He has doubts about Monk’s thought that Eden killed Griffin, but that may be more because he likes his retirement gig so much.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie is, of course, based on the 2002-09 series Monk .

Performance Worth Watching: Tony Shalhoub won three Emmys playing Adrian Monk during the run of the original series, and he hasn’t missed a step in this movie, even though it’s been 14 years since the series ended.

Memorable Dialogue: There is more than one reference to the fact that, since the pandemic started, everyone has become more like Monk, wiping their hands, greeting each other with elbow bumps, etc. We were more interested in seeing Monk’s neuroses go out of control during the pandemic flashbacks, like the beekeeper suit, the cupboard full of used home COVID tests, etc. We also liked the gag where he brought his own hand sanitizer dispenser, complete with wheeled stand, to a public building.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Mr. Monk’s Last Case , written by Monk showrunner Andy Breckman and directed by Randy Zisk, shines when it concentrates on Monk and his many, many neuroses, as you might expect. Because of the pandemic and Monk’s crushing depression, his phobias and rituals are a bit more out of control than they usually are, and Shalhoub does his usual expert job at showing how Adrian Monk isn’t coming close to coping with it all.

It was also good to see old friends from the original series — Natalie, Sottlemeyer and Disher — and seeing Hardin coming back as the ghost of Trudy is always welcome. We just wish that the mystery Monk was trying to solve was at all intriguing. Purefoy does his best to make his rich tech bro bad guy seem like the manifestation of pure evil and greed, but there’s really nothing there.

The story itself moves very slowly, pausing for indulgent scenes where, for instance, Disher makes a model of the bridge out of Legos. While we wanted to see more about Monk, his relationship with Molly and how he slid into the depression that defines most of the episode, Breckman decided to fill the time with scenes that didn’t really feel germane to either the mystery or what was going on with Monk. It’s kind of surprising, given how well he knows the character, that we didn’t see more of his inner turmoil.

The big problem might be that the mystery itself, even though it was more of a Columbo -style “howdunit” instead of a whodunit, would have fit better in a standard 42-minute episode instead of a 97-minute movie. If the space was filled with what we described above, we might not have minded, but the indulgent, throat clearing scenes that ended up filling those gaps just made the movie come to a screeching halt.

Our Take: STREAM IT if you’re a Monk fan, mainly because Mr. Monk’s Final Case: A Monk Movie has all the stuff you liked about the original series, albeit in an expanded, dragged-out format. But if you’re just in the mood for an intriguing light mystery to watch, you should look elsewhere.

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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Old Monk Movie Review

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When Lord Krishna and Rukmani have some heated arguments, Narada fuels the fire that leads Krishna to send Narada to the earth. Krishna curses Narada to get married on the earth and lead his life as a family man. Only then he could return to paradise. Narada becomes Appanna and grows into a simple family as he has no other go. His father is a strict man who doesn’t encourage love marriages. He had to face a lot of hurdles in finding a better half and settle in life. Was he able to find a perfect match? The rest of the story deals with this.

Star Performance

Srinivas has done a wonderful job. His natural performance is the biggest plus to the film. The veterans, Aruna, Sihi Kahi Chandru, and Narayan have done a great job. Sudev Nair is impressive in his antagonist role.

With a hilarious plot, the director tried to make the audience laugh and enjoy the film throughout. He has managed to do the same without any error. The stars are placed in the characters that are excellently designed. The dialogues are beautiful, and the film's central theme is to showcase the importance of marriage. The film has a good production design, and it is technically superb with the cinematography and BGM. The screenplay is quick, and the audience won’t feel bored, not even for a second.

What’s There?

• The stars had performed well
• The story, screenplay, and direction are perfect
• The film is technically sound

What’s Not There?

• Nothing is big as a mistake

Old Monk is a fun-filled ride for any movie lover. With the neat story, dialogues, and performances, the film attracts the audience to watch it more than once!

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A family heads to a secluded beach vacation. They speak vaguely of the passage of time in a way that parents often do with their children, as mom mentions how she can’t wait to hear her daughter’s singing voice when she grows up. Shortly thereafter, it’s revealed that mom may not be able to do that because she has a tumor and this could be a "last trip," either because of her physical health or the health of her crumbling marriage. The passage of time changes at different points in your life, but especially when you see your kids growing up too fast and when you worry you might not be able to witness the bulk of their journey. When M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old,” based on the book by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters, is playing thematically with those feelings and allowing itself to be surreal and scary in the process, it truly works. When it feels like it has to nail down specifics, such as in a disappointing final stretch, it crosses that median line into the silly lane. The mysteries of aging are something everyone considers—“Old” taps into those considerations with just enough style to engage before stepping back from its own edge.

The family in the opening scene consists of Guy ( Gael García Bernal ), Prisca ( Vicky Krieps ), Trent ( Nolan River ) and Maddox ( Alexa Swinton ). The resort manager tells them about a secluded beach where they can avoid the touristy crowds, and they’re taken there by none other than Shyamalan himself in maybe his most meta cameo (after all, he’s the director, assembling all of his players on the sandy stage). Guy and Prisca’s clan isn’t alone. They’re joined by a doctor named Charles ( Rufus Sewell ), his wife Chrystal ( Abbey Lee ), his mother Agnes ( Kathleen Chalfant ) and his daughter Kara ( Mikaya Fisher ). A third couple joins them in Jarin ( Ken Leung ) and Patricia ( Nikki Amuka-Bird ). All of the travelers meet a mysterious traveler at the beach when they arrive in a rapper named Mid-Sized Sedan ( Aaron Pierre ). And why is he bleeding from his nose? And is that a dead body?

From their arrival, the beauty of this beach, surrounded by steep stone, feels threatening. The waves crash and the rock wall almost seems to grow taller as the day goes on. When they try to walk back the way they came, they get faint and wake up on the beach again. And then things get really weird when Trent and Maddox are suddenly significantly older, jumping about five years in a couple hours. The adults figure out that every half-hour on this beach is like a year off of it. As the kids age into Alex Wolff , Eliza Scanlen , and the great Thomasin McKenzie , the adults face their own physical issues, including hearing/vision problems, dementia, and that damn tumor in Prisca’s body. Can they get off the beach before 24 hours age them 48 years?

What a clever idea. Rod Serling would have loved it. And “Old” is very effective when Shyamalan is being playful and quick with his high concept. “Old” doesn’t really feel like a traditional mystery. I never once cared about “figuring out” what was happening to this crew, enjoying “Old” far more as surreal horror than as a thriller that demanded explanations. Having said that, it sometimes feels like Shyamalan and his team have to pull punches to hold that PG-13. I wondered about the truly gruesome, Cronenberg version of this story that doesn’t shy away from what happens to the human body over time and doesn't feel a need to dot every 'i' and cross every 't'.

The actors all seem like they would have been willing to go on that more surreal journey. Most of the ensemble finds a way to push through a script that really uses them like a kid uses sand toys on a beach, moving them around before they wash away with the tide. Stand-outs include Sewell’s confused menace, McKenzie’s palpable fear (she nails that the best, by far, understanding she's in a horror movie more than some of the others), and the grounded center provided by Bernal and Krieps.

A director who often veers right when he should arguably go left, Shyamalan and his collaborators manage their tone here better than he has in years. Yes, the dialogue is clunky and almost entirely expositional regarding their plight and attempts to escape it, but that’s a feature, not a bug. “Old” should have an exaggerated, surreal tone and Shyamalan mostly keeps that in place, assisted greatly by some of the best work yet by his regular cinematographer Mike Gioulakis . The pair are constantly playing with perception and forced POV, fluidly gliding their camera up and down the beach as if it’s rushing to catch up with all the developments as they happen. Some of the framing here is inspired, catching a corner of a character’s head before revealing they’re now being played by a new actor. It’s as visually vibrant a film as Shyamalan has made in years, at its best when it's embracing its insanity. The waves are so loud and the rock wall is so imposing that they almost feel like characters.     

Sadly, the film crashes when it decides to offer some sane explanations and connect dots that didn’t really need to be connected. There’s a much stronger version of “Old” that ends more ambiguously, allowing viewers to leave the theatre playing around with themes instead of unpacking exactly what was going on. The conversation around Shyamalan often focuses on his final scenes, and I found the ones in “Old” some of his most frustrating given how they feel oppositional to what works best about the movie. When his characters are literally trying to escape the passage of time, as people do when their kids are growing up too fast or they receive a mortality diagnosis, “Old” is fascinating and entertaining. It’s just too bad that it doesn’t age into its potential.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Rated PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language.

108 minutes

Gael García Bernal as Guy

Vicky Krieps as Prisca

Rufus Sewell as Charles

Alex Wolff as Trent Aged 15

Nikki Amuka-Bird as Patricia

• M. Night Shyamalan

Writer (based on the graphic novel "Sandcastle" by)

• Pierre-Oscar Levy
• Frederick Peeters

Cinematographer

• Mike Gioulakis
• Brett M. Reed
• Trevor Gureckis

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Your morning coffee may be more than a half million years old

FILE - Arabica coffee beans harvested the previous year are stored at a coffee plantation in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala, on May 22, 2014. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics on Monday, April 15, 2024, researchers estimate that Coffea arabica came to be from natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species over 600,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

FILE - Mohammed Fita picks coffee beans on his farm Choche, near Jimma, 375 kilometers (234 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, Sept. 21 2002. Wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been primarily roasted and brewed in Yemen starting in the 1400s. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim, File)

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That coffee you slurped this morning? It’s 600,000 years old.

Using genes from coffee plants around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world’s most popular type of coffee, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee lovers simply as “arabica.”

The researchers, hoping to learn more about the plants to better protect them from pests and climate change, found that the species emerged around 600,000 years ago through natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species.

“In other words, prior to any intervention from man,” said Victor Albert, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who co-led the study.

AP AUDIO: Your morning coffee may be more than a half million years old.

AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports on the history of your morning cup of coffee.

These wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been first roasted and brewed primarily in Yemen starting in the 1400s. In the 1600s, Indian monk Baba Budan is fabled to have smuggled seven raw coffee beans back to his homeland from Yemen, laying the foundation for coffee’s global takeover.

Arabica coffee, prized for its smooth and relatively sweet flavor, now makes up 60% - 70% of the global coffee market and is brewed by brands such as Starbucks, Tim Horton’s and Dunkin’. The rest is robusta, a stronger and more bitter coffee made from one of arabica’s parents, Coffea canephora.

To piece together arabica coffee’s past, researchers studied genomes of C. canephora, another parent called Coffea eugenioides, and more than 30 different arabica plants, including a sample from the 1700s — courtesy of the Natural History Museum in London — that Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used to name the plant.

The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Researchers from Nestlé, which owns several coffee brands, contributed to the study.

The arabica plant’s population fluctuated over thousands of years before humans began cultivating it, flourishing during warm, wet periods and suffering through dry ones. These lean times created so-called population bottlenecks, when only a small number of genetically similar plants survived.

Today, that renders arabica coffee plants more vulnerable to diseases like coffee leaf rust, which cause billions of dollars in losses every year. The researchers explored the makeup of one arabica variety that is resistant to coffee leaf rust, highlighting sections of its genetic code that could help protect the plant.

The study clarifies how arabica came to be and spotlights clues that could help safeguard the crop, said Fabian Echeverria, an adviser for the Center for Coffee Research and Education at Texas A&M University who was not involved with the research.

Exploring arabica’s past and present could yield insight into keeping coffee plants healthy – and coffee cups full – for future early mornings.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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The Old Oak Reviews

Like with all Ken Loach films, reality is at the center of it.

Full Review | Apr 17, 2024

It may be Ken Loach's last film, and it's a lovely note to finish on.

It’s a righteous oeuvre with marvelously strong roots.

Full Review | Apr 15, 2024

A fine send-off for workhorse British director Ken Loach, this film is a sort of proudly unsexy piece of social realism portraiture whose delicate blend of poignancy and hopefulness mark it as a welcomely mature work for the remaining cineastes who care.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 12, 2024

The parallels Loach makes are obvious, but that doesn’t make the film any less emotionally potent.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2024

Its credibility is so deep that it may actually connect with people who use hate and punching down as a salve for the loss of their way of life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 11, 2024

The film’s bluntness and overly simplified politics will do little to change the minds of those who need to hear its message the most.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2024

The Old Oak is Crash without the car accidents as it presents a feel-good narrative that invites audiences to feel united by the differences that ostensibly divide us.

He's the beating heart of the film, but that rhythm is matched in kindred spirit Yara (Mari), whose necessitated bravery inspires him, and both communities, to hope for more.

Full Review | Apr 8, 2024

It's as engrossing, thoughtful, heartfelt, angry, hopeful, and altogether valuable as his best work. If it is indeed Loach's farewell, it's one hell of a fine note to go out on.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 7, 2024

With The Old Oak, Ken Loach goes out with one last, full-throated call for brotherhood and solidarity. It’s the most hopeful the old soldier’s been in years.

Full Review | Apr 5, 2024

Despite some sentimental tendencies, the plea for acceptance and compassion in the latest working-class drama from Ken Loach resonates beyond cultural and geographic boundaries.

[L]ooking at The Old Oak as more a parable ... it's effective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 5, 2024

In Loach’s vision of the world, anything that can go wrong will undoubtedly do so, and the crux of dramatic catharsis lies in watching what people will do in such situations.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 5, 2024

A poignant and moving coda to a career spent chronicling personal indignities amid broader social ills like poverty and unemployment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 4, 2024

If The Old Oak really is Loach’s final film, that’s a bittersweet and, yes, overly-simplistic parting message, but it’s a comfortingly familiar one from a director who has been unshakably consistent over six decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Apr 4, 2024

If this is indeed Ken Loach’s final film, he is going out with a real banger. The Old Oak is quite a crowning achievement if it is truly his finale.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Apr 4, 2024

If The Old Oak is indeed the last film of the master, it’s a fitting sendoff for a director whose work will continue to echo for at least as long as Durham Cathedral has been standing.

Full Review | Original Score: A-minus | Apr 4, 2024

In place of magical thinking and a happy ending, “The Old Oak” serves up something harder: a meditation on hope.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2024

The film isn’t some self-consciously summarizing coda but the latest in a long line of intimately scaled looks at the myriad ills facing Britain’s working class.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 30, 2024