chhello show movie review

Chhello Show Review: Visually Arresting, Emotionally Engaging Coming-Of-Age Tale

Chhello show review: india's official entry to the best international feature film category of the academy awards deserves the nod, buzz or no buzz, more than any other title that might have been in the running..

A still from Chhello Show . (courtesy: imdb.com )

Cast: Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena, Dipen Raval, Paresh Mehta, Vikas Bata, Rahul Koli, Shoban Makwa, Kishan Parmar, Vijay Mer, Alpesh Tank and Tia Sebastien

Director: Pan Nalin

Rating : Four stars ( out of 5)

Light and the magic that it can create combine to serve as the leitmotif of Chhello Show (Last Film Show ), Pan Nalin's deftly crafted Gujarati-language film about a nine-year-old boy in a remote Saurashtra village who falls under the spell of cinema and finds his metier.

To answer the question that is on many minds, India's official entry to the Best International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards deserves the nod, buzz or no buzz, more than any other title that might have been in the running.

But for a single strand of the story drawn from the filmmaker's own growing up years, Chhello Show has nothing in common with Cinema Paradiso or with any other film about films.

A significant part of Chhello Show does rest on the young protagonist's bond with a projectionist, but the film goes well beyond that aspect of the plot. It interlaces a nuanced, evocative portrayal of a place, time and culture with the instantly affecting tale of child's life-altering discovery of the movies.

The film revolves around the encounters and adventures that shape the boy's imagination. It is helped along by a cast of actors - no recognisable faces here - who merge completely with the milieu and enhance the enticing tangibility of the characters they play and the rural and urban spaces they inhabit.

The visually arresting, emotionally engaging coming-of-age tale plays out in the course of a summer about a decade ago and hinges on two decisive turning points - one that opens a door for the young protagonist, and one that changes the way films are made and delivered.

Samay (Bhavin Rabari), son of a tea-seller (Dipen Raval) whose livelihood depends on the trains that stop at a railway station, seeks to escape his monotonous existence. He tells stories to his friends using, among other things, stickers on matchboxes as visual cues. His fertile imagination is ignited as he begins to notice the power of light.

In a world of reflections, shadows and flights of fancy, Samay loses himself in the images he conjures in his head, sees on the big screen in a rundown theatre, creates on makeshift surfaces and grasps in the world around him.

The story of his life - neither hopeless nor distressing - has its share of challenges and reverses. His ingenuity keeps him going as he tackles the impediments in his path. None is more daunting than the cane that his father wields when Samay crosses the line.

The boy filches money from the tea stall to buy a movie ticket and steals film cans - these are stored at the station on their way to cities across the state - to create his own projection set-up in an abandoned building in a nearby ghost village.

Samay offers a jocular story about how and why he got the name, but time is indeed a key component of the medium that ensnares him and of the escapades that frequently land him in trouble, especially with his father who believes that films are not meant for an upper caste boy.

Samay and his friends, who take a train and then ride bicycles to school, are in a constant race against time. Whether it is getting to school, making it to the rail station to hawk cups of tea when a passenger train chugs in or scrambling to catch the train back home after he has skipped classes to watch a film, the ticking clock always looms large over him although time, in a general sense, seems to stand still in the village.

Regardless of the mishaps sparked by his actions, Samay never stops dreaming of and taking shots at the impossible, aided and abetted by his spunky friends who stand by him no matter what.

Barring the darkness that descends at show time on a crumbling cinema hall in the town of Amreli and the dim lighting in the projection booth, Chhello Show , shot with great flair by cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane, is bathed in a bright glow and a riot of colours.

The film derives its colour palette from the bewitching, sparsely populated rustic Kathiawari landscape. It also stems from the dishes that Samay's mother (Richa Meena) rustles up. Her exceptional culinary skills - she has an array of traditional recipes in her repertoire - help Samay gain access to the movie hall's sanctum sanctorum that Fazal the projectionist (Bhavesh Shrimali) lords over.

The latter takes Samay under his wings in return for the finger-licking, lip-smacking food that he brings from home. Chhello Show explores film, food, friendship and freedom with deep, palpable sense of nostalgia. The film clips that its employs to underscore Samay's engagement with a make-believe universe that is well outside his own immediate environs are informed with a trance-like air, which in turn is accentuated by Fazal's fascination for Sufi dervishes.

Scenes and songs from Jodhaa Akbar and Aks dominate. Footage from the director's own films - Valley of Flowers and Angry Indian Goddesses - also find their way in. As the films playing in Amreli's Galaxy theatre unspool, Fazal teaches Samay how to mount reels on the projector and splice torn strips of film.

"I want to study light. From light come stories and from stories come movies," the enthused boy says after he figures out how the projector shutter works. While it is at it, Chhello Show takes a playful jibe at the Godardian notion of cinema as "truth 24 times a second". Averring that "the future belongs to storytellers", Fazal asserts that the game rests on knowing how to tell lies. Samay replies: "To tell the truth, I am good at telling lies."

The boy's lies are necessitated by the need to pursue his passion and to conceal it from the world of adults that does not take kindly to the things that he does to satiate his curiosity.

Chhello Show has two distinct tones that merge with each other almost imperceptibly. The past, the present and the future intermingle on a malleable canvas that celebrates the creativity and effervescence of childhood while it laments the death of film caused by the inexorable march of time and technology.

An abrupt transition affects Samay's family, too. His father is in danger of being forced out of work owing to a move that threatens to render the tea stall redundant. The tea-seller's predicament anticipates the fate that is about to befall Fazal.

The disarmingly simple film begins by thanking the Lumiere Brothers, Eadweard Muybridge, David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky "for illuminating the path". It ends with acknowledging a host of other filmmakers (from Manmohan Desai to Maya Deren, as wide a spectrum as any that an Indian movie lover can imagine).

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Chhello Show brings out the opposites that cinema thrives on: truth and lies, light and shade, sound and silence, the visual and the temporal, the complex and the simple, inveiglement and contemplation, stasis and movement, the miraculous and the mundane, and the soaring and the sobering.

Chhello Show is a gem that is both rooted and universal. It captures a point of departure in the history of the seventh art, ruing what has been lost while revelling in what has been left behind for posterity and, hopefully, in perpetuity.

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'Chhello Show' review: An ode to childhood innocence and love for cinema

Human relationships have been captured beautifully

Mane Prakash bhanvo che, Prakash maj thi vaarta bane che [I want to learn light, story emerges from light], nine-year-old Samay tells his Bapuji.

Set in Kathiyawad (Saurashtra) region of Gujarat, Chhello Show ( The Last Film Show ) is the story of Samay (Bhavin Rabari) who aspires to study 'light', and is fascinated by the way movies are projected and the process involved in making the reels.

India’s official entry for Oscars 2023, directed by acclaimed director Pan Nalin and produced by many, including Roy Kapur Films, this Gujarati movie of 1.5 hours gives a refreshing feeling, especially at a time when majority of the Bollywood movies are not doing good.

The best part of the movie is that you will hardly find anything 'filmy' in it. The locations (all from Saurashtra) are natural and so is the acting, especially of the child artists. Except for a couple of elders in the movie, all child artists are new and hail from the region.

Samay has been an observer. He keenly watches the trail left behind by a jet even before his first exposure to a single-screen cinema hall in a nearby small town.

Notwithstanding his Bapuji’s (Dipen Raval) warning that this would be his first and last film exposure as films are not good and has taken the family for the show as it is a movie of a Goddess, Samay keeps bunking school only to take a train and reach the cinema hall.

Once when he is thrown out of the cinema hall as he did not have a ticket, he bumps into Fazal (Bhavesh Shrimali), the projector operator. The movie beautifully captures the growing bond between Samay and Fazal and, how the latter allows Samay into the projection room and tries explaining to him the nuances that he knows. But there is a selfish bit too in this relationship. For Samay’s open entry to the projection hall, he has to give Fazal in barter delicious dishes dished out by his Ba (Richa Meena). Even as Fazal licks his fingers while relishing the dishes, the cinematography brings out clearly the colours of spices and Ba’s cooking skills.

In between, one may find the movie moving at a slow pace but one is surely eager to find what Samay’s next move would be. Bapuji wants Samay to be an ideal son (even puts up a poster in the house) but the young lad is an explorer and full of curiosity. Amid selling tea at the railway station, he finds time for his passion. The way he makes stories from a collection of matchboxes reflects the character’s talent.

The narrative where five of Samay’s friends join hands to make a projector and screen a film for the villagers at a haunted place has been nicely captured.

The human relationships, may that be of the student and teacher, father and son, mother and son and, projector operator and student have been beautifully captured. Samay quickly gauges that something is wrong when his father is sitting silent, after being told that he will have to wind up the tea stall at the railway station following gauge conversion.

Many a time, there is no sound in the movie. Silence, however, does the talking.

What follows later is worth watching. The climax of the movie is full of emotions. The tag lines “When you have nothing, nothing can stop you” and “Learn and Leave” are motivations of sorts.

The movie is a semi-autobiography of Nalin and was also inspired by his friend, a film projectionist, who had lost his job due to the death of single-screen cinema.

Film: Chhello Show

Director: Pan Nalin

Cast: Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena, Dipen Raval

Rating: 4/5

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Chhello Show Movie Review: Pan Nalin's simplistic portrayal of the magic of cinema will tug at your heartstrings

Updated Oct 13, 2022, 10:46 IST

Chhello Show Movie Review

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Chhello Show Review: Pan Nalin's ode to cinema is a winner, Oscar or not. But Oscar, please

Chhello show, india's official entry to oscars 2023, is set to open in theatres in india on october 14. directed by pan nalin, the film narrates a captivating story of a 9-year-old fascinated by cinema, says our review..

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• Chhello Show releases in cinemas on October 14.
• Directed by Pan Nalin, the film stars Bhavin Rabari in the lead role.
• Chhello Show is India's official entry to Oscars 2023.

Release Date: 14 Oct, 2022

"The future belongs to storytellers," Fazal tells (played by Bhavesh Shrimali) Samay (played by Bhavin Rabari) in Chhello Show, a film which is all about telling stories. Where the protagonist, a 9-year-old boy, manages to hold the interest of his friends with his brilliant storytelling skills, using colourful matchboxes.

Director Pan Nalin's protagonist in Chhello Show, 9-year-old Samay, is fascinated by films. He loves watching movies and wants to be a filmmaker. While Samay can eat, breathe and live films, his father (played by Dipen Raval) is strictly against cinema, as he believes it corrupts people. So, the only film that he took Samay to watch in the theatres was a devotional film, but little did he know that this would form a never-ending bond between his son and cinema. The film was just the beginning. The flickering light coming from the projection room fascinates Samay to no end. So much so that when he gets to see it up close, he is in awe of it and later, when he is reunited with the projector after a break, goes on to even hug it.

Cinema fascinated Samay to the level that he stole money to watch films, lied at home, bunked classes and also got thrown out of the cinema hall that he travelled for two hours in a train to reach. But, during the course, he befriends Fazal, the projectionist who worked at the cinema hall.

Chhello Show is part autobiographical, as Samay's story draws inspiration from Pan Nalin's own life. Much like Samay's father, Pan Nalin's father also sold tea at the train station. Nalin also stole cinema reels, befriended a projectionist and watched films in exchange for the sumptous Kathiawadi food prepared by his mother.

Chhello Show is set in 2010, a time when India and most other countries replaced 35mm film with digital projection, which marked the end of an era. However, this was just the start of Samay's love affair with cinema. It was definitely heartbreaking for him to see the projector machine and the film reels being destroyed and recycled and made into different things, which also marked the beginning of his journey towards knowing cinema. It also depicted how the end of something marks the birth of something new.

The performances in Chhello Show are its greatest strengths. The child actors, all from local areas in Gujarat, are uniquely natural and have an amazing screen presence. Bhavin Rabari, who headlines the film, is brilliant as Samay. This is the little boy's first acting stint - in real life, he earns his livelihood by grazing cattle. His performance and innocence will touch the audience's hearts. Rahul Koli, as Samay's friend Manu, leaves a mark. The child actor recently passed away following a difficult battle with cancer.

Dipen Raval, who plays Samay's father, is good as the orthodox man who feels films will corrupt his child. Bhavesh Shrimali is fantastic as Fazal. Richa Meena's powerful portrayal of Samay's mother catches the eye. She did not have too many dialogues but had a moving presence in the film.

Shot in real locations, Chhello Show is quite captivating. It keeps the interest of its viewers intact despite having stretches with no dialogue. The colours in the film are quite mesmerising. From Samay looking through colourful glasses to his mother preparing food, everything had a myriad of colours. The top angle of the food being prepared will almost make you hungry!

Chhello Show is Pan Nalin's ode to cinema, and it deserves to be watched in theatres. It is like poetry, written with love, romanticising its one muse - cinema - in the best way possible. Published By: shweta keshri Published On: Oct 13, 2022 --- ENDS --- ALSO READ | Gujarati film Chhello Show is India's official entry to Oscars 2023

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Chhello Show Movie Review: A tale of childhood innocence that expertly captures the magic of films

Updated Oct 13, 2022, 12:08 PM IST

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Chhello Show Movie Review: Pure in its emotion but slips in its expression

Rating: ( 3 / 5).

Director Pan Nalin’s  Chhello Show  or  Last Film Show  is the story of ‘samay’. And I am not talking about the protagonist. It is about the passage of time. Time, light and nine-year-old Samay’s bid to catch the latter and turn the former. It is about trains, food and cinema, and life strung between them. Pan Nalin, who hails from Gujarat’s Amreli district, relives his childhood through visuals of grass fields, frolicking children and railway tracks. It is endearing to see an artist tell a personal story. It takes a lot of courage, commitment and vulnerability. But in stories like these, sometimes the lines between artistic expression and pure indulgence blur. If not anything else,  Chhello Show  is guilty of that.

The film is still pure in its emotion. Labeled as a Pan Nalin ‘flight’, it is the director’s love letter to cinema. It tells the story of young Samay (an impressive performance by Bhavin Rabari) who lives in Chalala, a village in Gujarat’s Saurashtra. His father makes tea at the railway station and he sells them to the passengers of halting trains. Samay’s innocence is cuddlesome as he goes around from window to window, balancing the tea and the cash being given by travellers. His childlike wonder though is reserved for light. Sample this scene where Samay goes to a theatre for the first time to watch  Jai Mahakali  (1951). He is in awe of the pictures on screen, the fluttering pigeons on the wall fans (in an interview with me, Pan Nalin told that as a child, when he first saw the zoom-in on the face of Goddess Kali in the film, he got petrified and hid under the bench). But what mesmerizes him the most is the ray of light coming from the film projector. Samay tries to catch this light between his fingers. Grabbing this light, understanding it and using it to make images becomes a fascination for the young filmmaker for the rest of the film.

Starring: Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena and Dipen Raval

Directed by: Pan Nalin

Chhello Show  aces when it comes to images. Swapnil S Sonawane’s cinematography invigorates the village of Chalala. The way Samay and his coterie of young cinephiles look at the sun with their hands curved into a scope is a shot worth cherishing. There are others too: the children looking at a pride of lions waiting for them to leave; them lying on the grass, looking at the sky through a film reel or Samay looking at a film from a small window in the projector room. All of them are visually striking but it’s debatable if they give the necessary weight to the story. When Samay looks at his beloved projector being craned out of the theatre like a fish out of a pond it serves as a gloomy image but it doesn’t convey Samay’s loss convincingly. Similarly, the scenes where he goes to a factory and sees the film reels being robbed of their colour to make bangles feel tedious.

The relationship between characters is intricately depicted. Richa Meena as Samay’s mother says a lot through her expressions, the way she cooks his lunch and how she looks in the mirror while applying bindi. Bhavesh Shrimali as the projectionist Fazal, whom Samay bribes with food in exchange for free movie watching, has the most entertaining and adorable scenes. In one of them, Samay shares food with him. A Brahmin, and a Muslim laughing, relishing a meal with a film playing in the background. It is an arresting visual which still feels like a distant dream.

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Last Film Show

Samay fights heaven and earth to find light. He wants to catch, control, cut and project that light to tell stories. Now to pursue that dream he must leave everything he loves and take a fli... Read all Samay fights heaven and earth to find light. He wants to catch, control, cut and project that light to tell stories. Now to pursue that dream he must leave everything he loves and take a flight to find the light. Samay fights heaven and earth to find light. He wants to catch, control, cut and project that light to tell stories. Now to pursue that dream he must leave everything he loves and take a flight to find the light.

• Bhavin Rabari
• Richa Meena
• Bhavesh Shrimali
• 27 User reviews
• 45 Critic reviews
• 8 wins & 5 nominations

• Ba (Samay's Mother)
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Did you know

• Trivia Rahul Koli who plays Manu passed away on October 2nd while battling childhood leukemia. His death at age 10 came just days before Last Film Show was released.
• Goofs The kid, Samay, sees film Jodha Akbar in the cinema hall, that was released in 2008, so that should mark the time line of this movie. At 19:48, the kid sees a poster of film Zanjeer on the wall. Zanjeer was released in 1973, so how does its poster survive on a town wall for some 35 years? (*Theaters may be re-releasing classic films mixed with new releases). Remake of Zanjeer was released on 2013, so that would fall way ahead of Jodha Akbar showing in the cinema hall.

Mr. Dave (Teacher) : In 2010, there are only two castes in India.

Samay : Two?

Mr. Dave (Teacher) : The first one, those who speak English. The second, those who do not speak it. If you want to achieve something in our country, you need to do two things. The first is to learn English.

Samay : And the second one?

Mr. Dave (Teacher) : Get the hell out of Chalala!

Samay : Leave?

Mr. Dave (Teacher) : Yes. Go and learn.

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 50 minutes
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Last Film Show (Chhello Show) movie review: Bitter-sweet though somewhat slim ode to cinema

A comparison with Cinema Paradiso is inevitable. Unfortunately for Chhello Show, there is no comparison between the two. A pity, because it is sweet, funny and moving in its own way.

Language: Gujarati

Cast: Bhavin Rabari, Dipen Raval, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena  

Director: Pan Nalin

Star rating: 3/5

A little boy with a passion for cinema befriends the projectionist at a small-town theatre – narrate this theme to cinephiles across the globe in a game of Guess The Movie and chances are, the most common answer will be the Italian classic Cinema Paradiso . This though is a precis of writer-director Pan Nalin’s Gujarati film Chhello Show a.k.a. Last Film Show that releases in Indian theatres today, just weeks after the announcement that it will be India’s entry in the race for next year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar. Nalin has said that Chhello Show is considerably autobiographical. Unfortunately for him, the story of his childhood bears a strong enough resemblance to the basic premise of Guiseppe Tornatore’s coming-of-age drama – one of the most beautiful ever made – for it to be diminished by the memory of that film. A pity, because Chhello Show , despite the comparative slimness of its content, is sweet, funny and moving in its own way.

Chhello Show is set in Chalala, a non-descript town in Gujarat where our protagonist Samay (Bhavin Rabari) leads a humdrum life, attending school and selling tea from his father’s stall on a railway platform. Nothing much happens in this dull place. The monotony is broken for the nine-year-old only when he plays hooky and visits a movie hall called Galaxy in the vicinity. There he meets the lively Fazal ( Bhavesh Shrimali ), who runs Galaxy’s projection room.

Samay is so entranced by the magic of cinema that he begins to conceptualise ways to replicate what he sees on screen. What starts off as a relationship of mutual opportunism between Samay and Fazal gradually turns into a deep friendship that has a life-altering impact on the child.

There is a charm in imagining young Nalin all agog while watching moving images in a crumbling hall in a remote corner of his home state, and growing up to become a respected director. The choice of name for his character in Chhello Show is a quiet nod to storytellers capturing moments in time to transport audiences to the past or occasionally, onward to a future that is yet to happen in the real world; in a larger sense, samay (the word for time in more than one Indian language) indicates the eternality of art even while technology marches forward.

Two motifs are used in Chhello Show to exemplify both the vagaries and the promise held out by the passing of time: theatres and trains. The theatre is the central image also in two other lovely Indian independent films that have been earning critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the past year: Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Once Upon A Time In Calcutta (Bengali) and Faraz Ali’s Shoebox (Hindi).

In all three films, a decaying cinema complex is a link to a dying past. A theatre in any such story is potentially a symbol of life, death, regeneration and/or evolution, and emblematic of two kinds of human beings: those who are willing to evolve and those who refuse to or are incapable of keeping up. In Tornatore’s film, the titular theatre is finally demolished but Toto, the little boy who fell in love with the medium and learnt within those walls, goes on to become an important filmmaker – the physical structure, literally, came down, but the art form lived on. Back then, the tussle was between the big screen and the advent of video, then it moved on to celluloid vs the digital, and here we are today, debating whether streaming platforms will finish theatres. The one thing that has remained through all this is cinema itself.

(Minor spoilers in this paragraph) Galaxy too is pulled down and its equipment recycled, but Samay sets off almost immediately on his journey towards becoming the director we now know as Pan Nalin. In a ruminative passage in Chhello Show , a deadpan Samay watches the projector and film reels from Galaxy being broken down in factories and ultimately turned into spoons and plastic bangles. The functionality of the spoon is a colossal contrast to the romance of the theatre that has engulfed the screen until then, but it fails to kill Samay’s own love affair. Instead, he begins to associate colourful bangles with those whose great cinematic works he knows – this makes for a poignant section in Chhello Show , even though it gets a bit unsubtle when the boy’s voice reciting a litany of famous names at the sight of women’s ornaments gives way to an adult voiceover. (Spoiler alert ends)

On a parallel track, Chalala becomes embroiled in the narrow-gauge-vs-broad-gauge, steam-vs-electric-engines revolution in railways. The town’s economy is linked to its train station, as is Samay’s family’s livelihood. Chhello Show is as much about Samay’s growing up as it is about whether or not his caste-minded father (an excellent Dipen Raval) will.

Chhello Show aims to portray the social landscape of Chalala and Samay’s home, as much as his internal travels.

In a decade when India’s most high-profile film industry, Hindi a.k.a. Bollywood, has been increasingly stereotyping Muslims, it is nice to see a major Muslim character written into this script without a noise being made about his religious identity. Samay’s friends are a hilarious, appealing bunch to the extent that we get to know them, but none of them is clearly defined. The only characters who are explored in Chhello Show with depth are Fazal, Samay himself and his father. In fact, the latter’s realisation of the extent of his son’s passion for cinema comes in one of the film’s warmest, most meditative scenes.

Samay’s sister is adorable, but nothing more than a sketchy figure in the background of his life, while his mother (Richa Meena) is memorable only for her fragile prettiness and Swapnil S. Sonawane’s delicious camerawork employed to shoot her while she is cooking. The aroma of the food almost wafts off-screen as the sight of her at work – the spices she uses, the techniques, the vessels, the boiling oil, the packing – are captured in loving detail. She though, is not. This contributes to the film’s occasional insubstantial feel.

Like the Hollywood film The White Tiger , based on the Indian book of the same name, Chhello Show too takes a seemingly benign yet decidedly upper-caste view of the caste system. (Spoiler alert) Samay’s father believes that cinema will pollute his son’s Brahminhood. Another character though says that there are only two castes in present-day India: those who know English and those who do not. There is no counter offered to this comment, and it mirrors Samay’s own contempt for his father’s pride in his caste superiority despite his financial downfall. This therefore comes across as the film’s own stand on caste, which conveniently glosses over the continuing atrocities against India’s lower castes, the extreme violence and discrimination, while privileged castes falsely insist that caste and class are interchangeable in today’s India.

Samay is loveable, and Bhavin Rabari – a fine young talent – plays him in a carefully measured tone that rarely allows the tiny boy’s intelligent, endearingly child-like impertinence to spill over into annoying precociousness. There are two instances when a line is crossed, and that is more the fault of the dialogue writing than the acting: when he gives Fazal an uncharacteristically adult explanation for why he is named Samay, and elsewhere when he chides his father for his caste beliefs. The latter comes across less as what Samay, at his age and with his limited exposure, might have said than what Nalin later thought.

That said, Nalin, along with cinematographer Swapnil S. Sonawane and music director Cyril Morin have managed to paint an enticing portrait of Chalala, childhood and the transformative nature of cinema in this little indie that tempts the viewer to look past its weaknesses.

Since the selection of Chhello Show as India’s entry for the Oscars, there has been a raging debate about whether RRR (Telugu) was not the more appropriate choice. The answer would require a separate article, but even when viewed without the shadow of this battle falling on it, there is a larger shadow Chhello Show must contend with. There are those who say that comparisons are odious, but it is not the duty or responsibility of the viewer to steer clear of them – if a film is effective, it will push thoughts of other films out of the mind. While watching Chhello Show though, it is hard not to think of that giant that precedes it. Cinema Paradiso was a landmark in global cinema, and a soul-stirring, heart-wrenching experience. Chhello Show is slender in comparison, but works all the same as an enchanting, bitter-sweet reminiscence.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)  

This review was first published when Chhello Show was released in theatres in October 2022. The film is now streaming on Netflix.    

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

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Chhello Show Movie Review

14 Oct 2022 | U | 110 Mins

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Chhello Show Review: Pan Nalin takes you on a cinematic ride of hope, joy and passion in a bygone era

Planning to watch chhello show this weekend read pinkvilla’s review of this pan nalin directorial., by avinash lohana.

Chhello Show Review: Pan Nalin takes you on a cinematic ride of hope, joy and passion in a bygone era (Pic Credit: Roy Kapur Films /YouTube)

Name: Chhello Show

Cast: bhavin rabari, rating: 3.5.

Cast: Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena, Dipen Raval

Director: Pan Nalin

Release: Theatres

Director Pan Nalin’s coming-of-age Gujarati drama Chhello Show (Last Film Show) is India's official entry to Oscars. The film revolves around a young boy Samay (played by Bhavin Rabari) who discovers his love for cinema after witnessing its magic in a single screen theatre. However, his orthodox father (Bapuji, played by Dipen Raval) doesn’t approve of the child’s affection for movies, which forces him to pursue his ambition secretly. Just like every path that takes you closer to your dream, Samay too faces several challenges and roadblocks along the way before he understands his true calling, and acts upon it to reach his desired destination. 

What’s Hot?

The biggest strength of Chhello Show is how rooted it is in terms of visuals, approach and treatment. The placement and the depiction of the primary characters - Samay, Baa (Richa Meena), Bapuji and projectionist Fazal (Bhavesh Shrimali) - stays true to the milieu and the theme of the project. The story is also very relatable, which allows the audience to connect with the quest narrative. Dialogues penned by Keyu Shah is another strong element of the movie. They are simple, impactful and some even make you think. “Aa Badho Khel Vaarta No Che. Bhavishya Na Badha Maaliko Vaartakaro Che (The game is to tell stories. The future belongs to storytellers),” is one such example of rousing lines. 

Director of Photography (DOP) Swapnil S Sonawane’s lens brings alive the world of Chalala, the Saurashtra village in which the film is set. Especially, his wide angle shots do justice with the beauty of the location. While costume design by Sia Seth and casting by Dilip Shankar is bang on, production design by Pan Nalin himself looks authentic, considering Chhello Show is touted as semi-autobiographical. However, the portion that steals your heart is the climax, which one has to see to experience it. Samay and director Pan Nalin’s love for cinema comes alive on the big screen with all the tributes that have been paid in the sequence. 

What’s not?

What doesn’t really work for me is the pace in the second half. While the first half manages to introduce and engulf you into the world of Chhello Show, one would expect a certain speed and maybe more high points in the latter half of the film. Writer Pan Nalin and editors Shreyas Beltangdy and Pavan Bhat could have spent a little more time in sharpering that. Music by Cyril Morin too doesn’t connect. 

Performances

Bhavin Rabari, who plays the lead protagonist is a wonder boy, and the real star of Last Film Show. He has truly brought Samay alive on the big screen, making him both real and relatable. His partner in crime, projectionist Fazal played by Bhavesh Shrimali has delivered an equally impactful performance. Dipen Raval as Samay’s father portrays a beautiful arc, though my favourite character from Chhello Show is of Samay’s mother played by Richa Meena. She has given an extremely controlled performance, beautifully portraying the dilemma of a mother that hails from a conservative set up. Other supporting cast, including the kids who play Samay’s friends have lived up to their roles.

Final Verdict

Chhello Show (Last Film Show) is a human story, effortlessly depicting the beauty of desire, hope and passion through Samay’s character. Watch it for the love of cinema. 

Also Read | As India looks forward to Chhello Show in 2023; Check out list of Indian movies nominated for Oscars so far

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Chhello Show

Chhello Show: Release Date, Trailer, Songs, Cast

• Release Date 14 October 2022
• Language Gujarati
• Genre Drama
• Duration 1h 50min
• Cast Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena, Dipen Raval, Paresh Mehta, Vikas Bata, Rahul Koli, Shoban Makwa, Kishan Parmar, Vijay Mer, Alpesh Tank, Tia Sebastien, Jasmin Joshi
• Director Pan Nalin
• Writer Pan Nalin
• Cinematography Swapnil S. Sonawane
• Music Cyril Morin
• Producer Pan Nalin, Dheer Momaya, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Marc Duale
• Production Chhello Show LLP, Monsoon Films, Jugaad Motion Pictures, Roy Kapur Films

About Chhello Show Movie (2022)

Samay (Bhavin Rabari), a nine-year-old boy living with his family in a remote village in India, discovers films for the first time and is absolutely mesmerised. Against his father's wishes, he returns to the cinema day after day to watch more films, and even befriends the projectionist, who, in exchange for his lunch box, lets him watch movies for free.

He quickly figures out that stories become light, light becomes films, and films become dreams. Samay and his wild gang of friends move heaven and earth to catch and project light to achieve a 35mm film projection. Together, they use an innovative hack and jubilantly succeed in making a film projection apparatus. But following your dreams often means leaving things behind.

Chhello Show Movie Cast, Release Date, Trailer, Songs and Ratings

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Is ‘a simple favor’ based on a true story unraveling netflix’s no. 1 movie.

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Blake Lively in "A Simple Favor."

A Simple Favor was released six years ago, but the film’s recent Netflix debut propelled the crime thriller to the No. 1 spot on the streamer’s top movie charts. As you’re watching, you might be wondering whether A Simple Favor is based on a true story .

From Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, the 2018 mystery thriller centers on Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), a widowed single mother with a parenting vlog. Stephanie becomes unexpected friends with Emily Nelson (played by Blake Lively), an intimidating woman whose son attends the same elementary school as hers. Although the pair couldn’t be more different, they get close anyway — even if the other moms think Emily wants a nanny rather than a friend.

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Is A Simple Favor Based On A True Story?

Anna Kendrick in "A Simple Favor"

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In an April 2017 interview with the Washington Independent Review of Books , Bell was asked whether anything about the story exists in her reality.

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Warning: Spoilers for the “A Simple Favor” book and film.

There are several major differences between the book and the movie. In the book, Stephanie has a blog instead of a vlog. Sean Townsend, Emily’s husband, works at a real estate company, while in the movie, he is depicted as a former novelist and current college professor.

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NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 10: Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively attend the New York premiere of "A ... [+] Simple Favor" at Museum of Modern Art on September 10, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

The answer is yes, there will be A Simple Favor 2 . Following the film’s release, Amazon MGM Studios announced a sequel, A Simple Favor 2 , with Lively, Kendrick, and Henry Golding reprising their roles. The sequel recently wrapped up filming in Rome, coinciding with the first movie’s debut on Netflix.

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A Simple Favor is streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.

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At this month’s Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner each unveiled passion projects they opted to finance themselves after institutional backers initially passed. This week, three auteurs make a trend — except instead of putting his own funds toward a deeply personal, sweeping epic, comedian Shane Gillis has made a lewd, bro-y workplace comedy set at a Pennsylvania tire shop.

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The “Tires” setup recalls a version of “The Bear” stripped of racial diversity and any shred of romanticism. Two cousins, hapless manager Will (co-creator Steven Gerben) and gleeful shit-stirrer Shane (Gillis), struggle to keep the family blue-collar business afloat. Entrusted by his father, a looming offscreen presence, with a location of his local chain of Valley Forge auto shops, Will runs through a succession of harebrained schemes designed to boost sales. Like Gillis’ stage act, “Tires” indulges the fratty, puerile humor of bored young men while also making it the butt of the joke. The season starts with Will launching a cringey initiative aimed at empowering female customers — “You’ll go, girl!” — and ends with Shane strong-arming him into hosting a bikini carwash.

“Tires” keeps Gillis’ longtime crew of collaborators intact. “Gilly and Keeves” partner John McKeever, credited only by his surname, directs all six episodes and serves as Gerben and Gillis’ third co-creator. The cast remains unchanged from the original pilot, casting fellow veterans of the Philadelphia comedy scene Chris O’Connor and Kilah Fox as Will and Shane’s coworkers. Besides Gillis, the best-known series regular is likely stand-up Stavros Halkias, who plays district manager Dave and rose to prominence on the now-defunct podcast Cum Town. The origins of “Tires” may recall “Horace and Pete,” the grim drama Louis CK bankrolled himself prior to his own exile from the spotlight, but it lacks that show’s highbrow cachet of having an Edie Falco or a Jessica Lange in its cast.

In both locations and length — or rather, lack of either — “Tires” shows its bootstrapped roots. Gillis’ pockets may be deep, but it’s still clear less than two hours of total material taking place in a handful of rooms didn’t arise from a Netflix level of resources, even if that’s where viewers can find the finished product. The style isn’t full mockumentary, but McKeever favors hand-held camerawork and close-up shots that (accurately) invoke the wince factor of early episodes of “The Office.” The stakes are microscopic: Will’s big, potentially business-saving idea is offering a discount on tires to upsell customers on other services after they’ve agreed to the lower price. The wistful piano theme music hints at a sentimentality that largely isn’t there, and indeed falls flat when it arrives. We’re here to watch these people dunk on each other, not because we care about how many brake pads they need to move until Will’s dad approves of him.

But when refracted through an ensemble and a fictional narrative, Gillis can’t be as precise in toying with the line between offensive and insightful as he is onstage. The classic Gillis joke deploys his meathead energy — his favorite filler word is “dude” — to toy with audience expectations about his beliefs. (He opens “Beautiful Dogs” by turning an applause line about American exceptionalism into a bit about mass shootings.) “Tires” is less adroit and more straightforward. If anything, the blink-and-it’s-over season is an audition for a second, Netflix-funded round of episodes — and, sure enough, the company announced a renewal before the first had even aired. Perhaps an extended run could develop the rhythms of a long-running sitcom, be more artful in its risk-taking and more fully differentiate the characters beyond Shane and Will. For now, “Tires” is a step forward, but not a full one.

All six episodes of “Tires” are now streaming on Netflix.

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'Eric' piles on the misery of Benedict Cumberbatch's bitter puppeteer

It’s a challenge to find empathy for netflix show’s unpleasant antihero, even as he deals with the horror of a missing child..

As he searches for his missing son, Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) is followed by a figment of one of his puppet creations in “Eric.”

The performances by the versatile Benedict Cumberbatch and the ensemble cast in the Netflix limited series crime drama “Eric” are something to behold.

The camerawork and production design are strikingly evocative of the 1980s New York setting, in particular some of the darkest and grubbiest and most forbidding and crime-riddled pockets of the city.

The plot, with the disappearance of a child at the heart of the story, has echoes of gripping films such as “Ransom” and “Gone Baby Gone,” and draws you in from the start.

Despite those elements of prestige TV, “Eric” becomes an increasingly difficult and tiresome slog over the course of six episodes, in large part because of the manner in which it piles on the darkness and the ugliness, to the point where it’s overkill. It doesn’t help that Cumberbatch’s Vincent is such an odious and irredeemable character — the kind of person who by walking into a room makes you want to walk OUT of the room — that it’s a real task to feel empathy for his plight.

Created by the gifted Abi Morgan (“Suffragette”) and filmed in New York City as well as Budapest (!), “Eric” is set against the backdrop of a New York on the verge of collapsing under the weight of rising crime rates, police corruption, the AIDS epidemic, homelessness and endemic racism. Cumberbatch’s Vincent Anderson is a tightly wound, hard-drinking, verbally abusive and thoroughly unpleasant man who is a master puppeteer and the creator of a “Sesame Street”-esque children’s TV show called “Good Day Sunshine,” and it’s a stretch to believe this guy has ever had a good day or enjoyed the sunshine, but therein lies the dichotomy of it all, one supposes. (We learn Vincent has mental health issues and had a miserable childhood with his wealthy and cold-hearted parents; it goes to reason that he created this fantasy-world, hap-hap-happy TV show to fill some gaping hole in his heart.)

Vincent and his wife Cassie (Gaby Hoffman) are in the late stages of a dying marriage that is growing increasingly vituperative, with their 9-year-old son Edgar (Ivan Howe) caught in the crossfire. Edgar is clearly frightened by his intense father, who hears about an idea Edgar has for a new puppet and makes his son pitch it to him as if they’re colleagues, with Vincent barking at Edgar, “Keep looking at me. ... You gotta pitch this thing. ... Horns or no horns — you gotta be SPECIFIC. ... Buzz! It’s just nosedived.” Some guy, that Vincent.

After Edgar goes missing on the short walk from his apartment to school, the story branches out in a myriad of directions and takes us into the lives of a number of characters whose lives are impacted by Edgar’s disappearance. McKinley Belcher III gives a screen-commanding performance as Detective Michael Ledroit, who heads up the case even as he cares for his longtime partner, William (Mark Gillis), who is dying of AIDS. The wonderful veteran actor Clarke Peters is George, the superintendent of the apartment building where Edgar lives, and whose own apartment contains some disturbing secrets. Wade Allain-Marcus is Gator, who runs a seedy nightclub and was once involved with Ledroit. Adepero Orere plays the mother of a 14-year-old Black boy named Marlon (Bence Orere), whose disappearance didn’t garner nearly the media and police attention as Edgar’s. Bamar Kane is Yussuf, a graffiti tagger and hustler who lives with hundreds if not thousands of other unhoused individuals in the tunnels underneath the streets.

McKinley Belcher III plays the detective heading up the investigation of the 9-year-old boy’s disappearance.

With visuals bathed in tones cold and dark, “Eric” follows Vincent as he spirals deeper into alcoholism and addiction, even as he desperately tries to bring to “life” Eric, the Yeti-like puppet Edgar had drawn, and get him on the show, in the hopes Eric the puppet will be the beacon that brings Edgar home. Oh, and an imaginary version of Eric also begins to accompany Vincent, alternately encouraging him and berating him, and we sure hope they don’t run into that imaginary furry guy from “IF” on the streets of New York. We understand Vincent has been dealt a rough hand and isn’t well, but still, watching this guy wallow in his self-centered misery even when his son is missing leaves us repelled.

“Eric” piles on with the dark views of humanity as seen in several other characters, including Vincent’s parents, Ledroit’s precinct captain and William’s sister, who are awful human beings. There’s even a late reveal about a seemingly likable supporting player that seems unnecessarily, arbitrarily nasty. “Eric” is painted in harsh and broad strokes, and the cynicism and ugliness is relentless without being particularly insightful.

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Movie review: Strong performances propel road trip dramedy ‘Ezra’

Director Tony Goldwyn opens his family dramedy “Ezra” in the warm, collegial comfort of a comedy club. Max (Bobby Cannavale) perches on a stool, a handheld camera drifting closer and closer as he tells jokes about his life, including his autistic son, layering truths with punchlines, walking a tight-rope of tones. It’s an invitation from Goldwyn, and screenwriter Tony Spiridakis, to sit down and listen awhile as they unfurl this heartfelt, humorous and sometimes harrowing yarn.

It establishes right away that Max is the proud and loving father of Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald, an autistic actor making his film debut), who has no problem grappling with the realities of raising an autistic child. Throughout the events that follow, we never lose sight of that, because Max fiercely loves his son, and that understanding offers a sense of emotional safety as the plot that unfolds becomes increasingly high stakes.

It’s this place setting, as well as the strong lead performances, that allow Goldwyn to thread the needle on a story that could potentially go off the rails. “Ezra” is the story of a father, desperate to protect his son, who takes him on a cross-country road trip where they experience catharsis and healing. It’s a fairly traditional road movie formula with an autism twist. Also, the “road trip” is technically a “kidnapping,” since Max spirits Ezra out of bed from the home of ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne), and the film never shies away from that reality, in fact relying on this perceived danger to ramp up the dramatic tension and set characters in motion.

The kidnapping stems from a misunderstanding that spirals into an unfortunate accident, coupled with Max’s own traumatic triggers. It’s never fully explicated in the screenplay, but Max’s past mental health issues and possibly undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder are frequently alluded to, thrumming below the surface. His experience makes him an understanding father to Ezra, but also somewhat hampers his ability to properly parent his son. Upset that Ezra might be medicated with anti-psychotics and placed in a special education school, Max assesses that the doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the state are in collusion to keep himself and his son apart. He’s not necessarily wrong, but his desire to expose Ezra to the world and treat him like any other kid bumps up against Jenna’s wish to provide her son with every accommodation and suggested treatment.

Every character choice in “Ezra” is plausible because it comes from a place of emotional honesty, both in the script and performances. We understand why Max acts in the extreme, and also why Jenna is hesitant to call the authorities, but feels forced to do so, because their characters are well-established and perfectly performed.

It’s no surprise that longtime life partners Byrne and Cannavale have an easy chemistry, and Cannavale and Robert De Niro, who plays his gruff father, Stan, have sparkling, rapid-fire New York-accented rapport. While Cannavale holds the center as the complex Max, demonstrating his range, as well as his ability to lead a movie, De Niro, unsurprisingly, is magnetic. It’s not a huge role, but his performance is beautifully expressed.

Goldwyn has called in the big guns to set “Ezra” up for success, and in addition to Cannavale, Byrne and De Niro, he has cast supporting actors such as Vera Farmiga, Rainn Wilson, himself in a small role, and his “Ghost” co-star Whoopi Goldberg, who plays Max’s agent. She calls him when he’s on the road to Michigan to visit a friend (Wilson) at a summer camp, to let him know that he’s been booked on Jimmy Kimmel and needs to be in L.A. in a week, extending their trip even further across the country. Despite Ezra’s protestations, they head West, with Max convinced he needs his son as a good-luck charm for his set. Meanwhile, Stan and Jenna hit the road in hot pursuit, and “Ezra” becomes a dueling odd-couple road movie.

The film is an actor’s showcase , and it’s the performances that hold everything together , especially the young Fitzgerald, who is terrific as Ezra, a young man who communicates his preferences and boundaries clearly – he’s often the only character saying exactly what he means. But Goldwyn’s direction is sure-handed in navigating the complicated tone that tiptoes through comedy and pathos. He pushes his style with cinematographer Danny Moder, utilizing those handheld close-ups for more emotionally intense moments, and imparting a sense of gritty authenticity to a story that often requires a suspended disbelief .

“Ezra” could tip into melodrama, but Goldwyn sidesteps that with a rather facile ending, seemingly skipping a story beat in the denouement. You crave one more moment to wrap things up, but sometimes it’s better to leave us wanting more , avoiding the treacle and focusing on the heart – and the humor – of the matter .

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'Chhello Show' review: Pure in its emotion but slips in its expression

Director Pan Nalin’s 'Chhello Show' or 'Last Film Show' is the story of ‘samay’. And I am not talking about the protagonist. It is about the passage of time. Time, light and nine-year-old Samay’s bid to catch the latter and turn the former. It is about trains, food and cinema, and life strung between them. Pan Nalin, who hails from Gujarat’s Amreli district, relives his childhood through visuals of grass fields, frolicking children and railway tracks. It is endearing to see an artist tell a personal story. It takes a lot of courage, commitment and vulnerability. But in stories like these, sometimes the lines between artistic expression and pure indulgence blur. If not anything else, 'Chhello Show' is guilty of that.

The film is still pure in its emotion. Labeled as a Pan Nalin ‘flight’, it is the director’s love letter to cinema. It tells the story of young Samay (an impressive performance by Bhavin Rabari) who lives in Chalala, a village in Gujarat’s Saurashtra. His father makes tea at the railway station and he sells them to the passengers of halting trains.

Samay’s innocence is cuddlesome as he goes around from window to window, balancing the tea and the cash being given by travellers. His childlike wonder though is reserved for light. Sample this scene where Samay goes to a theatre for the first time to watch Jai Mahakali (1951).

He is in awe of the pictures on screen, the fluttering pigeons on the wall fans (in an interview with me, Pan Nalin told that as a child, when he first saw the zoom-in on the face of Goddess Kali in the film, he got petrified and hid under the bench).

But what mesmerizes him the most is the ray of light coming from the film projector. Samay tries to catch this light between his fingers. Grabbing this light, understanding it and using it to make images becomes a fascination for the young filmmaker for the rest of the film. 'Chhello Show' aces when it comes to images.

Swapnil S Sonawane’s cinematography invigorates the village of Chalala. The way Samay and his coterie of young cinephiles look at the sun with their hands curved into a scope is a shot worth cherishing. There are others too: the children looking at a pride of lions waiting for them to leave; them lying on the grass, looking at the sky through a film reel or Samay looking at a film from a small window in the projector room. All of them are visually striking but it’s debatable if they give the necessary weight to the story.

When Samay looks at his beloved projector being craned out of the theatre like a fish out of a pond it serves as a gloomy image but it doesn’t convey Samay’s loss convincingly. Similarly, the scenes where he goes to a factory and sees the film reels being robbed of their colour to make bangles feel tedious. The relationship between characters is intricately depicted. Richa Meena as Samay’s mother says a lot through her expressions, the way she cooks his lunch and how she looks in the mirror while applying bindi.

Bhavesh Shrimali as the projectionist Fazal, whom Samay bribes with food in exchange for free movie watching, has the most entertaining and adorable scenes. In one of them, Samay shares food with him. A Brahmin, and a Muslim laughing, relishing a meal with a film playing in the background. It is an arresting visual which still feels like a distant dream.

Cast: Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena and Dipen Raval Director: Pan Nalin Rating: 3/5

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‘atlas’ review: jennifer lopez and simu liu in another netflix movie made to half-watch while doing laundry.

The star plays a data analyst forced to team up with an AI robot in order to prevent an apocalypse orchestrated by a different AI robot in Brad Peyton's film co-starring Sterling K. Brown.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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Technically, Atlas is a sci-fi flick. Set some unspecified number of years in the future, the Brad Peyton -directed feature concerns a data analyst ( Jennifer Lopez ) tasked with stopping “the world’s first AI terrorist,” a robot named Harlan ( Simu Liu ) who’d broken his own programming to orchestrate the slaughter of millions.

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Like its prickly heroine, though, Atlas takes time to reveal its true self. The first act plays like a glossier ripoff of Aliens , with Atlas being recruited by international military general Booth (Mark Strong) to help corner Harlan on the remote planet he’s been hiding on for the past 28 years. Not only is Atlas a genius, as telegraphed by a morning routine that includes beating her holographic virtual assistant at chess for the 71st game in a row. She knows Harlan more intimately than perhaps any living soul: The daughter of his late creator (Lana Parilla), she’s the closest thing he has to a sister.

Understandably, Harlan’s betrayal has left Atlas guarded, suspicious of AIs and wary of being hacked. Where Colonel Banks ( Sterling K. Brown ) and his squadron tout the benefits of Neural Links — earpieces that facilitate perfect two-way integration between human brains and AI-controlled armors, like J.A.R.V.I.S. and Iron Man’s bond on steroids — Atlas insists on taking the mission fully analog. (“Paper? Where’d you find a printer?” a younger soldier laughs as she hands out copies of the briefing.) But when the ship is attacked immediately upon landing, Atlas is forced into a mech suit of her very own, this one controlled by an AI calling himself Smith (Gregory James Cohan in a voice-only role).

As the danger around them intensifies, so does their connection. Atlas and Smith inch closer to 100% synchronization, at which point they will become, as Banks had previously explained, “not human or AI but something new, a perfect symbiosis.” This looks much less cool than it sounds; onscreen, it primarily manifests as an annoying habit of finishing each other’s sentences.

Atlas demonstrates very little curiosity in general about the social or philosophical issues raised by its premise. What’s to prevent the current generation of androids from going rogue as Harlan once did? Atlas vaguely explains the new models are just “better.” Who are the AIs without their homo sapiens counterparts? We never meet any solo AIs but Harlan. How did our relationship to technology change after Harlan broke so many machines free of their programming? We don’t see enough of everyday life in this world to guess.

The interstellar conflict comes to a head, of course, in the last and longest of the movie’s polished but totally unmemorable CG-heavy action sequences. But its emotional climax arrives just afterward in the form of a heartfelt speech extolling, among other things, “small quiet gestures of affection.”

For a futuristic, planet-hopping adventure, Atlas feels awfully tiny; as a romance (minus the actual romance), it treads no new emotional terrain. But there’s something oddly relatable, even romantic about its hope that healing one’s heart might be the first step in saving the world.

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'If' movie review: Ryan Reynolds' imaginary friend fantasy might go over your kids' heads

Even with likable youngsters, a vast array of cartoonish characters, various pratfalls and shenanigans, and Ryan Reynolds in non- Deadpool mode, the family comedy “IF” isn’t really a "kids movie" – at least not in a conventional sense.

There’s a refreshing whiff of whimsy and playful originality to writer/director John Krasinski’s bighearted fantasy (★★½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday), which centers on a young girl who discovers a secret world of imaginary friends (aka IFs). What it can’t find is the common thread of universal appeal. Yeah, children are geared to like any movie with a cheery unicorn, superhero dog, flaming marshmallow with melting eye and assorted furry monsters. But “IF” features heady themes of parental loss and reconnecting with one’s youth, plus boasts a showstopping dance set to Tina Turner , and that all leans fairly adult. Mash those together and the result is akin to a live-action Pixar movie without the nuanced execution.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) doesn’t really think of herself as a kid anymore. Her mom died of a terminal illness, and now her dad (Krasinski) is going into the hospital for surgery to fix his “broken heart,” so she’s staying with her grandma (Fiona Shaw) in New York City.

When poking around her new environment, Bea learns she has the ability to see imaginary friends. And she’s not the only one: Bea meets charmingly crusty upstairs neighbor Cal (Reynolds) as well as his IF pals, like spritely Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and overly sensitive purple furry monster named Blue (Steve Carell). They run a sort of matchmaking agency to connect forgotten IFs whose kids have outgrown them with new children in need of their companionship, and Bea volunteers to help out.

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Bea is introduced to an IF retirement community located under a Coney Island carousel with a bevy of oddball personalities in the very kid-friendly middle section of the movie. “IF” low-key has the most starry supporting cast of any movie this summer because of all the A-listers voicing imaginary friends, an impressive list that includes Emily Blunt and Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned unicorn and superdog, Matt Damon as a helpful sunflower, George Clooney as a spaceman, Amy Schumer as a gummy bear and Bradley Cooper as an ice cube in a glass. (It's no talking raccoon, but it works.)

One of the movie's most poignant roles is a wise bear played by Louis Gossett Jr. in one of his final roles. Rather than just being a cameo, he’s nicely central to a key emotional scene.

While the best family flicks win over kids of all ages, “IF” is a film for grown-ups in PG dressing. The movie is amusing but safe in its humor, the overt earnestness overshadows some great bits of subversive silliness, and the thoughtful larger narrative, which reveals itself by the end to be much more than a story about a girl befriending a bunch of make-believe misfits, will go over some little ones’ heads. Tweens and teens, though, will likely engage with or feel seen by Bea’s character arc, struggling to move into a new phase of life while being tied to her younger years – not to mention worrying about her dad, who tries to make light of his medical situation for Bea.

Reynolds does his part enchanting all ages in this tale of two movies: He’s always got that irascible “fun uncle” vibe for kids, and he strikes a fun chemistry opposite Fleming that belies the serious stuff “IF” digs into frequently. But unless your child is into old movies, they probably won’t get why “Harvey” is playing in the background in a scene. And when “IF” reaches its cathartic finale, some kiddos might be wondering why their parents are sniffling and tearing up – if they're still paying attention and not off playing with their own imaginary friend by then.