After a 14-year hiatus during which he focused on directing television and acting, Jay Duplass made a welcome return to features in 2025 with The Baltimorons, a gentle May-December romance with an After Hours vibe and an unassuming charm that sneaks up on you like a surprise hug. I wish See You When I See You had a similar effect, but despite its sincerity and the raw pain of shattering real-life experience that infuses it, this feels like a knockoff struck from the template of a thousand bittersweet, funny-sad indie grief dramas branded with the old-school Sundance stamp.

Dysfunctional family whose members seem to have forgotten how to communicate? Check. Belabored metaphor that never adds up to much (in this case a sage grouse at risk of extinction)? Check. Surreally stylized flourishes that are both awkwardly realized and inorganic to the prevailing mood and style? Check. Random nostalgic nods to ‘90s bands? Check. Treasured childhood memory tarnished by soul-crushing trauma? Check. Tinkly piano score poised to underline every emotional beat? Check. The list could go on.

All this is a shame since first-time screenwriter Adam Cayton-Holland, adapting his 2018 memoir Tragedy Plus Time, is clearly drawing from a very personal well in depicting with candor the spiraling chaos of a young comedy writer as he struggles to move forward after his beloved younger sister’s suicide. The authenticity of the writer-protagonist’s feelings is undermined by the banal familiarity of a specific indie-film model.

It’s doubly regrettable because Cooper Raiff pours a ton of heart and humor, along with PTSD, into the author’s stand-in, Aaron Whistler. He’s likable and funny, and even when the character is pushing people away like a flailing mess, he never forfeits the audience’s compassion.

Duplass could not have wished for better preparation for material of this nature than his work as producer and director of six episodes — including the pilot — of HBO’s sublime Bridget Everett series Somebody Somewhere. That series started from a similar place, with a central character trying to regain her footing after the shattering loss of a sibling and tending to deflect her sorrow with humor. Every single member of the ensemble felt fully lived-in and relatable, something that can be said for only some of the principal roles here.

It’s been two months since Leah (Kaitlyn Dever) took her own life and her devastated family has still not been able to agree on funeral arrangements — if they are to have one at all. The urn containing her ashes sits conspicuously on the mantlepiece in her parents’ loveless bedroom.

Leah’s mother Page (Hope Davis) has become closed-off and sour, doing her best to ignore her own grave health situation; her husband Robert (David Duchovny) pours himself into his work as a civil rights attorney, avoiding the subject of Leah; their other daughter Emily (Lucy Boynton), who has her own young son to care for, urges Aaron to see a therapist and goes from impatience to anger at the extent to which his grief has hijacked everyone else’s loss. Aaron and Leah were always members of a private club from which Emily felt excluded.

A big part of Aaron’s trauma is that he was the one who found his little sister’s body; when he is forced, after a DUI charge, to sign up for a mental health diversion program, he’s uncooperative and hostile with the therapist, who tells him nothing he didn’t already know. Later, when he finds an empathetic therapist with whom he connects (Poorna Jagannathan), Aaron initially remains blocked, only able to revisit the night he found Leah dead up to a point.

Raiff is very good in these scenes, which makes it frustrating that the memory flashes throughout of time spent with Leah are so clunky and obvious. Dever is always a compelling presence, but Leah seems more like a bundle of exposed nerve endings than a real person — the dangerous, out-of-control highs, the precipitous lows, the psych ward stints. The worst part, though, is a thuddingly literal device so poorly handled it yanks you out of the movie every time — a hole opens up in the ceiling or sky at a certain point in Aaron’s recollections, and Leah is sucked up into the atmosphere.

There are sweet interludes when Aaron reconnects with his girlfriend Camila (Ariela Barer), who is furious about him ghosting her for months until she learns the reason. Still, it’s clear to her that Aaron is not OK, causing her to pull away again.

The scenes that work less well and seem virtually superfluous are those with Kumail Nanjiani as Adeel, an environmental activist who drags Aaron along with him to break into a fracking site that is disturbing the breeding ground of…the sage grouse.

Duplass can’t be accused of lacking sensitivity as a director, and in the moments when See You When I See You works best, the movie has an infectious warmth. Until it turns into treacly cliché. The performances mostly are better than the material deserves — Raiff in particular, but also Davis and Boynton. No one enjoys beating up on a film in which the writer has invested so much of himself and his pain. But Cayton-Holland and Duplass have somehow made an authentic tragedy feel phony and unaffecting.

Movie Name :  Sirai
Streaming Date : Jan 23, 2026
Streaming Platform : ZEE5
123telugu.com Rating : 3.25/5
Starring : Vikram Prabhu, LK Akshay Kumar, Anishma Anilkumar, Ananda Thambirajah
Director : Suresh Rajakumari
Producer : SS Lalit Kumar
Music Director : Justin Prabhakaran
Cinematographer  : Madhesh Manickam
Editor : Philomin Raj

Related Links : Trailer

Sirai marks the 25th film of actor Vikram Prabhu. The Tamil movie was released on Christmas Eve and went on to score hit status at the box office. It has now arrived on OTT with a Telugu dub, and here is our review of the crime drama.

Story:

Set in 2003 in Guntur, Srinivas (Vikram Prabhu) is a head constable in the Armed Reserve (AR). During an escort duty, a prisoner attempts to escape, forcing Srinivas to shoot him dead, which puts him under scrutiny by higher authorities. While the enquiry is still ongoing, Srinivas is assigned another escort duty to transport Abdul Rauf (L. K. Akshay Kumar), a murder convict, from a central prison to Kurnool. During the journey, Srinivas senses something amiss, and the situation worsens when Abdul goes missing. With the prisoner required to be produced in court the very next day, the tension escalates. What happens next? Does Srinivas and his team manage to trace Abdul? Who is Abdul, and what is his backstory? The rest of the film unfolds the answers.

Plus Points:

The film touches upon a different and rarely explored aspect of police life. Unlike most films that focus on senior officers and portray them heroically, Sirai revolves around a head constable from the Armed Reserve. Srinivas is shown as a grounded human being rather than a larger-than-life policeman, which makes the approach refreshing.

Vikram Prabhu delivers a neat performance, but the actor who truly stands out is L. K. Akshay Kumar. He effectively portrays the dilemma, pain, and hope of a prisoner, and his performance becomes a major driving force of the film.

The flashback narrated from Abdul’s point of view is emotional and engaging. Along with the emotional depth, the suspense maintained in certain scenes, especially during the escape sequence and the pre-climax and climax portions, works well.

The police station episode after the escape, the emotional scenes in the final 30 minutes, including the courtroom portions, and the suspense-filled climax are well executed and keep the viewer engaged.

Anishma Anilkumar, as Kalavathi, delivers a neat performance. The remaining cast members perform adequately.

Minus Points:

There is limited scope to point out major drawbacks. Some viewers may find the initial portions slightly routine, but the narrative picks up as the film progresses.

Though Vikram Prabhu is the lead, his role offers limited scope for performance. While he gets sufficient screen time, the character does not demand much in terms of expressions. His personal life angle is underdeveloped, and the character of his wife adds little value to the story. In the flashback portions, the love story and conflict scenes could have been explored in more detail.

Technical Aspects:

Despite this being his debut, director Suresh Rajakumari impresses with his screenplay and execution, giving the film the feel of an experienced filmmaker’s work.

Justin Prabhakaran’s background score is one of the film’s highlights and plays a key role in maintaining suspense and enhancing emotional moments. Madhesh Manickam’s cinematography is neat and serves the narrative well.

Editing by Philomin Raj is effective, keeping the film crisp within its two-hour runtime. The production values are decent, and the Telugu dubbing is clean and well done.

Verdict:

On the whole, Sirai is an engaging crime drama backed by a solid screenplay and effective execution. Vikram Prabhu is decent, but L. K. Akshay Kumar steals the show. The police station episode, flashback portions, emotional moments, and suspenseful climax make it a film worth watching. Though the narration feels slightly slow in the beginning, it does not last long. On the whole, Sirai is definitely worth a watch for its content, execution, empathy, and humanity.

123telugu.com Rating: 3.25/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team 

The Wrecking Crew, 2026.

Directed by Angel Manuel Soto.

Starring Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Claes Bang, Temuera Morrison, Jacob Batalon, Frankie Adams, Miyavi, Stephen Root, Morena Baccarin, Lydia Peckham, Roimata Fox, Branscombe Richmond, Maia Kealoha, David Hekili Kenui Bell, and Mike Edward.

SYNOPSIS:

Estranged half-brothers Jonny and James reunite after their father’s mysterious death. As they search for the truth, buried secrets reveal a conspiracy threatening to tear their family apart.

At one point, foul-mouthed computer hacker sidekick Pika (Jacob Batalon) remarks that the leads, played by Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa, look like The Rock screwed himself and had twins. This lazy attempt at a joke is wild for several reasons: for starters, and this is said with no disrespect, it would make more sense directed at Jacob Batalon himself. It is also only one of several oddly placed jokes about past WWE legends. Moreover, the terrible insult feels more like director Angel Manuel Soto’s equally uninspired casting reasoning, as if he were saying to himself, “those guys look alike, let’s make a vulgar buddy action-comedy set in Hawaii using that.” 

I have put more thought into making sense of that joke than anyone did while making The Wrecking Crew. Everything about the film (written by Jonathan Tropper) seems to have begun and certainly never evolved from that already simplistic idea that, while admittedly novel, is nowhere near enough to sustain 2 hours of generic plotting, CGI sludge, and the occasional satisfying fight scene.

James (Bautista) and Jonny (Momoa) are estranged half-brothers, with the suspicious death of their father paving the way to a series of events that call the latter home to Hawaii, a place he abandoned following being unable to solve his mom’s murder, currently residing in Oklahoma, and fighting with his on-and-off partner, Valentina (Morena Baccarin). Meanwhile, the former leads a traditional, idyllic family life while serving as a strict military commander training water cadets.

What more is to say that they incessantly bicker while finding themselves pushed into a rabbit hole of corruption involving the impending building of a casino on heritage land, Yakuza gangster reinforcements that want them dead, and the shady dealings between notable high-power figures here. Their only clue is a USB drive entrusted to Jonny and some files their father was trying to have Pika hack before his mysterious death, raising more questions than answers that the police department doesn’t seem too interested in looking into. Apparently, the crime occurred in a dead zone, out of range of all traffic cams and security footage.

Mismatched with James as the calm and reasonable one who wants to lay low, and Jonny as the angry loose cannon who, while never close to his father, feels as if he is obligated to solve what happened as a form of redemption for never finding cathartic justice over his mom’s murder. This also means that most of the humor is bestowed upon Jonny, who does everything from trying to sword fight with his genitalia to making endless heavyset jokes about Pika to blatantly racist gestures mocking Asian culture and famous celebrities such as Jackie Chan. When the character momentarily acknowledges and apologizes for saying something racist, it comes across as hollow, since the filmmakers clearly intend for it to land with audiences as funny. Nearly all of the jokes here are lazy more than anything, which is not helped by a grating performance from Jason Momoa, who is starting to play the same character in every movie now.

Across this unwieldy 2-hour running time that trudges through predictable plotting are a couple of bright spots. Namely, the chemistry between Dave Batista and Jason Momoa is amusing and even leads to a crowd-pleasing physical fight between them, sorting out their issues the good old-fashioned way. And while some of the car chases and more chaotic action sequences are filled with ghastly visual effects, the smaller-scale melee fights are mildly ambitious, at one point trying to re-create the beloved hallway battle from Oldboy, albeit with considerably less energy and bodies. The Hawaii setting is also a pleasant reprieve from the usual Los Angeles/Boston/New York familiarity. Mostly, though, all The Wrecking Crew does is repeatedly damage itself, destined to be another forgotten big-budget waste of algorithmic streaming space.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist