Anyone who worked on @patrickhwillems.bsky.social's Bollywood video should be paid more to write more. It's one of my favorite things over the past few years, watched it like five times at this point. youtu.be/BSRddWXSAA4

I just realized he also wrote the TENET and "Everything is content now" videos, which are both things that express my thoughts better than I could ever hope to. youtu.be/hAtbFwzZp6Y youtu.be/ZStkUxC4iL4

Hire siddhant their work made me cry more than once this year

Hi editor pals! In 2026 I'd love to start writing for some new publications. Film critic and video essay writer originally from Mumbai, now in NYC, and always at film festivals (Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Cannes next). More about me and some work samples: www.siddhantadlakha.com

A case study in transformation: How “Bugonia” adapts Jang Joon-hwan’s “Save the Green Planet!” joysauce.com/how-bugonia-...

Hi editor pals! In 2026 I'd love to start writing for some new publications. Film critic and video essay writer originally from Mumbai, now in NYC, and always at film festivals (Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Cannes next). More about me and some work samples: www.siddhantadlakha.com

Babies

‘Straight Circle’ Review: A Border Satire That Transcends Its Flaws Through Abstraction variety.com/2025/film/re...

That’s a wrap on 2025

We love Payakan, don’t we folks? On our good friends the Tulkun, the weird, wonderful emotional centerpiece (and real heroes) of the “Avatar” sequels, and how they fit into James Cameron’s contradictory cultural mishmash: joysauce.com/the-real-her...

Merry Christmas from Boat and Radio

From the filmmakers behind “The Brutalist,” “The Testament of Ann Lee” is an intoxicating period musical that, for better and worse, leans into realism for its tale of a woman trying to refashion the world as a celibate utopia. www.ign.com/articles/the...

Stop what you're doing and admire Radio's ear

Say hello to Boat’s new big sister Radio, an elegant five year old lady who plops herself sideways to demand pets with her fiery eyes, floppy ear, and extra toes 📻

Sharing a thread of my year-end movie coverage: 1) The best films of the year

Nonfiction cinema offers storytellers practically limitless formal flexibility, and the power to show us reality in dazzling new hues. These were 25 of the best documentaries of 2025: observer.com/list/the-bes...

The new “Anaconda” makes the case against theatrical. A sloppy, cynical, deeply unpleasant act of IP-laundering, with some of the most directionally challenged action-comedy you’re likely to see. www.inverse.com/entertainmen...

More lukewarm than heartwarming, “Song Sung Blue” is a human interest story in movie form—primarily because it has the wrong protagonist, and leaves its most interesting drama off screen. www.ign.com/articles/son...

Cinema, as an industry, is in crisis, but the movies will endure. These are the very best of 2025 joysauce.com/the-best-fil...

My year in wrestling shows

Pleased to have signed this statement against censorious government crackdowns at the International Film Festival of Kerala www.facebook.com/616536382/po...

Any Māori/Pasifika people want to chat Avatar and representation for something I’m writing? DMs open!

Cinema, as an industry, is in crisis, but the movies will endure. These are the very best of 2025 joysauce.com/the-best-fil...

In a year filled with onscreen riches, it can be hard to zero in on specific highlights. However, these slivers of cinema represent the height of the art form’s splendor. Six Movie Scenes We Won't Soon Forget from 2025: filmfreeway.com/articles/bes...

In "Cover-Up", Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus paint a documentary portrait of a legendary investigative journalist that wrestles between critique and reverence. In theatres this week, on Netflix Dec 26th. Sy Hersh and the ‘Culture of Enormous Violence’ www.truthdig.com/articles/sy-...

The same names tend to circulate on dozens of award lists, so I wanted to highlight six great Hollywood performances that flew under the radar in 2025: www.backstage.com/magazine/art...

The same names tend to circulate on dozens of award lists, so I wanted to highlight six great Hollywood performances that flew under the radar in 2025: www.backstage.com/magazine/art...

James Cameron does it again. "Avatar: Fire and Ash" is bigger, longer, more unwieldy—and the most enthralling Hollywood blockbuster in years. Stirring spectacle. Wrenching melodrama. Overwhelming beauty. No one’s making old-school religious epics like this www.inverse.com/entertainmen...

Editor/critic/journo pals: hoping to reach out to new outlets in 2026 to contribute entertainment coverage, esp. if you're interested in film festivals (will be at Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Cannes these coming months). Let's get in touch! About me + samples: siddhantadlakha.com

‘Taghiyev: Oil’ Review: Azerbaijan’s Oscar Hopeful is the First Act of a Larger Biopic variety.com/2025/film/ne...

‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit’ Review: Disqualified for the Oscars, Tajikistan Drama Is an Inviting, Meandering Meta-Narrative variety.com/2025/film/re...

SantaCon is the worst thing that’s ever happened to lower Manhattan.

“Zootopia 2.” Weird movie! Surprisingly cogent for a cartoon about animal racism? Whether or not that’s high on your list of priorities, it’s a huge change from the last one. joysauce.com/zootopia-2-i...

We’re in a bold new era of soulless slop. Deeply unethical when it comes to art, labour, the environment, and the entertainment landscape at large.

Gangster epic "Dhurandhar," the latest star-studded Bollywood hit, is an ugly, enthralling mix of fact and fiction buoyed by jingoistic brutality—like Forrest Gump with a Kalashnikov. Worth your while if you can stomach the cognitive dissonance. www.ign.com/articles/dhu...

Gangster epic "Dhurandhar," the latest star-studded Bollywood hit, is an ugly, enthralling mix of fact and fiction buoyed by jingoistic brutality—like Forrest Gump with a Kalashnikov. Worth your while if you can stomach the cognitive dissonance. www.ign.com/articles/dhu...

New York: Come watch "Resurrection" on Thursday Dec. 11 at @ifccenter.bsky.social at 7:00pm, followed by my Q&A with director Bi Gan

Happy Ella McCay season

"A pulsing, essayistic docu-fiction piece that defies categorization." – @siddhantadlakha.bsky.social, Variety "This isn’t a movie. It’s an experience." – Marcus Harrison Green, The Stranger BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS is now playing! ifccenter.com/films/blknws...

Happy Ella McCay season

Let the bodies hit the floor www.ign.com/articles/kil...

Netflix spent $320 million on The Electric State, they know what they’re doing

‘Left-Handed Girl’ is Shih-Ching Tsou’s long-awaited arrival joysauce.com/left-handed-...

Safe travels, Tammie

A lot of what ends up in award conversations is a question of PR, but this year has had an embarrassment of riches both within and outside those parameters.

Related, I suppose:

BEST DIRECTOR: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident

The New York Film Critics Circle will be announcing the winners of its annual awards on this account tomorrow morning starting at approximately 9 a.m. E.T. #NYFCC

Many things can be true at once. 1) this review is nearly as breathless as Uncut Gems. 2) I still have mild PTSD from Uncut Gems and will never watch it again. 3) Chalamet is at the top of his game and should be watched. 4) this review via @siddhantadlakha.bsky.social is worth your time.