RRR (India) (22/24)

RRR is the most expensive Indian film ever made, the third highest-grossing Indian film of all time, and has received topnotch reviews from critics the world over. Now, it’s readily accessible on Netflix and continuing to build a fandom in the US. It’s a frenetic, highly stylized Indian musical action film about two revolutionaries who fought against British imperialism (using tigers, according to this). Think Moulin Rouge! meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets The Matrix meets The Patriot. It’s a three-hour-plus gory action film with extended musical numbers (including a rather upbeat public torture song), which sounds miserably weird, but I loved every single second of it. India, unfortunately, did not select it for the International Feature race, BUT this seems to almost be helping its Oscar chances as more and more fans are rallying around the musical’s music in hopes of an Original Song nomination.