A Christmas Sampler for Anyone Wishing to Extend the Holiday Season: Inaugural Version!

Happy Almost New Year, friends!

Last year I had the idea to write a medley of holiday movies in the model of my annual Halloween movies round-up.  I didn't get around to it, but I'm going to try to cram one in this year--admittedly somewhat late for the holidays themselves, but perfectly timed for anyone looking to drag out the season a few more days.  I'm not sure that I'll make this a routine, but I'm nevertheless excited to try it out.

To update the Halloween model, I will use both my typical 1 - 5 rating for overall quality and our brand new sparkling holiday cheer/feel-goodness rating, from 1 - 5 snowflakes, which can be interpreted as follows:

* = Minimal cheer / feel-goodness
*** = Medium cheer / feel-goodness,
akin to a well-seasoned cup of eggnog or nicely marshmallowed mug of hot coco
and a nicely cosy sweater/lap blanket combo
***** = Maximum cheer / feel-goodness,
equivalent to Santa actively depositing presents under your Christmas tree
as delicate snowflakes begin descending from the tender fluffy clouds above
and a choir of precious little children starts singing perfectly tuned carols outside
in the soft light of the candles they carry

So with that, let's dive in!

"Four Christmases" (2008)

Rating: 1   Holiday Cheer Rating: *

As Christmas movies go, this one felt a bit bleak: a self-congratulatingly anti-marriage-and-kids couple makes the rounds of their four families, as they are each the adult children of divorce.  Even if we look past the complete impossibility of fitting four family Christmas celebrations (including at least one church service + nativity performance) in four seemingly completely different locations in only one day to force this premise to work, this film is just too mean-spirited and the characters all not really fleshed out enough to worthy of pondering whether they're redeemable to be worth watching.  So if you're looking for general enjoyment, let alone holiday enjoyment, maybe skip this one.

"National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation" (1989)

Rating: 2   Holiday Cheer Rating: ***

A throw-backy option!  While this isn't exactly the best movie, I appreciated the "Home Alone" (1990)-light energy of the slapstick-y holiday silliness of this movie (with considerably less outright violence).  It kind of made me miss the solidly '80's / early '90's comedy movie aesthetic that required packing in as many silly sight gags and prop-based jokes as humanly possible, when so many of the more recent middling comedies can seem so comedically threadbare by comparison.  Even if "Christmas Vacation" isn't a laugh-out-loud extravaganza of hilarity, you can at least see that the filmmakers are trying to make it as funny as possible.

"A Bad Moms Christmas" (2017)

Rating: 1   Holiday Cheer Rating: **

This is unfortunately yet another Christmas movie I simply did not like, and not just because they cast Justin Hartley as a love interest and I'm solidly #TeamChrishell.  While this movie successfully musters some holiday vibes, the fact that the main distinguishing trait of the trio of core characters (played by Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Kathryn Hahn) is that they're wantonly obnoxious in public doesn't exactly make you care that their moms are titularly bad.  But the biggest nail in the coffin of this patently unpleasant movie is that it is one of countless holiday / family movies that actively coach its audience to favor family togetherness at all costs, even in the face of family member behavior that is unrepentantly emotionally abusive, insulting, and boundary-violating.  I was officially done with this film when its emotional turning point occurred not when each of the adult daughters attempted to set boundaries with their "bad moms," but when Mila Kunis was somehow transformed into the bad guy *for* setting that boundary.... on Christmas (cue manipulative lip quiver).  Yeah we officially have too many movies like this.

Alternatively, I would pay plenty of hard-earned money to watch movies about families who are just nice and respectful toward each other and then have wholesome holiday-based adventures together.  Filmmakers PLEASE take note!

"Single All the Way" (2021)

Rating: 4.5   Holiday Cheer Rating: *****

"Single All the Way" is by far the biggest winner of this medley.  It is genuinely sweet, charming, and entertaining, with successfully funny moments and a classic happy holiday movie arc infused with new energy by the will-they-won't-they gay couple at its center.  What makes this film really successful is what makes it the diametric opposite of "A Bad Moms Christmas": while the family has its cute, goofy moments (most clearly expressed through Jennifer Coolidge's Aunt Sandy and Kathy Najimy's overly-enthusiastic blind date arranging, PFLAG-y books about gay people reading mother to Michael Urie's Peter), they are all unconditionally and unabashedly gay-friendly and therefore supportive of Peter and his best friend and hopeful love interest Nick (played with gentle sweetness by Philemon Chambers).  There is not a drop of homophobic or racist squeamishness or tension in the movie, which arguably is exactly what we might want in a cosy, pleasant family-friendly holiday romantic comedy.  

It's clear how much I liked this movie, because as you'll see in our year-end wrap-up, I watched it both at the tail end of last holiday season last January and again this December.  It is truly a delight!

"A Hollywood Christmas" (2022)

Rating: 1   Holiday Cheer Rating: ***

If you're looking for a profoundly low-stakes holiday film with yet another classic romantic holiday movie arc and just enough self-awareness to make it mildly interesting, this is your movie!  Additional perks include Jessika Van's casting as the romantic lead and the ultimate redemption of all of the film's characters, even if they are at first positioned to be too villainous and/or vacuous for it.  It's not good, but it's fine, and it's definitely Christmas-y and there's something to be said for that.

With that, I hope you all enjoy some nice holiday movies and have a wonderful New Year!  Onward!

{Heart}

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! 2022 Edition

Hi team,

I hope you all had a nice holiday last week with enjoyable food and company!

It's time to reflect on the things for which I'm particularly thankful this year.

They are:

• My healthy, loving, sweet animals.
• The abundance and generosity of plants, flowers, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, deer, and all the living things I can see and enjoy from the windows of my home.
• My home, where I feel peaceful, grounded, content, and safe.
• Finally some degree of relaxation of our pandemic precautions due to multiple vaccines and boosters as well as the relief granted by the passage of time, which has made it possible to:
• See more of our friends and family.
• Travel to celebrate loved ones' weddings.
• Revisit some of our favorite places in our beloved City, with admittedly still a lot to reconnect with, someday.
• Finally enroll our Child in a sweet, cosy, welcoming, positive daycare where he can play with "the other babies."
• Podcasts that deepen my connection to my political identity, simultaneously helping me feel more informed, interested in the outside world, and connected to a community of like-minded people, especially because of the people in my life who also enjoy these podcasts.
• Finally some more time to read for leisure.
• Finally getting to go apple picking again, including taking my Child for the first (and second) time.
• Multiple outlets for support, growth, and recovery.
• Learning more and more what my boundaries are and actually learning how to set and maintain them.
• My clients and the reciprocal, life-enhancing benefits of my work.
• Opportunities to revisit one of our favorite beaches and our community pool, as well as to discover a new delightful beach where we can peddle around on Flintstone-like multi-seater bikes and watch dolphins swim, as well as already having concrete plans to return to our favorite beach next spring.

• Not to mention: Plans, multiple times postponed, to travel abroad this summer that may just actually happen this summer.
• Not to mention: Feeling hope and excitement for the next year instead of despair and dread.
• My Husband and his patience, thoughtfulness, support, creativity, hard work, and love.
• Sharing ever more of the world with my Child, including more music, stories, people, and places.
• My Child's hungry brain, sweet, joyful, and loving temperament, inventive spirit, and wonderful sense of humor, as well as absolutely every single aspect of my Child's existence and being.
• As my Child grows and becomes more of a kid than a baby, getting to introduce and deepen our practices around holidays and family traditions.
• The births of several beloved and eagerly anticipated babies, as well as a few beloved and eagerly anticipated babies to come in the new year.

And, as always:

• Anyone who reads this blog.

I hope you have this many and more things that have made you feel happy and whole this year, and even more ahead.

{Heart}

A Halloween Sampler for All Souls: 2022 Edition!

Hallooo0o0o0o0ooo!!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  It's time for this year's medley of macabre movies!

Due to a variety of factors (including the constantly stressful state of the world) I haven't been in a mood to tolerate a lot of scary content this year, but I nevertheless have a decent array of films to offer you, dear friends, in case you're in the mood to watch something spooky to celebrate this delightful holiday.

As usual, each of the films to follow will be accompanied by the usual 1 - 5 rating scale for overall quality, as well as a scary/intense rating of 1 - 5 exclamation points, to be interpreted as follows:

! = not at all scary

!!!!! = so scary!

This year's films are:

"Nope" (2022)

Rating: 3  Scary Rating: !!!

This year's classic horror movie, care of director Jordan Peele.  As I've already shared, I wasn't as blown away by this movie as I was by his astonishing debut, "Get Out" (2017).  That said, "Nope" definitely presents a fun twist on the alien/monster-y genre, showcases great performances, and offers some good tense moments with one or two jump scares for good measure.  It may not blow you away in the way we know that Peele is capable of, but it's still reasonably fun and scary for Halloween.

"Don't Worry Darling" (2022)

Rating: 5  Scary Rating: !!!!

Having watched this last night I'm admittedly coming in a bit hot but I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO TALKS ANY MORE TRASH ABOUT THIS MOVIE.  

For those of you who have managed to remain blissfully unaware, there has been an over-abundance of gossip-y nonsense around this movie, which has bizarrely and more importantly inaccurately led people to conclude that they know enough about the film to conclude that it won't be good (??).  It's almost like sexism is prompting people to assume that a lady director can't direct competently if there's any extra stuff happening while she's doing her job.  And while this is only Olivia Wilde's second turn at directing, anyone who bothered to watch "Booksmart" (2019) (or who is aware of my feelings about "Booksmart") might be reasonably curious to see for themselves how such a promising directorial voice fares in her sophomore offering, and they might have at least a little faith that she would deliver despite all the background noise.

That preamble aside: I'm hoping to write more extensively on this movie to further and more stridently defend it because IT IS SO GOOD, both simply as a movie but also as riveting tale of feminist horror in the current societal era.  It is consistently tense and increasingly scary, all while providing a commentary on the present-moment conditions of women in society and the forces seeking to entrap and destroy them.  It is extremely well-acted in an immersive, beautifully-constructed artificial world, with little Easter eggs and tells nestled throughout to reward the attentive viewer.  I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone seeking a headier yet still viscerally scary horror movie this Halloween season.

"Meru" (2015)

Rating: 4  Scary Rating: !!

This year's documentary offering!  While any of the films I commented on when I wrote about "Meru" could to some extent fit the bill for anyone wanting to watch a non-fiction scary movie, this one is probably the most similar to a conventional horror movie structure.  Three friends set out on an adventure for which they are arguably way out of their depth, with extremely high stakes (and altitudes) in a battle against an indifferent and unforgiving landscape.  What could go wrong?

While not scary in the conventional horror movie sense of the term, this movie is nevertheless very stressful and induces some real anxiety on behalf of the climbers risking their lives in pursuit of the summit of a once-in-a-lifetime (if they're lucky) summit.

"Don’t Look Up" (2021)

Rating: 1  Scary Rating: !!!!!

I have also already shared my feelings about "Don't Look Up".  In short--and as evidenced by my rating--I hated it.  But it is precisely the premise I hated so deeply that makes this movie so deeply disturbing.  While theoretically it was supposed to be a societal commentary--actually, a darkly comic social commentary--instead it read to me as simply a deeply upsetting screed against a seemingly unredeemable and intrinsically self-destructive human race.  So if that's your target vibe for a Halloween horror movie, look no further than "Don't Look Up".

"Spencer" (2021)

Rating: 4  Scary Rating: !!!!

Finally, as I've shared with all of you, "Spencer" is a film I suspect was somewhat under-appreciated when it was released and that I did not anticipate to be scary.  Surprisingly, "Spencer" delivers a really satisfying homage to an early 1980s horror classic and uses that foundation to build atop it an unsettling and psychologically unsound haunted royal manor with our heroine trapped inside.  It's moody, atmospheric, and drenched in beautiful foreboding.  If you're wanting a haunted house-feeling movie imbued with royal intrigue, this is for you.

Happy Halloween movie watching!  I hope this holiday provides precisely as much creepy thrill as you wish!

{Heart}

Antiracist Accountability: When "Pandering" Gets Nautical: The New Little Mermaid

Greetings again,

Here's hoping I can fit one more quick post in before the end of the month!

You may have heard that Disney is releasing a new, live action version of its 1989 film "The Little Mermaid".  If you have heard this news, you have very likely heard that the lead role of Ariel will be performed by Halle Bailey, who is a Black actor.  And if you've heard that news, you've probably heard about how some people lost their damn minds--not in a good way--over this development.

Unfortunately there has already been occasion in this blog to write about how problematic and entitled it is for white people to freak out about Black and other PoC people existing in media, and unfortunately this is not the only movie or tv show about which this has happened in very recent memory.  But there are some additional nuances to this particular petty racist tantrum that bear stating out loud.

First, unlike with "Black Panther" where the original source material centered an explicitly Black protagonist, the original "Little Mermaid" movie and its source material did not.  While this fact may seem to lend legitimacy to white viewers crying foul at Ariel being recast, it actually doesn't matter one bit.  Characters can be reimagined, and there is nothing intrinsically white to the character of Ariel, so changing this aspect of her character is fair game.  We're not even going to get into the excruciatingly obvious fact that MERMAIDS ARE NOT REAL AND THEY CAN THEREFORE BE ANY RACE WE WANT.

Second, to people crying foul because they are attached to Ariel as an arguably rare instance of representation for red-haired people (can you hear my eyes rolling from there?), congratulations!  Disney is not erasing the 1989 version of this movie.  If it means that much to someone to see their hair color (and whiteness--because we're not even going to get into the excruciatingly obvious fact that PEOPLE OTHER THAN WHITE PEOPLE CAN AND DO HAVE RED HAIR) represented in film form, they can watch and rewatch that version to their little heart's content.

Relatedly, third, those people claiming, perhaps sincerely, to feeling inspired or empowered by their representation in the form of the animated Ariel are engaging in a kind of callous emotional greediness and selfishness that I sincerely cannot fathom.  The argument is essentially: seeing myself in this character was deeply meaningful and uplifting for me, so I refuse to share that with anyone else who might benefit from seeing themselves in this character.  

Hearing it this way, I don't know how to interpret that argument as anything other than extremely and voraciously self-centered to the point of being both incredibly embarrassing and incredibly cruel.  It's only made worse by having seen, just like with "Black Panther", the exhilarated and thrilled faces of Black children seeing a snippet of Bailey's performance in the recently-released new "Little Mermaid" trailer.

Finally, while I already elaborated on this point in my earlier post on the white people freakouts prompted by "Black Panther", the point very much bears repeating in the form of questions: Why can't, or more pointedly, won't white people see themselves in people who don't look like them?  Do they have an expectation that everyone else see themselves in white characters, therefore it's somehow redundant or unnecessary for non-white characters to exist?  Or is the issue perhaps that entitled white people just don't freaking care about anyone else feeling seen, uplifted, celebrated, or empowered but themselves--that they want all media to be about them?

It strikes me that what we're discussing here is a children's movie.  We expect children to learn that other people are people and therefore to treat others with kindness and respect.  Starting at very young ages, based in this premise, we expect children to share.  Yet many grown-ass adults have managed to get well into their grown-ass adult lives never learning how to do exactly that, to the point that they feel comfortable blasting their racist selfishness all over the internet.

I don't know how to get through to these people.  That may simply not be possible.  But in the meantime, I'm glad that there are ever more depictions of characters from a broader array of humanity so that everyone can have heroes and imagine themselves in their place.

{Heart}

A Bit Nope on "Nope"

Hihi,

Frustratingly, I've managed to leave writing this month's posts until the last conceivable moment, so I'm going to need to be mercilessly brief.

I was excited to watch "Nope" (2022), Jordan Peele's latest film.  

This excitement was of course informed by my deep adoration for "Get Out" (2017), albeit tempered by my comparatively diminished enthusiasm for the extremely inventive yet messy "Us" (2019).  I'll admit I was also somewhat anxious about "Nope" after seeing some indications online that there might be animal mayhem of some kind, but a thorough perusal of doesthedogdie.com helped me feel adequately prepared without overdoing it on potential spoilers.

So I went for it.  And while I'm glad to have watched it, I have to admit I found it pretty underwhelming. 

Starting with the good: the performances were great, the premise was interesting, and the effects were overall really good--although the quality of the set design in some scenes where you get up close and personal with the film's "monster" somewhat undercut its otherwise really cool conceptualization.  There are some little twists and turns in the discovery of the exact nature of the beast that Daniel Kaluuya's OJ and Keke Palmer's Emerald are up against that are creative and intriguing.

Moving on to the less good: "Nope" wasn't a scary movie so much as it was at times stressful or upsetting.  Instead of building to a thrilling, tense conclusion, the film's emotional impact felt really uneven to the point that the movie dragged at times.  Furthermore, while I understand was Peele hoped to accomplish with sequences related to the backstory of Steven Yeun's Jupe, those components landed simultaneously as a bit tacked-on, gratuitous, and at once overly obvious and psychologically incongruous as a way of explaining Jupe's stunning hubris.  (Surely, having previously experienced the damage that can be done by an animal run amok, he all of all people would know better than to play the treacherous role of lion tamer to a mysterious carnivorous intergalactic predator?)

Overall, this film was fine--neither terrible nor excellent.  It was fun and I am satisfied to have checked the box of watching it, but I also hope Peele's next film far exceeds this one.

Summing up my middling response to this movie, I gave "Nope" a 3.

{Heart}