Hot Frosty - 2024 (Netflix) Much better than the previous Netflix Christmas movie this year. Jack Snowman (Dustin Milligan) is literally a snowman who comes to life when Lacey Chabert puts a "magic" scarf around his neck and takes his picture. He streaks around town naked, breaks into a store for clothes, doesn't understand anything but can learn immediately when watching TV, and ultimately plays the clueless doofus at a tremendous level. Chabert is good, Milligan is really good (I should watch Schitt's Creek), and the various secondary characters are fun with the town police (Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio) being standouts.
'Tis the Season to be Irish - 2024 Rose buys and flips houses for a living and has chosen to leave the US for one in her mom's favorite Irish town. She arrives and finds the house in an unlivable condition and has to deal with the real estate agent/historical preservationist/whatever else in Sean. She stays at the local inn while restoring the house, where she meets English widow Sandy and hiding from the spotlight pop star Caitlin who serve as two solid supporting characters to keep from having the leads on screen together in every scene. A fun running gag is a local goat that keeps escaping from the Christmas Market and finding Rose so that she has to return him. This might be the most convoluted storyline they've done this year, but it really worked. Tons of chemistry from the entire cast and for some reason this just felt more authentic, maybe due to filming on location.
I rewatched Rollerball (the 1975 one) and I enjoyed it immensely. I had given it 4 1/2 stars on Letterboxd and I'm a little tempted to bump it up to a full 5. In my previous review I concentrated on the obvious conflict of individuality vs the corporate overlords, and mentioned the extreme de-politicization of the population, but in this watching (maybe spurred by recent events) I really thought the second was actually the point of the movie. Yes the people give up their freedom but in practice what that means is that they give up their passions. There's no art or history or philosophy or ideals or interests of any kind except in instant carnal pleasures. Important decisions are taken care of elsewhere, so no reason to think about it, but that eventually turns into no reason to think about anything. The reason Jonathan is an individual is that he loved. He loves the game of Rollerball (something he explicitly says twice), and he loves a particular woman - a concept that seems to be considered old-fashioned in their society. He's not in any sense an intellectual, but he does a good job teaching Rollerball to guys that basically screamed another would-be teacher out of the room for trying to educate them.
An Almost Christmas Story - 2024 (Disney+) This is a 21 minute short from Alfonso Cuaron. It's a simple little story that's (very) loosely based on Rocky the Owl that was rescued from Rockefeller Plaza back in 2020. Moon gets separated from his family and stuck in a tree that's being taken to Rockefeller Plaza. His wing gets damaged and he has to avoid the dangers of the pigeons that are trying to bully him. He befriends a young human girl, Luna, who has prosthetic legs and is also lost in the city at Christmas. There's also a folk singer who takes us through the transitions in the story. We end up with some fun team ups and a great little lesson. The style is interesting as it's kind of a mix of a modern claymation look with stop motion elements. All the background characters are just cardboard cutouts moving around. I'm not familiar with the voice actors for Moon or Luna, but both kids did quite well. Jim Gaffigan, John C. Reilly, and Natasha Lyonne highlight the rest of the voice cast. This is adorable.
Oh, and I found out when you rewatch a movie and log it into Letterboxd, you can give it a new review and even a different rating for each viewing.
A Reason for the Season - 2024 (Hallmark Mystery) Elizabeth goes into labor in a small town on Christmas Eve in 1989 and the local doctor just happens to be in the diner she stops at. 35 years later she's a billionaire owner of a cosmetics company and feels like her daughter is spoiled. She sends Evie back to that small town to grant a Christmas wish to the people in the diner who helped deliver her that night in order to be able to access her trust fund. There's no real conflict here, but this is the best of the movies on Hallmark Mystery so far. Taylor Cole and Kevin McGarry are good as the leads, and Eric Keenelyside, Peter Bryant, and Dolores Drake are especially good as some of the wonderful old townspeople. This one had me tearing up in my office.
Christmas with the Singhs - 2024 Blended family hijinks. Jake gets hurt and goes to the ER where Asha works. They reconnect after having being HS classmates. A year later they get engaged. Asha's family is randomly an Indian family that's Christian so the writers don't really have to figure out new cultural traditions. Asha's father is mad at Jake for not asking him first, Jake's mom is the only person in town who used to beat Asha's father in the house decorating contest at Christmas, and Jake's parents feel like their traditions are being ignored. Bad. Really bad. The two leads are well below soap opera newbie standards, with no chemistry at all, and nobody else is good enough to make this more than tolerable. Not the worst this season, but the only ones below it are a couple of the Hallmark Mystery films and the first Netflix mess.
Big Time Adolescence (2019) Dir. Jason Orley Ten year old Monroe hero worships his sister's boyfriend Zeke, to the point that after Zeke and his sister break up, he tries to maintain a friendship with the older boy. Six years later, the now sixteen year old Monroe spends most of his free time with 23 year old Zeke, much to his parents dislike. Zeke and his small group of equally infrequently employed friends mostly spend their time getting drunk and smoking pot, taking the teenaged Monroe along for their adventures. The relationship dynamic changes once Monroe decides to use Zeke as a contact to score booze and drugs for high school parties, as a quick way to elevate his social status at school. Coming of age dramedy that was fairly enjoyable. The two leads are good, though in reality Pete Davidson is sort of playing another version of himself here, so it's hard to judge properly. I would say he is like playing an updated version of Wooderson from Dazed & Confused, but it actually reminded me the most of this viral tweet, about Joe Rogan: This is exactly the character. Apart from leads Griffin Gluck and Pete Davidson, there was also some good supporting work from Jon Cryer as Monroe's dad and Sydney Sweeney as Zeke's girlfriend.
Oh, for ********s sake. Rogan never said the Mayans invented cellphones. He merely pointed out that they developed technology that the Incas could never quite perfect. Jesus, people. NUANCE!
Jingle Bell Run - 2024 Avery's obese sister, who is somehow a personal trainer, signs her up for a Christmas reality TV show. Avery goes to train and bumps into former pro hockey player Wes at the gym, and they don't get along. The contestants arrive for the show, find out that the "twist" is everyone is paired up in random teams, and of course Avery and Wes get paired together. It's an Amazing Race kind of gimmick, but somehow worse. The producer convinces Wes to act like he's falling for Avery to drive up TV ratings, Wes agrees but really falls for her, she overhears part of a later conversation where the producer asks for more, and that gives us our final 5 minutes of conflict. Ashley Williams (Avery) can act, but it seems like she realized this was a stinker and phoned it in a bit. Andrew W. Walker (Wes) was solid in Three Wise Men and A Baby but he's egregiously bad in this one. I'll give bonus points for filming in/around Vancouver but pulling in a few landscape shots that actually look like West Texas/Eastern New Mexico for the part that supposedly happened there. Not the worst, but it's near the bottom this year.
Well, I've watched 21 of these so far (not counting the two from previous years) and here's how I've got them ranked: Christmas on the Ranch Hulu Santa Tell Me Hallmark A Reason for the Season Hallmark Mystery Tis the Season to be Irish Hallmark Hot Frosty Netflix Twas the Date Before Christmas Hallmark Holiday Mismatch Hallmark The 5-Year Christmas Party Hallmark Trivia at St. Nicks Hallmark Holiday Crashers Hallmark Operation Nutcracker Hallmark A Carol for Two Hallmark The Christmas Charade Hallmark Jingle Bell Run Hallmark My Sweet Austrian Holiday Hallmark Mystery Scouting for Christmas Hallmark Our Holiday Story Hallmark Christmas with the Singhs Hallmark This Time Each Year Hallmark Mystery Five Gold Rings Hallmark Mystery Meet Me Next Christmas Netflix That's a sane thing to do, right?
I appreciate his TJG's dedication to the "craft" of watching holiday movies (oh, wait, are we allowed to call them "Christmas" movies again?). Personally, I can't stand them. Now, when @TheJoeGreene starts a similar run of Hallmark Mysteries, I will participate. I have watched almost all of them.