Cold Steel (dir. Dorothy Ann Puzo, 1987) Johnny Modine (Brian Davis) is a hotshot LAPD detective who will drive his car speeding off a ramp and over a freight train to get to the office Christmas party on time. His partner is much more timid and has a feud with the department’s vending machine. On … Continue reading Cold Steel (1987)

Ticky Tacky (dir. Brian Petsos, 2014) Lucien (Oscar Isaac) likes menswear, vintage pornography, and doughnuts. He dislikes infidelity, especially when it involves his girlfriend Claire (Erika Rankin) cheating on him with his cousin Nikolai (Tim Rock). He still has his loyal retainers in his assistant Marguerite (Helen Rogers) and Gabriel (Julian Shatkin), a boy in … Continue reading Ticky Tacky (2014)

Love Actually (dir. Richard Curtis, 2003) I write this the night of the UK general election. It is bleak. Another Labour defeat and the victory of Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party feels like a capstone to not just a bad year, but a dismal decade. Brexit and the privatization of the NHS are near … Continue reading Love Actually (2003)

The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) The other James Stewart Christmas classic. Budapest before the war. Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) runs a successful leather goods store. His best employee is Alfred Kralik (Stewart), the most smalltown American man in Hungary. The Christmas season is upon us, and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) is … Continue reading The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Black Christmas (dir. Glen Morgan, 2006) Bob Clark’s 1974 film Black Christmas is regarded alongside John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) as one of the earliest and best slasher films. It did not spawn the staggering number of sequels that Halloween did for a couple of fairly obvious reasons. Black Christmas never reveals its killer, which is … Continue reading Black Christmas (2006)

The Night Before (dir. Jonathan Levine, 2015) I felt so tired watching The Night Before. It’s not a bad film. It’s competently made, decently acted. I laughed at a number of scenes. I have enjoyed a number of things with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, and everyone but James Franco. But something about … Continue reading The Night Before (2015)

Anna and the Apocalypse (dir. John McPhail, 2017) Something about musicals turns me into Royal Tenenbaum watching his eleven year old daughter Margot’s play. “It didn’t seem believable to me… What characters? It was just a bunch of little kids dressed up in animal costumes.” Maybe it’s because I cannot accept the reality breaking premise … Continue reading Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

My Night at Maud’s (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1969) “Idiot.” Maud (Francoise Fabian) says this to Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) when he decides to sleep in a chair, fully clothed, instead of just sharing a bed with her when she insists he stays there after a small Christmas celebration ends. He eventually does join her, but remains … Continue reading My Night at Maud’s (1969)

Holiday Affair (dir. Don Hartman, 1949) Connie Ennis (Janet Leigh) is a single mother to her son Timmy (Gordon Gebert). Her husband died in the war. She is in a relationship with a dependable, upstanding if somewhat boring lawyer named Carl (Wendell Corey). They are making tentative steps toward marriage which is upended by a … Continue reading Holiday Affair (1949)

William Burroughs: Thanksgiving Prayer (dir. Gus Van Sant, 1991) The Junky’s Christmas (dir. Nick Donkin and Melodie McDaniel, 1993) It is difficult to think of a person less likely to associate with the holiday season than William S. Burroughs, but he nonetheless produced two pieces of writing that I always associate with this time of … Continue reading A William Burroughs Holiday Extravaganza