Month: December 2021

Ving Rhames is the titular character, a Christian drag queen still mourning the death of his partner who finds himself drawn into the lives of single mom and drug addict Alfre Woodard and her daughter. Surprisingly to me, Rhames is incredible as Holiday, imbuing the character with much softness and emotion from his hesitation in letting someone(s) new into his life to the heartbreak of coming to terms with an imperfect situation. His relationship with the young daughter is sweet to watch. Woodard isn’t quite at her best playing a thoroughly unsympathetic character; she’s rather shrill and overwrought with no development beyond her ability to cause destruction in the lives of those who care for her. On the other hand, Mykelti Williamson has a surprising turn as Woodard’s drug-dealing boyfriend who steps in to help when she fails.

A few years ago, I watched Tree Man a documentary about Christmas tree sellers in New York City (it may have been Tree Man). I’d never before experienced the type of tree lot of the ‘middle of the sidewalk’ variety that seems ubiquitous in the city and I find them fascinating. In this film, Kentucker Audley is a multi-year seasonal worker at one of these lots. That is the film. It is slow and I gave up on it the first time I tried to watch, but I appreciated it more on my next viewing. It almost feels like a documentary, focusing on one lonely man and the fleeting moments as he momentarily steps into people’s lives as they buy their tree for the year and then steps back out maybe to be seen next year but just as likely not.  

Fred MacMurray is is a New York assistant District Attorney who takes small-time crook Barbara Stanwyck to their joint home state of Indiana instead of letting her sit in jail over the holidays. In all of their films, I love the chemistry between Stanwyck and MacMurray. They are particularly strong here where she is the tough-as-nails ‘bad’ girl who has rarely been shown kindness and he’s the honest-to-a-fault good guy. MacMurray’s family farm setting, where family isn’t just a nuclear unit but includes his widowed mother, a matronly aunt, and a simple-minded cousin, makes me nostalgic for my own family Christmases where everyone who needed a place to go was welcome for the holiday.    

In this made for television film, Alyssa Milano is a bratty young American whose father sends her to Soviet-controlled Estonia to live with her aunt. Once there, she joins forces with an anti-Soviet resistance group’s efforts to bring Christmas to the town. It’s a trite anti-Communist, pro-Christian propaganda piece where there is no nuance and every single Soviet leader is a stupid, ugly caricature. There is no character development for the main character; she throws tantrums when she is denied any luxury and later throws fits when her aunt questions her feelings for the resistance fighter she just met. The only strong suits in the film are the Estonian location and Natalya Andreychenko’s portrayal as the aunt.  

This movie really makes me want to finagle an invite to a Nigerian wedding. They look to be a lot of fun and the colors (at least for the ones shown in this film) are incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately for the titular character, it’s also the perfect opportunity for her meddling family to set her up with the ideal Nigerian mate. While she gets to know this perfect man, she also finds herself drawn to another man, one who lets her be herself but is far from her family’s marital hopes. It’s a film that places itself firmly in the romantic comedy category, but as a quality entry with plenty of extra touches that deal with family, culture, and the expectations from the two.  

This was a lot more fun than I’d thought it would be. In this teen comedy-horror hybrid, Vince Vaughn is a serial killer who magically switches bodies with a teenaged Kathryn Newton. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of characterization of the killer before the switch so Newton isn’t given a whole lot to mimic when she becomes the killer. At that point, she just gives pissed off vibes. As with a lot of high school films, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as to why she’s bullied at school and the movie is too lazy to bother with any type of reasoning. What saves the film is Vaughn being great in both roles. He could believably play a menacing serial killer in a serious slasher film but is also rather funny when playing a teenaged girl.