Review: Happiest Season

by Eurocheese

Yes, it’s that time. Even in this, the strangest year of most of our lives, there’s something comforting about knowing that holiday season always rolls around and we can put on our favorite holiday songs and movies to keep us company. Clea DuVall’s new film Happiest Season not only understands that we need this escape, but manages to find humor in a season that can also be high pressure and exasperating for those who don’t adore it.

Abby (Kristen Stewart) is one of these people. While her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis) seems over the moon for the holiday, it’s always been a tough time for her, connected to the loss of her parents. In a romantic moment, Harper impulsively invites Abby back to meet her family for Christmas. Abby jumps on the opportunity, and doesn’t pick up on Harper’s hesitance the next day… or her nervous vibe as they head out on the trip…

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Review: Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square

by Christopher James

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. If the title Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square didn’t already clue you in as to whether you are within the target audience for the film, the opening minutes do. After credits play over the kitschiest of Christmas landscapes, Dolly Parton appears as the world’s comfiest homeless person in full hair and makeup. Her beautiful voice launches into an original song/life lesson that prompts the entire town to break out into a highly choreographed dance routine. This all takes place, you guessed it, in the titular Square. Over the next 98 minutes, Dolly Parton’s Christmas of the Square continues to deliver exactly what it promised you upfront. With __ original songs throughout, Christine Baranski doing a drag version of her gay Twitter persona and Dolly Parton as the chicest homeless person around, Christmas on the Square is Parton’s Citizen Kane...

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Review: Sarah Paulson in Hulu’s "Run"

By Abe Friedtanzer

Is there any project that wouldn’t be able to write in a great part for Sarah Paulson? The Emmy-winning actress is a frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator, most recently working with him in the title role of Netflix’s Ratched, which finds a role almost tailor-made for her as a passionate nurse with subversive aims and a formidable will to achieve them. She was also very memorable as one of the few fictional characters in Mrs. America, a stoic supporter of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly who undergoes a fascinating transformation over the course of the limited series. Now, she’s back on streaming in the Hulu movie Run, a tense thriller not to be confused with HBO’s recent dark comedy effort.

Paulson stars as Diane, a woman who is devastated to learn upon giving birth that her daughter is afflicted with a number of conditions that will make her life very difficult...

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Review: Sophia Loren returns with "The Life Ahead"

by Cláudio Alves

The Movie Star and Her Director Son

Even before we see her face in The Life Ahead, it's impossible to draw the eyes away from Sophia Loren. Following in the tradition of European realism, Edoardo Ponti's camera captures an Italian marketplace with shaky energy. However, no matter how shabby the framing might be, the colors depart from the standards of realism. Angus Hudson's cinematography makes everything a bit too bright, the sun shining on the streets like golden flames, every saturated color intensified. It's reality as if painted with crayons by an enthusiastic child. 

In this sunny landscape, a shot of bright blue, bluer than the sky, stands out, crowned by a mess of gunmetal hair. Dressed in azure, Loren may have lost some of the youthful glow of her heyday in the midcentury, but the star power is intact, her magnetism as strong as ever. Furthermore, the director, her son, knows how to pay reverence to the screen legend without making it too obvious or too elegiac…

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20:20 (Pt 3) Mind games, mood pieces, and Spanish winners

Since the year will soon wind to a close we're surveying the films of 2020 here and there -- terrific, terrible, and anywhere in between -- based on what's available to stream by freezing them at the 20th minute and 20th second. (Though please note that some services' time stamps make this difficult to get exactly right). What comes up? That's the fun of it. (Here are Part One and Part Two if you missed 'em).

Does this captured moment make you wanna investigate any of these 20 films?

Oh, and there's a murderer in the woods, so stay close.

FIRST COW  (Kelly Reichardt, US)
A24. Original release date: March 6th, 2020. Streaming on Showtime

I must confess that I have never jumped on the Kelly Reichardt bandwagon. Other than Wendy & Lucy I haven't yet been blown away but this is on my list to catch up with. Especially after reading the pieces right here about it from Jason, Claudio, and Daniel. 

This is a total great piece. Absolutely.

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