Christmas Movies of the Moment

by Tony Ruggio

Christmas movies, full of cheer, pretty lights, and sometimes reindeer. I grew up on ‘em, on Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. I continued loving ‘em as a big kid even, with Elf and The Santa Clause holding a special place in my cold heart. They used to be one of those seasonal things Hollywood did best, but as comedy has sunk, so have movies set during the holidays. 

They were on the fast track to extinction, in fact, until streaming came along. Sure, there were Hallmark hate-watches and other network specials gasping for attention. Hallmark still has a certain devoted fan base despite the decline of cable television, but theatrical movie-going has been devoid of the holiday spirit for some time now. Thanks to Netflix, I’ve been able to indulge and Christmas party like it’s 1999, so here are three new Christmas films you may have heard of (there are two more I won’t even mention) that you may or may not want to spend time with this season...

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Mark Your Calendars!

by Nathaniel R 

Given the release of Parasite this very weekend, and Judy, Pain and Glory, Hustlers, also in theaters with Oscar buzz in various categories, it's safe to say that Prestige Film Season is more than underway. So we thought we'd update that calendar now.  Here's how the schedule is looking for awards hopefuls in terms of important dates so mark your calendars...

OCTOBER

RIGHT NOW - Limited Release: Parasite (Bong Joon-ho's South Korean Oscar submission), The King (Shakepearian drama starring Timothée Chalamet), Missing Link (animated hopeful ) begins streaming on Hulu

NEXT WEEKEND - Limited Release: JoJo Rabbit (Taiki Waititi's Nazi satire), The Lighthouse (Dafoe's latest bid for gold, a black and white horror-tinged hallucinatory drama), The Laundromat begins streaming on Netflix

25th -Dolemite is My Name begins streaming on Netflix... 

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"The Crown" S3: An Acting Showcase

by Cláudio Alves

Why do we, as an audience, love to see celebrities playing other celebrities? Just look at the acting categories of the Oscars to see this love in full bloom. Every year, they are invaded by biopics with famous actors imitating the look and feel, the ticks, the sound and the accents of other figures in the public consciousness. Perhaps it's got something to do with the juxtaposition of two famous personas, none of them fully erasing the other. It’s a palimpsest of acting.

We know the Queen of England, how she sounds and how she looks.  When an actress plays her, their transformation becomes obvious because it calls attention to the art of pretending, but also to what is specific about the pretender in the first place. By watching Olivia Colman play the Queen in The Crown, it becomes obvious what makes Olivia Colman so special.

Of course, in this instance, the comparison isn't just to the Queen herself, but also Claire Foy's version of the role…

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Links+ Hot, Lukewarm, Cold

Oooh look at this beautiful actress roundtable cover for The Hollywood Reporter. Can't wait to see the full video.

Okay on to the link roundup since we haven't done this in some time the news is a mix of brand new to 'oops, already shoulda shared that!'

 Piping Hot 

/Film early numbers on the success of Disney+ though you'll have to take it with a grain of salt as the numbers are provided solely by Disney (just like Netflix who is free to brag on the rare occassions when they do share numbers but there's no way to know if the numbers are accurate)

Coming Soon Juliette Lewis and Mia Goth are co-starring in a female action flick called Mayday

After the jump The Little Mermaid, new projects for Paul Thomas Anderson and Damien Chazelle, Kristen Bell singing, and much much more... 

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Review: The Morning Show

By Spencer Coile 

It feels as though we’ve been discussing The Morning Show for years already. And how could we not? It was a main event for the latest streaming service, Apple TV+. It was headlined by Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell - three television titans. Plus, its behind-the-camera team - including Aniston and Witherspoon with producing credit, not to mention Mimi Leder and David Frankel directing the first three episodes - was enough to have television and film fans salivating for more.

The only problem is, The Morning Show was talked to death before it even premiered... hence the past tense of this intro...

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