Well thank god that's over for another year. Christmas as a single white middle-aged male is not all its cracked up to be. We may have our freedom, but for mental health for everyone, especially those who spend most of this time alone, it can be a sobering and depressing experience. Thank heavens for movies then, where people live out their proper lives for our entertainment. Top song of the month, maybe unsurprisingly was this from Mabel. About sums it all up, really. Watch out for the round up of the year coming soon!
Your Christmas Or Mine? (2022) - Somewhat twee festive romantic comedy that hints at association with anything Richard Curtis may have penned. One, I assume, of many stabs Amazon will have at tickling our Christmas funny bone, starring Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk, as two young lovers that end up at each other's house on the evening before Christmas Eve as a romantic surprise. Great minds think alike and fools seldom differ, you may cry, and you'd be right. Cue yuletide shenanigans and hilarity of the season for all as each of them try to get on with each others' family, singe-handed. Bah humbug!
The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022) - I can't help but think that Alison Janney is having some kind of crisis. Now, I'm basing this purely on the roles she chooses or agrees to. More recently, these have gone from sublime to ridiculous. She works hard, so there's quite alot of them, but she used to be much better keeping up her batting average. Thankfully she is supported ably here by Kristen Bell and Ben Platt, primarily, but the list of faces you might recognise are many and varied and flatter to deceive the project here. It is neither funny, clever nor dramatic enough in any regard and almost offensive in some others.
Enola Holmes 2 (2022) - More of the same, really. If you liked the first one, then you'll enjoy this just as much. Just enough of 'the message' comes through, whilst still displaying Enola's shortcomings. Enough fourth wall breaking to upset a set designer and Henry Cavill broods splendidly as Sherlock once more. Good old family fun which hardly anyone could feel offended by.
Out of the Blue (2022) - Not entirely sure what Diane Kruger and Hank Azaria are doing here, as it is frightfully beneath both of them. A couple of sex scenes notwithstanding, this is barely Lifetime Sundays fodder. When a young man, Connor (Ray Nicholson) is released from prison, a job at the local library is arranged by his Probation Officer (Azaria) and while he is keeping his nose clean, he regularly jogs around the local park, and then one day he bumps into Marilyn (Kruger), a disenchanted, married older woman. And so begins a steamy affair with just enough sweating and thrusting to keep it off daytime television.
Now, if they could just solve the problem of her abusive husband...
Clerks III (2022) - Kevin Smith really knows his stuff. That's probably the reason he keeps doing that same stuff over and over. I just want him tot test himself. I get the inspiration behind Clerks III but really, if this is what came from that very serious argument with continued living, then I'm more prone to suggest that he doesn't want to try too hard. That much was obvious beforehand, however. Occasionally funny, sometimes tragic. Worth a watch for the cameos and an odd chuckle, but just the once.