Prime Time: This Christmas (2007)

As is evidenced by the many posters you can view and by almost every Hallmark TV movie you can choose to view, Christmas movies are largely populated by smiling, white, heterosexual characters all just waiting to kiss the right person under the mistletoe. You do get exceptions, and some of those exceptions have opened the gates for some better movies, but straight, white people still seem to be the norm. I watch many of those movies, some would say that I watch more of them than anyone should, but I do try to widen my viewing options sometimes. When I remember.

This Christmas is a traditional Christmas movie that features a superb cast portraying members of an African American family, the Whitfields (headed up by a matriarch, Ma’Dere, played by Loretta Devine). Everyone has their various problems and/or secrets, but the ones who get more screentime are Lisa (Regina King), a woman married to a man who is taking her for granted, Quentin (Idris Elba), a man home for the holidays while he also tries to evade some bad people he owes money to, and Claude (Columbus Short), a young soldier who has a partner he is reluctant to introduce to the whole family. Then there’s Joseph aka Big Joe (Delroy Lindo), a man living with Ma’Dere while they pretend otherwise in front of some visiting relatives. There’s more going on, a young woman has a good time with a man who is also playing the role of a Santa Claus and one young man is hiding a great singing voice, but those characters I have just named, and their issues, are kept to the fore.

Written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II, This Christmas is an easy film to enjoy, and a typically sweet-natured and soft-centred seasonal treat. There are scenes that add a bit of grit and/or tension, but they don’t play out long enough to be too jarring in amongst the more standard family scenes.

I will praise the cast in a moment, but it’s worth praising the soundtrack while I remember. A few tunes are well-used throughout, as well as a fantastic number that plays out over the first part of the end credits while the cast get to shake their stuff in turn. It’s a good way to ensure that any residue of sour taste is washed away, and people should be smiling once the screen turns to black.

Short is just fine in his role, but both King and Elba are strong favourites of mine, and both shine in their roles here. They help to elevate the material, basically showing some of the younger cast members how it’s done. Devine is suited to her role, and she plays a character who also needs to learn a lesson on the way to the big finale, and Lindo is . . . well, look, point me to a film on which Lindo isn’t fantastic and I will hold up a mirror in front of your face and point you to a liar. I hope that clarifies how I always feel about Lindo. Everyone else does sterling work, and me not mentioning them by name isn’t to dismiss their performance entirely. It’s just that most of those I just named are big favourites of mine.

This gives you everything you could want from this type of film, and it feels like everything has been put together with a bit more care, and less of a view towards simply delivering a package of Christmas sweetness. The characters grow as the film unfolds, and the satisfying results feel earned. Well, they certainly feel more earned than your usual Christmas movie endings.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Armored (2009)

The only feature script, to date, written by James V. Simpson, Armored is an enjoyable tense and entertaining little crime thriller that I believe still remains an underseen gem (although it got some decent notices when it was first released).

Columbus Short plays Ty Hackett, one of a number of people working for an armored-truck company. His co-workers include Mike (Matt Dillon), Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Palmer (Amaury Nolasco), and Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich). All of them seem decent enough, but they have a plan to make them all rich men. Stage a fake robbery and keep the money for themselves. Ty doesn’t want any part of it, but his growing financial problems and a promise that nobody will be hurt wins him over. So it’s all set. And then somebody gets hurt, which immediately pits Ty against all of his former colleagues. As an ex-soldier, he may be able to get the upper hand for a while, but the odds are stacked against him.

What you have here is a fun, tight, script, with a great concept at the heart of it, elevated by a superb ensemble cast full of people all given moments to shine. Short may be one of the lesser-known names here, but he's a very capable, and likeable, lead. Dillon has been a low-key absolute great for many years, and is especially good as the one who masterminds this plan. He's the one trying to keep his head while others are growing increasingly angry, or worried, and frustrated, and things are made even more tense by the way he can go back to being nice and calm, leaving viewers wondering how much of it is genuine and how much of it is just to get our hero in a position where he can be dealt with. Fishburne is not to be messed with, and has a lot of fun in his role, while Ulrich gets his best role in a long time. Reno and Nolasco may be a bit underused, but they're still a vital part of the group dynamic. There's also an enjoyable little turn from Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia plays a cop who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Andre Jamal Kinney is the younger brother of Short's character, a decent kid with some problems applying himself at school, and he's another factor motivating our lead to finally go along with the initial plan.

Director Nimród Antal does a fantastic job of making the most of the script, using very few locations without things ever feeling far too limited or low-budget. Everything looks great, the tight geography is clearly laid out, and each step of the journey is logical, with characters all dealing with the spiralling awfulness in expectedly different ways. One moment stands out for the wrong reasons (involving Nolasco's character), but even that doesn't feel outwith the realms of possibility.

It's the kind of film that you would have loved to find on your local video store shelves many years ago, one that you immediately love even while seeing why it wouldn't have had, or made any major impact with, a cinema release. Technically sound, with fine cinematography by Andrzej Sekula and a decent score by John Murphy also adding to the overall quality of the final product, the fact that it comes in at just under the 90-minute mark is also a major bonus. Antal knows the best way to handle the material, and he's done that with pretty much every title in his filmography (which is well worth checking out).

8/10

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