A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)

I think we just have to accept by now that A Christmas Story will never be the seasonal staple here in the UK that it is over in America. I have been a fan ever since I eventually made time for it, and I was aware that it was far from the only film to be based on source material written by Jean Shepherd. I became aware of this film a couple of years ago, but was hesitant to make time for it. After all, what could possibly feel like a worthwhile continuation of the original story? Especially after we already had A Christmas Story 2.

Not only does Peter Billingsley return to play Ralphie Parker, now a grown man with a family of his own, he also worked with Nick Schenk on writing the screenplay. I cannot tell you if there was more to source from Shepherd's work, but I can say that this feels nicely in line with the first film.

It's the first Christmas since the passing of his father, and all Ralphie wants to do is make it a wonderful time for his family (wife, Sandy, played by Erinn Hayes, and kids, Mark and Julie, played respectively by River Drosche and Julianna Layne). He is passed along a number of responsibilities by his mother (Julie Hagerty), also spends time trying to become a published writer, and reconnects with some old friends (including Flick, once again played by Scott Schwartz).

Director Clay Kaytis knows what he's doing with this material. Having previously worked on a more modern take on Christmas lore, The Christmas Chronicles, which had the major benefit of being a star vehicle for Kurt Russell, he easily settles into the cosiness of the '70s setting here. It's a chance to make use of some nostalgia (both for the time period and the original movie) and show that, despite the many changes in tech and shopping methods, the pressures of Christmas remain the same for those wanting their families to have the best time. Nothing here is very high stakes, yet we all know that it's a huge deal for Ralphie, which makes it a huge deal for those accompanying him on his journey.

Billingsley does a fantastic job in the lead role, avoiding immaturity while also being helped by memories and callbacks to keep reminding us of the very famous boy he once was. Hayes, Drosche, and Layne are a very enjoyable family unit, Hagerty is a delightful mum (as she always has that certain Hagerty softness as an inextricable part of her personality), and it's great to see Schwartz, RD Robb, and even Zack Ward returning to portray the adult incarnations of their characters they last portrayed back in 1983.

It's different enough from the original movie to avoid feeling stale, particularly when we're now getting the viewpoint of the adult who can still vividly remember his childhood Christmas experiences, but full of references and little details that keep it strongly connected to that holiday classic in all the right ways. It also helps itself by not maintaining a tone that is in line with the first one; funny, gentle, and sweet, even dipping into schmaltz occasionally (which is easier to forgive here when it feels earned). 

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Out-Laws (2023)

While I was pleasantly surprised to see that The Out-Laws, the latest comedy feature to drop on Netflix, had a very reasonable 95-minute runtime, I was even more surprised to soon discover that it was also quite funny. A lot of that depends on your tolerance for Adam Devine, who does his usual schtick here (but dialled down slightly), but if you enjoy the leads then you should have some fun with this.

Devine plays Owen Browning, a happy bank manager who is about to get married to Parker McDermott (Nina Dobrev). Although Owen has never met Parker's parents, they end being able to change their plans and ensure a visit just in time for the wedding. That means Owen has to try and bond with Billy (Pierce Brosnan) and Lilly (Ellen Barkin) in a very short space of time, which means . . . alcohol. After an evening of drinking and conversation, Owen spends his next workday hungover, and his day gets much worse when his bank is robbed. The robbers knew every part of his security system, and they seemed very familiar with Own. Could the prospective in-laws be bank-robbing outlaws?

If I had looked into the filmographies of everyone involved here then I doubt I would have given it a chance already. It's the first feature from writer Evan Turner, and the first non-sequel feature from writer Ben Zazove (who previously helped to pen Gnomeo & Juliet 2: Sherlock Gnomes). Director Tyler Spindel is a name I should have recognised, having given us the awfulness of The Wrong Missy back in 2020. Despite their dubious backgrounds, however, everyone comes together well to make something well-paced and full of decent gags. The emphasis is much more on the comedy than any action, but it sketches out enough details throughout to keep things feeling as plausible as they need to be.

While Devine is fun in his main role, he's helped enormously by sharing so much of the screentime with Brosnan and Barkin, both seeming to enjoy themselves amidst all the silliness. Brosnan is particularly fun, using his twinkly-eyed Irish charm to full effect, but he and Barkin are always very much a couple who complete one another. Dobrev does okay in her smaller role, predictably placed in danger at least once, and Michael Rooker takes on the role of the determined cop out to catch the bank robbers, and suspecting that it could have been an inside job. Poorna Jagannathan is an entertaining villain, although not really ever very threatening, and the rest of the supporting cast provides some great additional value. Not only do you get fun little moments for Dean Winters, Lil Rel Howery, Blake Anderson, and Lauren Lapkus (a LOT more amusing here than she was in The Wrong Missy, but you get some effortless scene-stealing from the wonderful Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty, playing Neil and Margie Browning, Owen's parents.

Surprisingly good for this kind of thing, certainly compared to a number of other Netflix comedy films that they've released over the past few years, The Out-Laws is as easy to enjoy as it is easy to predict. It's also a very easy one to choose when you're looking for a simple bit of fun entertainment to while away some time. I doubt we'll remember it a few years from now, as is the way with most of the streaming content that somehow feels less substantial than the films and shows released via more traditional means (e.g. does anyone else remember Hemlock Grove?), but it's here now, and that's the main thing. Apparently.

7/10

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Noelle (2019)

Although it's nowhere close to being a modern holiday classic, Noelle is a lovely Christmas Disney film for all the family, and one that you may find yourself rewatching more than the multitude of annual new releases that appear on your TV schedule. It's got a number of familiar faces, for one thing, and it also has a supercute baby reindeer.

Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader are Noelle ad Nick Kringle, respectively. They are the children of Santa, who is shown at the very start of the movie before viewers are then informed of his passing. That means that the role, and responsibility, goes to Nick. He's not sure he's up to the task though, and nothing seems to come naturally to him, from understanding languages to figuring out whether a child is naughty or nice. Which leads to him, well, running away. Days before Christmas. Noelle, accompanied by an elf named Polly (Shirley MacLaine),  must track him down. She enlists the help of a detective (Jake Hapman, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir), someone who is coincidentally in need of some Christmas spirit, even if he doesn't realise it, and races against the clock to get her brother home in time to save Christmas for children everywhere.

This has everything you'd expect from it, all mixed together in a way that is as entertaining as it is predictable (there are very few Christmas movies that aren't completely predictable, that's a part of their charm at this time of year). Kendrick is a natural fit for her role, and Hader is a lot of fun as he is shown numerous times struggling to get to grips with being Santa. MacLaine seems to enjoy being an elf, Julie Hagerty is Mrs. Claus aka Mom, and Billy Eichner has fun as Gabriel Kringle, someone who has ideas about making Christmas more efficient that clashes with the spirit of the season. Ben-Adir is just fine as the understandably sceptic detective, Maceo Smedley does decent work as his son, and there are small, enjoyable, turns from Diana Maria Riva, Shaylee Mansfield, and Michael Gross, among others.

Written and directed by Marc Lawrence, a dab hand at making enjoyable comedies (especially if they star Hugh Grant and/or Sandra Bullock), the biggest disappointment about Noelle is the lack of magic. It's there onscreen, in the form of the many skills you get to assume the role of Santa, but it rarely feels as it should. Magical Christmas movies should feel as if a number of scenes are filmed through a haze of tinsel and twinkling lights, or even just taking place inside a snowglobe sometimes, but this never feels that way. Not even during the sleigh ride sequences. 

There's plenty of fun to be had though, especially as Noelle discovers more about our world, and the cast are all doing their bit to sell the characters and world on display. There are one or two decent running gags, decent production values, and at least one huge hot chocolate to remind you that you need to make yourself one while sitting down and enjoying the rest of the movie. And it also has a SUPERCUTE reindeer.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: Marriage Story (2019)

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story is the tale of Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver), a married couple who are also parents to one young son, Henry (Azhy Robertson). Marriage Story sounds much nicer than Divorce Story, but the latter title would be a better  description. This is, in many ways, a Kramer Vs. Kramer for the 21st century, showing how the most well-intentioned journey from marriage to amicable divorce can lead to ugliness, point-scoring, and a feeling akin to being scraped away, layer by layer, like the walls in an old house that are having years of different wallpapers removed. It cuts down to the bone at times, mainly because who can hurt you best more effectively than someone who once loved you the most? That hurt doesn't have to be intentional, it can come from watching your partner manage to get up and go about a normal day with you no longer in it, it isn't even always intended when it comes out in the form of some hateful speech vomited out by someone lashing out while feeling backed further into a corner.

Driver and Johansson are both superb in their roles here, and I would have been happy to see both of them showered with awards for their performances. Both have moments that will reverberate with anyone who has been in, or close to, the painful circumstances on display. And I would say that Driver has one moment of raw, childish, rage, both thoughtless and yet constructed to cause maximum damage, that holds up as a small movie moment that will be seared into your memory. Alan Alda and Ray Liotta are two very different types of lawyers who end up helping Driver, and both do excellent work, and Laura Dern is the formidable lawyer hired by Johansson, a role she clearly sets about with relish from her very first appearance in the movie. Small roles for Julie Hagerty and Wallace Shawn help to lighten the material, with Hagerty a real delight as the mother-in-law who cannot just put an end to a friendship with her son-in-law, despite what her daughter would prefer.

This isn't a review in which I feel the need to go on about the score, camerawork, production design, etc. Baumbach puts everything in the right place, allowing the main characters to feel like real people in our world, but the material feels like it could work just as easily in play form, with the focus always on the dialogue and the acting above any potential cinematic flourishes.

This is not an easy watch. What may seem slick and out of touch with most people (Driver is a successful director of stage plays, Johansson is an actress, these are not your everyday working class folk trying to navigate these waters) actually contains a lot of honest moments that many will be able to identify with, whether that's good or bad. Considering the timing of my viewing, I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again. But, trust me, that is just a testament to how much it gets right.

9/10

Prime Time: Just Friends (2005)

Just Friends is a fun, if forgettable, rom-com that features a great cast (mainly Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Amy Smart, and Chris Klein), an average script, and a number of predictable moments on the way to a finale you can see coming a mile away, even if you've only seen a handful of other romantic comedies. It's also, to my surprise, a little darker than I recall it being, especially when you consider that the main character has become so determined and bitter in his adult life all because he resents his teenage years that saw him left in "the friend zone"*.

Reynolds is Chris Brander, a young man we first see being fairly humiliated by his fellow teens as he confesses his true feelings, in a heartfelt message, to the beautiful Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart). Jamie doesn't feel the same way about Chris.
Years later, Chris has changed. He no longer needs to wear a retainer. He's lost a bit of weight. And he ensures that no woman he is interested in ever puts him in "the friend zone". He's got everything exactly how he wants it, apparently. But that looks as if it could change when he ends up back in his hometown, looking after a crazy pop star (Samantha James, played by Anna Faris), and figuring that it could be a perfect time to reconnect with Jamie.

Directed by Roger Kumble (who started out strong with Cruel Intentions and then followed that up with the one two punch of, ummmmm, Cruel Intentions 2 and The Sweetest Thing) and written by Adam Davis, Just Friends is, in some ways, more in line with some of the anti-rom-coms that we've had over the years. Despite the lead character being appealing because he has the appearance and charisma of Ryan Reynolds, his motivation is, for the most part, decidedly dark and unpleasant. To put it in simplistic and very coarse terms, he has spent years trying to bang away the bad memories of his youth and now figures he can settles the score with what would really amount to a standard "grudge fuck", albeit one wrapped up in a confusing mess of good memories and past good intentions. If you weren't sure about this, the film spells it out on a couple of occasions, firstly by pinning so much of the plot on the fact that the fragile male ego cannot accept being "friend-zoned" and, secondly, by giving us another character who is essentially working in the same way as the main character, but without any self-delusion about his intentions.

Reynolds is as fun as he usually is in the lead, charming and witty enough to distract you from the, at best, misguided heart of his character until he is forced to face up to some home truths. Smart, an actress who has given wildly uneven performances throughout her career, is an appealing romantic interest, sweet and pretty and believably unaware of the feelings that others may have for her. Faris is hilarious, as she so often is, and Chris Klein has a lot of fun in his role, playing another admirer of Jamie who seems to be almost saintly in the way he lives his life. Christopher Marquette is a lot of fun, in annoying younger brother mode, and it's always nice to see Julie Hagerty, here as the mother of our lead.

If you're after a Reynolds vehicle to watch then he's done much better stuff since this, but he's also done a few things that are worse. This is good, not great, but certainly develops into something much more interesting and thought-provoking than first impressions would suggest.

*I have used quotation marks around every use of the term "friend zone" because I think we're all aware nowadays that it isn't actually a thing and if someone does give you a great friendship then they aren't obliged to offer you any more than that, no matter how it makes you feel.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.