Anna and the Apocalypse,Mary Poppins Returns and a Very Nutty Christmas

My Top Christmas  Obsessions This Week

Greetings to all my semi constant readers. Christmas is upon us and I have been so busy I have been neglectful of you. While TV programming has been filled with a Christmas binge watchers paradise, the quality is slowly draining from the genre. Lazy writing and cliche characters abound ,so it would be nice next year to lose some of the formulaic writing out there. Do we need more Christmas princesses or bakers or movies that come off the assembly line. That is my Christmas wish for you. How ever I have seen a few things that i liked  at theaters and television that rose to the holiday occasion.

1) Anna and the Apocalypse-at theaters now and streaming soon could be a holiday classic if you like musicals, zombies and Christmas. This little gem has the audacity to bring in zombies during a Christmas high school play in the small town of New Haven. Some catchy tunes and a real living breathing bad guy have Anna and her chums singing and fighting for their lives.Ella Hunt as Anna is fantastic and up the challenges to save the world.

2)  Mary Poppins Returns blew me away. How a movie with a whole new cast succeeded in creating a new nostalgia for something we have never seen is mind boggling. Emily  Blunt has recreated Mary Poppins for a new era. Sharp tongued and witty and fresh while showing us the love and kindness in her eyes. What ever time period this it felt like a companion piece to the 64 film. I can actually say I prefer Lin-Manuel Miranda's Cockney accent was better than Dick Van Dyke's. I loved the songs and the magic and the way the director Rob Marshall pulled back the silliness and original Banks kids Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane ( Emily Mortimer) were great . Blunt is the heart of the show and every scene she is in steals the show. The bonus points are musical numbers by Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke and the great number from Meryl Streep as cousin Topsy. This is a true Christmas classic for me.

3) A Very Nutty Christmas on Lifetime is a Christmas movie that is in on the joke. It is magical and there is a baker of course ( this time i didn't mind) It is about a stressed baker (MELISSA JOAN HART - who I love) who's  boyfriend breaks up with her right before Christmas and the height of her busy baking season. The gift of a nutcracker who turns into a real man brings the magic and love of the Holiday Season. Supporting cast Marissa Jaret Winokur, Rizwan Manji, Conchata Ferrell and Barry Watson as the Nutcracker. This is soo much better than the rest of the dreck out there. I enjoyed it immensely.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!!

Homecoming, The Kominsky Method , Three Identical Strangers, Dirty John and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

My Top 5 Obsessions This Week

Greetings to all my semi constant readers. I have been so busy this last month , but I haven't forgotten you. Before the Christmas holidays hit us , i have a few November leftovers that are still worth savoring. 

1) Homecoming. Streaming on Amazon Prime is one of the best offerings they have had and a whole new way to appreciate our America's Sweetheart Julia Roberts. This is a top notch twisty thriller like we haven't seen in years. Heidi ( Roberts works at Homecoming a facility that rehabilitates soldiers coming back from war so that they may transition into society. But is it really? The episodes time flip and Heidi  is a waitress at a diner a few years later with little memory of the job she previously had and the Department of Defense investigating the facility is having a tough time getting to the truth of what really went on. Roberts is amazing as well as a creepy performance from Bobby Cannavale as her driven former employer. Stephan James, Sissy Spacek and Shea Whigham give solid performances that help build the tension in this must see.

2) The Kominsky Method streaming on Netflix is the smarter, funnier version of Grumpy Old Men with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin as best friends who have weathered the loss of love and rebellion of their aging bodies as they are searching for answers to the questions of love and aging. Douglas is a former actor Sandy Kominsky who now teaches acting in his studio to young hopefuls and Arkin as his agent deals with the love of his life (Susan Sullivan) -his wife to cancer and an alcoholic daughter. Witty and touching , and while Douglas gives a strong performance , Arkin is the heart of the show . Great cast including Nancy Travis and Sarah Baker that keep the guys grounded . And Ann Margaret- who is looking fantastic and aging gracefully !!!!

3) Three Identical Strangers soon to be available on DVD or Streaming is one of the best documentaries I have seen in the last few years. 1980's New York a young man attends college to find everyone is welcoming him back to the new semester even though he has never been. He finds he has an identical twin he had never met and the newspapers go insane with the story. But wait .. there's more a third young man reads the article and discovers he is the missing triplet. A fantastic tale I would never have believed to be true. A heartwarming story of three brothers who discover at 19 they have siblings. The talk shows, magazine covers and a cameo on "Desperately Seeking Susan" with Madonna made them the toast of the town. But a much darker side was soon revealed when it was discovered a famous "doctor" was involved in the boys adoption through a renown Jewish adoption agency. He studied the boys secretly throughout their boyhood under false pretenses and it is revealed the boys were part of some bizarre scientific study their entire lives . Horrifying and disturbing , this story unfolds  one shocking discovery after another.

4)  Dirty John  a limited series on Bravo , based on a true story  and on  a critically acclaimed Los Angeles podcast. Starring Connie Britton as Debra Newell  a successful interior designer who  is swept away on an online date by "Dirty John" Meehan  ( Eric Bana)a handsome doctor who's charm and good looks swept past her many defenses. Her daughters take an immediate dislike to him and warned their mother who ignored all signs and married him quickly in Vegas and then the trouble begins. Britton is always amazing and Bana has never been more hot or more dangerous. Great performances by Jean Smart, Juno Temple and Julia Garner (Ozark ) This is the perfect antidote to all the holiday programming.

5)  Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the most recent offering from the producers of Riverdale now streaming on Netflix quietly came in October and proved to be an even darker , wittier version than i even expected. Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) starts the season as a half- mortal/half- witch who is looking forward to her 16th birthday where she will embrace her witchy self  in a dark baptism. But she has doubts... lots of doubts especially when dealing with all things Dark Lord and the new school -The Academy of Unseen Arts with Father Blackwood where she is scheduled to attend,  leaving her mortal boyfriend and best friends behind. With the help of her two witch aunties Hilda and Zelda and cousin Ambrose she battles the duality of her nature and the evil that seems to stalk her . The great cast including Shipka and Lucy Davis, Chance Perdomo, Michelle Gomez, Miranda Otto, Richard Coyle and a welcome blast from the past Bronson Pinchot as Principal Hawthorne. Darkly comic and devilishly clever this series has it all and may prove to be more popular than Riverdale.