A Clüsterfünke Christmas, A Boy Called Christmas, A Castle for Christmas and 8_Bit Christmas

   My Top Three This Week: CHRISTMAS EDITION

Season's Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. Another year is closing and we are slowly moving to more holiday gatherings with friends and family. Snuggling up with a favorite series or  holiday movie never changes. We have annual favorites like " A Diva's Christmas Carol" and  "A Charlie Brown Christmas" but new ones pop up every year.

1)  A Clüsterfünke Christmas streaming on Comedy Central is the perfect send up of Hallmark Shmaltz holiday movies. Featuring Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer (who wrote this comedy) and Cheyenne Jackson and Vella Lovel (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) as Holly. The story centers around Holly  who comes to the Clüsterfünke Inn to purchase it as a resort for her boss. She falls in love and discovers the meaning of Christmas (of course). A hilarious Christmas romp with some great comedians make for a very funny film.

2) A Boy Called Christmas, a Netflix Original from the folks who brought us The Christmas Chronicles is beautifully filmed fantasy with elves, a talking mouse and Christmas magic. And a quest by a small human boy to find "Hope" for his king in the only place he knows to go- Elfhelm. A great cast including Kristen Wiig and Michael Huisman (La Brea) Jim Broadbent ,Henry Lawfull as Nikolas (pefectly cast) and the legend Maggie Smith as the narrater/storyteller Aunt Ruth. This will be another Christmas classic with a perfect ending. A must watch!

3) A Castle for Christmas-a Netflix Original is what I call "Christmas Porn" which means every available space in every scene is completely decorated for folks like me who watch as much for the story as for the snow, wreaths and magnificently decorated trees. This one is a fully decorated castle. A charming story of a disgraced author Sophie (Brooke Sheilds) who flies to a small town in Scotland to get away from her angry fans (Spoiler Alert: she killed off a major beloved character). She finds a charming inn and a charming  rundown castle Dun Dunbar Castle inhabited by a crotchety young Duke Myles ( Cary Elwes). She falls in love with the castle and the Duke eventually , but there is a snag. She buys the castle from him and there in starts  the war between them. Shields and Elwes have plenty of chemistry and the townsfolk have plenty Scottish wisdom and friendship to win her over.

Bonus :  8-Bit Christmas  streaming on HBO Max is a modern (80's) version of A Christmas Story. The plot revolves around a young Jake Doyle trying his hardest to get a Nintendo gaming system for Christmas. Selling wreaths door to door to win the system until he realizes he is competing with every boy in school. He makes a pact with his little sister in exchange for his pushing for a Cabbage Patch doll for her. There are plenty of 80's callouts and characters galore. Winslow Fegley is great as young Jake and Bellaluna Resnick as Lizzy his wise-cracking sister. June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn round out the cast as his parents and Neil Patrick Harris is the adult Jake. Good fun!

Yellowjackets, The Big Leap and Finch

 My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers.The holidays are upon us as we move from Pumpkin Spice to Cranberry Bliss. Hallmark is already churning out Christmas and has been for awhile. But some of us are not quite ready for this. So many new seasons of favorite shows are back like You and In the Dark and Dexter. A few new ones are making their way to the small screen.

1) Yellowjackets now streaming on Showtime is already creating buzz. This disquieting thriller has got a great cast. Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher just to name a few of the amazing talents involved in this series. The story revolves around a girl's soccer team whose plane crashes in the Ontario wilderness on their way to a big game, leaving a handful of survivors. Through a series of flashbacks in the pilot episode, we see some of the survivors dealing with current day issues as adults and their trauma as young girls in the aftermath of the crash. We discover that this group of women made a pact to never discuss what happened in the wilderness and how they survived. Something very bad happened and someone is reaching out to find out the real story. This Lord of the Flies mash-up with Alive is sure to disturb your sensibilities.

2) The Big Leap a Fox original series streaming on Hulu is not to be missed. A faux behind the scenes look at a dancing competition called The Big Leap that is  on a fake Fox line-up. A group of random people (maybe not random) are invited to audition for a dance competition where a group of differently talented people will train to put on Swan Lake in the finale. Back stories and character tie-ins as well as cast rivalries and romances make this a great watch. The dancing and acting is amazing , from the dancers to the producers you will fall in deep with the story lines. The handsome  never aging Scott Foley is so great as the disarming Nick Blackburn and Simone Recasner is a breath of fresh air as Gabby. Anna Grace Barlow and Adam Kaplan is spoiled twin dancers are hilarious and heartbreaking and then we meet their stage mother played by Missi Pyle- things could not get better!!! I could go on about the talent in this series but watch for yourself!!

3) Finch starring Tom Hanks on Apple+TV is probably the best thing I have seen him in for many years.Tom is brilliant playing Finch- a robotics engineer who has survived a solar flare and is holed up with his dog Goodyear and his robotic assistant Dewey. He has thrived with this companionship for some time, staying underground and out of the 150 degree UV rays. Finch is dying and is trying to build a robot to take of his beloved pet Goodyear. The self -named Jeff is a very quick learning robot that seems more human every time he speaks.The only issue -Jeff isn't bonding with the dog and time is running out before a massive storm hits St. Louis. Finch, Jeff, Goodyear and Dewey head to San Francisco in a tricked out motorhome to see some of the world and find a more peaceful place to settle. This road trip sets the pace that leads us to the inevitable end. You will laugh and cry and fall a little bit in love with Jeff.

Night Teeth, Midnight Mass and The Manor

 THE HORROR OF IT ALL    

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers and fellow horror enthusiasts. The high holy day of all horror fans is rapidly approaching. The one great thing about horror is that it is subjective. We have creepy, chilling, gory and down right scary as all get out. So you might not agree with my assessments of some of my picks below but read them and watch them and make your own mind up about what scares you.

1) Night Teeth a Netflix Original movie is worth all the hype. It is a genre throwback mixing vampires and the age old battles between their kind and the people who hunt and kill them. Updated to modern day LA, a young aspiring musician  Benny offers to take his brother's place and chauffeur a couple of party girls all night. Something doesn't seem right about these girls and he spies on them after he discovers a bag full of bloody cash in the back of his vehicle. He sees the two girls fang deep on a couple of guys in slings. Then things get really interesting. They force him to make stops throughout the night as they slowly drain their adversaries to gain control of the city and break a truce with the leaders of Boyle Heights. Benny quickly falls for one of the young vampires Debby Ryan (Insatiable) and tries to protect both girls until dawn. This is a fast paced, well acted horror film with a really good cast- Raul Castillo, Lucy Fry, Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney (The White Lotus) and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Benny.

2) Midnight Mass a Netflix horror series from Mike Flanagan who brought us The Haunting of Hill House is back again with this classic horror story about good and evil and death and religion. A young Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) fresh out of prison for a manslaughter case of drunk driving returns to Crockett Island, his home- to start a new life. A young mysterious priest moves to the old parish to substitute for their local priest who is recovering from an illness on the mainland. This atmospheric series follows the local fishermen, their families and their long held religious beliefs. A Muslim sheriff, a doctor (Annabeth Gish who is terrific) and young school teacher (Kate Siegal also wonderful) and zealous Bev Keene all become the fabric of this tortured little island. Hundreds of dead cats wash up on shore and a hazy figure is seen lurking around the beach at night and miracles start occurring in the little church with the new priest played by one of my favorite character actors- Hamish Linklater. This a slow burn and there is lots of great dialogue but it builds to real horror. It is worth the watch.

3) The Manor an Amazon Original movie streaming on Prime is the perfect vehicle for the beautiful and talented Barbara Hershey as Judith Albright a woman who has just turned 70. Vibrant and youthful, Judith suffers a mild stroke and her daughter feels her health is in danger and puts her in a nursing home after it is discovered she has Parkinson's disease. Quickly making friends with a small group of witty and vivacious seniors, she settles into the pace of the historic place and continues getting visits from her beloved grandson Josh. There is something not right about the place and people keep dying mysteriously and she starts having visions of a terrible being haunting her room. Things quickly escalate once she makes a terrifying discovery and her life becomes endangered. A great paced movie with a lot of creepiness and just the right amount of scares. Great acting and the cast includes Bruce Davidson and Nicholas Alexander as Josh. The perfect Friday popcorn movie.

La Brea, Ordinary Joe and Maid

                                                My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. We are currently in a horror renaissance with all the streaming platforms showing old and new movies and series, But i will get to that in my next horror blog. In the meantime here are some of what I am currently watching.

1) La Brea currently on NBC but streaming on Hulu is exactly the kind of series I have been waiting for since Lost and while it may lack some of the caché Lost carried , it can learn from its mistakes.  A sinkhole in the middle of Los Angeles appears near the La Brea tar pits dragging, cars, people and anything that fell in its path. Instead of falling to their death, some of these people survived and are now fighting for their lives in an upside world that could possibly be 10,000 B.C. Saber Tooth Tigers other extinct animals start smelling new meat and start hunting this band of survivors who are slowly realizing what actually happened to them even if they don't believe it. Back in the present day one man is having visions of this world and is working with the government to try to find his son and wife who are trapped in the old world. Lots of mysterious survivors, a government conspiracy and visions. If the special effects work and the series doesn't fall prey to bogged down storylines this could be good series.

2) Ordinary Joe also a network program streaming on Hulu is a version of Sliding Doors with three different story lines for the road not taken. Starring America's favorite tv actor James Wolk as Joe he can pretty much play anything. A chance meeting at his graduation could alter his life. A famous musician, doctor or a police officer! We get to see him live his life as Joe in three versions simultaneously. I have heard that this could be a breakout hit like "This is Us" but this is a wait and see for me and I am interested to see further episodes.

3) Maid streaming on Netflix based on Stephanie Land's memoir is gut wrenching and each episode will tear your heart out. Alex (Margaret Qualley) leaves her drunk and abusive husband in the middle of the night with her little daughter Maddy. They stay in a shelter and she slowly learns to start building her life back a little piece at a time while cleaning houses. Each small success she earns fills your heart with hope but that hope is quickly dashed as a new obstacle rears its ugly head. A woman whose house she cleaned stiffs her and sets of a chain of events that she barely recovers from. She is dealing with her own emotional abuse from growing up with a drunken father and a mother (Andie MacDowell) who has undiagnosed Bi-polar disorder. Without giving too much away, we learn that not only is Alex a gifted house cleaner she is also a gifted writer and is writing about all of her clients. Qualley is excellent as well as Anika Noni Rose and MacDowell is beyond superb as her mother Paula. This is a must see!