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!
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