multi-weekly festive season digest: what an end to a horrible year
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, December 18, to Sunday, January 7
So, I didn’t do anywhere near as much work as I’d hoped to over the festive season. Did I instead rest and relax? Not really. *sigh*
And then, the rancid icing on the rotten cake that 2023 was for me came in the form of a fall at home — just a really stupid clumsy dumb-luck thing — that resulted in two fractures in my left fibula! (This was on the opposite site from my hip replacement, and had nothing to do with that.) After a long afternoon in urgent care a few days before New Year’s, I’m now in a medical boot for at least another week. (We’ll see if the followup X-rays show good enough healing for me to get out of it.)
Anyway, Happy New Year to us all. 2024 simply has to be better, right? Right?!
—MaryAnn
PS: I’ve extended the 50%-off deal for new paid subscriptions here on Substack till January 31st. Support your favorite stubbornly independent film critic! Cheap!
new at flick filosopher, Dec 18–Jan 07
daily stream: a society of the snow… with wolves
2012’s The Grey is on Max in the US, Prime in the UK. [read more]
daily stream: a one-man society of the snow
2019’s Arctic is on Netflix in the US, Prime in the UK (and other services, too). [read more]
Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve) movie review: cold hard crash
A stark, haunting adventure, viscerally terrifying, full of despair, informed by the moral and philosophical quandaries of what it takes to sustain oneself in body and spirit in impossible conditions. [read the review | cinemas US/UK; Netflix globally]
AWFJ 2023 EDA Awards winners announced
The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Barbie are the big winners. [read more]
50% off your first year as a Substack subscriber (extended through January 31st)
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Joyous Festivus, Cheerful Winterfair, and all that. [read more]
daily stream: welcome to the new year’s revolution…
2014’s Snowpiercer is on Hulu and Netflix in the US, Lionsgate+ and Mubi in the UK (and other services too). [read more]
daily stream: no place like home for the apocalypse
2021’s Silent Night is on AMC+ in the US, Prime in the UK, and other services as well. [read more]
daily stream: cheerfully bonkers B-movie Christmas melodrama [pictured]
1940’s Beyond Christmas (aka Beyond Tomorrow) is in the public domain, and streaming at Internet Archive and on Prime on both sides of the Atlantic, and elsewhere too. [read more]
daily stream: why does a movie about depressed writers feel festive? I try to explain…
2000’s Wonder Boys is on Paramount+ in the US (and other services, too), and exclusively on BBC iPlayer in the UK. [read more]
daily stream: you’d better watch out — no, *really*…
2010’s Rare Exports is on Kanopy in the US, Mubi in the UK (and lots of other services, too). [read more]
daily stream: a celebratory movie for when you want to feel festive but not Christmassy
1987’s Babette’s Feast is on Max in the US, Curzon Home Cinema in the UK, and on other services, too. [read more]
loaded question: how could the McAllisters afford that house and that Paris trip in ‘Home Alone’? (wrong answers only)
I mean, obviously, Kevin’s dad is either in finance or in the mafia, but those are boring answers to the question. What are the bonkers possibilities? [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
what I’m watching and bingeing
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters [Apple TV+ globally]: they are having so much fun with this universe, I love it
For All Mankind S4 [Apple TV+ globally]: I continue to be stunned at how every single episode of this show is totally gripping and engrossing
Doctor Who [Disney+ US/BBC iPlayer UK]: Christmas special was cute, Ncuti Gatwa’s gonna be a great Doctor…
Slow Horses [Apple TV+ globally]: finally started this series about the world’s worst spies, cuz it sounds like just my jam…
The X-Files [Hulu US/Disney+ UK]: didn’t get back to this week, I’m a terrible excuse for a geek
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
Ava DuVernay’s Origin
the absolutely brutal The Zone of Interest
Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers
Wonka, though I’m scared…
Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction
based-on-fact family wrestling drama The Iron Claw
thriller The Royal Hotel
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December
Priscilla’s problematic romance with Elvis
teen comedy Bottoms
Barbie, finally, for real, promise
murder mystery Anatomy of a Fall
based-on-a-true-videogame Gran Turismo
mockumentary Theater Camp
gay romance Passages
alien-contact dramedy Jules
documentary Kokomo City
tween classic onscreen Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
And more!
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Wishing you swift healing and all the good things you deserve in 2024.