the curmudgeonly movie lover’s unpleasant Advent calendar: December 24
Oh-o, click or tap for tidings of bitterness and melancholy…
Christmas Carol
Mirai movie review: and baby ruins everything
This tenderly animated Japanese film about sibling rivalry is lovely with its fantasy, but too convoluted for children and too slight for adults.
The Man Who Invented Christmas movie review: but would Charles Dickens approve?
There’s charm and wit in its fanciful depiction of the creative process, but the film downplays the social activism that Dickens fully embraced in his work.
A Monster Calls movie review: the monster is within us all
A fairy tale of the Grimm sort: no happy ending, no heroes or villains, just hard truths about life and human nature. Important, beautiful, heartbreaking.
The Invisible Woman review: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman
The story of Charles Dickens and his secret mistress is no romance, and no modest costume drama, either.
geeky Christmas: Neil Gaiman cosplays Charles Dickens, reads A Christmas Carol
At the New York Public Library earlier this month. Listen to the reading courtesy of the NYPL.
Flight (review)
Appears to poke, and not kindly, at how our society enables abusers of drugs and alcohol… until it stops being that interesting.
‘Doctor Who’ blogging: “A Christmas Carol”
Doctor Who has been doing amazing things with TV since 2005, but this may be the best example yet of how gonzo and how simultaneously emotionally satisfying TV can be these days.
question of the day: What actor who hasn’t already done so should play Ebenezer Scrooge?
I bet Morgan Freeman would be awesome as Scrooge…
‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Dumbledore as the Ghost of ‘Doctor Who’ Present?
Production started today on the Doctor Who Christmas special, according to a BBC press release, which will also feature some intriguing guest stars: In the grand tradition of Doctor Who Christmas specials, this year the show has once again attracted stellar guest stars as veteran actor Michael Gambon (Harry Potter, The Singing Detective) and opera … more…
