Month: December 2021

Single All the Way is a new Christmas movie, and it is really something.  

Starring Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, and a family full of others (including Jennifer Coolidge), this Christmas flick is the first gay Christmas movie Netflix has ever produced. That’s exciting stuff! 

I do have a few things I want to talk about, so let’s get right into the story. 

Peter, played by Urie, is tired of his mother asking why he’s single. When he goes through a rough breakup right before Christmas, he asks his best friend Nick (Chambers) to come home with him and pretend to be his boyfriend. 

This attempt to keep his mom (Kathy Najimy) from meddling doesn’t last long. She is ready and waiting to set Peter up with her personal trainer. James (Luke Macfarlane) is drop-dead gorgeous, and Peter is more than willing to go on a date with him. 

This seems great, right? Wrong. Everyone in Peter’s family has wanted him to date Nick for forever. This is devastating for them. Clearly, they need to create opportunities for Nick and Peter to spend time alone together.

Plenty of family-centered shenanigans follow. 

And hey presto, a classic Christmas story is born.

It’s heartwarming, too. Everyone in this movie really cares about one another. Sure, some family members cross a few boundaries, but that’s par for the Christmas movie course. All things considered, there’s a pretty healthy family dynamic going on. (And if not healthy, then at least stable.)

Did I love the film? No. I did not. I really wanted to, but this is not the kind of story upon which I can hang my affection. It was flat and predictable, and I was — dare I say it — a little bored from time to time. 

Of course, plenty of people have noted that we don’t love Christmas movies for their brilliant plots or unique characters… which is a good thing, because they don’t have those. What they do have to offer is a sense of comfort and connection. Single All the Way offers those things in spades.

Critics have suggested that it was extra important for this film to follow the traditional holiday rom-com formula. Remember how I mentioned that this is Netflix’s first gay Christmas movie? It’s also impressively inoffensive. Peter and Nick and James and every other queer person onscreen are just normal people, living normal lives. Maybe this is a stepping stone — like, for example, Kristen Stewart’s Amazon Prime Original The Happiest Season. Representation really matters, and it’s better to splash around in the shallow end of the pool than just dip your toes in the water. 

(Although I still hope that eventually we will reach a place where “inoffensive” does not have to mean “bland.” Tasteful representation matters but it doesn’t have to be boring!)

In summary: Single All the Way is fine. It’s a Christmas movie. It crams an impressive amount of tropes into an hour and forty minutes. And, of course, it reminds its viewers that love is love. 

Scotland! A romance novelist! A grumpy Duke! You can see all these things and more when you watch A Castle for Christmas which is streaming on Netflix. 

Listen — I know this isn’t the pinnacle of cinema. It’s not even a turret on a tower of cinema. But it’s got Cary Elwes and an old castle and a lot of tartan, so I’m ready to recommend it.

Summary

Sophie Brown (Brooke Shields) is a famous romance novelist who has lost quite a few fans by making some narrative choices that they don’t like. She’s newly divorced. Sophie doesn’t want to write a new book, even if her editor is telling her that it’s what she needs to do to save her career. In a fit of spontaneity, she buys a ticket for Scotland. She wants to visit Dun Dunbar, the castle her dad worked at when he was young, and Scotland will be the perfect place to write her new book.

Dun Dunbar turns out to be gorgeous. It also turns out to be owned by a cranky duke, Myles (Cary Elwes), who needs to sell it for financial reasons but really doesn’t want to. Sophie has the money and really wants to buy it. They arrive at a deal: if Sophie can live in Dun Dunbar until Christmas, then she can have it. If the upkeep of a centuries-old stone structure turns out to be too much, then Myles will keep it. The twelfth duke of Dun Dunbar is positive that he can make Sophie’s life a living hell and keep his lifelong home.

This is because he, like so many Hallmark-esque heroes, makes the crucial mistake of underestimating his nemesis’ determination. Sophie sticks it out, keeping her end of the deal, and starts to warm Myles’ frosty heart in the process. 

Will it be enough? What about Sophie’s new book? Will they realize that they love each other? In other words, there are a lot of questions!

To Watch or Not to Watch

I’ll leave you to find the answers on your own time, although a word to the wise — the ups and downs of Myles and Sophie’s story are truly dizzying. Brace yourself for a bumpy road to the Christmas party, and not just because of the cobblestones.

There are plenty of reasons to watch this movie. (Did you see that it has Scotland, a novelist, and a duke?) For one thing, its heartwarming and the visuals are gorgeous. For another, the lead characters aren’t twenty-somethings, and they fall in love over the course of three months rather than three days. 

Granted, there are a few less reasons to keep watching it. It certainly isn’t surprising. It’s also not profound. I would understand if you were bored twenty minutes in. 

And yet it’s fun. We don’t watch Christmas movies for their astonishingly clever plots. In fact, we watch them for the exact opposite reason: they’re predictable. We know what’s coming. We know that in the end, love and Christmas cheer win. If you share this penchant for predictability, I am willing to bet that you won’t regret watching A Castle for Christmas.

Released in 2020, Operation Christmas Drop is based on a U.S. Air Force tradition. Every year, Pacific-based pilots drop thousands of pounds of supplies onto remote and isolated islands. It’s a heartwarming tradition, and in theory it makes for a good story.

In practice, the story was not that great. On the one hand, it was much more high-stakes than your average Netflix Christmas movie. On the other, it was a little bit boring despite those high stakes. I think I was almost more concerned about the baking show in The Princess Switch, or Natalie and Josh’s relationship in Love Hard. But before I judge too harshly — the film was tackling things like personal identity and ethical behaviour within the system of the U.S. government. These aren’t easy things to confront in an hour and thirty-six minutes. I didn’t love Operation Christmas Drop, but I’m willing to cut it a bit of slack. 

The story is centered around Erica (Kat Graham), a legislative aide visiting a USAF base on the island of Guam. Erica’s boss, Congresswoman Bradford (Virginia Madsen), is in charge of finding three bases to shut down. She decides that the presumably expensive practice of dropping supplies to islanders seems like a perfectly good reason to cut this base, so she gives Erica the job of gathering evidence for the closing of the base. 

In the beginning, Erica thinks that this assignment will be easy. She finds Andrew, (Alexander Ludwig), the captain that is showing her around, incredibly annoying, and she keeps finding evidence of unnecessary expenditures — or so she thinks. As it turns out, the base relies on donations and volunteer hours to make Operation Christmas Drop happen. Sure, they’re using military equipment to do it, but no taxpayer dollars are wasted. 

Will these excuses be enough to convince Congresswoman Bradford that the base should stay open? What about the drop — will it even happen? Will Erica and Andrew fall in love?

I can’t tell you. That would be spoiling. You’ll have to watch the movie to find the answers to those questions. I will say that although the plot is predictable, it left me feeling warm and fuzzy by the end, and I enjoyed the tropical Christmas aesthetic. It’s always fun to think about Christmas snorkeling. Also, an Air Force boy and a D.C. girl? This is a formula that I haven’t seen before, which is always refreshing. 

I do have one major problem with this movie. I appreciate a good “cold-hearted city girl learns to love again” story as much as the next person, but it felt like the islanders that were represented onscreen were mostly used as story devices. Sure, they were people, but they were also people that existed mostly to remind Erica of the true spirit of Christmas. That seems a little bit “yikesy” to me.

At the end of the day, Operation Christmas Drop was fine. I just can’t quite wholeheartedly recommend it. If you have time and you want to see how you feel about it, though, then go for it, and have fun daydreaming about Christmas snorkeling. 

Red Notice is a film that stars Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds. A dream cast, and one that I was excited for, but the thing is that I’ve been burned before. I’ve seen lineups that made me gasp, and then watched movies that were tragically underwhelming. This wasn’t one of them.

The opening credits had cool fonts and red accents and I was instantly excited. I stayed excited for roughly an hour and fifty-seven minutes. The story was compelling. There were plenty of jokes. (Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.) There were some startlingly emotional moments, and there were also some gags that I thought were a little much. All in all, a good movie.

Red Notice begins as FBI Agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) is trying to catch professional art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds). Those cool opening credits set the stage: famous pharaoh Cleopatra had these three really cool golden eggs. One of them is in a museum, one of them is being held by a private owner, and one of them is completely lost to history. Booth is trying to steal that one egg from the museum, because why not and also because if he can collect all three of them he can get 300 million dollars from a buyer. Pretty good money, right? And he’s the best art thief in the world; he can get these eggs no problem. 

Or so he thinks. The Bishop (Gal Gadot) throws a wrench in his plans by being the actual best art thief in the world. She lands both Booth and Hartley in jail, and voila! We now have a storyline as the two unlikely friends — “we’re not friends” insists Hartley, “ because we’re best friends” says Booth — try to track both the Bishop and the eggs down.

There are so many twists and turns. I audibly gasped a few times. I can’t tell you about them, obviously, because that would be spoiling, but I’m willing to bet that you’ll be amused for a lot of this movie at the very least. Over half of it, at least. Sure, there are a few jokes that don’t quite land. It’s a bit crass at times. (Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.) But still, it’s a fun ride, and the vibes are immaculate.

The English major in me can’t resist commenting on the eggs, as a parting shot. Jeweled, golden, ancient sculptures of eggs are a weird thing to center a plot around, right? Yes, they are, and I think they are at least a little bit symbolic. I bet there’s a connection between the way characters deal with their emotions; they hide them and also they are fairly fragile and you know what? You’re right, this is nonsense. I guess I just want there to be a meaning. (I also want an omelette.)

Ambiguous meaning aside, Red Notice is an enjoyable watch and is worthy of being called a heist movie. If you have a couple of hours to kill and want to watch Dwayne Johnson being annoyed with Ryan Reynolds, give it a try.

Okay, truth time — I didn’t expect to love this movie. 

Like it? Sure. I’m a big fan of the NCU (Netflix Christmas Universe). I love The Christmas Prince, The Princess Switch, and their sequels. I think the awkward acting and slow-mo moments are good fun, and I’m always smiling when the movie ends in either a snowy smooch. The thing is, I like these movies in the same way that I like store-bought iced sugar cookies or those hairless cats: they’re cute and I’d never turn one down, they’re just also kind of gross. 

Love Hard, though, only had two singing scenes that made me cringe! I doubt that anybody’s going to be nominated for an acting award but I honestly believed that the two leads liked each other as human beings! Also, it’s a far cry from the Marianas Trench but this thing still had depth. Those sneaky writers (whose names are Daniel Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, for anyone wondering) included themes like family and integrity. All in all, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would and thought it was very impressive for the NCU.

I know what you’re thinking: “But Monika, you think everything is impressive! How can I trust your judgment?” Fair. Since I’ve given you my opinion, I’ll now give you some facts about this movie.

Love Hard is directed by Hernán Jiménez and stars Nina Dobrev as Natalie, a writer from L.A. who just wants a happy ending. Online dating is destroying her hopes of ever finding “the one,” but at least she’s managed to build a career out of it! (She has a popular column about her “disaster dates.”) Just when she’s about to give up on love, she matches with Josh Lin, who lives in New York and is absolutely perfect. Natalie really likes this guy, and she decides to surprise her new beau by flying to visit him for Christmas. What could go wrong?

Here’s what can go wrong: the Josh she meets is not the Josh she thought she knew! Natalie has been CATFISHED! (I know this is a shock, which is why I capslock’d it.) The real Josh (played by Jimmy O. Yang) used a photo of his buddy Tag (Darren Barnet) to create a profile, hoping that Tag’s mesmerizing eyes would get him matches. That worked, obviously, but now he has to deal with the consequences. 

I won’t say that Love Hard is a groundbreaking film, but it is fun. I mean, it’s named for Love Actually and Die Hard — Josh and Natalie’s favourite Christmas movies, respectively. That’s some creative titling, especially when you look at some other NCU movies. Also, they paid homage to two of the most classic Christmas flicks ever, which I think is awesome. (You might not believe Die Hard is a Christmas movie. If that’s so, I hate to be the one to break the news to you but you are mistaken. We can discuss it later.)

If you want a lighthearted, funny, heartwarming movie to watch while you eat some gingerbread, Love Hard gets a hearty recommendation from me.