A Christmas Carol (1984)

  Everybody has a favorite version of A Christmas Carol but this one is almost universally regarded as the definitive performance.  It's certainly the one I remember seeing the most.

Noted miser Ebenezer Scrooge (George C. Scott) is visited by the apparition of his dead partner (Frank Finley) on Christmas Eve and told that three more ghosts are coming to play This is Your Life, but in a bad way.  Scrooge is forced to confront his behavior and the chain of events that led him to this state.

Sure, Scott does most of the carrying but there isn't a single bad performance in this film.  Nobody plays a flat note, even the Dickensian cardboard cut-out side characters like the second-hand goods dealer.  Somehow that guy is just as interesting as Bob Cratchit.  Except, no, because Cratchit is being played by David Warner who managed to elevate The Secret of the Ooze.  But still.

Anyway, if you only ever see one Christmas Carol... it should probably still be The Muppets, but nobody is going to judge you for only seeing this one.  It's currently streaming on Hulu.

The Kid from Spain (1932)

  Reaching back into the depths of time with this one.   Content warning:  bullfighting, the kind of latent racism you find in pretty much any movie from this time, but also blackface for no real reason, and threats of domestic violence.

Eddie (Eddie Cantor) and Ricardo (Robert Young) get kicked out of college for a prank gone wrong, so Ricardo suggests they visit his family in Mexico.  Along the way, a mishap at the bank sees Eddie mistaken as the getaway driver for bank robbers.  Now wanted by the cops, he pretends to be the son of a very famous dead bullfighter in order to hide.  Ricardo, meanwhile, discovers that his beloved, Anita (Ruth Hall), has been betrothed to Pancho (John Miljan), a different famous matador.  Hijinks ensue.

Eddie Cantor was a big deal because of The Jazz Singer, but I don't really get the appeal.  He's too old for this part (everyone in the movie is, honestly) and his schtick doesn't work for me.  Lyda Roberti, however, is a scene-stealer as Anita's love-hungry best friend, and runs circles around Cantor in star quality.  And the musical numbers are by Busby Berkeley, so they're great.  You can see a very young Betty Grable and this is the debut of Jane Wyman as one of the Berkeley girls.  

Overall, it's worth watching as long as you keep its age firmly in mind.  It's streaming on Kanopy.

Lady of Burlesque (1943)

  And now back to our regularly scheduled sex and murder movies.

Dixie Daisy (Barbara Stanwyck) is the headliner of a burlesque show at the old Opera House theater.  It's a good job, despite the constant overtures from the smitten comic relief (Michael O'Shea), until one of the other dancers (Victoria Faust) turns up dead, strangled by her own G-string.  With the cops cracking down, everyone in the company is a suspect.

The script was based on a mystery novel by the burlesque queen herself, Gypsy Rose Lee.  According to the Wikipedia entry, it's a fairly faithful adaptation in as much as the censors would allow.  I thought it was a really fun, light comic mystery with a little bit of an abrupt ending.  Costumes are by Edith Head and are amazing.  There are a couple of musical numbers, including the very famous "Take It Off the E String, Play It on the G String".  That one is sung by Stanwyck, who is a great actress but not a singer.  Still, it adds to the slapdash charm, if you let it.  

It's in the public domain but try and find a good print, if you can.  The one on Tubi is okay, although some of the sound is a little wobbly.  

Prancer (1989)

  We are kicking off the Christmas season with some childhood nostalgia for a movie I had never seen.  Content warning:  80s child endangerment

Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell) loves Christmas so much that when she comes across an injured reindeer in the woods, she is immediately convinced it must be one of Santa's.  Prancer, to be exact.  Her dad (Sam Elliott) is distracted by economic concerns and bewildered by the grief of losing his wife and having to raise two children on his own, so Jessica has a lot more leeway to hide and care for Prancer until it heals enough to rejoin Santa's sleigh.  

This is one of those movies where the meaning is entirely different depending on how old you are.  As a kid, this is a heartwarming story about how to stand up against adults when you know you're right.  As an adult, this is a harrowing tale of sublimating grief and unhealthy attachments.  

Movie Club was very complimentary of the naturalistic performance Harrell gives.  She doesn't have the preternatural poise of other child actors and is able to just be the 8-year-old she is playing.  That's great, except the 8-year-old she is playing is incredibly annoying.  Your tolerance for that may vary.  Mine is not high, so I found her grating.  The reindeer is great.  Probably an enormous pain in the ass to work with, but great result.  Cloris Leachman is criminally underused, and Sam Elliott is Sam Elliott.

Here's the nostalgia part:  I remember seeing promos for this movie as a kid.  The marketing was huge.  I don't think I actually watched it, but I vividly remember the trailers being on TV.  

It's streaming for free with ads on Tubi so you get the full, early 90s experience.

Mickey 17 (2025)

  This movie is hilarious and weird.  If you watched Snowpiercer and thought "This needs more jokes," Mickey 17 is for you.  Content warning:  animal death (creeper - don't ask, it's traumatic, trust me), animal abuse, some blood, medical horror

To escape from a loan shark, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up for a colony expedition as an Expendable.  He gets assigned hideously dangerous jobs, dies, and a clone is printed in the lab.  Despite over a dozen miserable deaths, Mickey is doing okay, until he is left for dead on the surface of a planet and survives.  By the time he gets back to the colony ship, Mickey 18 has already been printed.  Having two copies is illegal so now Mickeys 17 and 18 have to figure out which one gets to live and which one gets recycled.

Bong Joon Ho wears his heart on his sleeve when he makes movies.  You never have to wonder where he stands.  Depending on how much you agree, that could be great, could be not.  But it is very clear.  I respect it.  I also love that he just doesn't care how hot people are and will let them be incredibly weird.  Mark Ruffalo in this, Tilda Swinton in Snowpiercer, he never misses a chance to let gorgeous people be characters.  That's got to be really fun if you're sick of being typecast.  

Speaking of Weird Little Dudes, Pattinson is carrying this entire movie while playing multiple versions with distinct personalities.  He does a great job, but also shout-out to my girl, Toni Collette, because she never gets the recognition she deserves.  Her character is creepy and evil and deeply weird and it works.  Ruffalo gets the big, dramatic moments, but Collette is the backbone anchoring them both.

It's currently streaming on HBO Max.  

Malcolm X (1992)

  Hope everyone had a happy, stress-free Thanksgiving.  But in case you didn't, here's a movie about a different kind of struggle.  Content warning: gun violence, racist imagery (KKK, lynching), racial slurs

Malcolm Little (Denzel Washington) rose from a two-bit street hustler to one of the most powerful men in the American Civil Rights movement, taking the surname X as a rejection of one imposed by white slaveowners.  He was demonized as a hardliner, a zealot, and a radical.  He advocated for Black-owned businesses, education, and adherence to Muslim values.  His principles were absolute and unimpeachable, based in a shining idealism that blinded him to the possibility of betrayal.

This is an incredible biopic.  It's so reverential it borders on hagiographic, but never quite strays over the line, thanks to a powerhouse performance by Washington.  It is a supreme injustice that Best Actor went to Al Pacino (who deserved one for a different performance) for Scent of a Woman and not Denzel.  That is some bullshit.  It's not a Hot Take to say that this is one of Spike Lee's best films, but it is still accurate.  At almost three and a half hours, you may need an intermission, but don't chicken out.  Watch it in chunks if you have to.  Delroy Lindo is great, Angela Bassett is always great, there are a ton of cameos from Karen Allen to Nelson Mandela, and an all-time performance from Albert Hall.  

Also, this is not something I generally pay attention to, but the sound design in this is phenomenal.  Genuine gut-wrenching moments caused exclusively by sound.  

If you don't know anything about Black history except that Malcolm X was the angry Not-MLK, Jr. but still got assassinated, you really need to see this film.  And maybe pick up a book by literally any POC. It's streaming on Amazon Prime. 

The Sudbury Devil (2023)

  Here's an interesting little horror film that I'd never heard of.  Content warning:  blood, some gore, dead child (not shown)

A pair of witch hunters travel from Boston to Sudbury, Massachusetts to meet a man named Isaac Goodenow (Matthew Van Gessel), who has reported seeing strange lights in the woods, and although terrified, agrees to show the witch hunters where.  Both strangers are forced to confront their fears and beliefs.

This was a little more experimental than I was expecting.  You can tell it's a directorial debut by some of the choices made, but I'm not mad at it.  The performances are very good, especially Kendra Unique as Flora, the possibly mad maidservant.  

If you liked The Witch, or Hagazussa, this is definitely your speed.  It tries to be as authentic as possible with regard to costumes, accents, and locations.  It comes off a little like an affectation, but again, debut.  It's streaming for free with ads on Tubi.  Give it a shot.