Look, I tried to keep it on-theme this past week in honor of Christmas and New Years – and I didn’t do too bad!
Oh. What. Fun. – Though the reviews for this holiday comedy film were more bleak than I was expecting, I still wanted to give it a shot. Mainly for its all-star cast, but I actually really enjoyed this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was light and appropriate for the season. The focus is on Claire, a Texas-based mom obsessed with Christmas and whose efforts and desires are steadfastly ignored by her family. All she wants is to be nominated for a “Best Holiday Mom” contest to win a trip to attend her favorite talk show. After being left behind for an outing she had planned, Claire reaches her breaking point and makes the trip to the show by herself. It’s a reminder to appreciate all that moms do for families, and to take a step back during this chaotic season. Plese put Dominic Sessa in all future Christmas movies – thank you.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes – This 2019 rom-com never even entered my radar at the time of its release, so I credit one of my work’s movie club members for bringing it to my attention. The focus is on an Italian-American family in Pennsylvania who are preparing for their annual Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes. They are an extended, hard-working family, where it’s clear that Tony is meant to take over the family business one day instead of going to art school like he wants to. In the lead-up to the main event, he gets roped into a double date with a nice non-Catholic girl that the rest of Tony’s family has conflicting feelings about. I absolutely love the grandpa and the uncles in this film – top tier Italian loving! Though I am from an all-Italian family, we have never taken part in the Feast of the Seven Fishes, although now I kind of want to!
Marty Supreme – I should have known better. I should have known that this film was going to be a chaotic, tense, hot mess. Josh Safdie and his writing partner have given me nothing but anxiety in the past, so I don’t know why I was expecting anything different! Marty Mauser is a young, New York-based ping-pong player in league with the world’s best, but he just never has enough cash to play these people on their home turf. While ads lead you to believe this is a sports movie about ping-pong, instead it’s a film about Marty hustling, and failing epically, to make enough cash to go play his next game. You maybe get thirty dedicated minutes of ping-pong, but the rest is him avoiding getting arrested or murdered. If you’d like to feel anxious for six solid hours, might I recommend pairing this with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Uncut Gems as a triple feature? Trust me, it will be totally worth it!
About Fate – Nothing can pry this cute, New Year’s Eve rom-com out of my grip. I bought it when it first came out and there’s no going back for me. Why not end the year with one of my favorite comfort movies? Margot is kind of a hot mess express, trying to get ready for her sister’s New Year’s Eve wedding on the heels of being dumped. Instead of trying to look like a loser to the rest of her family, she recruits an unsuspecting drunk who’s mistaken her apartment for his own. There are a lot of similarities in their lives, but it’s clear they approach many things in a completely different way. The chemisty is chemistry-ing, and I almost can’t resist squishing my fists into my cheeks trying to smother a squeal of happiness. I will never tire of this film. Ever.