…Otherwise known as the extreme Christmas round up. I didn’t watch too many films until November when I figured I’d so something about the fact Christmas was going to be quieter and make it festive in other ways.

Bringing Up Baby (USA, 1938) – A paleontologist, trying to get on with his work and prepare for his marriage, meets an all-over-the-place woman who pushes him to help her with her leopard. Obviously unrealistic and over-the-top but nevertheless absolutely hilarious.

Brief Encounter (UK, 1945) – Two strangers meet in a railway station café and begin a short affair. Definitely best in the context of the era.

Christmas Ever After (USA, 2020) – A writer goes on her annual Christmas holiday to a winter lodge and meets a man who looks exactly the same as the man in the artwork that graces her book covers; the predictable ensues. This is a bog-standard made-for-TV movie but the reason I’ve not included it in my Christmas list below is because this is a movie that has broken ground that’s taken forever to break. Whilst the story itself may be run-of-the-mill, the cast is good, and, most importantly, there is diversity. The lead uses a wheelchair. There is zero mention of her disability, zero questions on it, zero mockery, indeed the only time such a thing comes anywhere close is when she simply mentions that shes ‘going for a push’. It’s about freaking time this happened, and full props to Lifetime for doing this, the film gets a 5 from me just for that though the fact the cast are decent definitely makes it a lot better – and an actual disabled person/person with a disability playing the role! In addition to this, the as-I’ve-started-to-understand usual non-white best friend role (if there are non-white actors they have almost always been a sidekick of sorts) is an independent woman who is there for guidance and otherwise gets on with her own life; there is also a woman who likes the hero but isn’t in anyway nasty, which makes a change too. All around fabulous, grammar rules be damned.

Frozen II (USA, 2019) – Elsa and co. go in search of the spirits that have the power to bring peace. Definitely an exercise in ‘how do we make more money from this?’ but there are some very good moments.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Keep Dancing) (India, 2007) – When a man approaches a woman at Waterloo Station she pretends to be engaged to put him off chatting her up, and he follows suit, making up his own fiancée; the fictionised stories of the two relationships are told as they spend more time with each other. Another film that’s difficult to summarise without spoilers; one of the best Bollywood films I’ve seen to date. Absolutely top-notch comedy, good references to older films and the actors’ real-life connections to each other, and just all-round fun.

Moana (USA, 2016) – A young woman in centuries-past Polynesia secretly takes on the task of finding the god that took away with him an essential ingredient to the community’s island’s peace. Pretty fun in parts but the limited scope in terms of location – in other words, most of the film taking place on a tiny boat – has a big affect on the over all product.

Muppets Most Wanted (USA, 2014) – During rehearsals for a stage show, Kermit is kidnapped and replaced by a Russian criminal who is also a frog. Some of the humour is good but I personally felt this went a bit too far with the stereotypes.

12 Days Of Giving (USA, 2017) – A man wins $50,000 dollars and decides to donate it to various people he meets day-to-day to the upset of his fiancⅇ one of the people is a child who wants to play ice hockey and lives with his single mother… yep, it’s predictable. But also fairly good, a nice enough watch.

Broadcasting Christmas (USA, 2016) – Two presenters, past lovers, compete to gain the role of co-host on a popular morning show. Standard plot with above average actors; that one of them is Melissa Joan Hart makes it much better.

Christmas At Graceland (USA, 2018) – A business executive travels to her hometown to work on a takeover deal but finds the idea of a big corporation taking over a caring family company difficult, meanwhile she meets an old flame who she used to sing with. The film would be okay if the real-life country star who plays the lead could also act.

Christmas Cookies (USA, 2016) – A business… yeah, okay, this film has the exact same set up as the previous one, just with a cookie company instead of finance. It even has the same male lead, however as he can act and as the female lead of this one can, too, it works.

Christmas In Homestead (USA, 2016) – A filmstar visits a cute Christmas-loving town for her latest film and starts to fall for the owner of the hotel and his young daughter. Nice enough; bog standard.

A Christmas Love Story (USA, 2019) – When her choir rehearsals are joined by a new kid, the teacher has to work out a way to convince his father that he should be allowed to stay – and the father turns out to be the nice man she shared a taxi with. There is a lot more going for this film than a spoiler-free premise would suggest; for all the predictability it’s actually a very decent film.

The Christmas Train (USA, 2017) – Two journalists who used to be together happen to take the same sleeper train just before Christmas; one of them is there with her boss, a director whose film she is writing. This film has an interesting concept, a different concept, but it’s far too sickly sweet, the green-screening is too obvious, and the surprise ending that really didn’t need to be there wrecks everything that came before.

A Dream Of Christmas (USA, 2016) – A woman who wonders ‘what if’ is transported to a version of her life where she took the job offer and didn’t meet her husband. Nice enough.

A Godwink Christmas (USA, 2018) – A woman who’s unsure about her relationship goes to stay with her aunt but gets stuck in a cute town when her car breaks down and starts to fall for the owner of the hotel she ends up spending the night in. This would have been okay if there had been an ounce of chemistry between the leads.

Love You Like Christmas (USA, 2016) – A woman who works in advertising breaks down halfway through her journey and has to stay in the Christmasy village she comes to. Average plot – samey plot, in fact – above average actors; it turns out that a plot that’s been done to death can still have a breakthrough if the script is done right and is at least somewhat believeable.

Marry Me At Christmas (USA, 2017) – A bridal shop owner helps the sister of a filmstar plan her wedding and falls for the filmstar. Average.

Mistletoe & Menorahs (USA, 2019) – A woman who needs to learn about Hannukah to impress clients meets up with a Jewish guy who needs to learn about Christmas to impress his partner’s family. This film had a lot of potential – it’s a different premise, the actors are great, and so on – but it does miss the mark where the Christmas being taught is simply decorations and the Hannukah taught is how to light the menorah and make one item of food. Had there had been… more, this would’ve been a really good one.

The Mistletoe Promise (USA, 2016) – Two strangers who hate Christmas agree to pretend to be in a relationship to further their careers. Predictable premise well saved by decent actors and a good script.

A Rose For Christmas (USA, 2017) – A businessman is assigned to help create the festival float that will represent his company and the float company owner is a woman he’s going to fall for. Unrealistic and not a great story – the float’s also incredibly naff given it’s to promote a fair sized company.

Why do I watch these Christmas films? It’s certainly a good question when so many aren’t great – the ones that are good are pretty awesome, and therein lies the conundrum. I did do better this year; whilst still choosing premises that sounded okay, any that weren’t working for me within about 20 minutes were turned off in favour of the next. There were a ton and I only watched ones early on; I saw as the weeks went on that films added often had black actors in the main roles which was good to see; it seems this year’s productions have favoured more diversity in general and I’m looking forward to catching up on those next time.

This week’s podcast episode is with Katy Yocom. Email and RSS subscribers: you may need to open this post in your browser to see the media player below.

Charlie and Katy Yocom (Three Ways To Disappear) discuss tiger conservation in India and balancing numbers alongside human requirements for life, the importance of being diligent when writing about a culture that is not your own, and what the three ways to disappear are.

To see all the details including links to other apps, I’ve made a blog page here.