After three eccentric businessman arrange for a young couple to get together right before the holidays, a plane crash kills the three men. However, their ghosts remain on Earth to watch over the couple and to take care of some unexpected holiday business. The film is a holiday film and a comedy and a romance and a musical and a ghost story and a melodrama and finally an oddly sincere meditation on life and death.
From 1940, here’s Beyond Tomorrow!
Today’s song of the day feels appropriate for both the season and the fact that Frank Sinatra was born 110 years ago today.
Blake Lewis totally should have won American Idol. (I voted for him and cried when he lost!) But at least he can still win our hearts with this interpretation of a classic Christmas carol!
Enjoy!
Set in Budapest, Hungary, we meet Alfred Kralik (James Stewart), the dependable head clerk at a retail establishment named Matuschek and Company. In walks Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan), an attractive young lady who’s desperately in need of a job, so Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan) hires her as a new salesgirl. Alfred and Klara immediately take a disliking to each other and give each other quite a hard time at work. As we get to know Alfred and Klara, we find out that each of them is involved in a treasured “pen-pal” relationship with a mysterious someone who truly seems to understand their heart and soul. Wouldn’t you know it, even though they get on each other’s last nerves at the shop, Alfred and Klara are each other’s secret pen-pal! While navigating unexpected drama at work, mainly involving Mr. Matuschek, his wife, and a duplicitous employee, Alfred eventually discovers that Klara is his mystery correspondent without her knowing it. As he tries to reconcile the actions of the lady he knows from work with the heart of the person who wrote those letters, Alfred decides to show Klara who he really is to see if they can fall in love in real life!
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is one of my very favorite romantic comedies, and I’d guess the lead performance of James Stewart is probably the main reason. He’s just perfect in the role of Alfred Kralik… earnest, proud, awkward, vulnerable, and above all else, decent. Stewart’s ability to portray characters with believable decency separate him as one of the all-time greats and that quality is well on display here. Margaret Sullavan, as Klara Novak, matches him perfectly. Known to have a good relationship off screen as well, the chemistry between Stewart and Sullavan is off the charts and their scenes together are quite powerful. Mostly known by me for his performance as the Wizard of Oz, Frank Morgan is also incredible as Mr. Matuschek, at times jealous, volatile, and ultimately benevolent.
Director Ernst Lubitsch, known for his “Lubitsch touch,” has made a movie that has stood the test of time because of its core of emotional truth. Even though it was made well before the days of social media or online dating, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER understands just how differently we present ourselves when writing (or online, or on social media), compared to how we actually behave in person. Maybe it’s because THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER was made in 1940, but I love the way its time-tested story idea is used for comedy and sweet romance, without becoming cynical. That lack of cynicism leaves room not only for comedy and romance but also a genuine compassion for its characters as they deal with the very real emotions of loneliness, pride, jealousy, and fear.
All in all, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER may be 85 years old, but its tender and romantic payoff set on Christmas Eve still gets me every time. As far as I’m concerned, this is about as close to perfect as a romantic comedy can get!
(Author’s note: I’m also a fan of the 1998 remake, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but I rate it below Lubitsch’s film.)
In 2023’s Christmas At The Amish Bakery, book editor Sarah (Alexandra Harris) returns to her Amish roots, hoping to put together an Amish cookbook. (“The Amish are famous for the baking!” Sarah’s boss says.) But what happens when Sarah discovers love and the true meaning of the holidays?
You can probably guess.
This is like the ultimate Hallmark Amish Christmas movie. If you know, you know.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959, dir by Ed Wood)
103 years ago today, Maila Nurmi was born in Massachusetts. Nurmi would go on to find fame as Vampira, television’s first horror movie hostess. Though she is now best-remembered for playing one of the zombies in Plan 9 From Outer Space, Nurmi actually had a long and varied show business career. James Dean was her best friend. She had an affair with Orson Welles. Walt Disney used her as a model for the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella. She was commissioned to make jewelry and clothing for both Grace Slick and Frank Zappa.
Today’s song of the day came out in 1958. Here’s Bobby Bare singing about Vampira.
Awwwwww! Gwen and Blake are so cute together. (No, I don’t want to hear about those break-up rumors right now! It’s the holidays!)
There’s a lot of reasons why this video works but really, it all comes down to charisma and chemistry. Gwen and Blake look like they should be celebrating Christmas together and, when you watch, you want to celebrate with them.
Enjoy!
If you’re like me and you have not only asthma but also a huge phobia about getting caught in the middle of an out-of-control fire, you should definitely make sure you have your inhaler nearby while watching The Lost Bus.
Based on an actual California wildfire that killed over 80 people in 2018, The Lost Bus takes the viewer straight into the fire. We watch as one power line falls off of a poorly maintained tower. We see the sparks and then we see the fire that starts to burn almost immediately. Soon, the fire is moving down the mountain and through the forest. The camera zooms into the heart of the growing disaster and the viewer spends many horrifying minutes in the middle of the inferno, watching as trees burst into flames and the black smoke turns the sky dark as night. We hear the wind blowing the fire closer and closer to civilization and we realize, even before the majority of the characters in the film, that there’s no way to stop it. Tears came to my eyes as I watched the fire destroying everything that it touched and I did have to grab my inhaler at one point. The film’s visualization of the wildfire overwhelms you, to the extent that you might actually feel the heat radiating off of the screen.
When the film shifts away from the fire, it’s focuses on Kevin (Matthew McConaughey), a directionless man who has recently returned to his hometown and who works as a school bus driver. When he first realizes how bad the fire is, his first instinct is to rush back to his home but then he hears over the radio that there are over 20 children at an elementary school who need to be taken to safety. Kevin’s bus is the only one in the area. He picks up the children and their teacher, Mary (America Ferrara) and tries to drive them to another area so that they can be reunited with their parents. While Kevin is just trying to get his bus and the kids to safety, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection fights a losing battle to try to contain the inferno.
Both Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrara are playing rather familiar characters. Kevin is the perennial screw-up, the guy who is on the verge of losing his job but who ultimately proves himself to be the type of hero that no one expected him to be. Mary is the dedicated teacher who tells the kids to walk in a straight line and who tries to keep them calm even when new fires are erupting around them. Kevin never wanted to come back to his hometown while Mary never wants to leave it. Though the characters may be familiar, McConaughey and Ferrara both give authentic and lived-in performances. That said, the most compelling character remains the fire itself, a creation of pure out-of-control chaos and a reminder of the heart-breaking randomness of life.
This is another one of Paul Greengrass’s shaky cam docudramas. As a filmmaker, Greengrass is one of the best when it comes to putting the viewer right in the middle of the action and, for once, not even Greengrass’s signature political posturing can stop the film’s momentum. The Lost Bus is a film that ultimately celebrates not only community but also how one individual can make a difference in a time of crisis. It’s a film that left me out-of-breath and with tears in my eyes.
In 2012’s It’s Christmas, Carol, Emmanuelle Vaugier plays Carol, a publishing executive who has lost sight of what the holidays should be all about. The ghost of her former boss (played by Carrie Fisher) appears to her and takes her on a journey through her past, present, and future….
Does this sound familiar?
Tis the season for a hundred variations on the classic Charles Dickens tale! This one’s cute, though. Carrie Fisher gives a good performance as the ghost who has to do the job of three because of “budget cutbacks.”
Jay Kelly features George Clooney at both his best and his worst.
Clooney plays the film’s title character, an actor who has just hit 60 and who is having an existential crisis as he realizes everything that he’s lost as a result of being rich and famous. Clooney’s best moments are when he plays Jay as being essentially a prick, a guy who might be well-meaning but who lacks the self-awareness necessary to understand just how condescending and fake he tends to come across to the people who know him. This is the Jay who insists on having a drink with Tim (Billy Crudup), a former actor who lost a key role to Jay and who has never forgiven him for it. (It starts out as a friendly drink but it eventually becomes a fight after Tim reveals that he hates Jay and Jay responds by being smug.) This is the Jay who has alienated both of his daughters (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards) and who doesn’t seem to understand that the rest of the world doesn’t travel with an entourage.
Jay is gloriously unaware in those scenes and they give Clooney a chance to show that he’s still capable of giving a sharp comedic performance. Watching him in those scenes, I was reminded of the gloriously dumb characters that he played for the Coen Brothers, in both Burn After Reading and Hail, Caesar. For that matter, I was also reminded of his burned-out hatchet man from Up In the Air, who was not a dumb character but still was someone who, like Jay Kelly, always seemed to be performing.
Unfortunately, as the film progresses, Jay himself starts to wander into flashbacks of himself as a young actor and, even worse, he starts to talk to himself about everything that he’s lost due to his fame and suddenly, he transforms into the insufferably smug Clooney who spent the earlier part of this year in greasepaint, lecturing us all about Edward R. Murrow. The flashbacks to Jay Kelly’s past often feel like stand-ins for flashbacks to George Clooney’s past (and it’s probably not a coincidence that both Kelly and Clooney are from Kentucky) but they don’t really add up to much. Jay Kelly is a character who becomes less compelling the more that one learns about him.
The characters around Jay Kelly are far more interesting than Jay himself, though I have my doubts whether that was intentional on the part of director Noah Baumbach. (An overly long and indulgent sequence on a train would seem to suggest that Jay Kelly was envisioned as being a more fascinating character than he turned out to be.) Just as he did in Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, Adam Sandler gives the film its heart, playing the role of Jay’s loyal but unappreciated manager. Sandler and Laura Dern have a few showy scenes together but Sandler’s best moments come opposite Patrick Wilson as a client who feels that he’s being neglected in favor of Jay Kelly. (For that matter, Wilson is so good in those scenes that I almost wish he had switched roles with Clooney.) One might not expect the star of Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy to emerge as one of Hollywood’s best sad-eyed character actors but that’s what has happened in the case of Adam Sandler.
With all that in mind, I have to admit that I enjoyed Jay Kelly more than I thought I would. Some of that has to do with expectations. Jay Kelly is currently getting so roasted on social media that I was expecting the film to be a self-indulgent disaster. While the film is definitely self-indulgent and about 30 minutes too long, it’s not a disaster. When Clooney’s performance works, it really works. (Unfortunately, the inverse is also true.) Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, and Stacy Keach all give performances that elevate the occasionally shallow script. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren captures some beautiful shots, especially towards the end of the film. Visually, Jay Kelly is a marked improvement on the bland imagery of Marriage Story. Like its title character, Jay Kelly is imperfect and occasionally annoying but it does hold your attention.
As for the film’s Oscar chances, the reviews are mixed but it’s a film about how tough it is to be an actor and one should not forget that the Actor’s Branch is the biggest branch of the Academy and the majority of the voters are people who are probably going to watch Jay Kelly and say, at the very least, “Hey, I know that guy!” (Few will admit, “I am that guy,” but that will still definitely be a factor in how they react to the film.) Regardless of how social media feels about the film, I imagine Jay Kelly will be remembered when the nominations are announced.
Through the Shattered Lens 