Festive Forays - Last Christmas (12A)

Missing, kissing - it's almost like we're having a relationship.

It's something of a cinematic Holy Grail - to make a Christmas movie that turns out a modern classic, one that'll join It's a Wonderful Life and The Muppet Christmas Carol and Love Actually in that pantheon of festive TV perennials. Last year alone saw The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (striped eye-candy but really muddled both plot- and tone-wise) and a Grinch update (fine animation, but ultimately not offering enough that was distinctive to earn a place on the Top List). Now 2019 brings us Last Christmas, a Yuletide comedy spiced with romance, poignancy and the songs of George Michael. As of now the reviews seem way too polarised for the film to show December-time staying-power. But Love Actually garnered a similarly mixed response - and personally I like this movie better. Quite a lot better. So let's just wait and see...

Emilia Clarke has relinquished her Game of Thrones dragon to play Kate, a cynical soul, whose mood isn't helped by her job dressed as a Santa's elf in a year-round Christmas store. Kate's life is a string of thoughtless acts and Fleabag-style bad choices, as she alienates one friend after another and holds her immigrant Slovakian family at arm's length. Then as actual Christmas approaches, she meets Tom - a life-embracing oddball, who refuses play their developing friendship by Kate's misanthropic rules. Whoever this guy is, he may be the only person who can help her face up to her very specific demons and stop her downward spiral into disaster.

There's a reason I include a 'Gut Reaction' at the end of my reviews - it's my first and most important guide to rating a film. Whatever some naysayers have been saying about Last Christmas, it won me early and despite occasional bumps held me throughout. Clarke is the main (but by no means only) reason. Post-Thrones she provides a luminous comic presence, one that shines through her frazzled, sarky demeanour. She's likeable, even though she's awful. Kate is a driving force through the story's early stages, but she's backed up by the sublime Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians) as 'Santa', the Christmas store's eccentric proprietor, and co-writer Emma Thompson, who's having a great old time as the heroine's overbearing fuss-budget mother. Then Henry Golding (another Crazy Rich alumnus) shows up as the mercurial Tom, playing sincerity as deeply charming, while the story hits its romantic stride. 

Any danger of the film falling too deep into seasonal shmaltz is undercut by the sheer vinegar of the humour, not least when Kate clashes with other members of her dysfunctional family. Yes, a travelogue of London locations are shown at their twinkly end-of-year best, but there's a moody darkness here too, one at odds with the delightful Christmas kitsch of 'Santa''s Covent Garden store. We feel intimations of mortality, along with familial angst and political tensions - not unlike It's a Wonderful Life - ensuring that the inevitably life-affirming arc of the story never becomes too saccharine.

Then there's the film's final act, one that's proving divisive. If you know your Christmas movies - I mean historically - then it won't come as a complete surprise, or upend your expectations too much. I (kind of) saw it coming, but that didn't detract at all from the experience, in fact it enhanced the story, turning this from a run-of-the-mill Yuletide heart-warmer into something more weighty. If you think it leans too much into melodrama, I get that, but personally I thought it took a risk that paid off beautifully. 

Not everything in the film works. As with Paul Feig's last film A Simple Favor there are comedy moments that don't quite gel or that jar tonally, although those moments are rare enough not to matter. As for the George Michael element - while his writing served as inspiration, don't expect the songs to play an integral role. They're woven in, adding a subtle commentary to the story of long-time George fan Kate, with Heal the Pain working a particular kind of emotional magic.

I saw Last Christmas after the first wave of mixed critical responses - wanting to like it, but bracing myself for disappointment. The disappointment didn't happen and the liking did. While some people's response is your actual nausea, I genuinely enjoyed it, in fact I think it's a Greatest Showman-style crowd-pleaser and to hell with the sniffier critiques. It'll stick around longer than many predicted and some audience members will want to watch it every time the holidays come around. And if I'm right in that, it may just find its place in the Christmas movie pantheon.

Gut Reaction: I made me laugh. It made me tear up a bit. It charmed my socks off and replaced them with woollen ones bearing a reindeer motif.

Memorable Moment: Not a successful family dinner.

Ed's Verdict: 7.5/10. Good-hearted and life-affirming, Last Christmas tempers its Hallmark sentiment with bittersweet humour and a great central turn from Clarke. Deck the flipping Halls, people!

Film Review - A Bad Moms Christmas (15)

You're a mom. Moms don't enjoy. They give joy.

I'm at a disadvantage on this one, as I didn't see Bad Moms. I got the gist from the trailer though - three modern young mums/moms bonded over the fact that they were perceived as inadequate parents by the fascistic supermoms at their local PTA group. They duly misbehaved, asserting that they weren't solely defined by the fact that they'd given birth. They're not bad moms really, you see, just harassed parents in need of some steam-venting. The critical consensus seems to be that the film was more fun than you might have expected, with spirited performances from the leads. 

A Bad Moms Christmas is a festive rehash in the style of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, only without Chevy Chase and the Griswolds to enliven it. As such my expectations for it were low, which is probably the reason I enjoyed it as much as I did. Yes its basic existence could be dismissed as cynically commercial and it's substantially more sugar-coated than say BBC2's edgy parental sitcom Motherland, but there's cheerfully low-grade fun to be had here nonetheless.

Much of this is probably due to the fact that the writers (the guys who gave us the original plus three Hangovers) find a way to avoid a straight retread-plus-tinsel. Yes it's still Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn at the centre as our three occasionally errant moms (the regular one, the ditzy one and the raunchy life-of-the-party respectively). For this Yuletide outing, however, the girls are joined by their own mothers, each of whom threatens in her own way to dampen the festivities and turn the already problem-fraught Christmas season into hell. Kunis' mom is overbearing and judgmental, Bell's insufferably clingy and Hahn's a good-time flake who's likely to break her daughter's heart for the umpteenth time. Meet the Bad Moms' bad moms.

If this all sounds massively contrived, of course it is, and pretty shmaltzy to boot. But the older generation of women grab the comedy material along with their 30-something counterparts and damn well shake it until the laughs come out. And what gals they are.

Christine Baranski is probably my favourite, playing a variant on the monster she created in The Big Bang Theory. She rocks her appalling character, letting slip glimmers of the vulnerability beneath and winning over the audience with sheer comic bravura. Cheryl Hines (Larry David's longsuffering wife in Curb Your Enthusiasm) demonstrates similar comedy chops, making the insufferably needy mom funny rather than unbearable. And Susan Sarandon - well she continues her life's work of redefining 'sassy', embracing the grandmom-behaving-badly role with open loving arms. 

With the men sidelined to eye-candy duties (Peter Gallagher shows up as a lovably cardigan-ed grandad!), this proves a fine comedy ensemble of women; the younger crew portray the warm, sanity-rescuing friendship that presumably made the first film a hit and the more mature crowd gamely matches them. While this don't reach the heights of the magnificently funny Bridesmaids, I did find it a much more enjoyable ride than this year's Girls Trip, the mawkish elements never being allowed to take over and the cruder moments genuinely delivering. 

I said it regarding Happy Death Day and I'll restate it here - low expectations can really prove your friend. This isn't great cinema by a stretch (and necking about a litre of mulled wine pre-viewing would no doubt enhance the experience), but these two generations of bad moms are undeniably good company.

Gut Reaction: I laughed, and then I laughed again, and quite remarkably I laughed some more. And never once did I wish it would end.

Ed's Verdict: Yes it's a big old Christmas cash-grab. Yes it's as predictable as it is implausible. But the gals sell the comedy like the pros they are, making this a surprisingly fun evening out.