BEFORE: Last film of the year, I made it through another 300 films, through a romance chain, a documentary chain, a horror chain and a Christmas chain, and I think I hit a few other holidays along the way. Labor Day and St. Patrick's Day and even Easter. It was another long road with a lot of twists and turns but the chain was unbroken yet again, that's like the seventh year in a row, I think. And I'll try to do it again next year for the eighth time.
Stephanie Sy carries over again from "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", and so do a couple other actors. Again, this chain started on 1/1/25 with "Anatomy of a Fall", and I had no idea then where it would lead me or how it would end or whether I'd be able to keep the chain going for the whole year. Well, I can, access to nearly any movie I want via streaming is what makes it possible, also being able to re-organize things on the fly is very important, like in October I realized one of my links was not good and there was about to be a break in the chain, so I just had to stop and cut out a few films, replace them with the same number of movies and double-check that the new links were good. Whew, that was a close one.
So here's what's going to happen, I'm shutting down again for a few days, because I have to add up all the numbers and write my annual recap of what went down this year, also I got a job working for an event organizer on New Year's Eve, a company that takes over a number of high-profile Manhattan restaurants and then hosts a bunch of Times Square-adjacent food and drink things. Today I went on a walk-through of the space (no names, but you've probably heard of this tropical-based chain) and tried to get an idea of what I'm in for. Then on New Year's DAY I have to work at a Brooklyn Nets game, so I'm really going to be busy, then worn out. I think maybe I'll watch my first movie of 2026 a day yearly, just to be on the safe side.
I delayed this film one day because yesterday was Christmas, gave myself the day off obvi, but this also allows for one last Birthday SHOUT-out, this time to actor Darcy Fehr, born December 26 in some year not listed on the IMDB. 1974? I've only seen him in one film before, but apparently he's a well-known actor in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Well, I guess somebody has to be - I hope he had a good Christmas and has an excellent Boxing Day birthday.
Here's the last set of format counts for 2025:
DECEMBER
8 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Death of a Unicorn, Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, Love the Coopers, A Minecraft Movie, Dear Santa, Violent Night, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Ordinary Angels
1 watched on Netflix: Family Switch
1 watched on Hulu: Nutcrackers
10 TOTAL
THE PLOT: Inspired by the true story of a hairdresser who single-handedly rallies an entire community to help a widowed father save the life of his critically ill young daughter.
AFTER: This was another film that had its Manhattan premiere at the theater where I work, which means I was on outdoor duty on a cold day in February 2024. I'll print a list in my year-end wrap-up post of all the films that I could have seen at the theater, but did NOT because I was working there. We simply do not get high on our own supply... working at the screening means that I do NOT get to see most movies, but you know, they'll be streaming in a couple months on one of the many platforms I subscribe to, so there's that. Big premieres also tend to bring in their own staff to do check-in and ushering, leaving me with two choices, either hand out concessions or do crowd control and oversee tent build/breakdown outside. I don't mind the outdoor work, I get to see all the famous people arrive by car and enter the press tent, then they're usually escorted out the back right after the screening starts. I'll arrive at 5 pm and work until midnight or 1 am, until the tents are down and the theater is reset.
Reaching the end of the Movie Year tonight is very life-confirming, because ending the year exactly where I want to end it means that every decision I made this year was a good one - every time I cut a film out to make a chain shorter, every time I added a film in-between two others with the same actor, every time I tried to line up my viewing with an actor's birthday, that all paid off. Trusting my instincts was right, every single time, at least in retrospect. It's true, hindsight is always 20/20 vision, if I end with the perfect film - all other mistakes or disputes about what to watch are now null and void, because I did it. Again. I'm calling this one the "perfect" film not only because it's #300 and it's how I chose to end the year, but because there's a pivotal point in the film that takes place JUST after Christmas, and that's where we all are. Then I guess the climax of the film takes place in mid-January, but let's not focus on that, let's stay on the part that proves I'm a scheduling genius. Now if I hadn't moved this film to this final slot, I'd still have it linked to "Freedom Writers", a film that is on my list, but I'm not planning to watch it any time soon. Who knows, maybe next year around June graduation or September for back-to-school, but those months aren't even planned yet.
The unintended theme this week, at least in three out of four films, is something about charity or helping those less fortunate, and really, what could be more appropriate for a holiday week. Yes, yes, of course all four films this week are Christmas-themed, but except for "Violent Night", they're all about people who are financially well-off, or at least with steady jobs, helping the poorer people in their town, and sure, that's a theme I can get behind, without all the churchy stuff would be better, but I'll take what the chain provides. "Nutcrackers" had a successful man taking care of his less fortunate sister's orphaned children, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" had a girl's parents getting the poor kids in town to participate in the pageant, plus they also brought them a ham from the church food pantry. Tonight we've got a Kentucky hairdresser who feels the need to help a local roofer raise the money needed to get his young daughter a liver transplant, and also pay (or at least reduce) the medical bills associated with her care.
This is a big deal, like who would help a family of strangers that's drowning in debt and in danger of losing their home, because of circumstances outside of their control? I guess we can assume that the girl's deceased mother was the breadwinner in the family, because Ed, the widowed father, keeps falling deeper into debt trying to pay for his daughter's medical care. Relatable, even though this story takes place in 1994, well before the Affordable Care Act, at another time in U.S. history when insurance prices were high, and medical costs for the uninsured people were even higher. Which, you know, kind of sounds very similar to the insurance crisis we have in America right now. Meanwhile there's been talk about letting the ACA expire, while at the same time Trump's promise to come up with a better plan for reducing medical and insurance costs has not been fulfilled, and that promise was made EIGHT years ago. Remember when he said he would have a new plan to replace "Obamacare" in "just a few weeks"? Yep, that was at the start of his FIRST term, and we're still waiting. But by all means, let the legislation that made healthcare accessible for millions expire, and we'll all just get along by going to the E.R. whenever we're sick. Boneheads.
If I didn't know this was based on a true story, I might not have believed it. But it is, so I kind of have to. Hilary Swank plays Sharon Stevens, who kind of works her way into helping this family out (though the father doesn't want her help at first) as she sees this as her "mission", her shot at redemption after screwing up the relationship with her teenage son. Also it's a bit of avoidance, she would rather help out this family in need than deal with her own alcoholism and lack of responsibility. Well, eventually she's going to get there, but at first she just sets her sights on fund-raising and helping out this family because it makes her feel better. She is doing the right thing, even if it's not for the best reasons at first.
Sharon does manage to get the medical bills reduced, which means that the family may not have to sell their home and downsize. However more problems arise once the young girl makes it to the top spot on the organ donor list, a liver becomes available however young Michelle would need to fly to Oklahoma for the transplant, and this wouldn't be a problem, except there's a cold wave and a terrible winter storm. Roads are blocked, and even though Sharon had lined up a private plane to take the girl to the airport, that's useless if Ed can't drive her to the airport in Louisville. At this point it would take a miracle, or more accurately a SERIES of miracles to find a helicopter and a pilot, a clear place to create a runway, and an army of volunteers with snow shovels. No spoilers, sorry.
I'm willing to overlook the fact that this is a very Christian faith-based film, because in many ways this is the TYPE of the film that we need right now. Our country is either falling apart (or doing better than ever before, depending on who you ask) and so many people are struggling to make ends meet, for many people inflation means probably making a choice between groceries and medical insurance, having both would be considered a luxury. I mean, eggs are no longer $10 a carton (remember that from a few months ago?) but even though they're cheaper, it feels like the cost of everything else is still getting greater. I know I've had to dip into my savings a couple times since I changed careers, I've been waiting for my second job to come through with more shifts, but it hasn't yet, which explains why I'll have to work on New Year's Eve. I don't get paid time off, because I'm really just a temp at both jobs, so taking a week off to visit my parents really hurts me right in the wallet. I'm going to have to take every shift I can get over the next four months just to climb out of debt - or double my efforts to get a new full-time job.
Anyway, that's a January problem right now, I missed out on seasonal work in December because we went on a vacation, so next year when the school shuts down maybe I need to find work as a department store Santa or something. I don't really want to be around sticky smelly kids for long periods of time, but I'll have to do something to bring in more money soon. So yeah, the money thing, the fact that it's right after Christmas, and the fact that it's snowing outside all make this the perfect film for me, right now. And also I kind of book-ended the year, I started with "Anatomy of a Fall", which was set in a snowy landscape, and now I'm ending the year with another winter-based film. So we've come full circle once again.
OK, I can work on the 2025 recap post this weekend, and then I'll be back here on January 1 or 2 with the start of a new chain. We start a new year, I start a new chain.
Directed by Jon Gunn
Also starring Hilary Swank (last seen in "The Homesman"), Alan Ritchson (last seen in "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare"), Emily Mitchell (last seen in "The Apprentice"), Skywalker Hughes, Nancy Travis (last seen in "Destiny Turns on the Radio"), Tamala Jones (last seen in "The Ladies Man"), Don Mike, Ryan Allen (last seen in "In the Shadow of the Moon"), Drew Powell (last seen in "Message from the King"), Andrea del Campo, Dempsey Bryk, Erik Athavale (last seen in "Violent Night"), Curtis Moore (also carrying over from "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"), Lauren Cochrane (ditto), Adam Hurtig (ditto), Neil Shah, David Lawrence Brown, Darcy Fehr (last seen in "The Ice Road"), Diana Botelho-Urbanski, Jan Skene, DJ Brotherson, Paul Essiembre (last seen in "Nobody"), Sharon Bajer (ditto), Nancy Sorel (last seen in "How It Ends"), Ernie Pitts, Gwendolyn Collins, Amy Acker (last seen in "The Cabin in the Woods"), Gabriel Daniels, Jason Wishnowski,
RATING: 6 out of 10 snow shovels
No comments:
Post a Comment