Best Things Of The Year

In some ways, I am severely under-qualified to talk about the entertainment industry. Mostly because I have seen roughly 170 films this year, and I have bought about 3 albums...My interests sway one way more than the other. But hey, reflection is one of my favourite things to do when it comes to stuff I like, so with a whole year passing, I thought I'd talk about my favourite films, TV Shows, Songs and other items throughout the year that really caught my interest.

Films
About 1/3 of the films I saw this year were released in 2016, but I didn't want to spoil what my favourite film of the year was seeing as I'll be doing a whole video talking about my Top 10 of the year. However, if we were discussing films in general, the best film out of those 170 that I saw was When Harry Met Sally. I discussed this in length in my My Favourite Films series, so you can see more why I love it there. Personally, this is one of those films that I saw at just the right moment in my life. At first I had to watch this as part of my course at university back in April, but I ended up falling in love with it and watched it 5 times that month. It's a film that explores relationships between men and women both romantic and platonic, and as someone who has mentally stopped himself from falling for people because that bit me in the ass too many times, it was a fascinating watch with a lot of conversations that never felt like it was someone writing an essay on relationships, but came across as real conversations that you might have with people you know in real life. It's one of the most grounded films I saw this year, the only 10/10 I saw all year and was certainly the best.

Television
Part of me wanted to put a new TV show on here, just for the sake of giving people something new they can enjoy, and let's be honest, if you're not watching Game of Thrones by now, nothing's really going to convince you too. But again, if I am being honest, the sixth season of Game of Thrones was incredible. After a very meandering fifth season, some started to think the show was losing its steam. Well boy howdy did they come back with a bang. This season was possibly the fastest paced and biggest in scope season the show has had, with huge battles, major character development, reunions, deaths, dragons, etc. But it all comes down to those final two episodes. Battle of the Bastards, which is the greatest fight scene in a television show, just on a technical level, that can't be argued. Then the final episode paid off multiple plot points, while progressing some of the biggest show long stories, setting up an epic seventh season. This was the first season to fully depart from the books, and frankly I think that lead to all the better for the show's writing and production. Definitely the best season for the show in a while, and best season of television all year.

Music
Again, not much of a music person, so not a whole lot of competition. However, the album that impacted me the most was Dodie Clark's debut EP Intertwined. Already one of my favourite YouTubers and now has an album that you can buy. She's always been a musician that has stuck out to me for her introspective and emotionally honest music. This EP has a nice mixture of upbeat and quirky numbers, but its the slower ballads that really strike with this. Exposing her history and feelings in these songs, taking the pain of her short life, the heartbreaks, the anxieties, the fears. Though what I love mostly is the potential that this all shows. As someone who is also 21 and incredibly introspective on themselves to an unhealthy degree that I so often overthink things, one of the good things that thought pattern has lead me too is that I can see the slow progress in my own artistic expressions and my critical analysis of others and will hopefully constantly improve. And seeing Dodie's music develop over these years and seeing her perfect her sound not only tells me that she is a hard working and talented artist, but with every passing year she becomes better and better.

Others
There isn't really a category for me to put this in, but I wanted to talk more about Bo Burnham's Make Happy. Which fittingly, goes along very well with Dodie's Album. Both young people being introspective and turning pain into absolutely beautiful art. And if turning pain into beauty isn't the perfect bases for art then what is? For Bo he spends most of his stand up special experimenting with his own formula, constantly trying new things, trying to trump people's own expectations of his work, and all of this with the overarching theme of trying to make people happy (As the title would suggest). Referencing his own struggles with depression and plenty self-deprecating jokes, he ends it with a visual spectacle and experimental form of storytelling, while still being hilarious and enforcing the message of the show, ending it by saying "Thank You. Good night. I hope you're happy." then when he is alone he performs one more piano piece asking "On a scale of 1 to 0, are you happy?". I never thought I would describe a stand-up show as beautiful, but that's what this is, it is a beautiful piece of art, it is unique, it is creative, it is hilarious, it is stunning in every capacity. Bo Burnham is one of the best young comedians working today and I can't wait to see what he does next.

-Danny

Goodbye, Carrie Fisher

I don't usually report on celebrity deaths, even in a year like 2016 where everyone to die is someone you love. I mean in a way that is kind of eye opening, seeing as everyone who dies inevitably has someone who has been deeply saddened by it, but I can't think of another year where the public conscience has been this greatly effected. Yet despite that, despite all the great talent, inspiration, and just general great people we've lost this year (Plus all the awful people who have succeeded this year), none have hurt quite as much as Carrie Fisher.

Professionally, Carrie wasn't just a big star in a big franchise. She was a professional. She was in plenty of big films such as When Harry Met Sally, Blues Brothers, Hannah & Her Sisters, etc. She was also a script doctor, working on dozens of films for most of her time in Hollywood, improving dialogue, bettering films, whether it was in front of the camera or behind the camera, Carrie was correcting every film she was a part of.

But I'm not here to talk about her work. I'm here to talk about her as a person. Carrie Fisher was an alcoholic. She was a drug addict. She had a mental illness. She was mocked for decades by the media and the Hollywood system. And you know what she did? She bounced back from all of that. She not only recovered from her problems, but she did everything in her power to help others as well that were going through similar issues. Carrie was honest, she didn't shy away from the issues of her past, or the fact that she got old, instead, she used it as a platform to speak up and help those that were going through similar problems. As a role model for people to know you didn't have to stay at rock bottom. Even if you do suffer from any issues, or if there are people out there that are doing nothing but making your life harder because they are nothing better than pathetic rats, that doesn't have to stop you from being a smart, funny, honest, helpful and overall a good person.

That's what Carrie was. She never shied away from her flaws and because of that, she was able to show the good underneath, She showed how talented she was, how entertaining she was, and how helpful she was. It's one thing for people to look up to Leia because of her bravery, maturity and intellect, but to find out the person behind the character offered that and so much more? That is a true role model.

And it breaks my heart that she's gone.

Carrie Fisher, 1956-2016.

Merry Friggin' Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone, and I truly hope everyone had a good one. With each passing year Christmas seems to get just a little bit more cynical, especially in a year as bad as 2016, and because of that, it can sometimes feel difficult to get into the cheerful mood. But to that I say, never give up. Everyone likes to talk about how commercialized Christmas is, or how the world is so bad how can we pretend it's good? But that's not really the point in Christmas. Christmas isn't about pretending the world is good, it's about making it good. Doing anything you can to make people's days, weeks, lives better in anyway possible, whether that's the people you love the most, the people you wish you spent more time with or even complete strangers. Sometimes that is through material possessions, that's just how some people work. And it's in years as bad as this that we need an event like Christmas more than ever, yes in a perfect world we would be helping each other and be trying to make everyone's days brighter all the time, but we're not, but at least we agreed to one period of time where we should put more effort into it. That's kind of why I wish this holiday wasn't labelled as a religious holiday, and that's something else that fades with every year. Because it's quite ridiculous to just tell one group of people you should be better, it's something we can all learn and all benefit from. Christmas can never really fade, nor should we let it, remember this is a holiday so powerful it stopped a war, just for one day. It's a tradition that shows the best humanity can be capable of, we spend time with family that we don't see as much as we should, it convinces people to go out in hoards and do charity work, it has us listening to sickeningly sweet music, intentionally dress in ugly-yet comfortable-sweaters because it's fun and warming, and if that isn't the spirit of Christmas, I don't know what is.

So this holiday season, have a Merry Christmas, A Happy Hanukkah, A Kick Ass Kwanza and A Festivus for the rest of us.

Happy Holidays,
-Danny

DC TV Weekly #9

This is how you know how good the crossover was, because right now I want every episode of every show to be a crossover. Now that everyone's back in their own shows, it feels like we're missing half the cast, and that makes me sad. Oh, and to add salt to the wound, this is the last week of episodes before the Christmas break, and that makes me even sadder.





The Flash 'The Present' Review
I feel this episode has two perfect examples of fan-service. Good example: Having John Wesley-Shipp and Mark Hamill sharing screentime as Flash and Trickster. Bad example: Anytime Tom Felton mentioned the Philosopher Stone. Something about that made me cringe every time. Also just to prove Savitar is even less interesting than anticipated, they literally give him the same backstory as Reverse Flash. But hey, it's Christmas so let's try and focus on the positives. I will say this was a very well paced episode, getting straight into the action, beating Alchemy very early on and saving most of the episode for character development and plot progression. We get some set up for future events, one friend to betray him, one to die and one a fate worse than death...yeah that has me hooked. We get a scene of Barry witnessing his own future where Iris dies, and honestly that might have been some of the best acting we've seen from Grant Gustin, and he was already one of the best actors in the Arrowverse. Wally gets some good development, he's officially Kid Flash, which means no more scenes of Joe telling him what he can and cannot do because yeahhh that is kinda hypocritical. Also the scenes of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen fighting together were awesome so hopefully we'll get the same with Barry and Wally. Julian and Barry's friendship actually does feel more naturalistic this time round, while earlier it did feel like they were rushing their development, though Barry revealing his secret identity did seem like a rash move. But overall this episode had a huge focus on character development rather than action, and that's always been this shows strength, and I think this might be the first episode in weeks where I wasn't annoyed by anyone. 8/10.

Arrow 'What We Leave Behind' Review
Does this technically make Prometheus the most affective villain Oliver has ever faced? I mean yeah, Deathstroke is probably always going to be the best, but it seems like Prometheus is doing the best job at actually beating Ollie, and besides, he's the only villain that doesn't want to destroy the city along with him, just Ollie. In that respect he's actually quite an interesting villain for the show, and particularly with this episode, he's shown just how good he can be at destroying Ollie's life. Also hey, Laurel is back, how do I put this? No. No-no-no. Absolutely no. Gosh dang seriously what the frick-frack-snick-snack-tic-tac-paddy-wack-give-the-dog-a-bone are they doing? I know there was a joke earlier on in the episode about people coming back to life every other Wednesday, but please, do not make this a thing. Do not bring Laurel back from the grave. Alternate timeline? Sure. Parallel Universe? Makes sense. Hallucination? I can dig it. But do not bring Laurel back from the grave, keep her dead, for the love of god. But hey, that's potential complaining for another day. To focus on what this episode gave us, it had Prometheus being an intimidating villain, we had plenty of emotional moments for Felicity and Curtis, and Ollie blaming himself...again...but this time it's warranted. Solid episode. 8/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'The Chicago Way' Review
Holy shit, the Legion of Doom actually did something, and we got information about where Rip Hunter is, and it only took em half a damn season. Seriously, I know I said I'd prefer it if this show was just fun stand alone adventures, but if you're going to have a season long plot, at least commit to it. But apart from that we got a lot of character focus, the bromance between Nate and Ray...kinda just happened I guess, and the bromance(?) between Mick and Amaya, which is being paced a little better. Either way it's nice to see a lot of character focus. Also Victor Garber, man, if it wasn't obvious this guy was the best actor in the show, that scene of him talking about his new memories of his daughter completely sold me on this subplot that I was not happy about. But that being said, this felt the most underwhelming of the DC Mid-Season Finales. A lot of this felt like set-up that should have been done much earlier in the season and I'm really confused over the Legion time-wise. So this is obviously the modern Malcolm because of his missing hand, and Damian Darhk I'm assuming is the one we see after 1942, but that causes a whole mess of continuity issues, and is this the Eobard after Flashpoint? Some explanation would be appreciated please! But to wrap up, some nice character work and really good performances this week, but everything about the season long plot was either underwhelming or just plain confusing. 7/10.

Well, it's been a lot of fun talking about these shows, but sadly they're now on their winter break, which means so am I. Though lord knows I'll have plenty of DC Property to talk about in the meantime.

-Danny

The Last of Us Part II - Trailer Review

I can't believe I didn't already talk about this, better late than never I suppose. Being honest, I have been hesitant on the idea of a sequel to The Last of Us, mostly because the first game is the closest to perfection a piece of art has ever gotten in my opinion...and that's kind of hard to replicate, even if this game were great (Which I'm sure it will be) that is still nothing against how high I hold the original. Especially when the ending of the game leaves you on such a subtle and thought provoking note that people are still debating over what it means, and I worried a sequel would answer the questions raised there and I don't want it to be answered. I have my thoughts on what the ending means and I don't want to be proven wrong on that. So I've been telling myself for the past 3 years that if they did make another one, I would keep my expectations in check.

Then this goddamn trailer had to come out and get me pumped. It looks beautiful. Obviously graphics wise it's beyond gorgeous, and with Gustavo Santaolalla confirmed to be doing the music again, we know that'll be emotionally crippling. But the shot composition, the pacing, the imagery, the editing, it is all just as perfect as something tied to The Last of Us should be. And it has us asking questions like The Last of Us did, Ellie's only real line "I'm gonna find...and I'm gonna kill...every. last. one of them." Wha-Th-Who is "Them"!? Why does she want to kill them all!? How did we get here!? And people are already speculating that Joel is dead based on this teaser! Which is a fair enough theory, we don't see his face, which instantly creates a disconnect from the audience, plus it's hard to think of what else could cause Ellie to go on a murderous rampage, if not for revenge for Joel, plus she was singing a song all about revenge, so it's a solid theory for a 4 minute trailer.

Even the fact that Ellie is 5 years older, playing guitar, singing, I didn't think there was anything new Ashley Johnson could give us to make this performance even better or developed, but here we are, within just 4 minutes they proved me wrong. I can only hope that's a metaphor for the game, how I assumed there was nothing that they could do anything new for me to fall in love with and they've already done that. Goddamn it Naughty Dog, stop being so good at this.

A week ago, I didn't think this game was going to happen, and I didn't want it too. And in 4 minutes Naughty Dog completely flipped me over and now I cannot wait for this game...and now I will probably have to wait 3 years until I can play it. Fuck.

-Danny

Justice League Action - First Thoughts

Well, the first few episodes of Justice League Action have aired here in the UK, and I thought I don't talk about DC nearly enough on this blog, so I figured I'll give my initial impressions based on the first three episodes. First off, let's talk about the format. Justice League Action, unlike the original Justice League series, doesn't really have a continuous narrative. It consists of 15 minute episodes where Batman, Superman and/or Wonder Woman team up with a fellow DC Superhero and take on the villain of the week. Within these 3 episodes we see them team up with Martian Manhunter to take on Kalathoth, Hawkman to take on Lobo, and Firestorm to take on the Nuclear Family. What I like about this format is how to allows the series to constantly introduce new characters to the thresh hold without having to worry about backstory or exposition. A style that lots of children's shows have these days, rather than explain the world or characters, they just throw you straight into the fold and if you find it interesting enough then you can stick around and slowly learn who these characters are as the series goes on. Something else that this formula really opens itself to is the use of obscure characters, for example the episode with Hawkman also features Patton Oswalt as the Space Cabbie, a character so obscure even I didn't know who he was. But from this one episode I completely fell in love with him, and I can only hope this show has dozens of other weird and loveable characters like that for me to fall in love with.

However, while that style might work in some aspects, in others it just disappoints. Not to compare this too much to Justice League (Both show and comics) but I prefer the serialised storytelling. I like continuous narratives and character development, it helps us connect to the characters and make the world feel connected. If each episode goes from one to another with no sense of continuity then it can risk taking out all investment. Now, to be fair, these are still the first three episodes, there are plenty of shows out there that start off as fun short adventures and develop a complex plot later on. Hell, the best example of this would be another series airing on Cartoon Network, Steven Universe. That show started off just as fun 15 minute adventures with very subtle and minimal hints towards a bigger story that wouldn't be explored until the end of its first season. My hope would be that this show is doing the same and will become more plot driven later on.

The animation is also pleasant, it's stylised enough to make it stand out from all of the other DC Animated Series and the fast paced nature allows for good action and even better physical comedy. If I had to compare it to other superheroes shows I'd say it feels like a mix between the original Teen Titans and the original Powerpuff Girls. The voice acting too is very good, of course Kevin Conroy is amazing, but I'm also really liking Jason S Lewis' portrayal of Superman, while Rachel Kimsey's Wonder Woman...doesn't sound right. I'm not entirely sure what it is, something about the inflections or the personality don't really sound like an Amazonian princess the same way a Susan Eisenberg or Gal Gadot does. But it could just be because I'm not used to it. After all, the reason why I like Lewis' portrayal is because he acts just like George Newbern.

To recap, this cartoon shows a lot of promise, the writing is entertaining, the characters are well represented, the animation of enjoyable. Considering it's competition, within these first three episodes, this series is already 100x better than Teen Titans Go, so anyone who was drawing comparisons just because they're both comedic can go lick a cactus. It has me interested in seeing where it's going to go and I would recommend it.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #8

I feel like for a story this big and epic I should have a better intro prepared, but I honestly can’t think of anything, I just want to get right to it. Heroes Vs Aliens sees the four big DC Shows coming together to take on one big enemy, in this case, aliens. So instead of reviewing these separately like I do usually, let’s take a look at the story overall, so sadly that means little talk of Supergirl.

Something to admire is how with each episode the story felt consistent in tone and writing, but also feeling unique to each show’s style. Flash’s episode had the most over the top science-fiction elements and action scenes, Arrow was more focused on character interactions and emotional payoffs, while Legends was the adventure with the most light-hearted tone. The Dominators themselves were an enjoyable antagonist, even if for the majority of it they felt like a very generic alien invasion plot, their motivations of seeing Meta-Humans as a danger to the entire galaxy and wishing to erase that problem before it begins was a believable enough incentive. Though how they went about this didn’t really make much sense, in fact for a lot of this story it felt like they were stalling up until the final showdown in Legends, but unfortunately those are the type of plot holes you just have to deal with in shows like these.

The DC-TV Universe has always remembered the most important rule of superhero storytelling, the end of the world scenarios are not what drives the plot, the characters are. The heroes fighting aliens should work as an excuse to have these characters come together and explore their own emotional arcs with new perspectives. In other words, it was a chance to see the casts of 4 different shows come together to tell Barry how he fucked up. So let’s talk about that because that was the bit emotional crutch throughout this whole story and was supposed to be his redemption. Barry messing with the timeline has messed with most of these characters, and Cisco had a lot of great points on how just because he feels sorry doesn’t erase his mistakes. Then of course they had to fuck it all up by the end! How? By one: having Cisco fuck up, which for some reason the writers think that instantly makes things better for Barry, no, it just means now Cisco is as bad as him. But two: Barry was the main Meta-Human the aliens wanted because he is the most powerful, so he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone else, but of course they don’t let that happen. Thing is, I don’t feel this was enough, his heart was in the right place and if he had to go that far, he would have sacrificed himself, but we’ve established good intentions aren’t always enough, Barry needed to make some form of sacrifice in order to get redemption in my eyes.

Bizarrely enough, the characters that received the best emotional development were the characters from Arrow. Understandably seeing as this was the 100th episode this would be the one where they put the most effort into it. Besides, they’ve spent 5 years ripping off Batman, why not rip-off Superman for a change? Not that I’m complaining, because ‘The Man Who Has Everything’ storyline is one of the most powerful for character development of any variety (Although technically this was done in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, but Supes did it first). Seeing Team Arrow stuck in a prison in their minds where everything is perfect and having to sacrifice it in order to leave was really effective stuff, particularly for Sara and Thea. It has been established in Legends that Sara would do absolutely anything to save her sister, regardless of the consequences and it came to the other Legends to stop her. Here, we have her facing a variation of her sister and finally coming to grips with her passing and moving on. Thea likewise is the most abrasive to leaving the fantasy because the vigilante lifestyle was never what she wanted. She has normal life, her parents are alive, nothing is necessarily exciting, but it’s not as torturous either. In fact, initially she was going to stay; but then for some reason changes her mind off-screen, so I’m going to assume there was a deleted scene there explaining that.

Though Supergirl as a series didn’t contribute that much to the crossover, I loved having Kara being part of the team; I loved seeing all the different interactions and relationships she develops with all of the other superheroes, especially between her, Barry & Oliver, their personalities just perfectly bounced off of each other and were some of the most entertaining scenes in the crossover. But really, there is no logical reason why she wouldn’t have brought J’onn or Clark along with her to help. They could have at least has a line of dialogue explaining that Cisco & Barry could only be in her universe temporarily and they didn’t have time to contact them, but nope, nothing. Oh well, at least now they have a way to teleport back and forth between universes for plenty of crossovers in the future (Including that musical episode which I am dying to see).

The only character centric plot that I didn’t get that much into was Professor Stein’s daughter, mostly because this just seems really out of nowhere and didn’t feel like it belonged in the crossover. I know I said the character stuff is the hook and not the superfluous battles but…did you really think people would be more interesting in a new dilemma between characters-one of which we’ve never met-instead of superheroes fighting aliens? All of the other character arcs were established prior to the crossover, and between characters we already know and care about. This is something that most certainly could have waited until next week. Oh, speaking of bad characters, Wally actually did something! And wasn’t annoying! Hallelujah it’s a Christmas miracle!

To sum this up, this crossover was everything I wanted it to be. Everything from the emotional character heavy stories, to the popcorn munching action scenes, I enjoyed every minute of it. If they want to make this an annual thing then that might be difficult to constantly find a threat that requires all four shows to team-up, but it’s like I said, the draw are the characters, and even with a 4-part crossover there is still plenty of character dynamics and relationships that they didn’t get a chance to explore. While I am really disappointed with how Barry’s arc ended, and I wish Supergirl’s cast (And show in general) played a bigger part in the crossover, that doesn’t change how fun it was and how much I enjoyed it. 9/10.

-Danny

My Favourite Films - Elf (2003)

Well December is upon us so I guess this is the perfect time to talk about my favourite movies that also happen to fall under the Christmas banner. Unfortunately that is quite a small roster, which is a shame, I love movies, I love Christmas, the two should go hand in hand, yet it so rarely works for me, so expect only several Christmas films to be discussed this holiday season. Now while most people would save their favourite for last, I decided to flip the system and start off by talking about my all-time favourite Christmas film, Elf. The reason why is because this is always the first Christmas film I watch in order to get in the mood, so, let’s begin.

Elf was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Will Ferrell & Zooey Deschanel. It follows the story of Buddy, an orphaned baby who was accidentally kidnapped by Santa Claus and is raised in the north pole thinking he’s an Elf. As he grows up and learns the truth, he sets out to find his real family in New York City. And from there we get a lot of wacky fish out of water scenarios as Buddy doesn’t understand social norms and has to teach his real father (James Caan) the meaning of Christmas, blah blah blah, let’s get to the good stuff.

Now here’s the thing, I am not a Will Ferrell fan. I think a lot of his work is repetitive, lazy improve shrouding as actual comedy when really he’s just shouting nonsense and it baffles me that this has entrapped audiences. Though I guess the majority of his work is harmless, but I really just don’t find it funny at all. With that being said, I absolutely adore the man in this film. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, happiness-is-not-a-bad-character-trait. Seeing Ferrell as Buddy the Elf has got to be one of the most joyous and upbeat characters that seems to find the fun in every scenario he’s in. Everything from spinning in a revolving door, getting his shoe shined, being handed a flyer, the man is having fun with everything he is doing. Two moments that no matter how many times I watch this film always get to me are when he gets run over by the taxi, and when he answers the phone with “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favourite colour?”. Some might say his over excitable nature can get irritating, not for me, I absolutely love him. I think what prevents it from getting annoying-like a lot of Ferrell performances do-is that there is still an emotional depth to the character, he wants to develop a relationship with his family, he wants to understand how things work and he’s a hard working fellow himself. Alright he’s not exactly Rick Deckard, but he’s still a well enough developed character for me to call him a great character. And I’ll be dammed if I don’t choke up every time near the end when Buddy says “I don’t belong anywhere…”

There’s also something to be said for how much physical humour is in this film, again, just looking at the moments mentioned earlier, the taxi moment is funny simply for Buddy’s body language and how his posture barely changes mid-crash. Or with the phone call, he doesn’t just rush to the phone, he full on dives for it. Or when Deschannel is yelling at him to get out of the shower, he just covers his eyes like a child and runs straight into the lockers. The more I analyse what comedy works for me, the more I realise slapstick might be my favourite form of comedy because it is very difficult to do, especially in live action, so when it works, it really works.

One aspect of this film that people don’t really talk about-and understandable why because it isn’t really one of those aspects that come to mind-are the special effects. Favreau is notable for being very anti-CG at this point in his career, something he would obviously have a change in heart once he got to Iron Man. So the opening of this film is not only a nice tribute to the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion Christmas specials, but also gives the film a very unique style in our modern day sensibilities of film making. But the tributes don’t stop there, one of the stop motion characters is actually voices by Ray Harryhausen of all people, ain’t that a nice little treat? On top of the stop-motion there’s a lot of use of forced perspectives in order to create the effect of Buddy being bigger than all of the other elves. Wow, whoda thought Elf the Christmas movie would be a visually complex and stunning film?

But on top of judging it as a film in it’s own right, how does it work as a Christmas film? Because I live in the firm belief that it’s not just enough to have you film take place at Christmas. Christmas isn’t a place or time, it’s a feeling, a sense of community, an ideology. The idea that in a time of cold miserable weather and people reflecting on the past year, why not spend this time with the people you love and want to spend more time with? A time that says you should try and spread as much joy as possible to both people in your life, as well as complete strangers, just because we all universally agreed that this is a time where we should all be happy and help one another. Hm, maybe that’s why I don’t love that many Christmas films, because there are so few that actually represent that. Elf, is most certainly a film that represents that feeling. In fact it might do it better than most because it also discusses the cynicism that comes with the holiday season. Not everyone does see it as a time of goodwill and peace on Earth, but as a commercialisation that glorifies capitalism, or a forced religious ideology down our throats-even if Christmas loses its Christian ties with each passing year, and for good reason if you ask me.

Elf acknowledges not everyone gets into the Christmas spirit, for one reason or another, people don’t get all that excited, and honestly with the more time that passes, yeah that magic disappears quicker and quicker. The internet exposes kids to a lot more information at a very young age, and in some ways that’s a good thing, but in other ways it means it isn’t, in this case the whole charade of Santa Claus goes faster than it used to. Now sure there are plenty of films that talk about this these days, but they didn’t a decade ago, and certainly not in family films, and even for the ones that did tackle it, they didn’t do it as successful as Elf did it. True, every generation is going to have its Scrooges and Grinches that’ll find someway to take out the joy of Christmas, after all those two aren’t used as examples because they roll off the tongue, but this was the film that tackled it from a modern sensibility. And of course like A Christmas Carol or How The Grinch Stole Christmas, they resolve it in the best way possible, by reaffirming how the Christmas spirit can be brought back, in this case, not through a great implausible deed, or life changing epiphany, but just by singing a damn Christmas Carol. But wait, doesn’t that mean the Jim Carrey Grinch also tackled this? No! Don’t you dare bring up that piece of shit movie!

Sadly it seems this “Lack of Christmas spirit” thought pattern is getting stronger and stronger each year, and it’s not even that people are anti-Christmas, but they’re not exactly pro-Christmas either, and that’s just as bad. Which is probably why we don’t get as many Christmas films these days, and even rarer we get a good one. I can only think of one legitimately great Christmas film, though I’m not going to mention it by name, because I’m going to feature it later on this month. Frankly, I miss Christmas films. I miss films that’s entire purpose is to spread joy, tell entertaining stories and hopefully inspire people to get in the Christmas spirit. Elf is one of those movies. It has an insanely loveable lead (And the best performance from Will Ferrell), really creative visuals, memorable dialogue, great comedy and a real sense of Christmas spirit behind it. It’s my all time favourite Christmas film and one of my favourites in general.

Merry Christmas

-Danny