‘You know, it doesn’t normally snow on Christmas Eve.’ So says Joan Cusacks’ local, tin-foil wearing narrator as Let it Snow, Netflix’s latest entry to the festive canon, opens. Any slim chance that this might be some ironic nod to the fact that it always snows on Christmas Eve in films such as this dissipates rapidly. This is earnest, predictable material, carved from an algorithmic record of past successes. It’s woke Love Actually for the streaming generation, chockablock with YA stars and extracts from the Richard Curtis back catalogue. There’s no depth nor visceral meaning whatsoever here but it’s likeable enough in bite-size skits.
Released almost exactly a year to the day, and now snuggly nestled on Sky Cinema, Anna and the Apocalypse boasts one stellar song. Seriously, it’s a total ear worm. You’ll know the one when you see it. That’s not to dismiss the rest of the pop light soundtrack as entirely lacking – there are zinging lyrics throughout – but rather to highlight quite how successful this bandstand centrepiece really is. Around it, the film is likeable, well cast and impressively produced. The jokes land and story holds up. If every element were as superlatively strong as said song, Anna would be an instant classic. It’s hard not to see it finding long term cult success nonetheless.
This latest offering from Hangover trilogy director Todd Philips doesn’t half get the mind going. Having earned rapturous applause from the Venice International crowd, Joker has since met critique for its crude depiction of mental health suffering and inciting of violence. Perhaps such attacks take the situation too seriously – tonal murk aside, Joker is a superhero film – but there is no smoke without fire. As a work of cinema, meanwhile, the film does impress. Philips’ direction is smart and his production handsome. Yet, the real trump card here is an immersed central turn by Joaquin Phoenix. And that’s no joke.
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