Jesse told me of this fine, weird Christmas season post. It contains great musical recommendations, harsh film pointers (The Lion in Winter!), and inspired verse:
Maybe later we can make a snowman
We can make the snowman be our slave
Put the magic hat on and say, “Go, Man!”
Send all of our victims to their graves!
Our family favorite for the winter solstice remains: The Wicker Man (1973).
We rarely blog about holidays, here at Infocult (except a couple of Easters ago), but will keep a Gothic eye on them from now on.
Check out "One Magic Christmas." Sentimental at the end, but I don't care and you may not either. High points: mother as Scrooge in a great performance by Mary Steenburgen, best North Pole ever with a delightfully absent-minded Santa, and Harry Dean Stanton as a harmonica-playing Christmas angel. What's not to like?
Posted by: Gardner | December 14, 2005 at 08:57
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089731/ ? Never even heard of it. Roger Ebert is glum about it (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19851122/REVIEWS/511220301/1023), but I'll give it a try.
Posted by: Bryan | December 14, 2005 at 17:30
I do respect Ebert's opinion quite a bit--he's done some great shot-by-shot workshops at the Virginia Festival of Film--but he has a few blind spots. He doesn't like the Coen Brothers, for example. Even "Raising Arizona" and "Miller's Crossing" don't do it for him. Go figure.
Ebert's critique of the movie's darkness is fair. (His one-liner on Stanton is just rimshot bait.) No, the movie isn't for all tastes, and probably it doesn't make sense on all levels, but I find it very imaginatively satisfying. I guess I'm a "One Magic Christmas" cultist. Pass the snowglobe.
Posted by: Gardner | December 15, 2005 at 16:29