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On Friday nights (and holidays!), IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
For December 2024, we’re celebrating the end of the year with a stocking full of Strange Holiday TV Specials and Seasonal Midnight Movies.
First, read the BAIT: a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film. Then, try the BITE: a breakdown of the movie’s ending, impact, and any other spoilers you’d want.
When “Last Christmas” hit theaters shortly before the pandemic, critics roasted the holiday rom com at such high heat they made “chestnuts on an open fire” sound chilly. That’s a shame, but maybe the best thing that could have happened to Universal’s all-time ode to cinematic whiplash. Five years later, it’s a new cult classic in the making — perfect for midnight, even if IndieWire gave it a “C+” review.
Starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding (then moving on from buzzy roles in “Game of Thrones” and “Crazy Rich Asians”), this surprisingly disturbing meet-cute from 2019 pairs a great cast with the sinfully fun direction of Paul Feig. The marketing promises a fizzy and flirty seasonal aperitif that the filmmaker can only partly deliver. A truly bonkers script, co-written by Bryony Kimmings and Emma Thompson (who also appears!), charges the characteristically campy Feig with pulling off a twist that is so summarily shocking not even Rudolph Blake Lively in a “A Simple Favor” could see it coming.
With an internet reputation that precedes it, “Last Christmas” and its jarring narrative trajectory are better left unspoiled for anyone who has successfully dodged them thus far. Still, cozy newcomers watching in honor of the holiday — and/or the film’s five-year anniversary — should prepare for a heart-stopping emotional journey with a hairpin turn so sharp it flung off much of the movie’s intended audience.
This woefully misunderstood chick flick adapts seasonal George Michael lyrics into a bizarre romance. When gift shop “elf” Kate (a wonderfully messy Clarke with extra eyeliner) crosses paths with mysterious do-gooder Tom (a typically dashing Golding, often on a bike), the ill-fated lovers embark on a soul-searching epic that could just as well be titled “A Christmas Carol for Troubled Women in Their Thirties.” Can Tom give Kate back her Christmas spirit? Can Kate figure out anything about Tom… at all?
Based on a ridiculous but also gonzo idea by Thompson (which she reportedly discussed with music legend Michael before his death on Christmas Day in 2016), the pop-inspired two-hander is set in London during the Yule season, and for a time seems traditional. Thompson became a holiday icon thanks to her role opposite Alan Rickman in “Love Actually,” and the British actress knows how to write those beats into a relationship arc with feeling. She fleshes out Kate’s world well, giving her a wildly entertaining boss in the form of Michelle Yeoh and casts herself as the protagonist’s immigrant mother.
But more than twinkling lights, ice-skating, friends, or family, “Last Christmas” goes for broke with a big reveal you’ll want to unwrap yourself. Whether it leaves you in tears — or stitches — Thompson and Feig’s so-called flop is a festive oddity fringe film lovers will think about all year.
“Last Christmas” is now streaming on Max and available to buy/rent on VOD platforms.
“Last Christmas” by Wham! was released in 1984. In subsequent decades, it has risen to become one of the most popular holiday songs of all time. Adored by millions, covered by countless artists, with a chorus as recognizable as Santa Claus himself. Who knew this was the anthem of organ donation?
And yet, that literal interpretation is what makes this sideways “It’s a Wonderful Life” remix so jaw-dropping. “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart”? Fair enough. “The very next day, you were… resting in the cardiac wing”? That’s not what anyone else was thinking, but here’s hoping TV’s Emilia Clarke gets well soon.
Not since that dog stole a heart in “One Tree Hill” has an organ donation plot come so far out of left field — but that’s what makes Thompson’s misfire the ideal stocking stuffer for After Dark. The gift that keeps on giving, this well-intentioned bait and switch offers all the fun of a romantic comedy with the emotion of life-and-death (and after death) drama. The result is a chunky supernatural experiment that feels like the pottery studio from “Ghost” was relocated to “Notting Hill” and taken over by emotionally unavailable elves.
According to Thompson, the outrageous plot was approved by Michael before his passing and reflects the important role he played in British pop culture. From Kate’s subplot volunteering at a shelter for the unhoused to all those then-topical asides about Brexit, “Last Christmas” aims to capture the late singer’s charitable legacy and social impact. Only the foremost Wham! scholars can tell you if Thompson achieves that, but open-minded cinephiles should appreciate the style Feig brings to her attempt.
It’s the thought that counts, and no doubt this head-scratcher gifts midnight audiences plenty to think about. Would Kate and Tom have dated if they had met in the tinsel and fire of real life? How did Kate find his apartment if she never knew him? What was Tom’s plan with that whole “I lock my phone in a cabinet” thing? Will Michelle Yeoh get caught for insurance fraud, or will she be around for the “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” spinoff?
Still, those questions work for the right midnight viewer. Love stories and ghost stories are both holiday staples. As earnest as it is out of its mind, “Last Christmas” succeeds if only because it makes you feel like you should’ve seen this Frankenstein coming with his heart on his sleeve — or someone else’s.
IndieWire After Dark publishes midnight movie recommendations every Friday night. Read more of our deranged suggestions…
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The below contains spoilers for “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Babygirl.”
Santa is delivering not one but two iconic Nicole Kidman performances this year: Just as Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” celebrates its 25th anniversary, Kidman returns to the psychosexual drama genre with Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” in theaters on December 25 to stuff your stocking with.
Sure, Kidman may allegedly be 25 years older (truly, she hasn’t aged a day), but both films are bookends to Kidman’s devotion to risky roles, especially those in films set during the sexual frustrations of the festive holiday season. There’s a reason why “Babygirl” is critically considered as a surrogate sequel to “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Without any real spoilers — although we’re still including a disclaimer above as a gift to you — here’s our guide to getting the most out of the Ho Ho Nicole season. And if you don’t check this list twice, expect to receive Nic-coal instead.
Take a sip or a swig each time Tom Cruise gets shut down with sexual advances, all while his wife is reveling in the possibility of affairs, both real and imagined. There’s a reason why the final line from Kidman’s Alice Harford is that they finally will “fuck.”
We know that Kidman promotes AMC, but really, any theater will do. Heartbreak and sex usually feel good in most places like this.
Kidman’s legendary strut from “Eyes Wide Shut” is emulated in the opening sequence of “Babygirl” where Romy (Kidman) exits the bedroom where her husband (Antonio Banderas) sleeps post-coital to masturbate in her office. Romy slithers onscreen in a slinky nightgown, before laying down on a carpet as she watches BDSM porn. This is before Harris Dickinson’s character enters the film, obviously…
Kidman reflected on her similar “Eyes Wide Shut” scene that was rife with “mischief” and her signature “provocative nature,” as Kidman told the Los Angeles Times.
“The scene where I drop the dress … that was me. That wasn’t written. That was my dress from my closet,” Kidman said of the sequence shot during the two-year production of the film. “‘This is how I take off the dress, Stanley.’ Because I had a lot of clothes, we weren’t paying to buy clothes. And Stanley had come over and I was showing him all these beautiful dresses. That’s how that happened.”
OK, so now you’ve watched “Babygirl.” Take a breath, congratulate writer/director Halina Reijn for her feat, and embrace just how amazing of an actress Kidman is. Now, after a few minutes, did you think it was a “disturbing” film? Is “Eyes Wide Shut” even?
And here we reach the Christmas dinner discussion we’ve been waiting for: As your family slices and dices a ham or a roast or whatever you fancy this holiday, ask what their thoughts are on both portrayals of marriage, desire, and feminism.
Kidman herself has already ushered in this conversation.
“There are many women who are going, ‘Well, I’ve done this, I’ve got children, I’ve got this husband, and what do I actually want? Who am I and what are my desires? Do I have to pretend to be something else for people to love me?’” Kidman said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s very releasing, this film. I hope it is. I’ve had some people say it’s the most disturbing film they’ve ever seen, which I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m so sorry.'”
No need to apologize: This is what the holidays are all about.