Three Movies Worth Watching

 

by Pa Rock

Television Junkie

Over the holidays I came across several really good movies streaming on the idiot box, and three in particular on Netflix that I felt were worthy of a mention.  

The first, El Camino Christmas, is a well-written and superbly-acted 2017 story of a group of hard luck individuals who inadvertently come together in a liquor store shootout and hostage situation on Christmas Eve.  All of the people trapped in the store are quirky and lovable in their own way, even the one with the gun, but two are standouts:  Vincent D'Onofrio as an overweight bully and drunkard deputy sheriff, and Tim Allen who plays a drunken Vietnam vet who can't believe his good luck at getting trapped inside of a liquor store.   There is great chemistry among the cast, and it is an exceptional tale well told.  I am adding it to my list of favorite Christmas movies - with the other two on the list being The Ref and Home Alone.

The second movie, also a comedy/drama, is White Noise, which is based on a novel by Don DeLillo.  It tells the story of a large blended family in a university town whose members are struggling to function as one family unit while surviving and outrunning an environmental disaster that suddenly descends on their community.  The father (of some of the children) is a professor of Hitler Studies who believes all of the world's problems eventually resolve themselves, and the mother (of the other children) is overly-focused on her own mortality.  When the disaster strikes, they jump into the family station wagon, and, in a roadtrip somewhat reminiscent of a Griswold family vacation, seek safety and salvation among the fleeing masses.  The critics seemed to generally pan this cinematic effort, but I found it to be a fascinating story that was very engaging and entertaining.  Take that for what you will.

The third movie that captured my attention over the holidays is The Guilty, a psycho-drama that is essentially a one-man show starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a cop who has been assigned a "desk duty" of manning a telephone at a crisis hotline.  Gyllenhaal's character, who is due to go on trial the following morning over a shooting incident that could result in the loss of his job and prison time, is also beset with family issues including a broken marriage and the potential loss of contact with his young daughter.  All of that background comes into play as he becomes engaged in a call with a woman who appears to be being held captive by an abusive boyfriend.  It is taut and engrossing, and Gyllenhaal's performance is a mesmerizing tour-de-force.  The Guilty is a movie that will not leave you unaffected!

While each of those movies provided exceptionally good holiday entertainment, they would also work fine in January as we hunker in the bunker patiently awaiting the arrival of spring.  And for those whose passions run toward British fare, and British police procedurals in particular, Prime has just brought out season seven of BBC's  Vera, and season eight of Masterpiece's Endeavor, so there is absolutely no excuse for not spending the rest of the winter vegetating on the couch!

Add more butter to the popcorn, more marshmallows to the hot chocolate, and make this January one of comfort and contentment.