TV

Alan Carr's 12 Stars of Christmas
Episode 5 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Doctor Who
36x00 The Return of Doctor Mysterio [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great Christmas Bake Off
Episode 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
[#188 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part V: Christmas Adventures edited by David Marcum
The Ballad of the Carbuncle by Ashley D. Polasek

Oh dear.

Music

Amy Macdonald's Christmas Special
Scottish songstress Amy Macdonald plays a few songs wearing a Star Wars Christmas jumper. Awesome.

this week on 100 Films

Merry Christmas, dear readers! As it falls on a Sunday this year, it remains time for my weekly update on goings on at 100 Films in a Year -- which at least includes a couple of seasonal features among the 4 brand-new reviews that were published this week...


Come Together (2016)

Anderson pitches the tone just right. Rather than making a four-minute festival of sappiness that rots your brain with its generic sugary sentiment, or a music video for a slow breathy cover of a once-famous song, or a long build-up to a cheap punchline, Anderson instead brings his own familiar style to a brief narrative that comes to a surprisingly heartwarming conclusion.

Read more here.


The Present (2014)

The simple story sees a videogame-obsessed boy given a mysterious box by his mother. Distracted long enough to open it, inside he finds a puppy, and… well, the film’s only four minutes long — you’re better off watching it than having me describe the story.

Read more here.


Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

The first live-action non-saga movie to take us to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, this initial entry in what is sure to be a never-ending series of so-called “Anthology” movies really puts the “War” into Star Wars.

Read more here.


Wizardhood (2016)

So how exactly do you go about making such a huge reduction? Is it just a really, really long “previously on”-style montage? No, thank goodness, it isn’t. What editor Tim Stiefler has produced is less an abridgement and more a complete retelling of the Potter story. His cut doesn’t even attempt to tell whole swathes of the story, instead ditching them entirely. Stiefler has clearly tried to make a film out of this material, not just a long précis of the story.

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 1 more posts...


Young Adam (2003)

Part murder mystery, part beat character study, part erotic drama, Young Adam is an enigmatic, moody, conflicted film — in a good way. It presents a grimily realistic view of life and sex, around which writhes a murder mystery that, as it turns out, doesn’t contain a murder and, relatively quickly, isn’t much of a mystery.

Read more here.


And that's #100! It's not over, though, because I'll be posting some kind of wrap-up.


As always, more next Sunday.