Gen X'ers remember a time when animated Christmas specials were worth
waiting all year to watch (and they were called Christmas specials at the
time). Of course, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown was the king of
“holiday specials.” Kids in the 1980s and early 1990s even looked forward to
the Dolly Madison commercials. Obviously, streaming changed the way viewers
relate to media. “Specials” maybe no longer seem as special when they are
viewable 24-7-365. Yet, the quality can still be special, or not. This holiday
season, Disney+ released two holiday specials of varying degrees of specialness.
In
a way, David Lowery’s An Almost Christmas Story (Oscar-qualified,
but not shortlisted for Best Animated Short) indirectly revisits the question
whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie when the Folksinger
narrator ponders whether a Christmas setting is sufficient to make a Christmas
story. In this case, the answer should be yes, given the extent of the
Christmas trappings.
Having
recently discovered his flying ability, the growing owl chick Little Moon shows
far too much enthusiasm and not enough caution. After accidentally wrecking his
nest, Moon tries to redeem himself gathering twigs, making himself a target for
a predatory bird of prey. Barely surviving with a wounded wing, he waits for
his frustrated father to rescue him. However, he takes refuge in the giant tree
bound for Rockefeller Plaza, just as they start chopping.
Suddenly,
Little Moon finds himself in the strange world of New York, overlooking
ice-skaters like young Luna. (Presumably, he must somehow have slept through
all the mediocre pop stars performing at tree lighting ceremony, so he is
luckier than he realizes.) Nevertheless, he is quite alarmed, especially since
the trio of street-smart pigeons led by the tough-talking Pat (Natasha Lyonne,
almost, but not quite laying on the gruffness too thickly) greet him with
suspicion and hostility rather than compassion. (Naturally, Phil Rosenthal of Somebody
Feed Phil has instant credibility as Punt, the pigeon who only thinks about
food). However, Little Moon and Luna learn they share an affinity beyond their
names.
Partially
inspired by Rocky, the owl discovered in the 2020 Rockefeller Center tree, An
Almost Christmas doesn’t even get to Christmas. It only takes place during
the lead-up. However, Little Moon’s desire to return home (for the holidays) is
a classic Christmas theme. The use of the Folksinger (warmly performed by the
just folksy-enough John C. Reilly) as an on-camera narrator, sort of like Jimmy
Durante in Frosty the Snowman, is another staple of holiday specials.
The
third Christmas short produced by Alfonso Cuaron for Disney+, An Almost
Christmas Story was computer animated in a style that emulates various stop
motion techniques. Appropriately, it has a woody, textured vibe that evokes the
owls’ forest environment. Even the character design reflects the wood-work
effect, like Moon’s eyes, which charmingly suggest tree-rings.
The
resulting visual style is quite distinctive, while the story qualifies as
endearing. As a result, An Almost Christmas Story passes the Christmas
special test, even though most of its characters do not know what Christmas is.
In
contrast, The Simpsons: O C’mon All Ye Faithful talks all about Christmas,
but its holiday spirit feels rather Grinchy. Technically, this is episode
S36E10 (featuring all the regular continuing members, who should be able to
voice their characters in their sleep, by this point), but it has the
distinction of being the first Simpsons programming to premiere on
Disney+ rather than Fox.
Good news Jafar Panahi’s pet iguana Iggy is still living happily in his
Tehran flat. We last saw Iggy in Panahi’s This is Not a Film, the banned Iranian filmmaker’s secretly produced film documenting his life under house
arrest. Since then, Panahi’s digital minimalist approach to filmmaking became a
model for filmmakers stuck inside during Covid lock-downs, so he was naturally
recruited as an executive producer and a contributor to the quarantine-themed
anthology, The Year of the Everlasting Storm, which opens today in New
York.
To
a large extent, Panahi’s “Life” effectively functions as a sequel to This is
Not a Film, since it shares the same setting and straight-forward documentary
approach. Arguably, it is the lightest-weight of Panahi’s films, but the
appealing personalities of the Panahi family make it a pleasant viewing
experience. More than anything, it is about the family’s efforts to keep in
touch during the CCP pandemic. He also rather remarkably ends it on an upbeat
note, which radically distinguishes it from the rest of the anthology’s constituent
films.
In
contrast, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s “The Break Away” dramatizes the
tensions and frictions that develop when families are confined with each other.
Zhou Dongyu and Zhang Yu portray parents locked-down in Tongzhou, China, who
are quickly beset by financial pressures and regular couples’ issues. By now,
it represents a familiar looking pandemic drama, but it is well played and
executed.
Malik
Vittal’s “Little Measures” is essentially an extended news report documenting a
family separated during the Covid era, for non-Covid reasons, dressed up with
some hip graphics. It is well-intentioned, but not very substantial.
For
better or worse, Laura Poitras’s “Terror Contagion” certainly sticks out from
the rest of the film, like a sore-thumb. The helmer of Citizenfour spent
a good deal of her lockdown trying to dig up dirt on the Israeli spyware firm NSO,
with her colleagues in the muckraking collective, Forensic Architecture.
They
claim to trace NSO’s fingerprints over all sorts of hacking and surveillance,
but strictly speaking, they do not present any proof. Perhaps most notably, they
claim NSO is complicit in the Saudi assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. If that
is true, think about the implications: Saudi government elements working in
concert with an Israeli company. Maybe there’s hope for peace in the Middle
East after all.
Yet,
Poitras and her colleagues make some points a lot of viewers might not want to
hear. They discovered NSO has repurposed their software and pitched it to local
governments for the purpose of contact tracing. The truth is the pandemic’s
potential to erode civil liberties is truly terrifying. Perversely, the ACLU
just endorsed vaccine mandates, as “a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and
bodily integrity.” At this point, how likely are they to object if state and
local government starts contracting NSO’s contact-tracing services? Hopefully,
Poitras and company would, which makes “Terror Contagion” valuable just for
raising such issues. They just should have made a real case, instead of assuming
viewers would take their word for it.
