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Movies & Television by Aphua Larbi
In the New Year, there are several resolutions we make to be better. What those resolutions are look like different things to different people. In this new year, I am sharing shows and movies that I particularly enjoyed watching. A lot of the movies are feel good movies because the real world is tiring as it is.
Pachinko
I started watching this show by chance and from the first moment the show draws me in.Pachinko is based on a best-selling books and some of my favourite things to watch were created from books. This show is a Korean show in 3 different languages which can be a lot to follow but I particularly enjoyed that feature of it.
Pachinko follows a Korean immigrant family across four generations as they leave their homeland in their search for a place to survive and thrive. The story is heartbreaking in a lot of ways but also gives us little pockets of joy with the characters. Also, the show has one of the best opening montages I’ve ever seen; I never skip it.
The Best Man Holiday
Black love, check. Secrets being outed, check. More drama than necessary, check. Christmas spirit, check, check, and check. When the 1st Best Man movie came out, I had to sneak to watch it because my older siblings effectively banned me from it. Thank God for this sequel. This movie sees old friends reuniting for the first time after 15 years for Christmas. I love that we see all the couples, older and celebrating how far they’ve come. However, it wouldn’t be the same if there wasn’t some drama, and did they deliver on the drama??? This movie is really great to watch with your significant other but make sure you don’t have secrets of your own.
Black Mirror – White Christmas
I know what you’re thinking. Why would I include Black Mirror? This particular episode takes place on Christmas Day, and that makes it a Christmas show to watch damn it. Black Mirror is a dystopian show and this episode is no different. Two men wake up in a remote cabin and begin to recount their life stories, each sharing their own disturbing, gruesome tale. As they both finally open up about why they’re in the cabin, which is presumably a place of punishment, a surprise plot twist makes us question everything we watched.
This particular entry is very anti-holiday cheer but I think it makes for great Christmas viewing for folks who don’t really feel like Christmas. Also, who doesn’t like Jon Hamm?
Sylvie’s Love
I’ll admit this isn’t a ‘normal’ Christmas movie but I first watched this movie in Christmas 2020 and it felt like home. 2020 was a weird, crazy, not-so-terrible but terrible year and.somehow, watching this movie around Christmas made me happy that something great came out of the year. This movie is a rom-com through and through. I especially love all the great music it introduced me to and ones I rediscovered. Also, I watched this before Bridgerton, so I got a double dose of Rege-Jean Page.
Sylvie’s Love follows Sylvie who has a summer romance with a saxophonist who takes a summer job at her father’s record store in Harlem. When they reconnect years later, they discover that their feelings for each other have not faded with the years.
Eyes Wide Shut
I. Love. This. Movie. It takes place around Christmas so it’s a Christmas movie. I have stated this already and, besides, I don’t make the rules. This movie is Stanley Kubrick’s last offering to the world and, boy, does it deliver. A lot of people give this movie a lot of flack because of the choice to cast Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman but, to be fair, they were dating at the time.
Eyes Wide Shut explores individual desires and marital tensions all wrapped up in the bright lights of Christmas. This movie isn’t appropriate to watch with the family because there are a lot of adult scenes and even an orgy scene but it’s a fantastic watch. Also, it’s a great movie for conspiracy theorists everywhere. After all, Stanley Kubrick died after he finished the movie. What at all could that possibly mean?
Severance
What would you do for work-life balance is seemingly answered in this Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller. The show follows characters who sever their work selves from their everyday selves in order to work for a company, Lumon Industries, that eerily feels like an early Apple company. When we meet Mark S, we find out that he’s lost his wife and that was one of the apparent reasons why he got severed.
By his interactions with his colleagues, we feel that something is not quite right as the company. Through certain twist and revelations, we are enthralled with the characters till it delivers a truly jaw-dropping season 1 finale. A lot of people balk at the idea of a slow burn thriller but this show peels the layers carefully that when it ends you can’t help but look forward to the next episode. Also, John Torturro and Christopher Walken deliver some of my favourite performances in this show.
There’s a lot to keep you busy and out of trouble this year
Ted Lasso – ‘Carol of the Bells’ (Season 2 Episode 4)
I am a huge Ted Lasso fan and this Christmas episode holds such a special place in my heart. I’ve seen it twice already and, best believe, I’m adding it to my Christmas watchlist. It has everything that makes Ted Lasso great and then adds Christmas cheer. My favourite part was watching the Richmond players impose on Higgins and how he took it in stride. That’s my idea of Christmas; friends and family coming over to your house and just being grateful.
This episode also fed into the greater narrative of what Ted Lasso is about; the “found family”. I love when shows and movies show us that family is so much more than the people we’re related to by blood.
