Christmas Film Season
December 1st - December 10th
It’s hard finding something to watch in December, endlessly scrolling through Netflix, trying to find a Christmas movie you haven’t seen too recently. Back in the ‘80s, the BBC would usually run December film seasons, so we’ve decided to create our own. A season of films all based round a theme - this year, New York - getting increasingly Christmassy as we reach the 25th. Every day is lightly themed, but the idea is to treat it like a TV schedule. If we’re in and need something to watch, we’ll watch something that’s programmed for that day.
And we figured we might not be alone in this need, so we’re sharing it with you. This is just the first few - the season will run up to 24th December.
This year’s season: New York on film
Sunday 1st December: Superhero city
Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942)
My childhood memory is of Tarzan swinging through the urban jungle like a loin-cloth clad Batman, but this may be unwatchably racist by this point.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/tarzans-new-york-adventure
The Shadow (1994)
The original urban avenger and a big influence on Batman, here played by a young Alec Baldwin in one of those early-’90s superhero movies rushed out after Tim Burton’s Batman was such a success
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-shadow
Birdman* (2014)
Speaking of which, here’s Michael Keaton as an actor trying to rehabilitate his career after finding fame playing a superhero.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/birdman
Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)
Probably should be the second Tobey Maguire film, but let’s go full Michael Keaton evening with him as The Vulture and famous historian Tom Holland as the echt New York superhero, ol’ Web-head himself.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/spider-man-homecoming
TV chaser
Netflix’s Daredevil, specifically the corridor fight in Season 1, Episode 2. For Christmas atmosphere there’s always the Hawkeye show.
Monday 2nd December: This little homunculus
My Dinner with Andre* (1981)
Wallace Shawn has dinner with André Gregory. I have no idea who that is, but this film has been so consistently referenced and spoofed down the years that I feel I have to see it.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/my-dinner-with-andre
Manhattan (1979)
A middle aged man dating a teenaged girl falls in love with his best friend’s mistress. That whole ‘dating a teenage girl’ plot line has always been uncomfortable, but can you really have a New York film season without that opening sequence?
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/manhattan
TV chaser
Wallace Shawn was in a couple of episodes of Taxi, so there we go.
Tuesday 3rd December: Money is murder
American Psycho (2000)
I want to check to see if this movie mentions Q magazine. I feel Patrick Bateman would have a complete collection. Which I also did in the late ‘80s, tbf
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/american-psycho
Wall Street (1987)
Michael Douglas teaches Charlie Sheen that Greed is Good. Martin Sheen, typecast as Charlie’s father, disapproves.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/wall-street
Wednesday 4th December: New York Dystopia
The Warriors (1979)
Inspired by Xenophon’s Anabasis, a New York gang have to make their way home through enemy territory. Lin Manuel Miranda is making a musical out of it, I believe.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-warriors
Escape from New York (1981)
Post-apocalyptic classic in which Kurt Russell has to rescue President Donald Pleasance from a Manhattan that has been turned into a vast open air prison.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/escape-from-new-york
Thursday 5th December: Its a man’s world
His Girl Friday (1940)
Ah, Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson, the original fast-talking, wise-cracking dame, juggling a new beau (he looks just like Ralph Bellamy), old flame Cary Grant and a scoop on a juicy murder.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/his-girl-friday
Tootsie (1982)
The original ‘you can get hired as a straight white man these days’ moan: Dustin Hoffman as a failed actor who drags up and becomes a star. Partly in memory of the late Teri Garr.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/tootsie
TV chaser
I haven’t seen Rhoda in years
Friday 6th December: Nobody steps on a church in my town
King Kong (1933)
A good deal of this movie takes place on Skull Island, where the protagonists have gone to capture King Kong. But then they bring the poor lad to the big city, he goes ape and you know the rest.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/king-kong-1933
Hellboy (2004)
Ron Perlman gruffs it up as Big Red, a good guy demon fighting undead Nazis and Lovecraftian monsters in the sewers of New York
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/hellboy
Ghostbusters II (1989)
In which the horror actually is Manhattan as a supernatural slime feeds off the negative emotions of New Yorkers.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/ghostbusters-ii
Saturday 7th December: Broadway!
42nd Street (1933)
The star of a Broadway show breaks her ankle and the understudy has to go on! Happens all the time.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/42nd-street
Fame (1980)
The kids at the New York High School for Performing Arts start paying. In sweat.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/fame
The Producers (1968)
A shady producer and a wily accountant try and scam theatre investors with a terrible musical. Springtime for Hitler, winter for Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-producers-1967
TV chaser
Fame the TV series, of course
Sunday 8th December: Scorcese, of coursese
Gangs of New York (2002)
A little bit of history with the gangs of nineteenth century New York, inspired by Herbert Asbury’s excellent history of the Manhattan underworld and machine politics of the nineteenth century.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/gangs-of-new-york
New York, New York (1977)
It’s the got the song, its De Niro and Liza and we haven’t seen it in years.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/new-york-new-york
Goodfellas (1990)
All his life Henry Hill wanted to be a gangster. But maybe it wasn’t as great as he thought.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/goodfellas
Monday 9th December: Ring for the butler
My man Godfrey (1936)
Socialite Carole Lombard hires a homeless man, William Powell, to be her butler and then starts to fall in love with him. There’ll be more William Powell later, in The Thin Man of course.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/my-man-godfrey
Arthur (1981)
Dud as a millionaire alcoholic falls for a working woman from Queens. With a Chris Cross theme tune that every Gen Xer knows by heart.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/arthur
Tuesday 10th December: Jack Lemmon
Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
Jimmy Stewart falls for his next door neighbour Kim Novak, who turns out to be an actual witch. Features Jack Lemmon as a hipster warlock.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/bell-book-and-candle
The Odd Couple (1968)
Lemmon and Matthau as old friends who are forced to live together and discover their characters are entirely incompatible.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-odd-couple
…don’t worry, The Apartment is coming later in December, when this film season gets properly Christmassy.
The next part of the season will be coming on the 10th December.
Our mission to find fresh Christmas content has also resulted in us creating our own Christmas Stories. Metropolitan editor writes a new one every year and regular contributor reads it as a podcast. You find this year’s here:
