Author: Jeff Mitchell

12 days of not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’

Jeff Mitchell

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999) – Christmas in New York City brings images of Rockefeller Center, ice skating and shopping on 5th Avenue.  Stanley Kubrick’s last film takes place at Christmastime, but this “holiday story” explores infidelity, visceral temptations, frank conversations between spouses, and sexual masquerade parties where mistletoe is not required. Not the “exactly” same. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married in real life at the time, as they play a couple questioning their relationship during the most wonderful time of the year.   Just wondering how much will they…

Gladly saying Goodbye to ‘Welcome to Marwen’

Jeff Mitchell

“Welcome to Marwen” – It’s difficult to remember a film that featured as many toy army action figure sequences as “Welcome to Marwen”.  The little green army men from the “Toy Story” series come to mind, but the plastic troops, led by the voice of R. Lee Ermey, were just supporting players.  In co-writer/director Robert Zemeckis’ new movie, a small group of 12-inch fabrications occupy, perhaps, fifty percent of a very, very long 1-hour 56-minute runtime. The picture begins with an engaging animated World War II aerial scenario over Belgium,…

12 days of not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies: ‘The Hunt’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Hunt” (2013) – Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a 42-year-old kindergarten teacher, is coping with his divorce and trying to maintain a relationship with his teenage son, but Christmastime is here, so ’tis the season to think positively. His world, however, crashes, because someone does not accuse him of a serious crime, but a heinous one.  A crime he did not commit. Lucas, a respected man in the community, suddenly becomes the centerpiece of a devastating controversy, and in the process, almost everyone in this small Danish town demonizes him. His…