KWIF: The Devil Wears Prada 2 (+4)

 KWIF=Kent's Week in Film. It was a real toss up: final two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again's second season, or the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. It was no toss up. Daredevil has been, to put it bluntly, repetitive and boring, while TDWP2 is an event! It wasn't even a competition.

This Week:
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026, d.  David Frankel - in theatre)
Mortal Kombat II (2026, d. Simon McQuoid - in theatre)
Keyhole (2011, d. Guy Maddin - tubi)
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002, d. Takashi Miike - tubi)
Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988, d. Akio Jissoji - tubi)

I am not a journalist. Despite having been a writer and for many online resources for over 30 years, nothing I've done is what I would call journalism. The closest I came was a 3 year stint on editorial at my student newspaper in University (I thought this was an extraordinary and fundamental time in my life but in hindsight, turns out it was a somewhat juvenile and retroactively embarrassing era for both myself and the paper, full of (my own) sloppy work, ill-informed editorials, and errors in judgement. My desire to be more like the Harvard Lampoon or Mad Magazine than anything with journalistic integrity (which is not to diminish the work of my collaborators, but I was really not up to the task...but I digress). 

I got a degree in business, not journalism, and I cared about each equally (which is to say, minimally). It's probably for the best I never went into journalism professionally (though I tried on a few occasions). I don't have the stones for it. Much like being an artist, being a journalist requires sacrifice, and the rewards are not monetary, and you have to love it (which I don't...I respect it, don't love it so much). Plus, in the past 15 years or so, there's been a decided attack on journalism as an institution. Truth telling is now all a matter of perspective (or so the 1% overlords would have us believe). It's been a rough dozen-plus years for the media. Most of my favourite writers are now doing their own Substack or Substack-adjacent writing, and supplementing any written work with podcasting. The world is a lesser place for social media having supplanted traditional media as people's primary source of news (or, rather, "news"). There's no security to working in the world of journalism.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a sequel that doesn't need to exist. Nothing about the end of The Devil Wears Prada demands we know more. But now that it does exist, that it sets itself on top of the backdrop of the failing state of traditional media and the billionaire bros who snap up media outlets so they can control the narrative with their detached-from-the-layman world view...well, at least there's something for it say, something to explore in this moment, even if it doesn't quite have the firmest grasp on its message.

We find, when this film starts, Andy Sach (Anne Hathaway) has just won a journalism award but also, at almost the same moment, via text, finds out that she and her entire staff at the newspaper she was writing for have been laid off. Meanwhile Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) has just had an expose written about how Runway Magazine has promoted and supported a brand who runs a manufacturing sweatshop. This is a scandal, one which Miranda of 20 years ago would never have found herself in (it's telling in many ways that she has).  The owner of Runway's media parent, Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman) needs damage control, and thus returns Andy to Runway, the place where she interned 20 years ago, now as the new features editor.

She reunites with Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and Miranda (who doesn't remember her, or so she says), and is instantly swept into a meeting with their key advertiser, Dior, where Emily (Emily Blunt) now works as retail manager.

Andy finds Miranda in a subdued position relative to where she once was. Still a titan of the industry, print media is all but dead, and the online sphere for Runway has trouble competing with other scroll-and-like spaces. Andy's role is, at first, damage control, but also about trying to raise Runway's profile up.  It needs to be more than just about the pictures, people need to read it for the articles too.  Without saying it, it's attempting to "Teen Vogue" it (where in the mid-2010s Teen Vogue shifted its focus from fashion and entertainment and rapidly gained attention for it's provocative and insightful political articles.... Teen Vogue was collapsed into the parent Vogue in 2025 by its publishing overlords, according to many to stifle its anti-right wing messaging).

Andy's efforts to raise the status of the magazine is noticed in the media, but not represented in the site traffic. She needs a big gambit both to secure her place and to gain at least a modicum of respect from Miranda. She needs to land the white whale interview: Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu). The ex-wife of one of the world's richest men (a chuckling tech bro doofus played brilliantly under gobs of makeup by Justin Theroux) is now the world's richest woman, but Sasha hasn't given an interview in the three years since the divorce. Andy lands the interview (conducted by Miranda but the article written by Andy) and not only gets in Miranda's good graces once again but becomes a bit of a legend.  

The crux of the film, however, is that no matter what one good story brings for a day, a week, or a month, it's not enough. The cycles move on so fast that there's no time to rest, and media and journalism are still a dying form, unable to demand enough attention in the attention economy when there's injured baby foxes being fed milk from a bottle or video game live streams that run for two days straight to compete with. Runway is on the table to be sold...or on the chopping block to be axed.

While the first act is all about Andy getting reacquainted with a world she left behind 20 years earlier and noting both the similarities and shocking differences, the second act is about settling in, about establishing a new life in a roller-coaster world of uncertainty and insecurity. Miranda is the only one who seems like teflon-coated steel, nothing penetrates and nothing sticks...but even she is showing signs that that it's all actually getting to her too. The world is changing and she can only do so much to change with it.

The third act then becomes about Andy's perception of the situation, that the threat to Runway, one of the last bastions of traditional media, is the warning siren and that saving it means much more than just saving a magazine but providing hope for the entire industry of journalism.  It's idealist and optimistic, and it takes the audience on that ride of hope and scrappy-can-do attitude.

And then Miranda slaps her in the face with reality. It's only a matter of time. There's a boa wrapped tightly around every industry, squeezing tighter and tighter trying to milk them for everything they're worth, until they're worth nothing, at least monetarily. The solution to the troubles in this picture all rely on the good graces of an ultra-rich benefactor to whom minimal, or no returns (or even negative returns) are worth the investment for the art and integrity. You can't monetize artistry and integrity.

This, mercifully, isn't a naive film, although at times Andy is far too naive as a character, and Miranda is far too withholding to fully invest in the driving story forces at play. It does oversimplify its narrative so that it can have a satisfying ending while still being cognizant that there remains a dark cloud overhead and the struggle will continue after the last pan of the New York skyline.

The Devil Wears Prada was a really good movie that has become sort of legendary. The sequel doesn't tarnish the legend, though it fails to find its own legendary status in the process. It's a pretty picture, with tons of fabulous outfits, sets, and settings (and boy does Anne Hathaway look more amazing than she ever has), all of which are a must, and it mercifully doesn't wallow in the past. It does unfortunately seems obliged to put Andy kind of in the same place she was in during the first movie, even though she has two decades of prestigious experience, world travelling and her own life under her belt. It's natural for someone to find themselves repeating patterns of behaviour when with certain people, but I just felt like she should be much more assured than she is here. Similarly, Miranda shows next to no sign of growth, yet she feels muted compared to the ruthless ferocity which she had in the prior film. But she's also almost 70 now, and there does come something of a softening with age which we should find believable.

Already a massive box office success, the best we can say about The Devil Wears Prada 2 is that it does fine as a sequel. It doesn't at all diminish what came before, nor does it immediately discount its own existence. I find myself wishing that it were more interested in its setting, exploring the erosion of media and journalism, especially given the eyes it has on it, but that's not the audience its serving (this isn't The Paper 2 or Broadcast News 2). It serves its audience well...or well enough.

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I didn't see the 2021 iteration of Mortal Kombat (but Toasty did) and, to be honest, I didn't care to. From all reports it was attempting to be a character-driven narrative exploring the characters of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, and that there was not, in fact, any Mortal Kombat to be had. I mean, what's the point then?

I am by no means invested in Mortal Kombat as a property. The last version of the game I played was its original incarnation. But that said, I've long had a soft spot for the '95 cinematic treatment from Paul WS Anderson, a film that has aged surprisingly well in that it was always kind of hokey and wasn't taking the whole thing too seriously. The last thing we need to do is take Mortal Kombat too seriously.

It seemed like (at least from Toasty's report) MK2021 was taking things too seriously. Mortal Kombat II wants you to think it's not taking things too seriously... but it still is. What story there is within the film is wildly unfocussed and largely predictable, with absolutely no tension built along the way (for a number of reasons). The movie starts by introducing the concept of "Mortal Kombat", where two realms, instead of waging war, compete in a tournament of 10 fights. The first to win five of these fights is victor and the losing side's realm is theirs. Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) watches her father get brutally defeated by Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and her mother and people immediately subjugated under him. He takes her as his daughter (I can't say for certain the scriptwriter was just aping Gamora's story from Guardians of the Galaxy/Infinity War but it's basically the same) which I'm sure will work out fine for everyone as a big happy new family.

Meanwhile Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) is a washed up Stephen Segal-type 90's action star who nobody cares about anymore. He's sad about his life but Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) recruit him for Mortal Kombat, Raiden promising him a greater, more fulfilling destiny. He declines, but, it turns out, he doesn't have a choice.

And so Kitana fights for her father, reluctantly, while Johnny Cage fights for Earth, reluctantly, only it turns out Kitana is a spy for Raiden and Johnny Cage has a warrior within, so the dramatic narrative arcs these characters can take are, well, straight lines rather than curves. Their stories go from A-to-C without even thinking about venturing towards B along the way.

So if there's no real character arcs in this film, surely it will have fun with team dynamics, right? Inner conflict and romances and whatnot? Notsomuch. Or at all. The "team" here, Raiden, Sonya, Johnny, Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Jax (Mechad Brooks), and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) spend their time together largely spitting exposition. There's no real sense of camaraderie or any sense of these characters becoming friends or connected to each other in any way (we're told that Sonya and Jax are old friends, but do we feel it? Notsomuch). 

The film spends a lot of time trying to circle back on characters from the prior movie, even though they are not central figures here. As such, unless you are really invested in MK2021 then these beats have little to no weight on their own (like, Hiroyuki Sanada returns as Scorpion, but in the underworld, where he resumes his fight against the revived Sub-Zero to no real effect of the story at hand). 

So, if it fails at developing anything meaningful with its characters, MKII must be all about the tournament and the fighting, right? Yes and no. It does feature heavily its match-ups, the one-on-one fights, but none of them carry with them the weight of what the stakes of the tournament, and the fate of the "Earth realm". The film brutally fails at finding any tension within the tournament itself. With one or two exceptions, nobody witnesses the fights, so there's no crowd reactions, no cut to team-mates or friends as they watch their friends succeed or fail brutally. There's just nothing exciting outside of maybe a few cool manoeuvres or a particularly gory fatality, and there's not enough of those to justify a feature length movie this uninteresting.

It wouldn't be so bad if the film at least had style, but it's so evident that it was filmed on the Volume or similar on-set digital backdrop technology, and that the crew were either inexperienced with it or didn't have the time to refine their shots. The actors are lit so horrendously that they have a soft glow outline around them much of the time, while the backdrops too often don't feel tangible at all (I will concede that it's entirely possible that watching this on an IMAX screen made this so much more evident than a standard movie screen, or any home viewing implement). The few sets actually constructed feel cheap, much cheaper than an $80million budget would presume.  That, visually, this film feels inferior to the 1995 adaptation of Mortal Kombat is very telling.  That film used mostly practical sets that were well lit and well shot. This film seemed hampered by its constraints and is pretty ugly as a result.  At the very least the 1995 film had a still-iconic techno soundtrack, and this film's score doesn't even seem to be trying. 

There is one sequence not shot on a set, where Johnny, Liu Kang, Sonya and Jax venture into the home terrain of the excessively-toothed character Barada. It's an exterior desert set that has scale and doesn't feel contained by walls or barriers. Since it's outdoors there's a lot of natural light, and it does everyone a world of favours that the rest of the film does not. The fight between Johnny and Barada is fun and silly and feels like the only real payoff for Johnny (or any character for that matter) in the film.

Fans of the franchise will probably get more out of this than I will, but a films at this budget really should be trying for something more than fan service.

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I'm a bad Canadian cinephile. I don't spend enough time exploring the films or filmmakers of my home country. This is in large part due to the fact that Canadian cinema, by and large, doesn't have the resources that the films of other countries do. And with the exception of Quebec, which has an industry all its own, most of our best talents get co-opted by our neighbours to the South, obfuscating a film's Canadian-ness, if anything remains at all.

There are a few notable filmmakers who have made a name on an international scale that still largely work within the Canadian system and tell stories set within the country.  Guy Maddin is definitely such an auteur, one who likes to combine his fascination with the earliest era of filmmaking with a love of his homeland. Or so I've been told. I've seen maybe one or two of his films in the distant past, and have long been meaning to catch up.

Keyhole, his 2011 effort, was maybe not the first place to start. A psychological noir set in a haunted house, the film follows Ulysses Pick (Jason Patrick) and his gang of thugs as they barricade themselves in Ulysses' home. 

Our key signal that things are askew finds Ulysses' second-in-command telling the dead to face the wall and the living to face forward. The dead, then, march out the back door to face a proper disposal.

Ulysses emerges from the rain with Denny (Brooke Pallson) slung over his shoulder. They're both drenched. Eventually Ulysses will get dry, Denny will always seem perpetually wet, despite a change of clothes.

Ulysses warns the gang the house is haunted and to beware of touching ghosts. Meanwhile he searches the house with Denny in tow, her ability to read into his thoughts aid him in his quest to find his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) within the twisted maze of hallways and stairs and doors. 

He is vexed by the ghost of Hyacinth's father (a very nude Louis Negin), who manipulates environments throughout the house, though does not seem to have any real control.

The journey is an abstract one, lacking decisive logic, living between metaphors. As a film, it is an exploration of Ulysses' life, his failures as a husband and father, and it questions whether these failures mean anything to him.

It's a puzzling film which it both its greatest and most detrimental asset. Bending your brain to understand what it is Maddin is trying to convey has its rewards when you can reach an understanding in what you see, but the dream logic that prevails often has no meaning, serving primarily to keep the audience off balance.

Maddin's first digitally-shot film, it's a black-and-white production but doesn't have the olde-timey feel (the heavy make-up of the silent or gangster film eras, for example) and it doesn't look particularly good. The sets, lighting and costume seem constructed on a shoestring budget (which they probably were) and lack the usual hand-crafted flair of the films of Maddin's I'm (not-so-)familiar with.

What probably lets the film down the most, however, is the character of Ulysses, who just isn't very compelling. Whether it's Patrick's performance or what he was given to work with, I was never certain why we should care about Ulysses or his journey.

Once I get into the swing of watching Maddin's pictures, acquainting myself anew with his sensibilities, I might soften on Keyhole, but as stands I found it a pretty rough watch.

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If I were to attempt to catch up on the works of Takasi Miike, it would have to be the only movies I watched in a year. The director has made around 120 films since his debut in the early 1990s and dozens upon dozens of television episodes. That prolific level of output seems unprecedented, and one has to wonder what gets sacrificed in the process of producing as such speed.

Like Guy Maddin above, I'm not particularly well-versed in Miike's repertoire, certainly not enough to speak to any overall style or sensibilities (a quick search of this blog finds no entries of Miike films...which surprises, me. I thought for sure Toasty would have one or two Miikes written up). 

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (aka "Noboru Ando's True Outlaw Tales: Raging Fire") opens with a primal scream over a heavy metal track. The camera tracks a young man running full tilt through the streets of Tokyo (intercut with flashes of...other things, a perplexing montage of images at this stage of a film to be sure). Finally the young man, guns drawn, leaps over a small barricading wall of an outdoor stairwell and begins firing on the group of men below (clearly mobsters, based on the way the one man is dressed compared to the other men around him). The gunman dispatches everyone, having hit the boss at least once at this point. The boss does not fall, he keeps lumbering forward, taking more and more bullets, until he has his hands around his assailant's throat. The only escape the gunman has is to cut the man's hand's off. Thankfully his partner has come by for clean-up.  The next shot of the young assassin, we see him naked on a couch, the severed hands still attached to his throat.

Yeah, this is kind of what I think of when I think of a Miike film. Extremes.

The story of the film finds Arata Kunisada (Riki Takeuchi ) freed from prison. The mob boss that was just assassinated was a father figure to him, and he is distraught and vengeful. 

But this isn't a one-man-assassin squad/John Wickian tale, at least not yet. The film cuts between different mob factions and Kunisada's journey, which for much of the film's run time finds him hiding out, rather than pursuing his revenge.  But eventually Kunisada gets back on track and, well, finds a missile launcher to help him on his quest.

Having just watched the excellent Italian mob-revenge actioner Big Guns, this very much feels like another take on the same story, right down to the police sort of standing by, or perhaps even aiding the protagonist in their mission of revenge. The difference is Big Guns felt quite calculated and detailed in its execution. Rekka on the other hand feels quite rushed and unrefined. That shagginess has a bit of an appeal, for sure, but it makes for some confusing story beats, or even whole acts. (There's a detour that Kunisada takes with a possible love interest that seems completely inconsequential to the overall story, and, for the amount of screentime it takes, contributes little to our understanding of this rather one note character).

The film dabbles with character drama and mafia intrigue but isn't particularly committed to either, and by the time the big rocket-launcher climax happens, it becomes a big old cartoon that betrays whatever it was trying to do emotionally before. 

The film closes with the ghost of a dead mob boss popping his head into frame, shouting "rock and roll!" It's not a vibes movie, per se, but perhaps Miike is a vibes director, and you're either on his wavelength or you're not. I dunno...Rekka wasn't boring, except when it was.

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One thing I'm always searching for is films from the 1980s with great special effects, including miniatures and big sets and puppets and stop-motion animation. I've exhausted most of the North American releases some time ago (though there is still the rare surprise) and have to look internationally for such pleasures. The main problem is I have no idea where to look, or what I'm looking for, and sacrificing a few hours hoping for something inspired to look at can be such a gamble.

The opening moments of Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (aka "Teito Monogatari") deliver instantly. A glorious barrage of manufactured clouds, impeccably lit with purple and red hues leads way to a massive set where a group of mages start mumbling incantations, causing the set to rumble and fracture and animated lighting to strike. There are rods sticking up from the ground that receive the lightning and are rotoscoped with a glowing red tinge. This is all glorious even if the dialogue of the scene is moving so fast that I had to rewind at least three times over to catch all the exposition.

The gist of The Last Megalopolis is that, centuries ago, Taira no Masakado led an uprising against the lords of Tokyo and failed. His spirit, though dormant, haunts the city. Should anyone dare to desecrate the site where he lay, he will awaken and destroy the city. And so, the demon Yasunori Kato (garbed in an Imperial Officer uniform, he is no doubt the inspiration for M. Bison in the Street Fighter video games) seeks to do just that, but in order to awaken the Masakado, he needs the blood of his descendant to do so. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

What follows is a convoluted but enthralling tale that takes place over three time periods from the early 1910s to the late 1920s. It's heavy on incantations, sorcery and witchcraft (of a type), and a bevvy of effects to go along with it. The best special effects in the film find paper being dispatched by both the good guys and bad, sailing on the wind before crumpling itself up and then transmogrifying into a bird or a wee little rat-like beastie. It's really, really cool.

The Last Magalopolis is based off the novel "Teito Monogatari" (adapted into Manga prior to the film's release and into an anime series in the early 1990s), and combines elements of real Tokyo history with epic fantasy and spirituality. A lot of the characters in this story are actual historical figures, and I guess the production team thought that it was enough of a shorthand to not really explore these characters at all.  It is completely a story-driven film, and figures wind their way in and out of the story in such a manner that if you're not used to Japanese names it can get confusing as to who is being referred to in a given situation and why. Also, this film is not waiting for you to catch up.

It's a propulsive narrative, even at two hour and fourteen minutes, and by the end while it has a resolution, barely feels resolved... because it isn't. This is effectively the first half of the story, condensed. A follow-up film, Tokyo: The Last War would be released the subsequent year. 

Part fantasy, part horror, part historical fanfic it's a wild and dense production that perplexes and delights in equal measure.

T&K's XMas (2022) Advent Calendar - Day 23: Santa's Got Style

2022, d. Amy Force

The Draw: Toasty mentioned Toronto's "Fashion Santa" in his Lights, Camera, Christmas post, which, honestly, might have been the first I'd heard of him (or if I had heard, I had forgotten).  So for today's post, I was planning on maybe finally getting around to watching Little Women as my Advent Calendar entry when I stumbled on Santa's Got Style, which piqued my interest for two reasons: 1) the movie info said Kids In The Hall's Scott Thompson is in it, and 2) Toasty's "Fashion Santa" mention.  

I joined the film about 35 minutes in which is such the old fashioned way of watching Hallmarkies, just stumbling into them a quarter or halfway or 3/4 of the way through and knowing the rhythms of these overly-simplified productions so innately that it doesn't matter at all.

HERstory: Our lead, Madison (Kathryn Davis), is a department store executive at "Chester and Wade" who lands on the idea of having a fashionable Santa for the department store instead of a stereotypical one, but can't find the right guy until her best friend Ethan recommends his cousin, who is a model, who has been living in Europe without a cel phone for years.  

If I'm also inferring, Maddie was in a relationship with a dirtbag for the longest time, while Ethan has been pining for her, and she's finally either broken up with him or she's been dumped, either way Ethan finally sees his opening.

Now, why Ethan decided to pose as his own cousin, Rafe, in a big ol bushy grey beard and a really bad gray wig, I don't know (I could assume that it's because he runs his own talent agency and that he's sort of retired as a model, that maybe it looks bad if he signs himself up for a job...or maybe there was nobody available...I dunno).

When I joined the film, Fashion Santa has just become a big success, and "Rafe" has gotten very flirty with Maddie.  As Ethan tells his mom, it's like he's more confident when he's "Rafe" than as himself, and clearly that's what Maddie is responding to.  But Ethan also worries that Maddie is starting to like Rafe and he's being "friend zoned" again.

Ethan's mom tries to reassure him that the reason she likes Rafe is because he is Rafe, but he's still not able to get past his jealousy of ...himself.  Also she tells him to use his new found success as Stylin' Santa to do more charitable work and raise funds for the needy.

The dual identity romance is a tried and true superhero romance staple, and it's employed just as effectively here, in that it's super cheezy, and really unbelievable... the beard and wig are about as effective as Clark Kent's glasses at disguising him.  Ethan does employ a different voice as Rafe, which makes for some phone call fun (yes, Ethan got Rafe his own cel phone).

One night Ethan is helping Maddie out with some party preparations, and she asks Ethan if he thinks Rafe would come if she invited him.  Ethan is immediately trying to figure out how to get himself or Rafe out of the party, since he can't be two places at once (classic superhero dilemma), and quickly gets all sheepish when trying to tell Maddie his true feelings (super handsome dudes like Franco Lo Presti don't pull off sheepish and awkward very believably), and she tells him how much their friendship means to her. FRIEND ZONE!

At some point (where it fits I don't recall) Maddie is looking up Rafe on the internet and can't find him anywhere.  When she looks him up in association she only finds pictures of Ethan from back in his modeling days (if he were a Judy Bloom book he'd be "Superpudge") and she cocks an eyebrow.

The next day, at a meeting with Maddie, as Rafe, in more confident Santa mode, he tries to reveal himself, but the comic relief security guard (Brian Sills, who I think I've mentioned at least twice already in this year's Advent Calendar) comes rushing in with some urgent news, Ma'am.  "He ma'am-ed me."  He suspects that Rafe is not who he says he is. Oh no.  There really should be no consequences to Ethan being exposed so this is just for goofballs.

At Maddie's Christmas party, things are going fine for Ethan, until he overhears his mom telling people stories about her "nephew" (like, he used to wear a cape and think he was a superhero. Hah!)  Ethan's having a hard enough time keeping up with his own web of lies, thanks Mom!  Then people start asking where Stylin' Santa is, so Ethan ducks out and comes back in perhaps the least stylin' outfit and dances with Maddie, almost getting in there for a kiss, but interrupted by the Secret Santa gift exchange (this is a work party for a supposedly massive department store, but only about a dozen, two dozen max are there).

After the party, Ethan opens his gift from Maddie (passed along by "Rafe") which is some DVD of a "classic" space movie (which isn't maybe not the same league as the super gorgeous piece of hardware Ethan gave her as Secret Santa gift).  Then the texting happens, as Ethan thanks her for the gift, and she says something nice.  Then she texts Rafe asking if he got home OK ("Why didn't she ask me if I got home safely?" he sulks).  Then she asks Rafe out to dinner after the Holidays.  Ethan doesn't respond and instead texts her as Ethan and asks her out, and she doesn't respond.

At the fashion show Ethan is double timing it between a charity shoot in one part of the building and the fashion show in another and having a hard time balancing.  It's common dual-identity hi-jinks.  But his tardiness is getting Maddie anxious, and in the end she has a plan for her, her boss, Ethan and Rafe to come out on stage together (gulp) and down at the charity section, the charity head wants a picture with Ethan and Rafe (double gulp).  Meanwhile the comic relief security guard is keeping tabs on Ethan/Rafe's in's and outs of the bathroom.

On the runway, Rafe and Maddie come out as Mr. and Mrs. Stylin' Santa and they pose and then get close and the audience starts chanting "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!", you know, as they do at fashion shows. And then comic relief security guard runs out on stage and rips the beard off of Stylin' Santa, exposing him (screaming "VICTORY" holding the beard up in the air).  Maddie is embarassed.  Ethan explains that everything she should feel for Rafe, why can't she feel that for him, but she's so betrayed right now she can't even. 

Fashion designer Paul Grant (Scott Thompson) comes back to the store (why wasn't he there at the show?!?) and tells Maddie that she gets his brand and that her promotion broke the internet, and that he's doubling their investment next year.  She'll probably need a new Santa though.  Her workplace BFF clears up Maddie's confusion for her, with, you know Ethan's point of view of stepping in and helping her out when she needed it.  Maddie's mom tells her that Ethan was actually being his most honest with her, in his lies, he was showing her a side of himself she's just never been able to see.

Maddie thinks on what she's been told (in montage! with sexy XMas R&B music backing it up), and then text's Ethan a deceitful "Paul needs the suit back, tonight, can you bring it over?"  When he arrives, Maddie comes down in a smashing silver dress (and wearing his , and they talk way too much rather than inhale each other's faces, but they do eventually kiss and confess their love for each other.

The Formulae: It's not a Hallmark so they're not leaning heavily into the stereotypical holiday tropes with this one. I mean, it's an atypical Santa, so it's an atypical Hallmarkie.

Unformulae: Big city girl...finds love in the big city!? She has no risk of ever losing her job.  The emotional focus is actually much more on Ethan than on Maddie. Red "wine" rather than hot chocolate.

True Calling? I guess, but it's not really about Santa all that much.

The Rewind: There's one photo that Maddie took with Rafe as posted on the fake social media that is, like, a pic that shouldn't have been posted.  Good gravy.

The Regulars: Kathryn Davis is in no less than 3 Hallmarkies (but not Hallmarks) this year and three more from the past 2 years.  Franco Lo Presti (who I know as Shep from Season 3 of Letterkenny) stars in the thematically titled Well Dressed for Christmas this year and 2018's A Christmas Catch (still on Netflix, but I only could get through about 10 minutes of it last year). Brian Sills was in Reindeer Games Homecoming this year.  

How does it Hallmark? Since it's not a Hallmark it's actually kind of a refreshing watch.  It's an utterly predictable story, but I really enjoyed seeing the stereotypical superhero dual-identity trope applied to a holiday romance (as absurd as it is here).  The production values, for a non-Hallmark, non-Lifetime movie are surprisingly up to par with the more prestige productions of those networks.  The outfits, especially the ones that are supposed to wow, do *kinda* wow a bit.  

How does it movie? It's simple and predictable, but kind of enjoyable. The leads are good looking enough that they don't need to be super duper charming, but they are watchable.  And I might go back and watch the start, just to see Scott Thompson, because in the 70 minutes of this that I did watch, he only turned up for about 90 seconds.

How Does It Snow? No need for snow at all in this one. 

3 Short Paragraphs: Last Night in Soho

2021, Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) -- download

I am pretty sure this appeared during the last week of our 31 Days of Halloween from 2021, but for some reason we never watched it. Maybe I was not sure it was a true horror flick, and something more left for Kent's HorrorNotHorror tagline, but no, it was indeed a somewhat scary "ghost" story albeit more about being steeped in the fashion and nightlife of 1960s London.

Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie, Old) is young woman from small town / rural England who leaves the over-protective eye of her grannie for fashion school in London. She is obsessed in the Swinging 60s music and culture, something she ties to her mother who committed suicide while Ellie was a child. At school, Ellie is awkward and distant, not fitting in with the other girls, especially after she begins zoning out from night dreams that fade into daydreams, where she is a passive observer / inhabitant of a beautiful young woman trying to make it in the London 60s music scene, but is dragged into its much more seedy underbelly. Ellie is becomes convinced that Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, The VVitch) is more than a dream, that she is the haunting of a real girl who died tragically at the hands of her manipulative pimp Jack (Mat Smith, Doctor Who).

Wright definitely has a desire for each of his movies to have style. While few could identify them as a Wright movie directly, besides the Cornetto Trilogy, he likes his movies to stand out from the crowd. This one drips with his fondness for the Soho area of London in the 60s, while acknowledging very loudly that it was not exactly .. innocent. Anya Taylor-Joy just fucking embodies the character of Sandie, a girl who came to London to be a singer, understanding that seduction was to be a part of it, but who gets lost in the outcome. The fashion, the music, the colours and the psychedelia that Wright uses to depict the horror and dream sequences are enthralling. While the horror movie aspect is more traditional, it felt made for teenage girls who will get wrapped up in Ellie's story, and squeal and hide their eyes at the grim imagery. All in all, I do wish we had watched this during the October season.

Halston

 2021, created by Sharr White - netflix

I came across Ewan McGregor and Pedro Pascal's edition of Variety's Actors on Actors youtube series, and beyond the goofy, boyish Star Wars talk Pascal was interested in discussing McGregor's turn as famous designer Halston in the Netflix mini-series from earlier this year, a mini-series which seemed to have been buried, or maybe it just wasn't advertised in my usual nerdy circles of the interwebs.

Although there was a time I paid some attention to fashion as an industry (the mid-'90's), Halson was not a name I was familiar with.  My wife assured me he used to be a big deal.  The series covers what a big deal he was, both in reality and in his own head, how he landed in fashion (creating hats to cheer up his abused mother as a child turned into creating a hat for Jackie Kennedy after which he exploded as a name) and became a somewhat omnipresent personality in the early 80's.

The series trades off Halston's eccentric personality (which would lead him to having some fiercely loyal friendships, and also into some very unhealthy relationships).  His substance abuse issues are a problem in his life, though the show displays him as a high-functioning abuser.  It's more his egocentricity leads to a lot of drama in this undoubtedly fictionalized presentation of his life, and costs him far more than the drugs did (which cost him a lot).

It was an intriguing watch, but I had a lot of conflicted feelings about it.  Foremost, I have to ask, does McGregor get a "free pass" when playing non-hetero characters?  He seems to do it often, to the point where I had to check what his public status was (just had a child with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whom he co-starred in Fargo Season 3 and Birds of Prey with, and was previously married with children).  His portray of Halston was a deep character piece, but at times it seemed to fall into mostly affectation.  Now, not knowing Halston, maybe he was a personality built around a mask of affectation, hard for me to say without digging deeper.  

The series also jumps through three decades in his life across five 50-minute episodes so it covers a lot of ground, very quickly, too quickly to transition well between eras.  As well the show's trying to say something about identity, as well as the nature of art versus commerce, but I don't think it ever gets there.  These larger themes never settle on a particular point of view, but it's certainly being examined, if not in enough detail.  

It's not stellar, but it is a complicated series with a lot of intriguing elements (and Krysta Rodriguez is outstanding as Liza Minelli, just mind-blowingly good).