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With the Holidays Upon Us, Movies Offer an Ideal Escape

By Sandra Olmsted

The holidays are a wonderful time and a lot of work, and when one needs a break and still needs to socialize, going to a movie can be the perfect escape. This holiday season offers many films that promise to take one away, and delightfully so.

Although release dates are changing fast, films opening Dec. 20 include the newest installment in the famed saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the film version of the famed musical, Cats, and the exposé Bombshell. Alas, director Sam Mendes’ WWI film, 1917, has been rescheduled to open Jan. 10 in St. Louis.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although still shrouded the mystery, promises to be the final chapter of the Skywalker saga in which the surviving Resistance facing the First Order again. Lots of computer-generated effects, space battles, and drama are also promised by director J.J. Abrams, who has directed both Star Wars and Star Trek films Stars Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Billie Lourd, and Keri Russell. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action and running 141 minutes.

Cats, the film, brings the story of Jellicles to the big screen, and Director Tom Hooper’s adaptation brings big-screen magic to the famous Broadway Cats musical based on the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber which was inspired by a collection of poems by T. S. Eliot. The Jellicles clowder decides which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life. The dump where the Jellicles live houses the white cat Victoria (Francesca Hayward), Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) who will decide which cat will be chosen, the mysterious Mr. Mistoffelees (Laurie Davidson), the rocker star Rum Tum Tugger (Jason Derulo), the refined Bustopher Jones (James Corden), Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson), Macavity (Idris Elba), Jennyanydots (Rebel Wilson), Gus (Ian McKellen) and Bombalurina (Taylor Swift). An all-star cast promises a great musical escape, which families can enjoy. Rated PG for some rude and suggestive humor and running 110 minutes.

Director Jay Roach’s Bombshell goes behind the scene of Roger Ailes’ running of Fox News. While the title is both about the beautiful blonde women Ailes (John Lithgow) employed and sexually harassed or abused, and the women who ultimately challenged him, and the network’s blind allegiances regardless. When Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) challenges Donald Trump, younger victims of Ailes’ bullying, represented by Katya Pospisil (Margot Robbie) a fictional composite, feel empowered to challenge Ailes and the Fox network. Nicole Kidman stars as Gretchen Carlson. Rated R for sexual material and language throughout; 108 minutes.

The films opening Christmas week include the beautiful and surprising Little Women, the animated Spies in Disguise, and the dramatic The Song of Names.

Little Women (2019) The first reaction might be “Do we need another version of Little Women?” The answer is a definitive “Yes, we do — especially this one!” Writer/director Greta Gerwig drives deeper into Louisa May Alcott’s famed novel and opens the story up emotionally as no one has before by giving each an entire life that shines through the casts’ exceptionally human portrayals of the familiar characters.

Set during and after the Civil War, the story of Jo March, the writer in the family, finds inspiration in the lives of her sisters, Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh), and Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and best friend Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). She and her sisters are challenged and supported by their saintly mother, Marmee (Laura Dern), and pompous, curmudgeonly Aunt March (Meryl Streep). Even Amy, who wins Laurie’s heart, gets a fair shake in Gerwig’s adaptation in this quintessential story of American women and American life. The rivalries, shared experiences, and love between the sisters are palpable and exciting, ringing true for all sisters. Gerwig brings a profound and moving exploration of young womanhood and coming of age to the screen.

Although some might shed a few tears, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is definitely not a tearjerker, and this reviewer loathes tearjerkers for their manipulativeness. Little Women is rated PG for thematic elements and brief smoking, and it runs a delish 134 minutes. Gerwig’s film version of Little Women is gorgeous in every way, from costumes, settings, cinematography, music, and editing to the acting and direction.

Spies in Disguise, directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane’s animated film, promises fun and funny stuff just like any Disney adventure film for the family. Suave Lance Sterling (voice of Will Smith), the world’s top spy, usually gets all the glory. Until on a mission to catch evil mastermind Killian (Ben Mendelsohn), Lance turns himself into a pigeon — technically speaking — by hastily drinking the new formula prepared by Walter Beckett (voice of Tom Holland), a dorky yet brilliant, teenaged whiz-kid version of James Bond’s Q, who advocates for non-violence.

Now the mismatched duo must take on Lance’s latest mission together. When the agency thinks that Lance has gone rogue, agents Jenkins (Reba McEntire) and Marcy (Rashida Jones) must bring him in. The film has a message about the evils of technology. Rated PG for action, violence, and rude humor and runs 141 minutes.

The Song of Names, director François Girard’s moving and powerful detective film about brotherly love, also has a musical focus, just as his film The Red Violin did. Shortly before the Nazis invaded Poland in World War II, Martin (Misha Handley) suddenly has a roommate when his father Gilbert (Stanley Townsend), a music publisher, invites Dovidl (Luke Doyle), a young Jewish violin prodigy from Poland, to live with his family. While the two boys form a brotherly affection in WWI London, Dovidl becomes a world-class violinist of genius status.

Then, on the eve of his debut, Dovidl disappears, and Gilbert asks Martin to find Dovidl, who seems to have vanished. Like Harry Lime in The Third Man, Dovidl becomes the focus of Martin’s life until 35 years later the aging Martin (Tim Roth), determined to find his lost friend and brother, goes on a final quest to find Dovidl (Clive Owens). Dovidl’s search for the fate of his parents and sisters may play a part in his disappearance. Girard’s dramatic film questions the meaning of loss of self and connections and disappearances from history. Rated PG-13 for some strong language, brief sexual material, thematic elements, and smoking; runs 113 minutes.

Escapism in all its forms is available at the movies this holiday season. Movies are the perfect little get away!