Amid the rush of festive-season celebrations, there will come a time when you need a moment away, and a relaxing night-in.To save you from scrolling through thousands of recommendations and mediating taste-preferences between friends and relatives, I’ve curated this list to contain a little bit of everything. There’s something to invite softness, something to facilitate time spent, something to fall asleep to, laugh to, cry to, scream to, or return to. These movies capture the essence of the holiday season, grasping the nostalgic, sometimes bittersweet sentimentalism of the season. As you reflect on the year past, and prepare for the year to come, I hope these movies offer some comfort and some surprise as you navigate both the beginning and end.
For A Classic Christmas
Based on the CBS Television Show, Peanuts, this 30-minute animation is family-friendly in all the best ways. No matter what unfolds at the dinner table, there’s something about this eclectic little mix of characters that just makes everything seem fine and whole. This is a movie I could and have watched with my family. Every. year. Not only is it cute as buttons, it also confronts Christmas consumerism in the most innocent of ways, contains some of the finest jazz scoring and remains, to this day, one of the most iconic illustrative outputs of the 60s.
Mood: Silly, heartwarming, fuzzy.
It would be remiss to exclude one of the greatest holiday rom-coms of our time here. Not only does this movie contain Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as self-pitying single ladies, it also includes a musical Jack Black. And honestly, it’s a sweet story. Having both experienced a recent heartbreak, Iris and Amanda decide to exchange houses over the festive season in an effort to avoid their disastrous personal lives. But, as it always does, drama follows them both. This mirrored boy-meets-girl spans the US and the UK, complete with jingle bells, snow and Jude Law. If you’re feeling sorry for yourself, but still semi-hopeful, it may be time for a rewatch.
Mood: Cozy, cringe, and surprisingly cute.
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Gremlins is a masterclass in translating some paranormal freak into fun for the whole family. Produced by Steven Spielberg, and sprinkled with mildly problematic moments, you may find yourself thinking ‘What the actual **** am I watching?’ – but hang in there, because this movie is both a curse and a lesson, a warning for what happens when you break the rules. Watch this if you’re in the mood to see a couple of terrifying, little troublemakers on an unstoppable festive bender. This one is a rite of passage and a total gag.
Moody: Mischievous, dumb, borderline lynchian.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Baby Taylor Momsen, pre-goth, pre-Gossip Girl? Jim Carrey in prosthetics so painful he had to learn torture resistance techniques? Christina Baranski as a horny Martha May Hovier? A little dog named Max !? If this isn’t a Christmas classic then I honestly don’t know what is. It’s moody, frosty and class-conscious. It rhymes, and it’s absolutely high-camp. This movie uses immense production power, extensive prop and set design, a star-studded cast and pure mayhem to tell you a sentimental-ass Dr Seussian story about belonging and friendship.
Mood: Nihilistic, hilarious, crude.
For Your Holiday Romance
Paul Thomas Anderson serves us the original toxic it-couple in this aching beautiful performance of love, life, and sacrifice. What happens when an artist, deeply embedded in his craft, meets his match in his muse? An acclaimed dressmaker, Reynolds, plummets into love with Alma, a timid yet confrontational model whose longing for closeness envelops them both. A breathtaking story, complemented by Academy-award winning costuming and an orchestral score by Jonny Greenwood, this love story will agonise you in the most unexpected ways. Come for the wardrobe, stay put for the shocking plot twist.
Mood: Chilling, enchanting, sooooo full of yearning.
All imagery licensed by Alamy
Hot Summer Nights is love, lust and lollipops under carnival lights, chlorine-soaked jorts and balmy poolside play. One of the less-popular T-Cham movies, this story is a more pulpy teen alternative to Call Me By Your Name, and it doesn’t have an accused cannibalist on the cast-list (big W). If you want something charged and stormy, with a touch of toke, this is the perfect summer story to get you through the evening. It’s full of secrets, lies, and ambitious schemes and deals gone wrong.
Mood: Electrifying, hot and bothered.
A personal favourite from Spike Lee, this black and white film follows the lovely Nola Darling as she expresses her insatiable sex drive through a series of situationships, some of them dogs, others decent men. Despite how clearly she asserts her own wants, needs,and boundaries, her romances and candle-lit passions become compromised by jealousy and control. In an effort to clear the air, Nola Darling reflects on her refusal to be ‘owned’ by one single person, breaking the fourth wall in a series of testimonies from herself and her friends. A story of choice, this is a thoughtful yet sparing look into the confident caress of feminine desire and the sheer romance of selective solitude.
Mood: Moody, self-assured, pensive.
After discovering that she has a chronic illness, a woman agrees to join two boys on a road trip through Mexico amid social and political upheaval. Emboldened by her disregard and newfound desire, she lets the young men compete for her love, each taking a turn behind the wheel while she watches the landscape pass by the car window. Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú made history with this cult Summer classic, complete with a roadtrip, a love triangle and just a splash of existentialism.
Mood: Horny, escapist, passionate.
For The Cynics
When a Zombie apocalypse breaks out in his hometown, Shaun– a directionless salesman whose girlfriend just broke up with him– becomes an unlikely anti-hero. This is a classic bit of offbeat UK humour, complete with an idiotic best friend, a prat for a roommate, and a couple of rather sarcastic, yet cerebral takes, on the day-do-day inertia of our modern routines. If you’re in the mood to see somebody hit over the head with a shovel (in a fun way), watch this!
Mood: Irreverent, satirical, dry.
Amid the frozen Antarctic, a group of researchers become stranded in the dark of night. A frightening blend of paranoia, isolation and uncertainty ramps up the suspense of this survivalist Winter nightmare. John Carpenter brings us a grotesque body horror that blends Cronenberg-style creations with a chilling sci-fi plotline. It’s not exactly a Christmas movie, but it is an icy ordeal. Best to bundle up for this one.
Mood: Visceral, mysterious, claustrophobic.
In light of all the Epstein drama of late, it seems like the perfect time to draw your attention back to Stanley Kubrick’s iconic, one-night-only odyssey. Disorientated by his wife’s confession of dissatisfaction and longing, a doctor finds himself stumbling through the streets, swept up into a secret sex society after a lavish Christmas Eve party hosted by one of his wealthiest patients. Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise limbo through this eerie set of fantasies, their on-screen chemistry mimicking their real-life relationship, shrouded in rumour and riddled in secrets.
Mood: Conspiratorial, sultry, uncanny.
Selector’s Choice: Special Picks For Big Feelings
Shortly after her 11th birthday, Sophie joins her father on a coastal holiday to Turkey. Told through Sophie’s innocent eyes, and a selection of unsteady VHS memories, the film recollects their strained, yet warm, relationship. Through patient cinematography, her father’s melancholy is revealed among the ongoing drone of ceiling fans, the careful stitch of Persian rugs and the hotel bar. This gut-wrenching story will ask you to throw salt on the wound and balm on your sunburn as you reckon with the parts of parenthood that we did not see and couldn’t quite understand just yet. Aftersun reminds us that achieving any kind of generational redemption requires confronting the memories of the most flawed versions of each other.
Mood: Somber, childlike, dreamy.
Le Otto Montagne (Eight Mountains)
Pietro and his parents travel to the Italian Alps every year. Growing closer with the village locals over time, Pietro forms a deep bond with Bruno, a young boy who eventually becomes part of his own family, like another son to his father. Years later, when Pietro’s father passes, the boys reunite as men, setting out to build a home for him on the mammoth and unforgiving mountains that he guided them through years before. Atop the mountains, the changing seasons and the boys’ differing approaches to the natural world forms a vibrant allegory for their complex sense of brotherhood. While Bruno isolates, Pietro seeks companionship, one roaming while the other remains rooted.
Mood: Quiet, reflective, vast.
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