Louie, Louie (2023)

Spirited inverts the tropes of the holiday musical genre to update an age-old tale for 2022. It's a paean to those who make grand spectacles possible.

This year, in light of the pandemic and the inability to gather with our loved ones, a few of our staff members reviewed their favorite holiday films with the hope of recreating some of the sentimentality that reminds us of home.

t’s relatable and heartbreaking all at once, and it’s impossible to watch Happy Together without reflecting on oneself. The film is stunning in every aspect, and is a vital piece of LGBTQ cinema.

The Invitation takes a creeping look at two simple premises: reuniting with forgotten friends and new-age spiritualism. Though one seems a bit scarier than the other, the film heightens social awkwardness to a macabre level that puts an uncomfortable look on when the social taboo of grief is put on public display.

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow era, the film offers layered representation.

The trouble with Yara (2021) is that in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.