Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

December is a perfect month for watching warm fuzzy movies. The stress and anxiety of the holiday season can take its toll, so spending time with family and watching heartwarming fare can be a wonderful way to relax. Recently, my mom, my husband, and I had a wonderful time watching Love Hard, despite any of the questionable bits. I’ve enjoyed the overly saccharine The Christmas Setup and even endured the annoying parts of Happiest Season, all for that cozy holiday cheer. While not a holiday movie, Extinct (2021) is an animated movie filled with warm, fuzzy creatures, so I figured this was a logical addition to my holiday watch list.

So, what’s the verdict? The plot lags, the moral lessons are misguided, but are those fluffy little donut creatures adorable? Yes. Yes, they are.

I’m a minion hater. Everyone knows this about me. So I should be immune to adorable merchandiser-friendly fellows.

But I’m not. I have a porg in my cereal cabinet. There’s a slowpoke on my bookshelf. There’s a wocket in my… well, you get the idea.

Written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi), Knives Out was one of the most clever and intricately crafted films of 2019. It affectionately pays homage to the classic murder-mystery “whodunnit” while also completely flipping the script and reinventing the formula. I fell in love with this movie instantly when I saw it in theaters, and it became one of my top five favorite films of 2019.

For those who missed its theatrical run, you now have a chance to see this spectacular film on Amazon Prime. With its debut on the streaming service, I rewatched it, and I was not disappointed. Knives Out is a movie that only gets better with subsequent viewings. Much like the donut hole at the center of the case, the movie only gets deeper the more you see it.

Knives Out follows Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he investigates the “suicide” of wealthy murder-mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Everyone in his eccentric family is a suspect, as Blanc suspects foul play.

This movie has one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory, including Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Stanfield, and Katherine Langford. Every single performance in this film is phenomenal, but Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc may just be the highlight of the movie. His accent is so hammy and outrageous that it shouldn’t work at all, but Craig and Johnson make it work. For a film that is so clearly set in the modern day, Craig’s performance infuses the movie with the older aesthetic of the kinds of movies that so clearly influenced Johnson.