Gareth’s Picks

Fighting with My Family (2019)

Based on the true story of a wrestling family in England, this film is directed by the hilarious Stephen Merchant, co-creator of the original British Office as well as many other acting roles.  Here, he is able to showcase the astonishing range of acting by Florence Pugh, showing extreme physicality in the role to add to her depth of emotional range.  Her father is played by Nick Frost, perfectly cast.  A real heartwarming story for the holiday season

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963)

Yes, he directed Bicycle Thieves but Vittorio De Sica also directed this humorous anthology that examines the effects of women on men and their relationships.  It is worth watching just for the interactions between Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.  Italian shenanigans ensue.  It won an Academy award for best Foreign film, but really it is just a delight to see these two titans of Italian cinema work together.

Craig’s Picks

Le Pupille (2022)

We recently talked about Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera on the show and it lead me, oddly enough, to a 39 minute short she directed for Disney + called Le Pupille. It’s about a group or orphan girls in Mussolini’s Italy during the WW2, but it’s not about that – it’s about morality and individuality and religion…and a delicious looking Christmas cake.

Available on Disney

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977)

All nostalgic roads of the 1970s-80s lead to Paul Williams. This is Jim Henson’s take on The Gift of the Magi but with a mother and her son who live out a meager existence after the death of the father. Oh and these are otter puppets by the way. Paul Williams wrote the music (per usual) and it shows with the RiverBottom Nightmare Band song, lead by a bear that looks like Lemmy from Motörhead. If I have said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: the 70s-80s were a wild time, man.

Streaming for frees on Tubi