Angela’s Christmas Wish (Streaming December 1, on Netflix)
Frank McCourt, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Angela’s Ashes, also wrote the children’s book Angela’s Christmas. The story sprung from a tale told to McCourt by his mother. Writer-director Damien O’Connor adapted the tale into an Emmy-winning, 30-minute animated television special. Next, O’Connor penned this sequel. Here, young Angela worries that her family’s fragile state will deteriorate unless she can bring home her Irish “Da,” who has found work in Australia. Over the course of 47 minutes, Angela’s naive, comedic efforts explore the bonds of family and community. (Lisa Miller)
Ladybug Ladybug (Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
When the shrill alarm of the Air Raid Warning System goes off in the school office, neither the principal nor the teachers know how to respond in this 1964 drama about nuclear war anxiety. Unable to get confirmation or additional information, they decide to send the kids home in groups guided by teachers. Filmed in black and white with creative use of a modest budget, Ladybug Ladybug resembles quality television from that era more than Hollywood. The kids are more intent than the adults to ask each other questions about life and death, good and evil and their responsibility to each other. As Ladybug begins, the alarm interrupts an aptitude test with one bright pupil asking, “What if there is no right or wrong answer?” (David Luhrssen)
Luxor (Streaming December 4, on Fandango)
British field surgeon Hana (Andrea Riseborough) travels to Luxor, Egypt in an attempt to recover from the trauma of caring for the wounded along the Syrian-Jordanian border. The city’s glorious ruins, filmed in soothing, striking strokes, prove cathartic. She's in danger of an epiphany when an old flame arrives. He is Sultan (Karim Saleh), an archaeologist from America. Their history unfurls during desert strolls or while drinking in upscale bars. Hana’s skills are wanted in Yemen, but can she, will she, continue to sacrifice her happiness at the altar of the greater good? (Lisa Miller)
Diary of a Mad Housewife (Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
Tina (Carrie Snodgrass) is a smart woman (“Phi Betta Kappa at Smith”) at dead end. She’s the protagonist of Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), a signature film at that moment when feminism was spreading wider awareness on the subordination of women. Tina’s husband Jonathan (Richard Benjamin) is a successful New York lawyer and a demeaning, spoiled, emotionally-manipulative child who treats her as a servant and reflection of his own ego. He’s a name-dropping aspirant to the creative life and their Manhattan milieu includes famous artists and authors, including bedroom-eyed George (Frank Langella), with whom Tina has an affair. But George’s raging libido and snarky bohemianism isn’t much of an alternative. Funny, tragic and gripping through the final moment, the film includes a loft party scene where the band was the then-unknown Alice Cooper (David Luhrssen)
Dolly: The Ultimate Collection (Time Life DVD)
There is a new Dolly Parton interview in here, but you could be forgiven for missing it amongst the 18 DVDs in this box set. The material collected on those discs spans several decades and includes interviews as well as performances from sources familiar (Johnny Carson) and obscure. Born in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Parton was determined to not repeat the life of her mother, married at 15. She dressed her large ambitions in “down-home common horse sense” (as she puts it in one interview), wrapping the naked honesty of her songwriting and singing in glitz. As she told one talk show host, “I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.” The set includes a booklet of photographs and recollections. (David Luhrssen)
