Film Frenzy: November and December 2018 (part 1)

Hello everybody! Today, I’m going to be talking about some of the films I watched in November and December. As I watched quite a lot of films throughout these two months, I wasn’t sure if the post might get a bit long so I decided to do it in two halves. Onto the post!

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The Holiday Calendar– I have a new addition on my favourite romcoms list, and it’s this. I didn’t expect to love it, because I couldn’t really grasp the premise from the trailer, but once I actually sat down and started watching it made total sense pretty much straight away. It’s about Abby, a phenomenal photographer who can’t get her big break, and what happens when her Gramps gives her a magical advent calendar that predicts an event for every day of December that seems to relate her romantic life. It was so great getting to see Kat Graham in such a different role to Bonnie (who I loved in the Vampire Diaries, especially because her romances were my two biggest ships), and I fell totally in love with Quincy Brown as Josh. There’s also another love interest who I wasn’t quite so keen on named Ty, and I was quite literally screaming at the screen that she was an idiot if she didn’t pick Josh. That said, the chemistry between both was pretty great in places, and I was laughing SO often while watching this. I’m not going to tell you what happens at the end, but it had a very classic sort of romcom ending and I was so happy with what happened, and the peek at how things were a year on from it. I didn’t want this to end, and I need a sequel please Netflix!

The Princess Switch- in this Parent Trap meets rom-com hybrid, baker Stacey meets soon to be princess Margaret and they concoct a plan to swap lives so that Margaret can experience life out of the spotlight before her marriage in two days’ time. It’s such a lovely, feelgood film with Christmassy charm and joy in abundance, lookalike shenanigans and gorgeous romantic moments for both of the couples (I did prefer Stacey and Edward’s romance though, mostly because of that Carol of the Bells scene and because of how much I adore Sam Palladio- he was one of my faves in Nashville). I thought Vanessa Hudgens pulled off both her roles really well too, and I adored the epilogue-type scene at the end (they just give me such closure at the end of a romance film!)

Dumplin’- In this adaptation of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’, we meet Willowdean Dickson (aka ‘Dumplin’), a self-proclaimed fat girl who enters her mother’s beauty pageant to show that she can. I thought Danielle Campbell was brilliant as Will, Jennifer Aniston played her mum to perfection (I hated her and loved her and she was such an interesting character!) and the body positive message was incredible, and so needed. The only thing I didn’t love was that scenes sometimes felt disjointed- bitter arguments sprang up out of nowehere and rash decisions were made with almost no time to think, which made it hard for me to invest in some aspects (such as Will’s romance with Bo, which I really wanted to happen by the end but was ambivalent about for some of the film) but on the whole I thought this was wonderful. I’m really excited to pick up the book now too!

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding– though I enjoyed last year’s A Christmas, I definitely thought this sequel, which focuses on journalist Amber and Prince Richard’s wedding, was better. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to get whisked away to the world of Aldovia for its run time. I thought this was funnier, I really liked Amber’s relationships with her dad and whip-smart Princess Emily and the slight mystery aspect of why the country was in sudden financial crisis was interesting too. I also enjoyed Simon’s character development a lot! I really hope there’s a third film- I’ve seen a few people saying that it’d be fun if they did one about

Set it Up- I’ve been meaning to watch this for ages, and I’m so pleased and I finally got to it this month. It’s about two assistants attempting to reclaim their private lives by setting up their workaholic bosses, and it’s just such a fun watch. I thought everyone played their parts to perfection, particularly Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell as the overworked assistants Harper and Charlie and Lucy Liu TOTALLY killed it as Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada-esque Kirsten. It was so interesting, too, to see such a different side to Glen Powell as he is completely different to the way he was in the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; he seems like a super versatile actor. It’s totally hilarious too, just as you would expect from a rom-com, and the way it gently poked fun at some tropes of the genre did make me smile too. I would have liked A tiny bit more romance and closure at the end, but overall I had a great time watching this.

Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings- Louise and I decided to watch this out of order as it’s set in winter, and I’m so glad we did. The Tinkerbell films aren’t especially heavy on plot- they’re so gentle and sweet- but this one focuses on Tinkerbell meeting her long-lost twin, who is a winter fairy and thus she is forbidden to see her, so of course they must try and find a way from them to get to know each other. The animation is quite low budget in feel but still very pretty, the characters are so great and it’s just a really nice thing to watch.

If you’d like to hear about the other films I watched last month, keep an eye out for part 2 next week!

What films did you watch last month? Would you recommend them? Have you seen/do you want to see any that I’ve talked about?

Amy x

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