Elsewhere on last days of Christmas telly, remarkable the extent to which MARY POPPINS RETURNS almost immediately ceased to exist.

Obviously many have observed this before, but one really striking thing about the chariot race from BEN-HUR is that, in a film with near-incessant music, there is not a note played throughout the sequence. Not even when the villain gets fatally trampled.

BEN HUR is a Christmas film.

Simon Russell Beale is Churchill in that DeGaulle biopic. How has THAT not happened before?

TEN LPS HAVING A HAPPY 50th Hejira – J Mitchell Ramones – Ramones Station to Station – Bowie Smile – L Nyro Jailbreak – Thin Lizzy Modern Lovers – J Richman Songs in the Key of Life – S Wonder The Royal Scam – Steely Dan Small Change – Tom Waits Flow Motion – Can

Here comes my favourite 20 albums of 2025. The list nobody has been waiting for. 20: STOCHASTIC DRIFT by Barker Hey, it's ambient, but it's got a jagged edge. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKi...

So, it seems there is a furore about Chappell Roan paying tribute to Bardot and then, after people mentioned the unpleasantness, withdrawing her commendation. I’m sorry. The notion she *really* knew about the National Front stuff is utterly absurd. And I don’t care much that she didn’t “research”.

Even without "the unpleasantness," I'm not sure many people under a certain age – and that may now be a very great age – have a great emotional connection to Bardot. Even an old bastard like me doesn't really remember her as a *force*...

Hey, everyone. It’s the (non-bumper) 2025 movie quiz. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

I think it’s okay not to stomp into someone’s mentions to point out that someone whose death they’re noting was a shitty person, even if the person was indeed shitty.

I am divided on whether we should allow “Avatar has no cultural fingerprint” discourse. I would, however, again point out that “But it just made a lot of money” is no sort of rejoinder. THAT’S WHAT THE PERSON YOU’RE ARGUING WITH IS REMARKING UPON.

I’m a little mixed on AMANDALAND (Lumley not nearly horrible enough) but Jennifer Saunders is transcendent in the Christmas special.

Say hello to my Auntie Daphne’s new cat. My grate new frend.

Excellent work by the folk behind the obituary segment on BBC News channel. Someone remembered the famous Stone Roses cockup featuring Mani (1962-2025) ended with Tracey MacLeod introducing a piece on Martin Parr (1955-2025) youtu.be/7wK9on_AL-k?...

Surprised this didn’t do better.

Well, there is a first time for everything.

Good news. The “bumper” 12 Days of Christmas Movie Quiz is back. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is insufferably wearying. All the breakneck oomph you’d expect from an Antiques Roadshow marathon. Please make it stop. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

I simply cannot believe what I am looking at here. I am not exaggerating when I say this looks like a parody from The Studio (yes, that broad) of what Hollywood at its dumbest might do to Animal Farm. AM I DREAMING? www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wL...

I think, maybe, this is *slightly* less embarrassing than last year. I said "slightly".

Oh, dear god. We are now (necessarily, I guess) going to go through another chapter of “you know they gave it to Hitler in 1938?”

I think you mean “wrongly”.

Congratulations to promising ingenue Rose Byrne on her breakthrough, just 25 years after winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.

Keep meaning to post, my complete Fall design is on the back of the revised 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong LP. Year made. All thanks to the very lovely Daryl Easlea xxx

FYI this is an immediate block. You’re under no obligation to pay for my or anyone else’s work, but you won’t come onto my feed to complain about us earning a living.

What point to people thunk they're making when they defiantly post "paywall, so not reading!" in this place? Do they genuinely think they're standing up against injustice?

I have already said this before (and I'll probably say it again), but all the people who, often without reading the piece, yelled at Joe Reid for suggesting HAMNET was set to become awards season whipping boy look more than a little silly now. www.vulture.com/article/osca...

Some big scoring on this week’s movie quiz. Don’t miss out.

Fancy listening to a podcast series where you will hate absolutely everyone involved? Here you go: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I SWEAR TO GOD?!?!!

Attention, MacHeads. Anyone else having a problem with Apple Music going bonkers in Tahoe 26.1? Playlists are not behaving at all.

Starting the process of narrowing down list of the year’s best films…

Here comes annual side-splitting joke…

Annual hilarious joke will be here in about 5 minutes.

My annual funny joke will be here in about 10 minutes.

Just realised this is referring to a church in North Carolina and not the Welsh singer

I think, without hyperbole, the dumbest fucking defence of any rubbished film is “Well, if you go in expecting Citizen Kane/The Godfather/Oppenheimer (now, apparently) then…” I actually went in expecting Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels. Because me clever.

I laughed heartily despite not really getting the joke.

"If you bought the first film’s brash visual aesthetic – the result of a giant toddler vomiting candyfloss all over Walt Disney World – then you will be relieved to discover it has got no less stomach-unsettling." I did not much enjoy WICKED: FOR GOOD. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

My unconvinced roommate, knowing I was a fan of the singles, bought it for me as a birthday present on the condition I never played it in his presence.

Top 5 movie genres — A glamorous woman has moved into more sleazy boarding house — A grumpy cartoon character has to care for a baby animal. — Everything seems dandy for everyone then the First World War happens — I am in love with a ghost — 24 celebrities of the 1970s in a doomed airliner.

People say Cancel Culture is real and then you see Lydia Tár being invited to meet the Pope. 🙄

Yeah, on balance, I think Gaspar Noe picked the right one of his films to give to the Pope -- though I wouldn't have been altogether surprised if he'd given him Irreversible.

A lot of people who didn’t read it were hating on this prescient piece by Joe Reid suggesting HAMNET would become this year’s undeserved “Oscar Villain”. And, lo, there are a bunch of people on my TL already getting ready to hate it. (I liked it a lot). www.vulture.com/article/osca...

This is hilariously desperate. For years they’ve been saying “the Actor goes too…” while everyone merrily continued to call it the “SAG Award”. Let it go, guys.

Results suggest this is quite an easy movie quiz. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

As we get into the 50 years of punk thing (Jesus, I know), the most remarkable phenomenon of that whole business was Never Mind the Bollocks turning out one of the greatest rock LPs of all time. I mean... it was sort of a novelty record.

Oh no, Anthony Powell. A place name. Always “Pearl Harbor”.

THE RUNNING MAN is actual rubbish. Any sense of contemporary satire is bouldered aside by reminders of DEATH RACE 2000, ROLLERBALL, HUNGER GAMES, BATTLE ROYALE and on and on. Sense of Wright holding himself back from characteristic whimsy. Appallingly incoherent ending. Baaaaad.