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It’s that time of year again when we sit down to watch a beloved Christmas movie with our favorite old fart Bill Murray, I mean Frank Cross, in what is arguably the best adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Directed by Richard Donner, Scrooged follows Frank Cross as he navigates his least favorite time of year, Christmas.
Even though Frank claims he loves the season for all the money to be made from the sad saps who watch his network, really he hates the joyful spirit of the holiday. He takes out his deep-seated rage on every single person he considers less powerful than him. His beleaguered assistant Grace (Alfre Woodard), his younger brother James (Bill Murray’s real-life brother John Murray), and his executive team — one of whom, Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait), he fires on Christmas Eve for daring to challenge him, all face his wrath. And here we have another element of Scrooged that has withstood the test of time: Frank is a capitalist and an equal opportunity hater. The only person he defers to is his boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum), and even that is only because Preston makes more money.
Part of the reason for Scrooged’s staying power is the stellar writing by Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue. Updating Dickens’ scenario from Scrooge as miserly banker to soulless television executive whose interests are only his own is especially relevant today, where an equally vapid reality star is the president of the USA.
But there is still so much more in Scrooged that has aged along with Americans in particular. Back in the ’80s when this film first came out, people were shocked at the levels of violence, and in particular gun violence. Scrooged even features an office shooting by Eliot Loudermilk, the man Frank fired on Christmas Eve whose world fell apart in the hours since. In today’s world, this kind of violence has been completely normalized to the point where I’m sure younger viewers would be surprised to hear people were upset to see these things in a Christmas movie three decades ago. As a gun crime survivor myself, this aspect has made the film sometimes difficult to stomach, especially in the years directly after the incident. For a while I would have to fast-forward to Frank’s final epiphany, even though Eliot is still holding people hostage in the control room as Frank and company since “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.”
The normalizing of gun violence isn’t the only prophetic aspect of Scrooged. This movie essentially predicted the conservative myth of the “war on Christmas” that’s been used as anti-diversity talking points for years now. Scrooged opens with a promo for a fictional Christmas movie, The Night the Reindeer Died, in which Santa’s village is beset by terrorists. Santa’s cupboards are not filled with treats and presents, but instead an arsenal. “This is one Santa who is going out the front door!” Santa boasts with an AK-47 in his arms. Jeepers.
Further, many of the socioeconomic and racial disparities we see today between high-paid executives and those who work for them are even bigger now than they were in Scrooged’s era. And in today’s parlance, Claire (Karen Allen) is a total social justice warrior.
Frank’s boss Preston even predicted the cat mania that would eventually take over the world. He insists that Frank include “pet programming” since dogs and cats will soon overtake humans in viewership. It sounded bananas back then, but now it’s just the reality we live in where cats are the masters of the Internet. This movie really dug deep into the American social, political, and cultural context and created something timeless.
But one of the coolest things in a long list of Scrooged’s awesome was watching it in HD this year and realizing that the three ghosts aren’t actually ghosts at all, but fairies. The real kinds of Fae folk, mean ones with sharp teeth and claws and fists. If you look closely, you’ll see that the Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen) has pointy ears. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) has wings along with her pointy ears and ongoing physical/verbal assaults common to Fae Folk in their dealings with lesser mortals. And the writhing creatures inside the Ghost of Christmas Future are basically goblins and trolls. Some argue that Reapers, or so-called angels of death, are also members of the diverse pantheon of faeries. Scrooged is one of the few times in the history of cinema we see faeries as the complicated, cruel, monstrous, (and sometimes funny) creatures they are — David Bowie’s The Labyrinth being another rare example.
And still there’s more: Eight years before Scream made metatext and self-referentiality an on-screen trope, Scrooged did it first. The script in Frank’s desk for the live Scrooge production uses the same font as the movie poster and title credits. Frank’s encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Future first occurs with an actor from the in-movie live production. His second is the actual reaper, who has mirrored the costume design from Frank’s Scrooge. Grace’s son Calvin (Nicholas Phillips) utters his first words in five years, and they echo Tiny Tim’s, “God bless us, every one.”
It’s this beautiful attention to detail, along with a host of magical performances, that keep Scrooged in an iconic place in Christmas-inspired visual media. Watching it again this year, I felt like Grace and her family are the real heroes of this story. She displays such empathy and compassion, unlike other portrayals of Black women from that era of American visual media. She is loving and strong. Grace doesn’t take Frank’s crap, even as he dishes it out. She’s not Frank’s conscience — she’s an independent voice of reason.
Frank Cross’s damage, like so many people’s, goes back to his childhood. Never processing these foundational traumas in a healthy way has long-term consequences. Frank’s behavior stems directly from feeding his pain with money instead of love to the point where you begin to wonder if it’s possible to reverse it. Will his breakthrough moment last? Or will he revert to type as he sees daily intentional living isn’t as easy as an epiphany? I would love a real-time sequel to Scrooged to see where he is now, but only if Bill Murray is involved. As much of a real-life Grinch I may be, I have my own Christmas tragedies that have dampened my enjoyment of this time of year, I still like to imagine that three decades later, Frank Cross would be finally healed and happy by now.
The post ‘Scrooged’ is a Rare Christmas Film that Withstands the Test of Time 30 Years Later appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
It’s that time of year again when we sit down to watch a beloved Christmas movie with our favorite old fart Bill Murray, I mean Frank Cross, in what is arguably the best adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Directed by Richard Donner, Scrooged follows Frank Cross as he navigates his least favorite time of year, Christmas.
Even though Frank claims he loves the season for all the money to be made from the sad saps who watch his network, really he hates the joyful spirit of the holiday. He takes out his deep-seated rage on every single person he considers less powerful than him. His beleaguered assistant Grace (Alfre Woodard), his younger brother James (Bill Murray’s real-life brother John Murray), and his executive team — one of whom, Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait), he fires on Christmas Eve for daring to challenge him, all face his wrath. And here we have another element of Scrooged that has withstood the test of time: Frank is a capitalist and an equal opportunity hater. The only person he defers to is his boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum), and even that is only because Preston makes more money.
Part of the reason for Scrooged’s staying power is the stellar writing by Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue. Updating Dickens’ scenario from Scrooge as miserly banker to soulless television executive whose interests are only his own is especially relevant today, where an equally vapid reality star is the president of the USA.
But there is still so much more in Scrooged that has aged along with Americans in particular. Back in the ’80s when this film first came out, people were shocked at the levels of violence, and in particular gun violence. Scrooged even features an office shooting by Eliot Loudermilk, the man Frank fired on Christmas Eve whose world fell apart in the hours since. In today’s world, this kind of violence has been completely normalized to the point where I’m sure younger viewers would be surprised to hear people were upset to see these things in a Christmas movie three decades ago. As a gun crime survivor myself, this aspect has made the film sometimes difficult to stomach, especially in the years directly after the incident. For a while I would have to fast-forward to Frank’s final epiphany, even though Eliot is still holding people hostage in the control room as Frank and company since “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.”
The normalizing of gun violence isn’t the only prophetic aspect of Scrooged. This movie essentially predicted the conservative myth of the “war on Christmas” that’s been used as anti-diversity talking points for years now. Scrooged opens with a promo for a fictional Christmas movie, The Night the Reindeer Died, in which Santa’s village is beset by terrorists. Santa’s cupboards are not filled with treats and presents, but instead an arsenal. “This is one Santa who is going out the front door!” Santa boasts with an AK-47 in his arms. Jeepers.
Further, many of the socioeconomic and racial disparities we see today between high-paid executives and those who work for them are even bigger now than they were in Scrooged’s era. And in today’s parlance, Claire (Karen Allen) is a total social justice warrior.
Frank’s boss Preston even predicted the cat mania that would eventually take over the world. He insists that Frank include “pet programming” since dogs and cats will soon overtake humans in viewership. It sounded bananas back then, but now it’s just the reality we live in where cats are the masters of the Internet. This movie really dug deep into the American social, political, and cultural context and created something timeless.
But one of the coolest things in a long list of Scrooged’s awesome was watching it in HD this year and realizing that the three ghosts aren’t actually ghosts at all, but fairies. The real kinds of Fae folk, mean ones with sharp teeth and claws and fists. If you look closely, you’ll see that the Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen) has pointy ears. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) has wings along with her pointy ears and ongoing physical/verbal assaults common to Fae Folk in their dealings with lesser mortals. And the writhing creatures inside the Ghost of Christmas Future are basically goblins and trolls. Some argue that Reapers, or so-called angels of death, are also members of the diverse pantheon of faeries. Scrooged is one of the few times in the history of cinema we see faeries as the complicated, cruel, monstrous, (and sometimes funny) creatures they are — David Bowie’s The Labyrinth being another rare example.
And still there’s more: Eight years before Scream made metatext and self-referentiality an on-screen trope, Scrooged did it first. The script in Frank’s desk for the live Scrooge production uses the same font as the movie poster and title credits. Frank’s encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Future first occurs with an actor from the in-movie live production. His second is the actual reaper, who has mirrored the costume design from Frank’s Scrooge. Grace’s son Calvin (Nicholas Phillips) utters his first words in five years, and they echo Tiny Tim’s, “God bless us, every one.”
It’s this beautiful attention to detail, along with a host of magical performances, that keep Scrooged in an iconic place in Christmas-inspired visual media. Watching it again this year, I felt like Grace and her family are the real heroes of this story. She displays such empathy and compassion, unlike other portrayals of Black women from that era of American visual media. She is loving and strong. Grace doesn’t take Frank’s crap, even as he dishes it out. She’s not Frank’s conscience — she’s an independent voice of reason.
Frank Cross’s damage, like so many people’s, goes back to his childhood. Never processing these foundational traumas in a healthy way has long-term consequences. Frank’s behavior stems directly from feeding his pain with money instead of love to the point where you begin to wonder if it’s possible to reverse it. Will his breakthrough moment last? Or will he revert to type as he sees daily intentional living isn’t as easy as an epiphany? I would love a real-time sequel to Scrooged to see where he is now, but only if Bill Murray is involved. As much of a real-life Grinch I may be, I have my own Christmas tragedies that have dampened my enjoyment of this time of year, I still like to imagine that three decades later, Frank Cross would be finally healed and happy by now.
The post ‘Scrooged’ is a Rare Christmas Film that Withstands the Test of Time 30 Years Later appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
Writer: Rainbow Rowell / Artist: Kris Anka / Marvel
Runaways is great for many reasons, but the one I always come back to is family. The Runaways team has this undying feeling of genuine love and appreciation for each other, despite their frequently crappy circumstances. They didn’t choose this life. It was kind of thrown at their feet after, ya know, the whole sacrificial children thing their nutty parents were involved in. Issue #16 reminds us that these boys and girls have, and always will be a bunch kids enjoying the little things in life. Even if they’re being held captive, they like having a proper Christmas tree to string up for the holiday season!
This creative team of Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka, maaaan. Such a problem! These two were really out here tugging on mufuckas heartstrings this week. Anka’s attention to Christmas dinner detail is impressively heart warming. Rowell’s characters have internal battles raging and they are on full display once the Christmas spirit takes over. Of course, those positive intentions and respect for family new and old are completely ruined by a certain Benedict Arnold and his quest for dominance, but we not gonna get into that though.
What we are going to get into, is Gert da Cynical Gawd and her side quest. Come to think about it, Gert is the only member of the team that has consistently gotten various character arcs that deepen her history and advance her journey. Everyone has received their issue or 2 but she’s the one who Rowell keeps coming back to, for good reason. Gert is a complicated person. She doesn’t conform to societies expectations and even after she got the whole jaw dropping makeover that some would consider pretty damn basic of her, she goes and gets bae’d up with the sexiest robot since Ex Machina! Gert’s torn mentality is on full display when she reveals all the power she has at her fingertips, but is so unsure of what to do with it. I have a feeling her time weighing those options is coming to an end.
This was a well-paced Christmas issue of fun that spread lots of holiday cheer and romance. That’s right, I said romance! If a girl can come back from the dead and still find love in an Ultron manufactured robot head named Victor, anybody can! Anka and Matt Wilson helped Rainbow fill this issue of Runaways with the right amount heart and comedy. The expressions on Molly’s face when the hideout was transformed into a Winter wonderland was adorable. I really found myself laughing out loud all throughout this one and it was rewarding. Unexpected hilarity is something I live for and Rowell seems to let the funny flow through her pen with ease. After last issue’s history rewriting romp around LA, this one was another good entry for Runaways. Make sure you check this one out so you can see which lovely guest crashed Christmas dinner!
8 Green Bean Casserole Dishes out of 10
Reading Runaways? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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Writer: Bryan Hill / Artist: Leandro Fernandez / DC Comics
The opening pages of American Carnage #2 are actively and objectively terrifying. A white passing African-American detective is in the backyard of an affluent white man in California watching a bunch of racists rag on each other before it pivots to two old white men discussing the current status of racism in exceedingly candid terms. There’s a lingering question of continued physical violence versus ideological warfare. There’s also a panel that shows what happens when you combine the two.
This book is exhausting perhaps because 2018 has been exhausting. If anything must be said about this series, it is that Hill has created an authentically chilling premise that feels a little bit too real and purposefully cuts a little too close to home. It’s that Fernandez’ artwork captures the titular carnage in all of its blood red, alcohol-induced viscera and violence.
American Carnage #1 was largely focused on setting up the premise, which allows American Carnage #2 to focus on developing a myriad of character dynamics. Characterization happens in bursts, where a book selection or simple reveal of knowledge have drastic implications. Every minuscule action and word choice speak magnitudes to the character behind them. In these subtle moments, American Carnage finds its bloodied, beating heart.
Hill has a fascination with ideology and violence that pops off the page. Fernandez’s artwork gives that fascination a body to bruise and break. This is a really good book, but it’s an exceedingly bleak book. It’s a violent book. It’s not going to be for everyone. But the people willing to dive deeper into this solemn reflection of the current political under-climate, they will find a story that turns the proverbial knife in the stomach. They will find a story about monsters and the depths we are willing to undertake to fight them.
8.9 “Brawls” out of 10
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The post American Carnage #2 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.