The Holiday Edition: New Views from the Big Screen to Home Streaming 27 December 2021 Recently in a Cineplex theatre I went to see Guillermo del Toro’s carnivalesque Nightmare Alley (B) which has tons of psycho-noirish atmosphere over its 150 minutes. It’s definitely lacking the Christmas spirit so be warned. (I had somewhat of a nightmarish time after as I got stranded with car engine failure.) In “Alley” Willem Dafoe has a small role as a creepy carny. That evening the “Crave” channel featured Dafoe in the lead role as a tormented soul in Abel Ferrara’s nightmarish 2019 psychodrama Siberia (C). If anything, it’s even more grotesque and ghastly. So bring on the heartwarming holiday favorites! As usual there is a vast amount of content being added to streaming platforms. Netflix seems to add another series almost every day. Worth checking out is the four-episode docuseries Animal (A) that starts with the predatory world of big cats. And speaking of ...

“The art of filmmaking is the most influential form of art that has ever existed throughout the history of human artistic endeavors.” ~ Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament
"The Best of Screenings & Meanings" is available for $29.95 from McNally Robinson at: https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/geraldschmitz. More information and free Table of Contents and Appendix are available at http://screeningsandmeanings.com/
Email the author at: screeningsandmeanings@gmail.com