It’s a Christmas miracle, and in late November, at that. Frequent commercial director Wes Anderson has lent his talents to hip clothing retailer H&M for a new, seasonally appropriate ad campaign that doubles as a sweet little short from the celebrated filmmaker. This being a Wes Anderson joint, certain expectations go without saying: the bit is immaculately composed, lots of zippy camera pans, fetishization of travel via train. But the four-minute clip titled “Come Together” arrives as a pleasant surprise all the same, injecting some much-needed Yuletide cheer into a Monday morning.
Whatever holiday you celebrate in December, it comes with a lot of pressure. If you get that special someone the wrong gift, watch out. Things can get pretty ugly. That’s particularly true for pop-culture fans. They know what they want, and they probably have most of it already. Perhaps you know someone like this. Perhaps you are someone like this. (Perhaps I am someone like this.)
The majority of the creatures in Gremlins, like Gizmo and Stripe, were all puppets created for the movie. But, before they decided on puppets, they actually tried to get monkeys to play the Gremlins, but the monkeys started freaking out when they put the masks on them. This is just one of the Gremlins facts in the latest installment of You Think You Know Movies!
While traditional live sketches are still the backbone of any given episode, modern SNL is frequently at its best in the pre-recorded segments. The past few years have seen an interesting evolution as the silly “digital shorts” of a decade ago have matured into full-blown filmmaking, with sketches that feel more like short films than just a comedy bit. Last night’s Ryan Gosling-hosted episode peaked with a pre-recorded sketch titled “Santa Baby,” which let both SNL and Gosling himself turn the weird up to 11.