Last Christmas (2019)

Perhaps interested in creating a seasonal perennial that would yield residual checks for years to come, Emma Thompson spent eight years trying to make a movie based on the popular Wham! song "Last Christmas". The resulting film, starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, was released shortly after the death of former Wham! frontman George Michael. It received a critical drubbing, but still made a healthy profit at the box office. It's still too soon to tell if Last Christmas will have a long shelf life among the slew of other Christmas romcoms, but it's a meaningful film for Cheryl and she picked it for the podcast because of this. Ryan and Sylvan were far, far less charmed by Last Christmas and dunk on it for most of this recording. Discussion topics include the movie's shallow depiction of the unhoused, its wishy-washy message about xenophobia, the satisfaction one can yield from lightweight entertainment, and why the Christmas Carol formula is so popular in mass media.