Jingle Jangle (2020)

I meant to watch this last holiday season, when a song from this jubilant Christmas musical was short listed for an Oscar. The season got turned upside down for us last year (COVID), and the song didn't make the nominee list and by the time I was done watching Oscar movies it was April, and let's just say that over the top Christmas movies should not be eatched in spring. So we made it happen this year. This is a sprawling musical extravaganza whose candy-colored, dandily overstuffed revelry spills over with joy and jubilance. It even has a hint of being at an in person performance, which of course we are all pacing ourselves with these days with omicrom rising (I am finally learning the Greek alphabet in order after all these years of just recognizing the letters but not knowing the exact order, mores the pity). It has a talented and largely all black cast which is just an added bonus. The story has a hopeful beginning, a bah humbug middle and the obligatory happy ending, all wrapped up in the magic of imagination and possibility. Tis the season!