Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

So yeah, we've made a family tradition of watching current Star Wars movies on Christmas. Never my mom's first choice, but it beats our previous tradition of dark musicals in my book.

Picking up right where Episode VII left off, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found the hiding place of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and wants him to train her so she can contribute better to the war. But Luke has grown bitter and disenchanted with Jedi ways and dreads the possibility of creating another Vader-esque Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who has some Force-related connection to Rey. Meanwhile, despite its previous victory, the Resistance is weakening and struggles to retreat from a First Order bent on eradicating it.

Purple Noon (1960)

None of my sources explain the English title. I can see how the native French one, Plein soleil, "Full Sun," wouldn't carry over; but I noticed no literal purple, nor do any characters mention it, at least in the subtitles. In any event, it's the first screen adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Master forger Tom Ripley is not exactly a friend to aristocrat Philippe Greenleaf, but they enjoy a bit of mischief together in Italy. Philippe must sense jealousy of his fiancée, Marge, because he grows mean to Tom—until Tom kills him. Tom does a good job of hiding Philippe's body and assuming his identity (except around prior acquaintances), but even a genius doesn't have an easy time keeping up a charade indefinitely....

Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle (2017)

Dad and I had tentatively planned on seeing several entries in a European showcase at AFI, but we put it off. Tonight was the last night, so we got the initiative just in time. To my slight surprise, Mom came too.

This is one of those rare stories to include flashbacks within flashbacks. In the "present" of 1980, Anna, who has lived mostly in Canada, finds herself and two acquaintances explaining a suspicious death to an Italian policeman. From one standpoint, her relevant story begins only nine days prior, when she sees fit to take her adoptive mother's ashes to the village of Puglia; from another, it starts in 1953, when Gauke, who would become her father, wanders from flooded Holland to Puglia. (Anna learns the story from her acquaintances only within those nine days.) Most of what we see is about Gauke's not-so-uneventful life as a tulip farmer in the area.

As Long as You've Got Your Health (1966)

This was included on the same disc as Yo Yo. I was going to skip it, but at a mere 77 minutes on top of the previous 92, it called out to me. Besides, being divided into four stories averaging less than 20 minutes each would make it easy to stop whenever I wanted.

In part 1, an insomniac reads a vampire novel while his wife sleeps next to him. In part 2, people struggle to find acceptable seats in a movie theater. In part 3, people attempt to grin and bear living in a noisy, bustling city, sometimes with several medications against stress. In part 4, two picnickers, a huntsman, and a fence builder get on each other's nerves when they happen to choose the same neck of the woods.

Yo Yo (1965)

Despite some panning in its homeland of France, this is probably the most popular piece by director, writer, and star Pierre Étaix. Espousing an extra old-fashioned appearance, it seems to have required greater restoration than most '60s movies. I'm unclear on the legal reasons that we had to wait a few years for the restoration's release.

The story begins in the Roaring Twenties, when an obscenely spoiled rich man sees his maybe six-year-old son for the first time. The boy's mom is a circus performer, and he's already serving as a clown. The dad sends him off with a yo-yo, which becomes his stage name. It takes the Great Depression to draw his dad into the family business -- and into the family, for that matter. By World War II, Yo Yo is a famous actor and wants to buy back the mansion that his dad lost.

My Mother's Castle (1990)

Had I realized that this was a sequel to My Father's Glory, I would have given higher priority to the latter. But since the two movies were released in the same year, I imagine that many viewers did not watch MFG first. Besides, MMC does a fine job of standing on its own; I never felt like I missed anything.

The Netflix summary is a tad misleading. While much of the plot does focus on how a vacationing family resorts to regular trespassing to save time, making it only a matter of time before trouble rears its ugly head, there are several matters to attend to before and after that. For example, preteen protagonist Marcel finds himself under uncomfortable pressure, not least from his teacher father, to participate in a big scholastic competition. He also falls for a pretty snob who gets him to do dumb things for her.

F for Fake (1974)

It makes sense to me that the last movie to be directed by Orson Welles would be quite different. Not just from his other works but from pretty much any other. Some reviewers have reservations about calling it a documentary, tho I don't know how else to classify it unless "essay" counts as a genre.

The project had begun as a doc on Elmyr de Hory, possibly the world's most successful art forger. (Of course, a more successful one might never get caught.) It still focuses on him in large part, but Welles expanded it to liars in general, including Clifford Irving, phony biographer of both de Hory and Howard Hughes; Oja Kodar, Croatian actress and muse of sorts; and...Welles himself.

Losing Ground (2005)

Do not confuse this with the first result when you look up the title. It has nothing to do with the 1982 Kathleen Collins pic. Instead, it's an indie based on a play by the director, Bryan Wizemann, who's not known for much else. And it sure feels like an adaptation from a one-act play, taking place almost entirely in one room, in 90 minutes of real time, with a total cast of seven (one gone so quickly he's almost pointless).

That room is a former Irish pub converted into a run-down video poker bar in Vegas. Several machines, gaming or otherwise, don't work properly, and few resources are diverted to atmospheric amenities like lighting. Guess what most of the patrons are like. There's not much of a plot; we primarily watch them hit buttons, drink, and talk.

Enemy Mine (1985)

Going by the ratings, I would not have chosen to see this. The numbers are only about average across sites, the most promising being a 6.9 on IMDb. But once I read the plot description, I felt like checking it out.

In the future, humans and aliens called Dracs are at war over planetary claims, neither evidently having the moral high ground. Human pilot Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid) engages Drac pilot Jeriba Shigan (a heavily made-up Louis Gossett, Jr.), and both crash onto an unclaimed planet. Despite plenty of oxygen, water, and ostensible food, the local environment is dangerous enough that Davidge and "Jerry" decide they're better off relying on each other than continuing their fight.

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

For all my viewing of foreign cinema, I don't think I'd ever seen a yakuza film before. The name of the subgenre didn't ring a bell, nor did any of the examples I found listed, except one that I know I hadn't seen: The Punisher (1989). As far as I can tell, they're just gangster flicks in Japan.

This one starts with the dissolution of a yakuza gang as honcho Kurata would rather do legitimate business. The focal character, former member Tetsu, soon gets a tough choice from former rival Otsuka: join or die. Kurata talks Tetsu into a third option: become a drifter. But for reasons that escape my memory, Kurata decides that Tetsu is too dangerous to let live, so now Tetsu has two de facto gangs after him....