SLOUGH, ENGLAND:
December is about to tip imperceptibly into January – not that the name of the month makes any difference when your geyser is on the blink and your house feels like an igloo. A sensible approach to dealing with this problem may be to work out to warm up. However, if you are interested in a more sofa-oriented solution, consider settling down under a blanket with these feel-good oldies but goodies, guaranteed to radiate warmth in the same way as that elusive hot shower would.
‘Bend It Like Beckham’
Nothing will warm you up quite like an uplifting tale about a football-mad teenager, Jess (Parminder Nagra) who has to scheme her way onto a local football team away from the watchful and disapproving eyes of her Indian parents. Heading her team is her coach Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who, thanks to his Irish heritage, is not only easy on the eyes but also boasts one of the most linguistically intoxicating accents you will find on television. As icing on the cake, Juliette Stevenson plays the role of a mother beside herself with worry about her daughter’s (Kiera Knightley) burning love for football, serving as a gentle reminder that gender stereotypes exist beyond desi households. Speaking of desi households, a wedding in the family threatens to eclipse Jess’s football dreams. Will Jess triumph? Whether this is your first time watching or your fiftieth, prepare to be bowled over.
‘My Cousin Vinny’
Just finished watching Joe Pesci’s Harry get destroyed in Home Alone? You can also watch him get destroyed in a courtroom as attorney Vincent Gambini, although here he has by his side a beautiful, brainy fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomeii) who knows everything there is to know about cars (as opposed to Home Alone’s dim-witted henchman who innocently reveals all their cunning plans). If you watch only one courtroom film in your life, make it this one. Without a single wasted scene, Vinny traverses the landscape of an Alabama courtroom, tasked with saving two innocent young men from the electric chair. This is a feel-good film, so you get no prizes for guessing the ending. The journey from beginning to end, riddled with a grumpy judge and a foul-mouthed New York lawyer clueless about the customs of the American South, will leave you howling. Your brain will shove aside important things to make space for Vinny and Mona Lisa’s dialogue. It is futile fighting it.
‘Father of the Bride’
If you are addicted to the Steve Martin-Martin Short combination in Only Murders in the Building, then it is likely you already loved them both from Father of the Bride. When you ignore the disturbing fact that silver-haired Martin and pearl-wearing Diane Keaton are both meant to be 45 (an astounding detail that meme-makers are unable to overlook), it is hard to find a film that caresses heartstrings more exquisitely than this – particularly as we are in the dead centre of wedding season. We start off with George and Nina’s (Martin and Keaton) daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) announcing she is getting married. George cannot believe his treasured firstborn, whom he still sees as a little girl, could betray him like this. He tailspins into despair, culminating in a meltdown in a grocery store over hot dog buns. Nina ignores George’s meltdowns and hires a wedding coordinator (Short). At the core, this is the timeless story of a loving father grappling with the prospect of his daughter becoming an adult. A beautiful soundtrack from the ’60s chugs things along. Keep those tissues at arm’s length.