James Proclaims!

Once again the festive season is upon us and so once again I find myself strangely obliged to produce 24 posts about movies which may (or indeed may not) have some link to Christmas. I don’t know why I do this, but this is the ninth consecutive year that I have, and frankly I seem to be showing no inclination that I’m going to stop any time soon.

This year’s annual countdown does at least begin with a fairly decent movie. For behind door number 1 we find 2021’s Boiling Point. Set in real-time in a busy London restaurant on ‘Mad Friday’ (the last Friday before Christmas when traditionally us Brits like to get irresponsibly drunk – I’m sure it use to be known as ‘Black Friday’ before we appropriated the other ‘Black Friday’ but I may be mistaken), Boiling Point is never less than highly stressful to watch. But it is also compelling and frankly brilliant.

There has been a subsequent spin-off TV series, which I’m told is equally brilliant, but I haven’t got around to watching that yet. I’m generally too busy watching movies that I hope have some link to Christmas.

Score for Christmasishness

As mentioned above, it is set around Christmas time, and the time of year is relevant to the plot. It’s not the cheeriest of movies, and ultimately we’re very much in the build-up to Christmas and not the big day itself. Nonetheless, Boiling Point definitely deserves a high Christmas(ish) score.