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Eagles stars Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown say relationship is 'good' after teammate suggests fissureXavier Bell scores 29 to lead Wichita State over Friends University 87-72The team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon , the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 trillion budget, employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials, and effect Americans' daily lives: The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines about if and when kids should get vaccinated . The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years, and that 100 million of them were infants. Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , 71, who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products, as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear out “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. This story has been corrected to reflect that the health agencies have an overall budget of about $1.7 trillion, not $1.7 billion. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!
Eagles stars Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown say relationship is 'good' after teammate suggests fissureFormer Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has been appointed as the new Governor of Manipur in the latest gubernatorial appointments and reshuffle by President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) across five States. The other key appointment is that former Union Minister General V K Singh (Retd) being made the new Governor of Mizoram whileKerala Governor, Arif Mohammed Khan, has been moved to Bihar. The appointment to the Manipur Raj Bhavan is significant as the State has witnessed ethnic strife months between the Meitei community and Kuki tribes since May 2023. Anusuiya Uikey was the last full time Governor of the State and since July this year, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya was holding additional charge. The swap of Goverors in Kerala is another politically significant move. Mr Khan had been having regular run-ins with the Left Front government in the State. So, while he has been shifted to Bihar, the incumbent Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has been named as the new Governor of Kerala. The incumbent Governor of Mizoram Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati has been appointed as Governor of Odisha as Gen Singh has been appointed as the new Governor of the Northeastern State. A former chief of the Indian Army, Gen Singh successfully contested the Lok Sabha polls twice (2014 and 2019) from the Ghaziabad seat in Uttar Pradesh on a BJP ticket and was part of the union council of ministers. The party, however, didn’t offer him a ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Mr. Bhalla is among the only two longest serving union Home Secretaries who remained in office for more than five years. Said to be close to Home Minister Amit Shah, Mr. Bhalla steered some of the key legislations such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the three new criminal laws during his tenure as the Home Secretary. A 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, he retired on August 22. Mr. Bhalla has first-hand knowledge of the current security situation in the State as he was in office when ethnic violence erupted in the State on May 3, 2023. The Governor’s post in Manipur had been entrusted as an additional charge to Assam Governor after Anusuiya Uikey was removed from the post on July 28. Violence in the Northeastern State has claimed more than 250 lives so far. Published - December 24, 2024 10:02 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Manipur / Kerala / Bihar / national government
Sri Ramakrishna commissioned his spouse Sri Sarada Devi to carry his spiritual legacy forward. He was the prophet of the new age. He first realized and then offered a religion suited to the modern world. Sarada witnessed intimately what that religion was and how he gave it by examples at every movement of his life. Likewise, Ramakrishna, too, thoroughly scanned her to find out how pure and powerful she was under the guise of an unassuming ordinary woman and how surely capable of bearing the brunt he wished to lay on her. They knew each other like the palms of their hands. Therefore, there was a clear understanding between them regarding their joint responsibility to show The Light towards Peace. Hence, they peculiarly deemed themselves equal. It was notably more peculiar to Sarada’s conduct to have accepted this as correct, being a woman of such a period when a married woman would have imagined it a blasphemy to consider herself of the same status as her husband. To be able to comprehend the true significance and import of the nuances of her husband’s spiritual practices and accomplishments spoke of another of Sarada’s astonishing peculiarities that established her absolute right to become his spiritual consort to do his work without any hesitation or dithering. Sarada’s amazing rise from a disciple and wife of Ramakrishna to his spiritual height didn’t happen by any slip-shod means. It happened in consequence of her silent, serene, sustained prayers and austerities in the seclusion of the Purdah. Advertisement Her heart and mind flowed incessantly in quiet contemplation steadily to trances, away from public gaze, which endowed her with a celestial Peace. “Instead of luxuriating in the enjoyment of inner peace, (she) worked till the last moment of her life to transmit that peace to others.” She also gave the secret of having peace to us. She said: “If you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.” She palpably demonstrated this secret at every moment in her life. Sarada was not known beyond a small circle of her close associates during her husband’s lifetime. No male follower of her husband saw her face. She was self-effacing and shy. Advertisement Moreover, the stringent social norms for a married Brahmin woman did not permit her to mix with others outside her caste. She did not have the minimum access to formal education because of the restrictions in force against wo m en’s education then, particularly in rural areas. In this way, she virtually lived an incarcerated life. But then, she was too sharp and receptive, because of which she easily learnt by hearing and watching her husband who taught her every detail of household work and how to still remian detached from it, attaching the mind to God relentlessly. She found her husband by no means dogmatic or exclusive. With her elevated common sense she internalized everything for which Ramakrishna lived. “Therefore, today, she is a model for householders and world renouncing monks.” Sarada covertly grew to be modern in thought and perception in spite of her traditional demeanour of extreme simplicity. She wore no slippers or stitched clothes and slept on a mat on the floor. She woke up much before sunrise and sat in meditation, after finishing her bath. The whole day she did back-breaking labour by serving her husband and cooking for his guests, who came without notice until late at night. None other than two or three widows who guarded her from trespassers knew how she managed them quietly. She was never unhappy about that hard life. She said her heart was always full of joy like a pitcher full of water. Her husband worshipped her and let her realize that she was Divine Mother, as a result of which she consciously acted as the mother of the universe. Her husband saw Kali in her, and she also saw Kali in him. Both were in that way confirmed of their Divine non-difference. Sarada affirmed this by worshipping herself, placing her photo beside Ramakrishna’s on an altar. To a few of her spiritually mature disciples she revealed her divine aspect. These novelties evidently made her modern amidst the traditional saints. So, their lives and works were recognized as Divine Plays, which were seen as directly proportional to and complimentary with one another. It was only when her husband passed away that she stepped out in public. Earlier, no one had even seen her photograph. Now she freely visited places and took it upon herself to discharge the duty her husband had allotted her. She initiated both men and women from all castes as well as from other races with no reservations. She ‘deepened’ the faith of her disciples in Ramakrishna’s teaching of the validity of all religions for realizing God, as the one suited to the present age. She said she was ‘mother of all’, whether saint or sinner. She gracefully gave mantras to sanysins, and sanyasa to brahmacharini. Her motherhood knew no distinctions. It was her forte where she did not brook the slightest encroachment, not even her husband’s. Above all, Sarada took the reins of the Ramakrishna Order in her hand. She didn’t even allow Swamiji to do things which she thought were incorrect. Everyone in the Order was at her beck and call. Each was under her protective care. Benign scolding sometimes issued from her for correction, but not a single word of condemnation ever. Hers was a voice of reason and righteousness, difficult to ignore. On the other hand, her dealings with people and society were unprecedented for any woman during that period of Indian history. She was overtly denying communal differences, dearly treating men and women of other communities as her own children. She was feeding them and sometimes eating with them as well in her house without the fear of being ostracized. She went to the extent of letting foreign ladies stay with her, for which she was even ready to part with the company of upper-caste close devotes who disliked it. She strongly advocated girl’s education despite the opposition of bigoted conservative Hindus. She opened a primary school in her village where no provision of education for poor children was available. She dug a tube-well there for clean drinking water, after observing people drinking contaminated pond water. For irrigation purposes, she sought Government help to dig a canal from the nearest rivulet. For 34 years she, thus, continuously worked for the temporal and spiritual welfare of mankind with a pragmatic, progressive and modern outlook, fulfilling her husband’s expectation from her. She set a perfect example of how to translate his teachings in practice effectively, which was a clear illustration of practical Vedanta. Her followers are now forming organizations to work in her fashion, emulating the Vedantic religion and philosophy she reflected in her day-today behaviour and activity in the simplest terms. For instance, there is an organization in Coventry, England called ‘Sarada Vedanta Society’ where people are being educated giving primacy to her life and teachings. As its name indicates, so also its shrine, where her photograph is placed in the middle, instead of Ramakrishna’s, shifting from tradition. The appeal of Sarada Devi increased by and by. She was at last out of her husband’s shadow. People of all walks of life thronged for her blessings and guidance. She became legendary for her divine character, love and affection. Even after almost 125 years of her departure, the intensity of her attraction remains sky high. It was observed that a conspicuous awakening was occurring among women everywhere with her advent. Marking this, Swami Vivekananda’s brother disciple and the second president of the Ramakrishna Order, Swami Shivananda said: “Holy Mother (Sarada Devi) assumed a human body to awaken the womanhood of the entire world. Don’t you see, since her advent, what an amazing awakening has set in among the women of the world? They are now resolved to build up their lives gracefully and advance in all directions. A very surprising renaissance is swaying women in the fields of spirituality, politics, science, literature, etc. And more will come. This is the play of the Divine Power. Ordinary mortals cannot understand this mystery.” Swamiji believed Sarada Devi was born to revive the glory of womanhood. He said “making her nucleus, once more will Gargis and Maitreyis be born into the world”. He planned to start an organization for this purpose, in which she would be ‘the central figure’. Keenly studying her personality, Sister Nivedita wrote: “In her, one sees realized that wisdom and sweetness to which the simplest of women may attain. And yet, to myself the stateliness of her courtesy and great open mind are almost as wonderful as her sainthood. I have never known her hesitate, in giving utterance to large and generous judgement, however new or complex might be the question put before her.” Anyone can see the far reaching and magnifying impact of her life (22 December 1853- 20 June1920) of 67 years in modern times. Today, she is dear to everyone who knows about her. Her sublime matriarchal influence is transforming countless minds, cutting across castes, communities, countries and the fallen. She said: “I am the mother of the wicked, as I am the mother of the virtuous. Never fear. Whenever you are in distress, just say to yourself, ‘I have a mother.’” (The writer is associated with Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur) AdvertisementWall Street advances in short Christmas Eve sessionBy MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATT BROWN WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, said he had a “wonderful conversation” with Maine Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday as he pushed to win enough votes for confirmation. He said he will not back down after allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Related Articles National Politics | Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell. It’ll be a first for him National Politics | The Trump and Biden teams insist they’re working hand in glove on foreign crises National Politics | ‘You don’t know what’s next.’ International students scramble ahead of Trump inauguration National Politics | Trump is threatening to raise tariffs again. Here’s how China plans to fight back National Politics | Trump won’t be able to save the struggling US beef industry Collins said after the hourlong meeting that she questioned Hegseth about the allegations amid reports of drinking and the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies. She said she had a “good, substantive” discussion with Hegseth and “covered a wide range of topics,” including sexual assault in the military, Ukraine and NATO. But she said she would wait until a hearing, and notably a background check, to make a decision. “I asked virtually every question under the sun,” Collins told reporters as she left her office after the meeting. “I pressed him both on his position on military issues as well as the allegations against him, so I don’t think there was anything that we did not cover.” The meeting with Collins was closely watched as she is seen as more likely than most of her Republican Senate colleagues to vote against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks. She and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow moderate Republican, did not shy from opposing Trump in his first term when they wanted to do so and sometimes supported President Joe Biden’s nominees for the judicial and executive branches. And Hegseth, an infantry combat veteran and former “Fox & Friends” weekend host, is working to gain as many votes as he can as some senators have expressed concerns about his personal history and lack of management experience. “I’m certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands,” Hegseth said as he left Collins’ office. “This is a process that we respect and appreciate. And we hope, in time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor that we can earn her support.” Hegseth met with Murkowski on Tuesday. He has also been meeting repeatedly with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran who has said she is a survivor of sexual assault and has spent time in the Senate working on improving how attacks are reported and prosecuted within the ranks. On Monday, Ernst said after a meeting with him that he had committed to selecting a senior official to prioritize those goals. Republicans will have a 53-49 majority next year, meaning Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any of his nominees. It is so far unclear whether Hegseth will have enough support, but Trump has stepped up his pressure on senators in the last week. “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” Trump posted on his social media platform last week.
Marta's magic helped get the Pride to Saturday's NWSL title game against the Washington SpiritThis story was originally published on December 6, 2018. Much like Santa with his Naughty and Nice list, every holiday season we revisit the ranking to reconsider which films make the cut. The holiday season is upon us, which means it’s time to put away our differences in the interest of peace on earth, goodwill toward others, etc., etc., and kick back with a great Christmas movie , a filmmaking tradition that dates back to the 1898 film Santa Claus . In that one, Santa slides down a chimney, stuffs some stockings, and promptly disappears into the ether; the whole film runs just over one minute long. No one would argue that that early effort was anything but a Christmas movie, but these days, the question comes up frequently: What exactly is a Christmas movie? Is merely being set at Christmas enough? Or is there some elusive other element that makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie? It’s the old, now tired, “Does Die Hard count?” debate. Well, does it? Opting for a big-tent definition of what constitutes a Christmas movie, this list of the greatest Christmas movies ever made argues, yes, it does, very much so. And not just because it takes place at Christmas. The story of a man trying to repair his life, earn redemption, and keep his family together, Die Hard engages with some key Christmas-movie themes. More than twinkling lights and gift-making elves, we looked to these elements when putting the list together. Also, the movies on this list have to be good. There’s a cynical reason to make a Christmas movie: The demand is high, even for the bad ones, every holiday season, when cable plays them ad nauseam to satisfy Christmas-crazed subscribers. So, sorry, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation — just because you’re unavoidable doesn’t earn you a spot on the list. Another qualifier: We stayed away from the world of made-for-TV movies, though some direct-to-streaming titles did make the cut. That means Hallmark Channel Christmas movies about young people who don’t like each other but then end up liking each other a lot weren’t considered. The list is mostly feature films but with a few shorts thrown in as well. We also opted to include a wide variety of Christmas movies, ranging from established classics to cult horror movies . Not every title will be for everyone, but there should be something for everyone here, whether you want Jimmy Stewart welcoming the season or Santa’s demonic counterpart threatening a dysfunctional family. In the spirit of the season, we erred on the side of generosity. 50. The streaming era has produced many forgettable movies that disappear from memory almost as quickly as they appear under the “Top Picks” header. But some have stuck around, like this goofy, endearing Netflix movie starring Kurt Russell as a gruff but good-hearted ( and hunky ) Santa who spends one busy Christmas Eve helping out a family of troubled kids escape a series of mishaps. Think Adventures in Babysitting , but with St. Nicholas and a musical cameo from Steven van Zandt and his band. A sequel followed in 2020 that, while not quite as good, does expand on Goldie Hawn’s last-minute appearance as Mrs. Claus at the end of the original. 49. A true Christmas oddity, this is the only holiday movie featuring Jimmy Durante as a down-on-his-luck vaudevillian forced to part ways with his trained squirrel as Christmas approaches. That’s the heartbreaking premise of The Great Rupert , but it’s all a set-up to a happy ending in which Durante is reunited with his four-legged friend, the poor get rich, and the rich learn a lesson (a story element that pops up a lot in the flood of Christmas movies released in the years immediately following World War II). The plot lags at times, but Durante’s always fun, and so is Rupert, the delightful creation of producer George Pal, the stop-motion wizard behind Puppetoons . 48. There’s no shortage of Christmas horror movies, some of them quite good (as other entries on this list suggest). But none are quite like Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale , an unwaveringly deadpan Christmas thriller from Finnish director Jalmari Helander ( Sisu ). Onni Tommila plays Pietari, a boy living in a remote corner of Lapland, who comes to fear that a nearby mining operation has unearthed Santa Claus. But not, in his words, the “Coca-Cola Santa,” the real, demonic Santa dedicated to punishing the naughty. As Christmas approaches, and strange occurrences like the mass slaughter of reindeer start to transpire, Pietari and those around him discover the boy is only half-right and the real trouble is even deeper and stranger. Helander and his cast commit to the absurd premise wholeheartedly, allowing Rare Exports to work as a fun yuletide black comedy and a pretty solid supernatural action film at the same time. Fair warning: You’ll never think of Santa’s elves in the same way ever again after watching it. 47. Between this movie and another one a little higher on the list, Billy Bob Thornton has carved himself a nice space in the seamy-underbelly-of-Christmas subgenre. Holiday cheer provides an ironic backdrop for this overlooked-but-quite-good Harold Ramis thriller, starring Thornton and John Cusack as a pair of seedy characters looking to get the hell out of Wichita after ripping off their boss. Unfortunately, they haven’t factored in the possibility that bad weather (to say nothing of double crosses and other unforeseen bits of adversity) will get in their way. Thornton and Cusack make for a great pair, but it’s Oliver Platt who steals his every scene as a drunken lawyer in a film that provides the perfect antidote to the season’s excessive amounts of good cheer and faith in one’s fellow man. 46. Tim Burton isn’t exactly underrepresented on this list, but his second Batman movie is too filled with twinkles and tinsel not to include, even if its mood is ultimately more frightful than festive. The sequel pits Batman (Michael Keaton) against the dreadful Penguin (Danny DeVito) and the alluring Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) against the backdrop of a Gotham City all decked out for the holidays. (One key scene takes place at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony that goes awry.) Whether it truly celebrates the season or not is open for debate, but watching the film’s superheroics play out in a snowy, light-strewn, postcard-perfect city makes it feel of a piece with Burton’s other Christmas films. 45. There’s been no shortage of scary Santas in movies — see above and below for examples — but few as terrifying as Christopher Plummer in this sometimes brutal thriller. Plummer plays Arthur Reikle, a psychopathic criminal who poses as a mall Santa while scheming to rob a Toronto bank. When a clever clerk (Elliott Gould) gets wise and schemes to rob the robber, a battle of wits ensues. The action plays out across several months, but it’s the early scenes that will make you look askance at any stranger in a Santa costume, no matter how jolly-seeming. 44. Or, if The Ice Harvest isn’t a strong enough antidote, check out this truly twisted slasher about a toy-factory employee who goes on a Yuletide killing spree. Christmas Evil has a premise similar to the much better known Silent Night, Deadly Night , which sparked protests in the streets when it was released four years later. But Silent Night, Deadly Night is just a standard slasher movie in Christmas drag. Christmas Evil plays like a demented piece of outsider art that takes the idea of a killer Santa to some pretty extreme places — including an ending that has to be seen to be believed. John Waters is a fan, which pretty much tells you all you need to know. 43. Before The Nightmare Before Christmas , before Rankin-Bass specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer , before even The Great Rupert there was The Insects’ Christmas , from Russian animator Ladislas Starevich. Starevich made a series of films using dead insects as his stars. His Christmas movie expands the cast to include Father Christmas and an animated doll. But insects remain, as the title suggests, front and center in an inventive, enchanting, if a little unsettling, look at how a bunch of bugs (and one frog) celebrate Christmas that climaxes with Santa, a grasshopper, and assorted other bugs skating on a frozen lake. счастливого Рождества to all! 42. What’s Stanley Kubrick’s final film about, really? Is it about one man’s harrowing descent into the erotic underbelly of New York as he wanders around one night? It is. But isn’t it also about a family nearly falling apart then getting back together in time for Christmas? Its final scene, set in a toy-and-Christmas-light-filled FAO Schwarz, suggests that’s the case. The film’s final lines are not directly related to the holidays or, technically speaking, family-friendly. But they, in their own way, encapsulate the season’s spirit of togetherness. 41. As Christmas approaches, all is not well for Henry Brougham (David Niven), a Protestant bishop trying to raise funds for the glorious new cathedral of his dreams — a project that’s led him to neglect his wife, Julia (Loretta Young), and daughter and cause him to lose sight of his roots as a minister to the needy. Enter Dudley (Cary Grant), an angel determined to set Henry on the right path. The only trouble: He finds himself increasingly wanting to spend time with Julia instead. The film’s a bit pokily directed at times, but Young and Grant’s chemistry smooths over some rough patches — particularly when Grant gets a wistful look in his eyes suggesting that he might call heaven his home but he knows he could find even greater happiness on earth with Young’s character by his side. ( The Preacher’s Wife , the 1996 remake starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, is also worth a look.) 40. Everyone knows that Christmas is about three things: spiritual reflection, spending time with family, and debutante balls. Or at least that’s what the season means for the self-described Urbane Haute Bourgeoisie of Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan , upper-class (and upper-class-adjacent) Manhattanites who spend their evenings attending deb events and their after-hours discussing life, politics, literature, and whatever else comes to mind. Edward Clements stars as Tom, a not-that-privileged college student who falls in with a more upper-crust crowd where he’s befriended by the acidic Nick (Chris Eigeman) and Audrey (Carolyn Farina), with whom he becomes infatuated. Audrey’s fondness for Jane Austen provides the strongest clue as to what Stillman’s up to with this fond but unsparing comedy of manners set among a group of not-quite-adults just before they have to decide what they do with the rest of their lives. It’s a spiritual reflection of a different sort, the kind loaded with endearing characters, witty lines, and unexpectedly touching moments. 39. What is Scrooged trying to say, anyway? You can watch the film over and over — easy to do if you have a cable subscription in December, when it plays all the time — and never quite figure it out. Is it a pitch-black comedy about the commercialization of Christmas? Is it a cynical send-up of our once-a-year celebration of kindness and selflessness? Is it a sincere depiction of a man being transformed by the holidays? It’s a tough film to pin down, probably because the darkly comic sensibilities of star Bill Murray and writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue often seem at odds with that of blockbuster director Richard Donner. But what makes this Reagan-era update on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol — in which Murray plays a cold-hearted TV network president visited by Christmas spirits — flawed also makes it fascinating, and Carol Kane is especially fun as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Worth noting: Dickens’s classic looms large over the Christmas-movie genre, making this just one of many A Christmas Carol adaptations to make the list. Others include ... 38. For a more tuneful version of the Dickens tale, there’s this 1970 musical starring Albert Finney as the eponymous miser. Finney holds nothing back as Scrooge, truly living up to the moniker “the Meanest Man in the Whole Wide World” given to him in “Father Christmas,” one of many earworm-y songs written by Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory songwriter Leslie Bricusse. Highlights include Alec Guinness as a spooky Jacob Marley and a truly scary Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It’s a big, occasionally tacky, but quite fun take on the familiar story. 35. All three of these movies raise a question: How much Christmas does a movie need to be a Christmas movie ? All are great films that set key scenes at Christmastime, but is it fair to call them Christmas movies? In the generous spirit of the season, let’s include them (but let’s also rank them a little lower than some others because so much of their narratives don’t take place during the holidays). All also have moments so Christmassy it would be a shame not to include them. Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 Little Women adaptation gets the nod for the moving way it stages the moment when Beth (Claire Danes) receives a piano for Christmas (and Danes’s heartrending expression of overwhelming joy). Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version has to be included for the moment when Bob Odenkirk’s Mr. March returns home for Christmas and embraces his family while calling them “my little women.” Vincente Minnelli’s classic 1944 musical spans a year in the life of St. Louis’s Smith family, but it’s a year in which a Christmas ball plays a pivotal role and features Judy Garland debuting “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” now a Christmas standard (albeit one no one has performed more heartbreakingly than Garland). 34. With her follow-up to Something’s Gotta Give , Nancy Myers seemingly set out to ask the question, If I cast four actors who really have no business appearing in a soft-edged romantic comedy in my next movie, could I make it work anyway? The answer: kind of? Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play, respectively, a tightly wound editor of movie trailers and a British newspaper reporter who decide to swap houses shortly before Christmas. This leads Winslet’s character, now in L.A., to befriend an aging screenwriter played by Eli Wallach and (eventually) fall for a kindhearted composer played by Jack Black. Meanwhile, Diaz’s character, installed in Surrey, unwittingly hooks up with the brother of Winslet’s character, played by Jude Law. It’s a somewhat shapeless movie that goes on too long, but it also has an undeniable, nap-friendly, tryptophan-like charm as four beautiful people overcome the ridiculously small hurdles keeping them from getting together in two photogenic environments. (Also, Wallach’s a lot of fun.) 33. Bob Hope didn’t so much play characters as variations on the Bob Hope persona, a wisecracking coward with a tendency to get in way over his head then make matters worse for himself. Hope’s not the most obvious fit for a Damon Runyon adaptation, much less a Christmas-themed Runyon adaptation with a deep sentimental streak, but their sensibilities end up meshing pretty well anyway in this 1951 comedy. Hope plays the eponymous character, a con artist who has to flee Florida for New York in order to pay off a debt to a gangster. The ensuing scam involves criminals dressed as Santa and a fake retirement home for “Old Dolls.” The inspired slapstick bits reportedly come from the brilliant animator-turned-director Frank Tashlin, but it’s Hope and co-star Marilyn Maxwell’s performance of the then-new “Silver Bells” that’s ensured the film its spot in the Christmas-movie canon. 32. Nostalgia and holidays both have a way of warping emotions. Combined, they’re hard to resist, especially when it comes to movies that won us over when we were younger. That’s why it’s impossible not to include Home Alone — the John Hughes–scripted, Chris Columbus–directed hit in which Macaulay Culkin finds himself unexpectedly left behind when his family mistakenly flies to Paris without him. But it would be unfair to rank it any higher. Have you watched it? Lately? As a grown-up? Like, watched it all the way through from the shrill opening filled with obnoxious kids to the leadenly staged slapstick climax? It’s a much rougher ride than you might remember. Still, Culkin’s charming, and the sentimental ending works every time. Just ask George Costanza . 31. Few movies have been embraced and rejected, rejected and embraced with the ferocity of Richard Curtis’s 2003 holiday smorgasbord of new love, old love, dying love, Prime Minister love, and porn-movie love. It’s unabashedly corny and sometimes annoyingly smug and simplistic in its take on love, but there’s just so much going on in the movie that it’s hard to reject it wholesale. Don’t like the silly story line in which some luckless Brits fly to America to test the theory that their accents will make them a hit with women? Just stay tuned for a wrenching tale of infidelity starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. Plus, it features the quintessential Bill Nighy performance as a washed-up rock star made miserable by his success, a true present any time of year. 30. Janet Leigh plays Connie, a war widow who unexpectedly becomes the center of a love triangle when her longtime suitor Carl (Wendell Corey) meets an unexpected rival in the form of Steve (Robert Mitchum), a veteran trying to figure out his place in the postwar world. Steve finds himself infatuated with Connie after they meet-cute in a department store — he’s a clerk, she’s a Christmastime undercover shopper — then starts a hard sell, asking him to dump Carl and take a chance on him. Mitchum’s tough-guy demeanor serves him well here, giving an odd energy to the love story. His character is sometimes written as too pushy, but the scene in which he declares his intentions over Christmas dinner, a moment where there’s no room for lies, is downright electric — and the final scene is a stunner. 29. Shane Black often sets his films against a Christmas backdrop, but where Lethal Weapon , Iron Man 3 , and others feel like films that happen to take place at Christmas, Black’s directorial debut feels like it could only take place at Christmas thanks to its themes of redemption, forgiveness, and rebirth. Here it’s New York thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) in need of a new start, which he gets when he’s mistakenly asked to audition for a role in a Hollywood movie. Once there, he falls into a mystery tied to his own past when he reconnects with a childhood friend (Michelle Monaghan) and reluctantly partners with a private eye (Val Kilmer). The twists, rapid-fire banter, and love of seedy crime fiction are familiar Black trademarks, but the concern for Harry’s happiness and connections with others — brought to life by the performance that cemented Downey’s comeback — make this Black’s most heartfelt script. 28. Sometimes the right actor in the right role is pretty much all you need. This pleasant, goofy film stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human who’s grown up at the North Pole living under the mistaken impression that he’s an elf, despite developing into a lumbering adult with little skill for elfish endeavors such as toy-making. Eventually, he has to find his way in the human world when he travels to New York in search of his birth father (James Caan). As a cynical department-store employee, Zooey Deschanel provides a fun contrast to Ferrell’s wild-eyed enthusiasm. The film’s more winning the less it relies on wild antics, but Ferrell and others make sure it stays heartfelt throughout. 27. Aardman Animations, the studio behind the Wallace and Gromit shorts and Chicken Run , brings its own particular whimsical sensibility to a holiday tale with this playful look inside the inner workings of the North Pole, where the latest in a long line of Santas (Jim Broadbent) seems reluctant to give up his post to one of his sons. Steven Claus (Hugh Laurie), who’s been running the operation for his dad with military precision, seems the obvious successor, but it’s the bumbling Arthur (James McAvoy) who best embodies the Christmas spirit, as evidenced by his mad rush to make sure the one kid who mistakenly got the wrong present doesn’t wake up disappointed on Christmas morning. The film mixes clever ideas — dig that high-tech North Pole! — with real warmth, making it feel like nothing less than the future of Christmas itself rests on Arthur’s shoulders. 26. The first big-screen Muppet project after the 1990 death of Jim Henson, A Muppet Christmas Carol features some terrific Paul Williams songs, and smartly slots the always charming Muppets in the familiar Dickens roles. (Kermit and Piggy play the Cratchits, naturally, yet it’s details like the Swedish Chef as a party cook that make it a particular delight for longtime fans.) In the end, though, what makes the movies is Michael Caine’s performance as Ebenezer Scrooge. Caine plays it straight, as if he doesn’t even realize he’s surrounded by puppets, ensuring that the movie works as a moving Dickens adaptation first, and a Muppet movie second. 25. A true cult classic, this low-budget noir directed by Allen Baron unfolds against the backdrop of a New York decked out for the holidays. Yet it’s anything but a merry Christmas for Frank Bono (also Baron), a Cleveland hit man who’s in town to do a job. Mixing gritty location shooting with lyrical narration, it mixes pulpy themes with a feeling of existential loneliness. The movie would work if it weren’t set at Christmas, but the holiday cheer ratchets up the sense of alienation and despair. Not everyone is destined to have happy holidays. Some might not even make it out alive. 24. Arthur Christmas too heartwarming for you? Then try Bob Clark’s classic horror film, in which a mysterious killer starts picking off members of a sorority house one by one during the lead-up to Christmas. Shot on and near the University of Toronto campus, it’s secretly one of the most influential horror films of all time, inspiring Halloween and all the slasher films that followed. Beyond its odd cast (Margot Kidder! SCTV ’s Andrea Martin! Romeo and Juliet star Olivia Hussey! 2001: A Space Odyssey ’s Keir Dullea!), it’s notable for using Christmas trappings to unnerving effect, including a truly memorable final scene. (Clark, who’d later go on to direct Porky’s , would return to Christmas with a much different movie less than a decade later.) 23. Is this a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie? Why choose one when it’s obviously both? The Nightmare Before Christmas has become such a Halloween marketing bonanza — with images of protagonists Jack Skellington and Sally becoming unavoidable every October — that it’s easy to forget it’s at heart the story of a kindhearted ghoulish spirit learning the true meaning of Christmas. (That its most famous song repeats the words “This is Halloween!” over and over again probably doesn’t help.) Directed by stop-motion wizard Henry Selick from a story and designs by Tim Burton, it plays like a sweet-creepy take on a Rankin-Bass Christmas special, building an elaborate mythology out of the holidays and populating it with endearing characters with lessons to learn and adversity to overcome. 22. Much like Nightmare Before Christmas , Joe Dante’s enduring horror favorite Gremlins plays like someone wanted to see how badly a bunch of little monsters could screw up the setting of another Christmas classic. The answer: pretty badly! Set in an idyllic American town straight out of It’s a Wonderful Life — its name, Kingston Falls, even hearkens back to that movie’s Bedford Falls — Gremlins features a cuddly little creature whose evil offspring run amok all over a sweet burg as it gets ready to celebrate the Christmas season. As usual, Dante mixes mockery with celebration, and the film evolves from a horror movie into a freewheeling send-up of both the holidays and the Hollywood movies that celebrate them. 21. Neither Disney animation nor its biggest star, Mickey Mouse, were riding high in the early ’80s. Disney had suffered a string of disappointments and setbacks, and though he remained an inescapable icon, Mickey hadn’t been seen in movie theaters since the ’50s. But this adaptation of the Dickens story suggested there might be life in both yet. Running just 26 minutes — and originally serving as the opener for a rerelease of The Rescuers — Mickey’s Christmas Carol offers a brisk, moving take on the familiar story. Scrooge McDuck (who else?) assumes the Scrooge role, but it’s Mickey and Minnie’s turns as the Cratchits that give the lovingly animated film its heart. After years of cutting corners and coasting on past triumphs, it provided an early sign that Disney was trying again — almost as if the studio has been visited by spirits reminding it what really mattered or something. 20. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck famously co-starred in Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity , but that’s just one of four films to pair them together. They first teamed up for this 1940 Christmas romance in which Fred MacMurray plays John Sargent, a hard-charging DA who, through a misunderstanding, comes to spend the days before Christmas with Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), a small-time jewel thief he’s prosecuting. They start to fall in love during a road trip to Indiana, a sojourn that almost allows them to forget that John still has to try to send Lee to jail when they get back. Directed by Mitchell Leisen from a Preston Sturges script, Remember the Night begins as a broad, brisk comedy but shifts moods as John learns about Lee’s difficult past. In a classic holiday-spirit turn, he comes to realize the advantages his loving family have bestowed upon him once he sees how appreciative Lee is after sharing the first warm Christmas morning of her life with his family. 19. A movie about holiday togetherness that focuses on three characters that would rather be anywhere else (at least at first), Alexander Payne’s 1970-set comedy stars Paul Giamatti as Paul, a boarding-school teacher unexpectedly saddled with caring for a handful of boys with nowhere else to go at Christmastime. When that bunch gets reduced to just one bright, sad, rebellious kid named Angus (Dominic Sessa), Paul finds himself forced to open up for the first time in years, both to Angus and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the head of the school’s cafeteria services who’s remained behind to provide meals. Mary’s still mourning the loss of her son in Vietnam, and Angus has family problems that remain veiled until late in the film. They seemingly have nothing in common, but Payne’s film evolves from a comedy of awkward interactions to a bittersweet celebration of togetherness that unfolds on the edge of despair. 18. French cinematic pioneer Georges Méliès’s contribution to the Christmas-film canon offers little in the way of narrative, just an abundance of turn-of-the-century Christmas imagery as a pair of sleeping children imagine a winter wonderland filled with frolicking musicians, holiday revelers, and, of course, Père Noël himself. It’s a lovely, whimsical short film that captures the inventive director in a festive mood, and immortalizes on film ways of celebrating Christmas that otherwise might have faded from memory. 17. A song of yearning for holiday togetherness the singer suspects he’ll never find again, Bing Crosby’s recording of the Irving Berlin song “White Christmas” became a runaway hit in 1942 as America adjusted to the loss and separation of World War II. Its success was spurred on by the August release of Holiday Inn , a musical conceived by Berlin that starred Crosby and Fred Astaire as collaborators who break up and reunite over the course of a year, all against the backdrop of a country inn only open on holidays. (All the better to showcase Berlin’s knack for crafting holiday-themed hits.) With Danny Kaye subbing in for Astaire, Berlin and Crosby teamed up 12 years later for White Christmas , another holiday musical set at an idyllic getaway. Both films have become Christmas staples, and both have much to recommend them. Featuring top-drawer Berlin songs and one memorable scene after another — Astaire tap dances while smoking and setting off fireworks in one — and elegant direction by Mark Sandrich, Holiday Inn is the better film by a good measure, but watching it means grappling with an ugly blackface number mid-film. (To make matters worse, skipping the scene altogether would result in missing an important plot point.) White Christmas , on the other hand, features fewer songs and a sleepy, low-stakes plot as Crosby and Kaye romance (sort of) a sister act played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. Still, its aggressive, Technicolor pleasantness has its own charms. 15. Tim Burton clearly has a fondness for Christmas that extends beyond A Nightmare Before Christmas . Batman Returns , for one, uses the holiday to memorable effect. But Burton’s Edward Scissorhands goes even further, treating a sensitive, lab-created man with scissors for hands (Johnny Depp) as a Christ-like, too-pure-for-this-world figure who descends on an American suburb where he’s celebrated, then persecuted. The first collaboration between Burton and Depp, a team-up that would become less welcome as the years piled up, is a lovely celebration of outsiders that captures the Burton sensibility in its purest form, elevating his sympathy for monsters and a disdain for the “normal” world into a moral drama filled with arresting images. 14. Not unlike Scissorhands , John Ford’s 3 Godfathers similarly uses echoes of the story of Christ to tremendous effect. A rare Christmas Western, the film stars John Wayne as one of a trio of bank robbers who agree to care for a newborn child while fleeing the law in Death Valley. Ford’s biblical echoes aren’t subtle, nor are they intended to be, but Wayne keeps the film, and its themes of redemption and rebirth, grounded with one of his most sensitive performances. 13. A great Christmas movie that not enough people talk about, It Happened on Fifth Avenue opens with the homeless sage Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor More) moving, as he does every Christmas season, into the luxurious Manhattan home of vacationing tycoon Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles). From there the film keeps piling on the complications as it breaks down the divide between the haves and the have-nots. McKeever is soon joined by a displaced World War II vet (Don DeFore) and O’Connor’s daughter Mary (Ann Harding), who doesn’t let on that she’s loaded and knows the house even better than those squatting there. The house grows more crowded, new loves get kindled, old loves get renewed, and O’Connor is forced to do a Scrooge-like about-face when he gets reacquainted with those less fortunate than him. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, who took on the project after Frank Capra decided to make It’s a Wonderful Life instead, It Happened on Fifth Avenue earns its warmth honestly, tethering a tale of fresh starts and changed hearts to the real difficulties faced by those reaching for the American dream in a postwar era that was supposed to bring prosperity for all. 12. In a film as sexy as it is funny, Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a magazine columnist who risks being exposed as a phony if she can’t create the perfect Christmas at the Connecticut home she’s writing about as part of a PR stunt to reward recuperating GI Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), who’s been dreaming of tasting her recipes while serving in World War II. The only problem: There is no Connecticut home, and she can’t cook. The farcical complications pile up from there, and Stanwyck deftly balances Elizabeth’s mounting sense of panic with wry humor as she reckons with her unexpected desire for Jones — a desire that has popped up just after she’s decided to give up on love in return for a marriage of convenience. Director Peter Godfrey keeps the action fast and light while trusting Stanwyck to excellently bring her character’s dilemma to life, even if it involves changing a diaper as if she’s never seen a baby before in her life. 11. Produced as the planet descended into another World War, this 1939 short , like many animated films, depicts a world populated by wide-eyed cartoon animals. The difference: They’ve inherited the Earth from humanity, whose habit of making war has led to its destruction. Directed for MGM by the influential animation pioneer Hugh Harman — who, with his partner Rudy Ising, had already logged stints working for Walt Disney and Warner Bros. — it’s a masterfully downbeat vision of the future; the cute protagonists, with their enthusiasm for keeping Christmas traditions alive, do little to offset the short film’s depictions of the horrors of war and the ways we fail to live up to our noblest principles. When Fred Quimby, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera remade it 16 years later as the also-great Good Will to Men , they had to change little beyond the addition of nuclear war and other up-to-date threats. 10. The end of the year can be a confusing time of reflection for those who feel they don’t have anything to celebrate. That feeling is captured beautifully in Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s tale of a Glasgow DJ (Bill Paterson), who finds himself unexpectedly alone when he’s dumped by his girlfriend shortly before Christmas. Adrift, he finds himself drawn into a turf war between two rival ice-cream vendors, a conflict that might offer him a chance to start over, or might drive him to the brink of madness. Paterson beautifully depicts a man who’s quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, experiencing a nervous breakdown as the world around him grows stranger and more absurd. That it all somehow builds toward a hilarious moment of reconciliation involving an unexpected new ice-cream product is just one of many little miracles in a Christmas movie that takes a roundabout way to celebrating the season’s possibilities of renewal and rebirth, but still gets there all the same. 9. It takes time for a film to emerge as a Christmas classic, and while this one may not end up being shown in constant rotation alongside A Christmas Story and Home Alone , let’s stake an early claim for Sean Baker’s Tangerine , a film that follows the Christmas spirit into some unexpected corners . Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor co-star as, respectively, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, a pair of transgender sex workers living on the fringes of Los Angeles. Released from jail on Christmas Eve, Sin-Dee is driven to frustration when she learns that her pimp/lover Chester (James Ransone) is cheating on her as Alexandra prepares for a musical performance. Chaos mounts as day turns into night in the hours before Christmas. Baker’s film, co-written by Chris Bergoch, alternates laughs and shocks, but it keeps circling back to how this particular Christmas has become a crossroads for its central characters, and how much they need each other if they’re going to make it through another year. It all ends with an image that, in its own way, is as warm and generous as Charlie Brown’s friends reviving a seemingly hopeless tree. You might have noticed that this list — some notable exceptions aside — is dominated by stories of prosperous white families. Among its other virtues, Tangerine serves as a corrective to that tradition, serving as a reminder that Christmas isn’t limited to the land of picket fences and neatly trimmed trees. It’s a film as vital, alive, and in touch with the holiday as more traditional entries — an invitation to other filmmakers to redefine what a Christmas movie can be, and as much a story about the importance of human kindness as the one that tops this list. 8. Like Comfort and Joy , Todd Haynes’s Carol depicts the holidays as a time of possibility and peril as an intense, forbidden romance plays out against the backdrop of the 1952 Christmas season. The film stars Cate Blanchett as the eponymous unhappy housewife, a woman who unexpectedly falls for Therese (Rooney Mara), a store clerk. But their relationship seems doomed before it really begins once it threatens Carol’s ability to see her child, leaving her with an impossible choice. Inspired by Brief Encounter and adapted from a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith, otherwise best known for pitiless crime fiction like The Talented Mr. Ripley , Carol uses its holiday setting as more than a backdrop: Haynes bathes the films in Christmas lights, sure, but he also captures the spirit of a season through Carol and Therese’s relationship. The passing of one year gives way to a potential new beginning of the next — for those who can make it to the other side. 7. Odd as it may sound, many of the same qualities in Carol also make Die Hard a great Christmas movie, no matter what star Bruce Willis says . Yes, the John McTiernan–directed movie is one of the best action movies ever made; yes, it’s endlessly quotable; and, yes, it transformed Willis from that guy on Moonlighting who occasionally put out music under a different persona into a full-fledged movie star. But it’s also a story of loss and renewal in which Willis’s New York cop John McClane has to navigate the strange world of L.A. and take down a bunch of Eurotrash pseudo-terrorists in order to repair his marriage. And that’s no small part of the movie. Reconciling with his wife in time for the holidays is McClane’s mission. The rest is just a sidetrack, though neither goal will be easy. Still, he guns down the bad guys and emerges from the confrontation bloody and with a sense of forgiveness. Merry Christmas to all! 6. A proudly mean-spirited black comedy seemingly at war with the Christmas spirit, Bad Santa somehow loops all the way back around to being a heartwarming Christmas movie about one man’s redemption. It’s a weird trick, pulled off in large part thanks to star Billy Bob Thornton’s performance as a hard-drinking con artist who uses his work as a mall Santa as a setup for grand larceny. Actually, “hard-drinking” doesn’t begin to describe Thornton’s Willie Soke, who spends much of the film in a near-stuporous state yet still manages to form an unlikely makeshift family with a misfit kid (Brett Kelly) and a bartender (Lauren Graham) with a thing for Santas. With able support from Bernie Mac and John Ritter, director Terry Zwigoff keeps the humor dark without losing sight of his characters’ humanity — however deep they might sink into a drunken haze. 5. Making his second appearance on this list with a much different Christmas movie, director Bob Clark’s venerable 1983 film adapts storyteller and radio personality Jean Shepherd’s tales of growing up in Hammond, Indiana, while cutting nostalgia and sentiment with just the right amounts of broad, occasionally dark, comedy. (And, it has to be noted, some pretty unfortunate racial stereotypes toward the end.) The episodic film follows Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) in the days before Christmas, when he wants nothing more than a Red Ryder air rifle — and seems destined not to get one. Narrated by Shepherd himself, it mixes big comic moments, like a kid getting his tongue stuck to a stop sign, with affection for family life and days gone by. Clark renders the memories of growing up in a particular time and place so well that Shepherd’s Hammond — its name changed to “Hohman” — becomes an idealized stand-in for any time and every place. 4. There are many great romantic movies set at Christmas, but somehow The Shop Around the Corner still stands above them all. Maybe it’s the irresistible premise: A pair of feuding co-workers don’t realize they’re falling in love with one another via anonymous letters. (If that sounds familiar, it’s because Nora Ephron drew on the same source material — the Miklós László play Parfumerie — for You’ve Got Mail .) Maybe it’s a cast headed by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and filled out with colorful character actors. Maybe it’s because few directors have balanced lightness and romance like Ernst Lubitsch. Whatever the case, it’s both a peerless romantic comedy and one of the great Christmas movies, weaving themes of forgiveness and second chances into a love story that reflects the season in which it takes place. 3. What makes an adaptation of A Christmas Carol great? Above all, it’s the actor playing Ebenezer Scrooge. There have been many memorable movie Scrooges (take a look at the multiple entries above), but few as memorable as Alastair Sim. He’s not just terrifyingly convincing as a pitiless miser in the film’s early scenes but also heartbreakingly affecting as a changed man in its closing moments. Not that Sim doesn’t get help from director Brian Desmond Hurst, who whisks the action along while surrounding his lead with lushly realized Victorian trappings and an able supporting cast. But the film rests on Sim’s shoulders, and it’s not hard to see why he’s yet to be supplanted as the definitive Scrooge. 2. Here’s a question: What was going on that led to so many great Christmas movies being released in 1947? That year saw the release of The Bishop’s Wife , It Happened on Fifth Avenue (see above), and offered most viewers their first chance to see the greatest Christmas movie of all time (see below). It also produced this lovely story of a girl (Natalie Wood) whose mother (Maureen O’Hara) unwittingly hires someone who may be the actual Kris Kringle as a department-store Santa at Macy’s. What follows is part fantasy, part romance (as O’Hara’s character starts to fall for a charming neighbor), part indictment of commercialism, part defense of letting children be children as long as they can, and part legal thriller (well, sort of). Mostly, the film, written and directed by George Seaton, is an irresistible bit of Christmas whimsy made unforgettable by Edmund Gwenn’s turn as the man who might be Santa. 1. What else? Really, what other film could top a list of the greatest Christmas movies of all time? Frank Capra’s enduring classic stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the unwitting savior of Bedford Falls, a man whose goodness and generosity has touched more people than he realizes. In fact, as one bleak Christmas looms, he doesn’t realize it at all and is ready to commit suicide — until an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) arrives to show him the error of his ways. Though it’s become synonymous with holiday cheer, Capra’s film works because of its willingness to go to some dark places, and because of Stewart’s ability to play a gregarious goof one moment and a man whose world comes crashing down the next. Curiously, the film didn’t go into wide release until after Christmas in January of 1947, which might have contributed to its underwhelming box-office performance. But it received a second life thanks to relentless airings on local television in the ’70s and ’80s, where its depiction of one man’s dark night of the soul (and a nightmarish vision of what unrestrained greed looks like without those interested in fairness and justice to stand in the way of the Mr. Potters of the world) connected with a new generation. It’s not hard to see why. It’s grounded in details of the times that inspired it — the Depression, World War II — but its vision of holiday kindness, and of the sort of country most of us would want to live in and the values of kindness and generosity most of us share, remains timeless.Carbon Revolution Public Limited Co CREV shares are soaring Tuesday after the company announced $25 million in financing to support the ongoing liquidity of its business . What Happened: Carbon Revolution, a global manufacturer of carbon fiber wheels, said it reached an agreement with Orion Infrastructure Capital for a further $25 million in financing to be released in five $5 million tranches. Existing noteholders have also agreed to release up to $2 million of existing loan reserves in five equal tranches. In connection with the release of each of the five tranches, Carbon Revolution will issue to Orion Infrastructure Capital and the lenders penny warrants to purchase 5% of the company’s outstanding shares. Carbon Revolution previously drew $70 million of its $110 million funding agreement with Orion Infrastructure Capital. The new $25 million agreement will be drawn from the remaining $40 million under the agreement. “OIC continues to be a great funding partner for Carbon Revolution, sharing our vision for our world-leading technology,” said Jake Dingle , CEO of Carbon Revolution. “This capital supports the ongoing liquidity of the business and underpins the continued delivery of our production capacity increase and the near-term launch of a number of new OEM programs.” See Also: American Airlines Lifts Christmas Eve Grounding, Shares Bounce Back Carbon Revolution also noted that it continues to work to file its annual report “as promptly as practical” in order to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing rules. It’s worth noting that Carbon Revolution is considered a low-float stock with just 1.81 million shares available for public trading, according to Benzinga Pro . The company also had a market cap of less than $7.5 million as of Monday's close. Low-float, micro-cap stocks can be extremely volatile, which may help explain some of Tuesday's outsized move. CREV Price Action: Carbon Revolution shares were up 158.9% at $10.12 at the time of publication Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro . Photo: Shutterstock. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec, Dec. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GLOBEX MINING ENTERPRISES INC. (GMX – Toronto Stock Exchange, G1MN – Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Berlin, Munich, Tradegate, Lang & Schwarz, LS Exchange, TTMzero, Düsseldorf and Quotrix Düsseldorf Stock Exch anges and GLBXF – OTCQX International in the US) is pleased to inform shareholders that we have signed an option agreement with Electro Metals and Mining Inc. (Electro) as Regards Globex's 100% owned Magusi-Fabie Mines property, consisting of 154 claims and 1 mining lease located in Hebecourt, Duparquet, Duprat and Montbray Townships, Quebec, 55 km northwest of Rouyn-Noranda. Under the terms of the agreement, Electro will pay Globex $3,500,000 cash over 4 years, including $100,000 by January 31, 2025 at the latest, 4,000,000 Electro common shares no later than January 31, 2025 and an additional 2,000,000 shares at the 4 th anniversary and undertake $8,350,000 in expenditures on the property including a minimum of $650,000 in the first year. Upon commercial production, Globex will receive an additional $1,000,000 adjusted for inflation. Upon Electro earning 100% interest in the property, Globex will retain a 3% Gross Metal Royalty (GMR) which may be reduced to a 2% GMR by the payment of $2,000,000. In addition, Globex will retain payments of $200,000 per year advance royalty (half in cash and half in shares) payable starting at the sixth anniversary. Cumulative cash advance royalty payments will de deductible from the first production royalty payment due. This agreement replaces the previously announced contract announced on December 15, 2021. This agreement replaces the contract previously announced on December 15, 2021. The Magusi portion of the property includes the Magusi River Copper-Zinc-Silver and Gold deposit, reported according to NI 43-101 standards by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. in 2012 as having a Total Indicated Resource of 2,429,000 tonnes grading 3.53% Zn, 1.54% Cu, 37.2 g/t Ag and 0.99 g/t Au and, an additional Total Inferred Resource of 693,000 tonnes grading 0.50% Zn, 2.54% Cu, 21.1 g/t Ag and 0.27 g/t Au both at a $60.00/t cut-off. Metal prices used in the study were U.S. $3.50/lb Cu, US $0.95/lb Zn, US $21.00/oz. Ag and US$ 1,300/oz. Au and an exchange rate of $1.00 to $1.00. Current metal prices are significantly higher and the exchange rate has shifted in favour of the project economics. (The NI 43-101 report is dated March 21, 2012 and is titled, NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Magusi Project, Abitibi Region, Canada for Mag Copper Ltd., Prepared by Bernard Salmon, Ing., Holger Kratzelmann, P.Eng. – Roscoe Postle Associates Inc.). The Magusi deposit could potentially be enlarged by additional drilling and there are several exploration target areas throughout the large property which stretches well over 11 kilometers along the horizons hosting the Magusi River and Fabie Bay polymetallic deposits. In other Globex news: Lincoln Gold Mining Inc. have reported that they are undertaking a small financing to complete the acquisition of the Bell Mountain Gold Project in Nevada from Eros Resources Corp. and will also use funds "on exploration and development of the Bell Mountain". Lincoln also stated, "While we are working to complete the final steps with the TSXV to close the Bell Mountain acquisition, we remain focused on driving the Bell Mountain project to production". Globex retains a sliding scale Gross Metal Royalty (GMR) on the project which at current metal prices is 3% GMR. Globex has granted an extension wherein Tomagold Corporation (LOT-TSXV) is now required to pay Globex $15,000 and have completed $150,000 in expenditures on the Gwillim property west of Chibougamau by June 30, 2025. Globex has terminated the New Brunswick Bald Hill Antimony Property option agreement with Superior Mining International Corp. (SUI-TSXV) announced on September 10 th , 2024, due to failure to meet the first option conditions in a timely manner. The Bald Hill antimony and nearby Devil's Pike antimony/gold properties are both now available for option. A National Instrument 43-101 technical report in 2010 by Conestoga-Rovers and Associates of Fredericton, N.B., for Rockport Mining Corp., written by Heather MacDonald, MSc, P Geo., reported, "Based upon 16 widely spaced drill holes totaling 3,554 metres and 609 assays, an antimony zone of 450 metres in length was outlined, including intersections of up to 11.7 per cent antimony over 4.51 metres core length ." In 2021, Globex undertook a small drill program, which returned the following results: Hole BH21-25 -- 1.34 per cent antimony over 3.6 metres starting at 310.5 metres; Hole BH21-27 -- 2.67 per cent antimony over 2.7 metres starting at 112.2 metres and 1.73 per cent antimony over 3.3 metres starting at 124.7 metres; Hole BH21-28 -- 4.71 per cent antimony over 10.2 metres starting at 109.5 metres. This press release was written by Jack Stoch, P. Geo., President and CEO of Globex in his capacity as a Qualified Person (Q.P.) under NI 43-101. We Seek Safe Harbour. Foreign Private Issuer 12g3 – 2(b) CUSIP Number 379900 50 9 LEI 529900XYUKGG3LF9PY95 For further information, contact: Jack Stoch, P.Geo., Acc.Dir. President & CEO Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. 86, 14 th Street Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec Canada J9X 2J1 Tel.: 819.797.5242 Fax: 819.797.1470 info@globexmining.com www.globexmining.com Forward-Looking Statements: Except for historical information, this news release may contain certain "forward-looking statements". These statements may involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity and performance to be materially different from the expectations and projections of Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. ("Globex"). No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits Globex will derive therefrom. A more detailed discussion of the risks is available in the "Annual Information Form" filed by Globex on SEDARplus.ca . 56,065,836 shares issued and outstanding © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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Meta Description: Amazon founder and tech titan Jeff Bezos saved nearly $1 billion in state taxes by relocating from Seattle to his billionaire bunker in Florida. For most people, deciding where to live comes down to factors like affordability and access to employment. Then again, billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos aren't most people. Although Bezos has the money to live wherever he wants, many people suspect finances played a role in his decision to relocate to the infamous "billionaire bunker" in 2024. Keep reading to learn why that move may have saved Jeff Bezos almost $1 billion in taxes. Like many billionaires, Jeff Bezos' life has become the subject of intense public speculation. Almost every move Bezos makes becomes news and his announcement in late 2023 that he would relocate to Florida is no exception. Bezos announced the move on his Instagram page, listing several motivating factors, including being closer to his parents and his fledgling aerospace company, Blue Origin. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — you can become an investor for $0.80 per share today. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it ? Bezos moved from Seattle, where he had lived for many years, to Indian Creek Village in early 2024. Indian Creek Village is an exclusive community outside of Miami known as the "billionaire bunker." Business Insider describes this as more than just a swanky gated community. It is its own city, with only 89 residents and a police department whose sole job is keeping nonresidents out. Indian Creek Village is a private island and the only way in is to cross a bridge patrolled by its Police Department. The same department has a fleet of boats and aggressively patrols the surrounding waters. Even Before Bezos moved in, Indian Creek Village was home to an ultraexclusive crowd that included Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump and Carl Icahn. It's even rumored that the Emir of Qatar has a place there. See Also: Unlock the hidden potential of commercial real estate — This platform allows individuals to invest in commercial real estate offering a 12% target yield with a bonus 1% return boost today! This explains why most of the media attention revolved around the sheer size of Bezos' acquisitions. He didn't just buy one place on the island; he bought three. According to an article in the Robb Report, Bezos spent almost $250 million on them. Ownership of the three properties gives Bezos control over 7.5% of Indian Creek Village's 40 residences. It's not hard to imagine why Indian Creek Village's combination of exclusivity and privacy would appeal to someone like Jeff Bezos. However, astute financial observers began to speculate on another reason for Bezos' abrupt move from Washington to Florida. Forbes magazine has reported that Bezos has sold nearly $13.6 billion in Amazon stock since moving to Indian Creek Village. Washington’s capital gains tax law taxes capital gains over $250,000 at 7%. Florida, by contrast, doesn't tax income or capital gains. Forbes estimates Bezos would have owed about $954 million to the state of Washington if he had still been living in Seattle when he sold his Amazon stock. Looking at it that way, spending $250 million on property saved Jeff Bezos $700 million. Read Next: Wondering if your investments can get you to a $5,000,000 nest egg? Speak to a financial advisor today. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you up with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." Here’s how you can earn passive income with just $100. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people
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France has a new government, again. Politics and crushing debt complicate next stepsThe 1,500 guests who arrived at the Beverly Hills Temple of the Arts on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills on a balmy mid-October evening had to pass a squadron of armed guards, go through a metal detector, and have their IDs checked before taking their seats inside the Saban Theater. The security was a fitting prelude to what they were about to see on the screen, the American premiere of , an Israeli-made documentary about the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel that ignited the current Middle East conflict. The one-hour, made-for-TV Hebrew language film follows the story of a 53-year-old farmer and lawyer — his name is pronounced O-zehz — who put his own life on the line to save some 120 young Israelis who scrambled for safety as hundreds of Hamas terrorists shot, raped, tortured, killed and took hostage anyone in their gun sits at what had been a peaceful music festival. Driving an Israeli government issued Mitsubishi 4×4 truck (equipped with front and rear automatic cameras) assigned to him for his role as liaison to the Bedouin community, Davidian carried a single handgun and one clip of ammo for protection as he navigated back roads he once used for herding sheep. He made about 15 trips that long day to rescue terrified concertgoers and return them to their anxiously waiting families, with terrorist bullets often whizzing by his truck. Many in the Saban theater were visibly moved by the film, which re-traced Davidian’s actions on that fateful, terrible day and includes actual footage from his truck cams. “It was an amazing story,” said one audience member. “Especially where he had to go through and see all these people that were dead. What he did took a lot of courage.” And yet, despite the film’s universally positive reception — and its heroic, inspirational message — it’s unlikely this documentary by Israeli TV station Reshet 13 and others will ever be screened in America again, let alone broadcast or streamed on American television. “There are people who’ve got balls and there are people who ain’t got balls,” observes veteran producer Bill Mechanic of the current political climate in Hollywood, particularly when it comes to material touching on the Middle East. “So, the people afraid of their shadows, who live to protect their jobs, are not going to want to take a chance.” Those fears cast a wide shadow right now — and you can’t entirely blame the town for treading carefully around this subject matter. In many ways, it has become a third rail in the entertainment industry, a radioactive topic that has already burned a number of folks who have bravely – or foolishly – broached it. After it was learned in September that Hamas had killed six Israeli hostages, WME Agent Brandt Joel furiously wrote on a pro-Israel WhatsApp group, “Screw the left kill all.” Brandt quickly deleted the post and explained to his colleagues in a Zoom call he only meant “kill” members of Hamas, but the damage had been done: one of his top clients, Mahershala Ali, abruptly fired him. On the other side of the political divide, actress Susan Sarandon, who has a long history of activism, was dropped by her talent agency after she declared at an anti-Israel rally that Jews facing increased anti-Semitism are “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim” in America. Polarized views on the subject have even made older content, released before the Hamas attack and Israel’s Gaza offensive, newly controversial. The Netflix series , for instance, which earned praise for its strong storytelling when it premiered in 2016, has faced criticism in its fourth season, which began in 2023, for glorifying the occupation of Palestinian lands. , a 2016 documentary delving into how the Israeli government supposedly uses its influence to shape American media, has drawn recent fire from both sides, with Jewish critics calling it anti-Semitic and Arabs claiming it distorts their cause. Likewise, the 2018 Egyptian spy thriller , set during the Six Day War in 1967, has been blasted by both sides for its portrayals. In such a cautious climate, it’s difficult to image how a new documentary like could possibly find a home in Hollywood. “We’re in a topsy-turvy world,” says Garth Ancier, a TV executive who has worked at NBC and Fox and headed BBC America. Ancier says he has both Jewish and Arab friends and what they have in common is that both are very narrow in their view, only seeing one side. “I try to talk them off that ledge,” he says. “But it’s hard. And it is getting harder because of the way it’s going down over there.” To be fair, has other issues apart from politics that make it a tough sell in Hollywood. For one thing, it’s a Hebrew language doc. For another, it’s extremely violent. “Obviously the content in this video is graphic,” says streaming media consultant Dan Rayburn. “So, you’re going to see more pushback from these streaming services. You’re showing dead bodies on the ground. That’s not really something they want on their platform. Even , which does some great stories like that, you’ll notice they’re not showing anything that graphic.” “And what about rating it, right?” he adds. “Is this NC 17? That gets very tricky when you’re talking about war and showing real life dead people on the street.” ’s producers are obviously aware of the uphill battle they face to get their documentary on screens in the U.S. But they’re currently working on assembling an “ ” version that they hope will stand a better chance. “We may change the narration to English or insert some new images so we might make a bigger impression in terms of selling it,” says Yossi Eli, an Israeli war correspondent who made without compensation. Eli says they are also considering a feature film, which may eventually be a “stand alone drama different from the documentary.” Efforts are also underway to submit for awards and festivals, led by L.A. filmmakers Dan and Zahara Israely, who produced , now airing on Amazon. Davidian, meanwhile, has returned to living his low-profile life with his wife and four daughters. He agreed to cooperate with this documentary at the urging of many of those he rescued, who he has kept in touch with. Several are quoted in the documentary expressing their thanks and calling him a hero. He also made a rare public appearance on Oct. 30 at a new awards ceremony held in the residence of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. Davidian was among those who received the state’s highest civilian award for extraordinary heroism. Many of the honors were presented posthumously. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day More from The Hollywood ReporterThe meeting with Collins was closely watched as she is seen as more likely than most of her Republican Senate colleagues to vote against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks.S&P/TSX composite, U.S. markets end the trading day lower Friday