By now, the family-dysfunction-at-Christmastime trope is as reliable as it is played-out. But it sometimes lends itself to magic, as in the French director Arnaud Desplechin’s messy, cerebral 2008 film A Christmas Tale. The Buddhist of Castleknock, a work by the Irish playwright Jim O’Hanlon that Solas Nua is presenting as part of its regular [...]

The Criterion Collection has been spoiling cinephiles for over 25 years with the bells and whistles that makes home viewing/collecting wonderful: exhaustive extras, nerdy liner notes, and an impeccable curatorial selection. But what happens when even they get it wrong? In honor of the release of its latest hiccup, the well-received but snoozy A Christmas [...]