Celebrate 5 Years Since ‘Last Christmas’: Emma Thompson’s Strange Yet Sparkling Midnight Movie

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On Friday nights (and holidays!), IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

For December 2024, we’re celebrating the end of the year with a stocking full of Strange Holiday TV Specials and Seasonal Midnight Movies.

First, read the BAIT: a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film. Then, try the BITE: a breakdown of the movie’s ending, impact, and any other spoilers you’d want.

The Bait: This Christmas, Give Yourself the Gift of Zero Irony

When “Last Christmas” hit theaters shortly before the pandemic, critics roasted the holiday rom com at such high heat they made “chestnuts on an open fire” sound chilly. That’s a shame, but maybe the best thing that could have happened to Universal’s all-time ode to cinematic whiplash. Five years later, it’s a new cult classic in the making — perfect for midnight, even if IndieWire gave it a “C+” review.

Starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding (then moving on from buzzy roles in “Game of Thrones” and “Crazy Rich Asians”), this surprisingly disturbing meet-cute from 2019 pairs a great cast with the sinfully fun direction of Paul Feig. The marketing promises a fizzy and flirty seasonal aperitif that the filmmaker can only partly deliver. A truly bonkers script, co-written by Bryony Kimmings and Emma Thompson (who also appears!), charges the characteristically campy Feig with pulling off a twist that is so summarily shocking not even ~~Rudolph~~ Blake Lively in a “A Simple Favor” could see it coming.

With an internet reputation that precedes it, “Last Christmas” and its jarring narrative trajectory are better left unspoiled for anyone who has successfully dodged them thus far. Still, cozy newcomers watching in honor of the holiday — and/or the film’s five-year anniversary — should prepare for a heart-stopping emotional journey with a hairpin turn so sharp it flung off much of the movie’s intended audience.

This woefully misunderstood chick flick adapts seasonal George Michael lyrics into a bizarre romance. When gift shop “elf” Kate (a wonderfully messy Clarke with extra eyeliner) crosses paths with mysterious do-gooder Tom (a typically dashing Golding, often on a bike), the ill-fated lovers embark on a soul-searching epic that could just as well be titled “A Christmas Carol for Troubled Women in Their Thirties.” Can Tom give Kate back her Christmas spirit? Can Kate figure out anything about Tom… at all?

Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, 2019. © Universal / courtesy Everett Collection

Based on a ridiculous but also gonzo idea by Thompson (which she reportedly discussed with music legend Michael before his death on Christmas Day in 2016), the pop-inspired two-hander is set in London during the Yule season, and for a time seems traditional. Thompson became a holiday icon thanks to her role opposite Alan Rickman in “Love Actually,” and the British actress knows how to write those beats into a relationship arc with feeling. She fleshes out Kate’s world well, giving her a wildly entertaining boss in the form of Michelle Yeoh and casts herself as the protagonist’s immigrant mother.

But more than twinkling lights, ice-skating, friends, or family, “Last Christmas” goes for broke with a big reveal you’ll want to unwrap yourself. Whether it leaves you in tears — or stitches — Thompson and Feig’s so-called flop is a festive oddity fringe film lovers will think about all year.

“Last Christmas” is now streaming on Max and available to buy/rent on VOD platforms.

Emilia Clarke (back turned), Emma Thompson, 2019. © Universal / courtesy Everett Collection

The Bite: Every Time a Bell Rings — Wait, He’s a GHOST?

Check back in a feature length. Are you watching “Last Christmas”?

IndieWire After Dark publishes midnight movie recommendations every Friday night. Read more of our deranged suggestions…

A Goofier ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Trancers’ (1984) Delivers a Very Techno-Thriller Christmas with Helen Hunt
Feeling Cynical at the Holidays? Try Nickelodeon’s ‘Invader Zim’ and ‘The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever’
Tim Curry Will Shake Your Soul in ‘Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas’
Ski Lift Survival Horror ‘Frozen’ (2010) Is Still the Best Cinematic Homonym in the Game
‘Christmas Comes to Pac-Land’ Is the Chomp-Filled ’80s Christmas Relic You Never Knew You Needed
The Late Julian Sands Blows the Lid Off Hulu’s Holiday Horror Comedy ‘A Nasty Piece of Work’