Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 350: Sat Dec 15

Elf (Favreau, 2003): The Round Chapel, Powerscroft Rd,  London E5 OPU 5pm
The team behind the excellent Rooftop Film Club are putting on Christmas movies at Hackney Downs Studios and at the Round Chapel in Lower Clapton. The full programme can be found here.

This is one of those slow-burner movies that has become a modern Christmas classic and I am happy to say I am going along as the holidays ain't the same without this movie.

Time Out review:
'Comedy legend Bob Newhart immediately raises a smile as the elderly elf framing the story of Santa's biggest little helper. Buddy (Will Ferrell) is different because he's a human, brought back to the North Pole as a baby when he strayed into the old boy's sack during the Christmas run. He's been raised in the traditional elfin ways of industrious good humour, but now it's time for him to venture to distant New York and discover his real father is a grumpy publisher (James Caan), who naturally thinks his 'son' is a dangerous loony. Must be the tights and the pointy hat. What follows is a fairly predictable 'fish out of water' romp with seasonal bells on. Nevertheless, Favreau delivers the cornball sentiments with an adept balance of irony and sincerity, sprinkling felicities in the margins - cult crooner Leon Redbone voicing a stop-motion snowman, indie fave Zooey Deschanel as the department store helper giving Ferrell understandable tingles, and a particularly successful running gag enshrining the significance of etch-a-sketch in elf culture. Some humour might sail over the heads of the very young, but there's a higher chuckle rate for the grown-ups than much dread 'family' fare.'
Trevor Johnston

Love this scene.

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