Christmas Day offers movies in our stockings

Just in case I didn't make it clear in my previous post, "La La Land" opens in Spokane on Sunday — in other words, on Christmas Day. As does Denzel Washington's adaptation of the August Wilson play "Fences."

As well as a film that I didn't mention before: "Lion." Starring Dev Patel, "Lion" tells the based-on-real-events story of a young boy lost on the streets of Calcutta who, eventually adopted by an Australian couple, as an adult returns to Indian in an attempt to find his birth family.

Of the three, "La La Land" is attracting the most critical acclaim. Here are some comments:

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "That not every note or dance step is perfect isn't the point; it's that the actors find perfection - and magic - in the moment, in that flight."

Dana Stevens, Slate: "For all its borrowing and bricolage, La La Land never feels like a backward-looking or unoriginal work. Even when not every one of its risks pays off the way that first song does, this movie is bold, vital, funny, and alive."

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "It doesn't so much look back longingly at past masters like Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy (to name a few) as tap into their mojo, insisting on their modernity and its own classicism in the same gesture."

So go. After opening presents. And enjoy.