Perhaps more than anything else, this makes “The Apartment” a Christmas movie: though it spans a few months and climaxes memorably on New Year’s Eve, the film makes as great a use of the holidays as anything else here.
If a Christmas-time setting is useful for anything, it’s often to play up a sense of loneliness in a character -the holidays are meant to be a time to spend with loved ones and family, and you can isolate a character beautifully by the simple means of surrounding them with festive revels. The 45 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 21st Century, from 'Tenet' to 'Dune' 'Carol' Reunion Official as Rooney Mara Joins del Toro's 'Nightmare Alley' With Blanchett
IndieWire's Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn Picks the Best Movies of 2020 - Year in Review