Mainlining Christmas

When trailers for this dropped last year and a huge portion of the internet got excited, I had no idea what was going on. I'd never seen the 1983 TV movie (still haven't, but it's on the list!), never read the book, and forgotten either existed. I realize that's an odd admission from someone who's been obsessed about holiday media for the last fifteen years, but keep in mind that covers a lot of material. This one just slipped through the cracks for me. Lindsay reviewed the book a decade ago , so I'm sure I was at least briefly aware of it at the time, but we're pushing something in the ballpark of 1500 reviews on this site: not everything sticks in the memory. And while I understand this one is really important to a lot of people, it wasn't part of my childhood. But the new movie made a splash, both among fans and critics, so I decided to prioritize it this year. I also figured I might as well read the 80-page kid's book it's based on. That may ...

When I say "Nothing Like the Holidays" is a frustrating movie, it's not because the movie is bad (which it isn't). Bad movies are rarely frustrating, because you don't expect or necessarily want much from them beyond for them to end. Movies I find frustrating are those which have exceptional elements that make you root for them to succeed, only to watch as they fall short of greatness. In this case, the "exceptional elements" are first and foremost its cast, which is significantly more impressive than you'd expect from a movie in this subgenre and budget. Alfred Molina, Debra Messing, John Leguizamo, and Luis Guzmán are in this, along with a number of less well-known but also excellent actors. In addition, the movie manages to take a tired template - the dysfunctional family at Christmas - and adjust the setting and story elements just enough to occasionally surprise you. The selling point here, aside from the cast on their own merits, is that this i...

In the revised edition of "Christmas in the Movies," Jeremy Arnold includes a short chapter devoted to the phenomenon of classic noir set during the holidays. In it, he argues intrinsic aspects of noir prevent these from ever being true holiday movies. I couldn't disagree more with that conclusion, but I'm grateful for the chapter, as it's helped lead me to a number of movies not typically listed as Christmas media. The Reckless Moment, a 1949 film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Joan Bennett and James Mason, certainly isn't my favorite of the lot, but I'm still glad I watched it. My understanding is this is fairly well regarded - I'm guessing that's mainly due to a combination of the movie's point-of-view and the quality of the lead performances (Mason is particularly good here). But while I appreciate the movie's merits, I can't echo its fans. I found the bulk of the film a bit too grounded to be interesting, and its more dramatic...

I don't recall ever having heard of this before seeing it listed in Alonso Duralde's book, " Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas " in the chapter devoted to the worst Christmas movies of all time. Actually, it was in the "other titles to consider" section of that chapter, right between Six Weeks (agreed) and Thomas Kincaid's Christmas Cottage (so bad it's amazing). It was the year of production that really drew me to this one in particular - excluding specials, I really haven't seen that many Christmas movies produced in the 1970s, and far fewer I'd consider at all worthwhile. Lists of holiday films usually only include a spattering of examples. I suspect there are quite a few in hiding - I've been doing this long enough to have seen entire eras and subgenres of Christmas media seemingly emerge from the void several times in the past, but for whatever reason the '70s don't seem to have been excavated in the way that, say, ...

You'd think after doing this for fifteen years I'd already know about a Christmas movie made by one of the most famous and revered filmmakers in cinema history, but here we are. Directed and cowritten by Akira Kurosawa, the legendary creator of Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress, and numerous other classics, Scandal tells the somber story of a painter and singer who are victims of libel, as well as their lawyer, who struggles after accepting a bribe to sabotage the case. The bulk of the film is set in December of 1949, with about fifteen minutes spent on Christmas itself, which serves several thematic purposes and sets up the movie's final act. The film is quite good, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one after hearing who made it. The cast features some of Kurosawa's regulars, including Toshiro Mifune as the painter, Aoye, and Takashi Shimura as his lawyer, Hiruta. The singer, Miyako, is played by Yoshiko Yamaguchi (I'm just going ...

I find it interesting that Nicole Kidman has been in two high-profile sexual thrillers doubling as unexpected Christmas movies (side note: I really need to give Eyes Wide Shut another shot - my tastes in movies have changed a great deal in the past decade, and I am NOT proud of that review). The movies seem to be playing with different aspects of the holidays - Eyes Wide Shut was leveraging the otherworldly, dreamlike aspects associated with old ghost stories (see past-Erin: that wasn't so hard), while Babgygirl... Actually, Babygirl might be doing something even more interesting. By centering a story about power dynamics around the holidays, it evokes traditions of inverted power dynamics dating back to the solstice (the medieval Feast of Fools is probably the best known example, but there were numerous Christmas festivals and traditions centered around similar concepts). Echoes of that seem to be present in Halina Reijn's film about a high-profile CEO who engages in a submis...

A rare example of a Christmas movie set in June, A Different Kind of Christmas is a 1996 TV dramedy starring Shelley Long (Diane from Cheers) originally airing on Lifetime and supposedly based on a true story about a district attorney whose mayoral candidacy and relationship with her son are strained by the reappearance of her estranged father, Santa Claus. Well, kind of. He identifies as Santa Claus, both professionally and in his personal life, however this isn't a Miracle on 34th Street situation. He knows what his legal name is, he realizes he isn't immortal, and he has a firm grasp on reality. At the same time, it's more than a professional gimmick: he wishes to appear "as Santa" at all times. In a sense, it's who he's decided to become. If you've seen enough documentaries about professional Santas this won't seem all that unusual: the role often elicits a degree of commitment you don't get from conventional parts. Hell, some have gone fur...

In terms of holiday credentials, "Catch Me if You Can" is appropriately evasive. In a real sense, it both is and is not a Christmas movie: it leverages the holidays in interesting ways and returns to them throughout the movie, but the holidays don't shape the the tone, narrative, or theme the way they might in a romantic comedy or drama with a similar structure. They're a supporting player here and they clearly serve a purpose, but they're not the core of the movie, nor do they occupy the bulk of its runtime. But we'll get to that. First, this is based on the (allegedly) true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a conman and forger who wrote a popular (and suspect) autobiography about his life. But true or not, it makes for a gripping, funny, engaging adventure in the hands of one of the best directors of all time. Apparently 1941 didn't sour Steven Spielberg on Christmas forever, so here we are. The movie is driven forward by the various cons and tricks Frank (...

Before I even attempt to describe this 1929 silent German film, it's worth noting this movie is - in my opinion at least - bonkers in ways no movie with synchronized sound I've encountered approaches. The plot seems to be largely pulled from its source material, a pair of plays by Frank Wedekind detailing the life and death of Lulu, a fictional woman whose sexual charisma and liberality seem to bring about destruction. What makes this more than garden-variety misogyny is the fact that while Lulu certainly isn't blameless, virtually every turning point leading to a character's death, destitution, or corruption is instigated by a male character. The film examines the way society blames women for roles it forces upon them. It's not really Lulu who's responsible for the majority of what occurs, but rather those around her. Or at least that's my interpretation. I find silent pictures harder to analyze than the talkies we're all more familiar with due to the i...

The Electric State is not a Christmas movie, at least not in my opinion. It only has two scenes which incorporate holiday elements: a flashback to a holiday interaction and a sort of virtual reality recreation of that same holiday at the end. Had the context been a little different, the finale set at the virtual holiday might be enough to justify arguing this counts as a Christmas movie (plenty of romcoms - including the classic Holiday Inn - have effectively claimed the label under similar circumstances). But for reasons we'll go into, the context here is a little different. So why talk about it at all? Well, because I've got some thoughts about the Christmas elements, and I think it makes for an interesting case study in the way holidays are often utilized in film. I should note this is one of the very few aspects of The Electric State I found remotely interesting. I'll start by saying I'm not approaching this with any kind of axe to grind against the Russo brothers....