Mainlining Christmas

Another in a growing line of films I'd never seriously consider calling a Christmas movie, but it's old enough, interesting enough, and uses the holidays in an interesting enough (albeit limited) capacity to make it worth discussing here. The holiday, incidentally, is New Year's (I don't believe Christmas is so much as mentioned), and for the most part that holiday's role is symbolic - the leads discuss it several times, but it's in the context of plans that can never be. It's not technically part of the actual narrative, though there is a brief epilogue offering a glimpse of the day in question.  I should also note this movie is fantastic, offering a complex blend of drama and comedy, with the latter enhancing the emotional impact of the former, rather than detracting. The jokes, which I'll add are pretty hilarious, pull you into the sense of whimsy and hope that comes with falling in love, even if the situation is dire. Tonally, this is a fairytale set...

I'll be arguing that You've Got Mail is, in fact, a Christmas movie and further that the movie implicitly tells us as much, despite simultaneously going out of its way not to set the bulk of its runtime on the holiday (at least not clearly), and further to obfuscate and play down the significance of holidays in general. However, from the perspective of a viewer, this is going to feel more like a movie with a few scenes around Christmas than anything you'd typically think of as a holiday movie, which is why I'll also be tagging this "Not Christmas." Its holiday connections aren't quite as much of a puzzle as, say, Alien: Covenant , but it's relationship with Christmas is more similar to that than, say, The Shop Around the Corner , despite being a loose remake of that film. It's worth noting that the majority of the runtime of The Shop Around the Corner isn't centered around Christmas, either, but that film concludes with the holiday, using assoc...

While I'm absolutely stretching to discuss it as a Christmas movie, After Life is a 1998 Japanese fantasy drama written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda about a facility between life and death where souls spend a week, during which they choose a single memory the support staff will recreate on film, which will be screened for the spirits prior to their departure for the hereafter. They're told the memory they select will be the only one they retain. The movie exists more as a loosely structured exploration of memory, perspective, and meaning. There's virtually no conflict, and what's present is relatively muted, focusing more on its characters' internal journeys than external drama. It's a solemn, meditative experience - depending on how you approach things like that, you're either going to find this mesmerizing or excruciatingly dull. You can count me in the first camp, by the way - I'm absolutely a fan. But I'm pretty sure if I'd tried watchin...

I actually wasn't going to write this one up. My initial reaction was this film had some interesting moments set at Christmas, but for a number of reasons neither qualified as a "Christmas movie" (at least by my definitions) or leveraged the holidays in ways that were thematically noteworthy enough to count. Obviously neither of those reactions reflect on the movie itself, which is a fantastic (albeit disturbing) entry in the Italian Giallo movement, a sort of quasi-genre that paved the way for the modern slasher and has influenced countless films across virtually every genre. But the movie got me wondering whether there were any Giallos that used the holidays in a more sustained manner, so I did a simple web search for "Giallo Christmas movie" to see if anything popped up. And the only thing that did was Deep Red. While I didn't (and still don't) really consider this a Christmas movie, articles on Collider and Slash Film  were more generous in their la...

Like most people of my generation, I’ve seen this movie many, many times. I was eight when this came out, and I’m pretty sure my family saw it on the big screen. We’d go on to rent it and eventually tape it off the TV. As an adult, it was one of those movies Lindsay and I considered essential – I don’t recall when we bought it on DVD, but we’ve had a copy for ages. But eventually the DVD just didn’t seem good enough, so I picked up the Criterion blu-ray in a recent sale. That was the version we introduced our own daughter to, and the quality, as you’d expect, was fantastic. It’s so good, you can clearly see the Christmas tree behind the mother as she talks to Fred Savage. Likewise, there’s no mistaking the winter landscape or holiday decorations on the next-door house outside his bedroom window. I’d long been aware there was a paper Santa in his room, but on its own this doesn’t necessarily indicate the season (crafts tend to stick around, after all). But along with the other stuff, it...

The 1944 noir film, The Suspect, certainly doesn't qualify as a Christmas movie under any definition I use, and I doubt you'll find many people who've seen it and disagree. That said, a short but pivotal scene is set during the holidays, which are utilized in a manner that's both unusual and interesting enough to warrant discussion here. In addition, the movie as a whole is fairly interesting, so I don't mind giving it a bit of exposure. The film stars Charles Laughton, who's perhaps now best known for his sole directing credit, The Night of the Hunter, a 1955 film with similarly dubious yuletide credentials (though that's often counted as a Christmas movie for thematic reasons). While The Night of the Hunter is now (rightly) regarded as a classic, it was considered a failure at the time, which is why it's Laughton's only credited turn as a movie director. He was, however, considered a fantastic actor (also rightly). The Suspect is set in 1902 London...

Assuming I'm counting right, Christmas takes up between three and four minutes of screentime in this 1961 Hammer horror film, which tells you two things off the bat. First, this isn't a Christmas movie. And second, something about those three-to-four minutes must be pretty damn interesting if I'm writing about it here (particularly because this isn't one of the studio's better regarded films). Before we get into any of that, let's tackle the most pressing question for most of you: should you bother watching this? The answer, as is often the case, depends. The Curse of the Werewolf has a number of factors in its favor, including some gorgeous, colorful cinematography, an updated take on the wolf man popularized by Universal a few decades earlier, bits of authentic folklore (including that Christmas bit we'll be getting back to), and some impressive makeup and visual effects. At the same time, the movie's structure meanders more than it should, the Spanish...

When I first watched this a few years ago, I came to two conclusions: first, that it wasn't really what I'd consider a Christmas movie, and second that it was a goddamn masterpiece. That second point isn't exactly a new observation, even if audiences and critics weren't ready for Charles Laughton's visionary work of horror when it came out. The Night of the Hunter may have been a flop in 1955, but these days any list of "the greatest movies ever made" that doesn't include it is liable to face criticism of its own. I'll touch on why it's become so well regarded, but first let's tackle the thornier issue: whether the film's admittedly brief holiday sequence qualifies it for discussion here. The sequence in question occurs at the very end of the movie following a time jump - prior to that, the film seems to be set in the summer, though the precise date is left nebulous. It's a relatively brief sequence serving as a sort of coda to the ...

I found this on a list BFI released of "10 Great Christmas Films of the 21st Century," along with a mix of movies we've seen and ones we haven't (all of which of course went right on my watchlist). While I agree Ordinary Love is a worthwhile film, I'm less convinced it makes much sense to call it a "Christmas film," though it does have the holidays bookend the movie, a common use of them. The BFI's synopsis, however, claims this is "about a Belfast couple grappling with chemo over the holidays," which is demonstrably false - the holidays are well over before the disease is diagnosed, and the bulk of their ordeal takes place significantly later. I'm guessing whoever made the list didn't have a chance to rewatch this before finalizing it. Which is understandable. By their nature, these kinds of lists are typically tossed together at the last minute, and besides - it's not like the movie is unworthy of praise. I just wouldn't c...

I was torn on whether to write this up at all. The holiday section accounts for roughly thirteen minutes of the movie's runtime, plus or minus depending on when you assume some ambiguous events are taking place. The section is pivotal and the use of the holidays interesting, but this is more a case where it's relevant to trends of how Christmas appears on film, rather than of particular note to the movie itself. But I found it notable enough in context to want some notes, and this blog is largely turning into a sort of public collection of notes I'm compiling on holiday media for.... God, I don't know. I'm still figuring that part out. Regardless, the compromise I came up with was to write this up but hold the post until after the holidays. I don't want to water down our Christmas season posts any more than I already have. So that's why you're seeing this now. This movie, I should note, is a good one. Roadblock is a noir crime story with a tragic love st...