Mainlining Christmas

For those of you who have never heard of this (which I'm assuming is basically everyone), ATM is one of a large number of claustrophobic horror movies exploiting the idea that a minimal number of actors can be filmed in a single location for a hell of a lot less money than it costs to make a standard movie. In this case, the location is (spoiler alert) an ATM in an empty parking lot right before Christmas. Speaking of spoiler alerts, there's very little here to discuss that doesn't reveal crucial details about the plot and resolution, so if you're a fan of being bored out of your goddamn mind, you should probably stop reading now and endure this as it was meant to be endured. To be clear, that was not a recommendation. To be fair, there are a couple positives, starting with the opening credits. More accurately, the song playing over those credits isn't one I've heard before, which is virtually unheard of in this kind of thing. Typically they either play one of a...

I was a little surprised when I checked the date after watching Body - I'd kind of assumed it was a pandemic production due to the minimalist cast and setting. Instead, this 2015 thriller was produced with limited resources, which apparently drove the decision to pare back on elements (and presumably runtime, as this is only an hour and fifteen minutes long). The film was the debut of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who wrote and directed this and would go on to make several other films (most recently Novocain, which I'll have a review for later in the season). I'm not surprised they've been getting work - Body wasn't particularly well received by critics , but it's obvious Berk and Olsen are proficient filmmakers. My opinion of the film is a bit more positive than average, for what it's worth. I don't think this is some kind of hidden classic, but as a relatively straightforward Hitchcockian thriller built around three friends who find themselves in a harro...

Our rule of thumb is to consider virtually any movie set primarily at Christmas as a Christmas movie, a litmus test significantly more liberal than most. I'm sure a lot of people roll their eyes at hearing Jaws: The Revenge or Alien: Covenant described as holiday entertainment, but I'm really not trying to play with technicalities or make a joke. These movies are, in my opinion, as much about Christmas as, say, The Shop Around the Corner , and shouldn't be excluded on arbitrary decisions based on which traditions they're part of. I'm opening with this because Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film, Psycho, serves as a rare counterexample. While it's set entirely during the Christmas season (between December 11th and the 20th, to be specific), I do not seriously consider it a Christmas movie, and the reason why highlights why I consider the aforementioned rule of thumb so useful. First, let's talk a bit about the movie, which I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I ...

This is, for better or worse (mostly worse), very much a product of its time, landing around the end of the X-Files, which this borrows from heavily. Elements also feel similar to Donnie Darko, though I'm skeptical this would have had the time or inclination to replicate anything about that film, which had bombed at the box office. Of course, all of this stuff is drawing inspiration from the work of David Lynch - some editing and effects choices in The Mothman Prophecies seem to be directly referencing Twin Peaks. Oh, and it's also based on a book I haven't read. The book purports to be non-fiction, with the caveat this stuff tends to strain the definition of that categorization. This is, after all, a story about extra-dimensional aliens prophesizing future catastrophes that cannot be prevented. Whether or not you believe that's possible, I assume anyone reading this is intelligent enough to have figured out by now the media built up around it is almost universally crea...

Normally, Mainlining Christmas has kicked off with Thanksgiving, then deluged you with as many reviews as possible until Christmas. That's been the gimmick from the start; hell, it's implied by the name. But while that makes sense in the abstract, as this blog has evolved from essentially a tongue-in-cheek celebration/mockery of the quantity of holiday-themed media to a semi-serious analysis of that media, the length of our reviews has expanded considerably. Although a handful of you might have been willing to read three posts a day of us typing a few quick paragraphs making fun of some TV Christmas movie in 2012, I can say with relative certainty no one is actually interested in reading more than one full-length review of some movie you've never heard of from the 1940s that no one other than me is willing to die on a hill to get it labeled a "Christmas movie." So this year I want to try something a little different. I want to aim for one post a day, rather than t...

Note: A digital copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review. What really jumped out at me as I read through the new edition of Alonso Duralde's guide to holiday movies (and looked back on the original) was how far ahead of the curve Duralde's been. For those of you unfamiliar with the first edition, "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" is a guide designed to streamline the process of finding holiday movies you may have missed or forgotten about. The original came out fifteen years ago, and it remains pretty much the only book of its kind on the market (or at least the only one I've been able to find... and I've been looking). I'm not forgetting Jeremy Arnold's "Christmas In The Movies" - that's also quite good, but Arnold's approaching the concept of the holiday movie from a very different, much more focused perspective. What sets "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" apart is that it's collecting a...

Lindsay and I wound up seeing this because our daughter has become fixated on Winne the Pooh. I believe we've now watched or re-watched all of the animated movies at least once; most more than that. Judging by her level of excitement while this was playing, I'm guessing we're going to watch this several more times, so I actually wanted to write it up before I become sick of the damn thing. "More sick" might be a more accurate description. Don't get me wrong: I'm a fan of the bear with very little brain and have been for a very long time. Hell, I used to wear a Winnie the Pooh pendant in college, and I'd take it out when asked about my religion. It was a joke, of course, but my affection for the character is genuine. I still love the original Disney shorts and the movie they were compiled into, and I was pleasantly surprised to find The Tigger Movie - something I'd last seen in theaters - holds up. The 2011 movie is pretty great, too. But as we'...