Author: Dan Stalcup

This is the kind of movie I like talking about a little more than I actually like watching, I think. I finished the first act convinced it was an outright bore, but its little tendrils started to hook me, and I started laughing more, and then we get that first dramatic “thump” against Padraic’s door, and I was locked in. I don’t much mind that it’s generic looking, since it’s all about the characters; I do mind that it seems so disinterested in the gorgeous location it’s shot on for 95% of its runtime. I was leaning towards a slightly lower rating, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and talking about it, and I think that’s worth the benefit of the doubt.

The threads are uneven in both screentime emphasis and quality, but as a teen-focused Love Actually riff, it works well enough. The cast is really delightful overall. In ten years, there will be one or two names here that are stars and make us say “man, remember when *whomever* was in a straight-to-Netflix romcom with a zillion other teens?”

Feels like a jumbo-sized, special-edition episode of Sesame Street in the best way possible. There’s a fun ice skating segment and some terrific musical numbers. The stories eschew simple holiday sweetness in favor of slightly edgier material — like a crisis of faith by Big Bird.

Unhinged. Horrifying. Totally outlandish. It doesn’t make any sense that this premise could ever occur, even with Santa magic, which is part of the reason it’s so fun and morbid to watch it unfold. Compelling apocalyptic stuff for Sesame Street.