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.
Category: Capsule
Let It Snow (2019)
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?”
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)
I’m not wild about the character designs, but my biggest complaint is that the movie leans too much into abstracting the Victorian London setting during the ghostly encounters. The best Christmas Carols are great costume dramas on top of all the other fun stuff. Still, it’s a competent and enjoyable musical adaptation as a reworked take on 1970’s Scrooge.
The Gift (2022)
Feeling depressed this holiday season? Purchase one of several Disney-branded stuffed companions, and all your troubles will go away. Your family will love you again.
This message brought to you by the most shameless short in the history of animation. GTFOH, Disney.
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.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978)
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.
I watched this in prep for our podcast episode on Anna and the Apocalypse, available on the special edition Blu Ray. It has really good background info on the movie, but is really only worth watching for enthusiasts, made entirely of talking heads rather than behind-the-scenes footage.
Zombie Musical (2011)
A fun little student project that led to Anna and the Apocalypse. The High School Musical parody factor is much more obvious here than in the resulting feature.
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
Less than the sum of its parts, but this exact combination of parts is at least pretty unique: this is a *takes breath* Christmas zombie teen drama musical comedy. It’s got a unique Scottish flavor and an unhinged villain with a few great scenes, but has trouble keeping track of its identity or getting its characters to stick.
Barbie in ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2008)
One of the only Christmas Carol reinventions that has really worked for me. The sense of terror is gone, and the CGI is as ugly as any of the Barbie movies (very), but there’s a lot of thought and heart into this telling that transforms Scrooge (i.e. Eden Starling) into a vain theater star.