This Christmas, look beyond the classics to some more offbeat holiday movies
Film Features Film Club
It’s mid-December, and for many people, that means the Christmas season is in full swing. Far be it from us at The A.V. Club to deny anyone their annual holiday traditions—including the yuletide staples, like It’s Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story or Home Alone, that grace televisions (and, in normal times, movie screens) every year around this time. But what about those who are just a little sick of the regularly scheduled programming, who want to find something different under the proverbial tree this December? On this very special holiday-themed episode of Film Club, critics A.A. Dowd and Katie Rife discuss some of their favorite alternative Christmas picks, from the new classics that haven’t yet earned their spot in the canon to some dark counter-programming for all the incorrigible Grinches out there. Don’t worry, though: They also find room to sing the praises of a couple of more traditional films. Because it wouldn’t be Christmas without a few ol’ chestnuts.
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16 Comments
it ain’t Christmas without “The Ref” Spacy be damned, that’s some funny shit right there.
“Lady, your husband ain’t dead. He’s in hiding.”
I nominate a gem called 29th Street, from 1991. This one kinda got lost in the post-Goodfellas glut of Italian-crime “Hey, bada-bing!” films that came out, but it’s got an ace cast of Danny Aiello, Anthony LaPaglia, Lainie Kazan, Robert Forster … sweet, funny, heartfelt true story about NY State’s first lottery winner, set in Queens around the holidays, 1976. Find it and check it out. And don’t judge it by the trailer, which really does not sell the film well …
No movie gets the Christmas visual ambiance down like the original Black Christmas. They just found exactly the right filter to make the lights sparkle in exactly the right way; and the fact that it was shot in Canada during a genuine cold snap – no fake snow here! – amplifies the coziness of being inside.For those looking for incidentally-Christmas action movies, I’d suggest Cobra, the ridiculous Stallone picture. You could also go with some other Shane Black scripts, like The Last Boy Scout or The Long Kiss Goodnight, or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, or even Invasion U.S.A..
And there are lots of other incidentally-Xmas movies, like Three Days of the Condor, or To Live and Die in L.A.; and The Amityville Horror (the original from 1979) is set around the holidays too.
Stop giving me homework, internet. Instead, t make my life easier, make a slideshow that I can abandon after 3 slides.
Mad Dog Vachon, the Baron von Raschke, and Alamo Dick walk into a bar. Bartender says, “Get out of here, Alamo Dick. This bar’s for wrestlers only.”
It’s a long enough holiday to make another attempt at persuading the rest of the household that Scrooged is an overlooked gem and binge the holiday episodes of The Closer, a series which reveled in its epiphany that nothing says Christmas quite like homicide.
Scrooged was a holiday must-see every year in my household as a kid.
Back before Christmas Story became so popular, I remember my dad always having to convince people to watch it and my sister and I always having to explain to other kids what the hell we were quoting. Everyone who ended up seeing it always realized that it was a better Christmas movie than the crap they usually watched.
My father now feels that he’s done his part of spreading that movie around, and Scrooged is his new go-to for a subversive classic.
I didn’t even twig to the existence of A Christmas Story during its original 15 minutes of lack of fame. Long afterward, my wife, who’d actually seen it in that brief first-run theater release, introduced me to it. Several years later one of the cable channels started a 24-hour marathon, some of which we usually have on in the background during holiday dinner preparation, gift exchange, etc., so now I’ve probably seen it three dozen times in collage fashion as well as a couple of times straight through.How she missed Scrooged, despite being a big SNL fan and having seen a few Bill Murray movies, is a mystery to me. Maybe this is the year…
Check out the adorable and strange little Scottish film “Comfort and Joy”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_and_Joy_(1984_film)
Apparently you can watch the whole thing for free on YouTube.
Ooh, seconded. That’s a great one.
I saw that years ago when it first came out. It’s excellent.
“Santa’s Slay” (Canada, 2005). An ‘evil killer Santa’ movie – but it’s a comedy.Alas, there’s a scene in a strip club (the ladies all make it out unharmed), so it’s probably not family-friendly…..https://pureblather.com/2015/12/09/santas-slay/
Bergman’s “Fanny And Alexander” is my tradition…at least the first 1/3rd of it.