daily stream: the official beginning of Yuletide (I don’t make the rules)
1947’s Miracle on 34th Street is on Disney+ on both sides of the Atlantic.
Miracle on 34th Street
the curmudgeonly movie lover’s unpleasant Advent calendar: December 11
Wreck the halls (then click or tap)…
retro trailer: ‘Miracle on 34th Street’
Neat! A meta trailer from before meta was cool.
question of the day: What’s your favorite Thanksgiving-themed movie?
Yesterday, the Online Film Critic Society — of which I am a member, and I serve on its Governing Committee — announced our favorite Thankgiving-themed movie (go here to learn which film we picked). Now it’s your turn: What’s your favorite Thanksgiving-themed movie? These are the movies we chose among: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dutch … more…
Bad Santa movie review: none more black
So, when I attended a screening on November 14, I was already primed for *Bad Santa,* the meanest, curmudgeonliest, blackest holiday movie I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen most of ’em. It’s like, How much more black could it be? And the answer is None, none more black. I haven’t laughed at film this hard all year, and maybe not last year, either. And much of that laughter sprung from shock: I spent half the film saying to myself, ‘Holy crap, I can’t believe they did that!’ and ‘They did *not* just do that!’ It’s hard to be shocking in the era of the Farrelly Brothers, but *Bad Santa* is shocking partly because it’s so unrepentant and unapologetic. There’s no attempt to infuse the film with heart or soul or sweetness or light. *Bad Santa* unrelentingly twisted. And that’s just wonderful.
The Santa Clause and Jack Frost (review)
Little did I know when I reviewed Jingle All the Way that it is part of a trend in 90s holiday movies in which inattentive, workaholic Boomer dads go all out in attempts to win back the affections of their young, ignored sons. But while Jingle’s Arnold has to resort to a girly endeavor like shopping in the effort to appease his spawn, The Santa Clause’s Tim Allen and Jack Frost’s Michael Keaton have a much cooler alternative: magic. Allen deals in white magic; Keaton’s, unfortunately, is of the darker variety.
Miracle on 34th Street movie review: the spirit of Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street is, as all of us who love this classic film know, the story of how Macy’s department store in New York City not only found the real Santa Claus but hired him to, well, play Santa Claus.
