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The 20 Best Christmas Movies Of All Time
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Twas’ the night before … Sorry, let’s start that again. ’Twas the month before… No. One more time. ’Twas a month and two days before Christmas. Nailed it. Anyway, it’s Thanksgiving week, but you wouldn’t know it from what’s playing theaters: a few weeks ago brought “ Christmas With The Coopers ,” this past weekend saw the opening of both the enjoyable Seth Rogen holiday-themed comedy “ The Night Before ,” and Todd Haynes ’ sublime “ Carol ,” which is set over the Christmas period, while next week we get the Evil Santa horror-comedy “ Krampus .”
Studios release their Christmas movies well in advance to let them play longer in theaters, knowing that few will want to see them once January rolls around. In an entirely unrelated move, we’ve been thinking about Christmas films. And so below, you’ll find twenty of the best ever. Take a look at our picks and let us know your own present-wrapping favorites in the comments.
If a Christmas-time setting is useful for anything, it’s often to play up a sense of loneliness in a character —the holidays are meant to be a time to spend with loved ones and family, and you can isolate a character beautifully by the simple means of surrounding them with festive revels. Perhaps more than anything else, this makes “The Apartment” a Christmas movie: though it spans a few months and climaxes memorably on New Year’s Eve, the film makes as great a use of the holidays as anything else here. Billy Wilder ’s film, maybe the greatest romantic comedy ever made, stars Jack Lemmon as an ambitious, lonely office drone who lets his higher-ups use his apartment for their extra-marital affairs. He’s in love with elevator operator Ms. Kubelik ( Shirley MacLaine ), who is in fact the mistress of his boss Sheldrake ( Fred MacMurray ). Though often incredibly funny, Wilder’s film stands apart from other holiday films by its rich vein of melancholy, and none more so than during arguably the movie’s most memorable stretch, involving a Christmas party where everyone finds out everything that’s going on, and Lemmon finds MacLaine having attempted suicide in his apartment, and then spends several days with her while she recuperates. The Christmas backdrop elevates the fairy tale feel of the story, even if it’s a bittersweet one for much of its running time, and the perfect climax to a perfect film warms your heart like chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
Perhaps a Christmas movie more out of its association with a shitload of toys than because of a seasonal vibe (though Santa Claus does make an appearance), “Babes In Toyland,” a very loose adaptation of the operetta of the same name, is another movie that became a holiday TV staple, airing on New York’s WPIX for many years. If it does not quite encompass Laurel & Hardy ’s finest hour, the film is certainly one of their most imaginative and family-friendly efforts. The two play Stannie and Ollie, two toymaker’s assistants who live in a shoe in Toyland who try to raise money to stop the evil Silas ( Henry Kleinbach ) from forcing Bow Peep ( Florence Roberts ) to marry him against his will. Surprisingly convoluted plot wise and even surprisingly scary by the time bogeymen invade at the end, the film perhaps suffers in comparison to Laurel & Hardy’s best by letting the comedy take a back seat to the plot and adventure elements. But the two are as good as ever when given a chance, the film makes good use of the music throughout, and there’s a level of imagination at play that should still capture the attention of kids who aren’t checking Twitter every five minutes…
There’s rum in the egg nog in Terry Zwigoff ’s “Bad Santa,” and maybe a little bit of puke too: unlike some of the more kid-friendly entries on this list, this no-holds-barred comedy is a 100%, unapologetically adults-only affair. Which is to say there’s bouts of sloppy jacuzzi sex, conspicuous binge-drinking and more creatively colorful profanity than a hundred “ South Park ” episodes. Billy Bob Thornton , a born outlaw if ever there was one, plays Willie Stokes, a piece-of-shit crook moonlighting as a mall Santa Claus, with his pint-sized, foul-mouthed partner Marcus as an attending elf. Some rays of sunshine trickle into Willie’s dark, boozy world in the form of a horny bartender with a Saint Nick fetish ( Lauren Graham of “ Gilmore Girls ”) and an overweight, underloved kid who frequently finds himself a target of bullies. Zwigoff is an ace profiler of the downtrodden and disenfranchised (see his bitter, lovely “ Ghost World ” if you haven’t already) and “Bad Santa” never asks to be loved, to its credit . There’s no Christmas spirit forcing Willie to change his reckless, philandering ways: he remains a true-blue American scumbag, all the way to the movie’s literal middle finger of a final shot. Featuring crackerjack supporting turns from two since passed comedy greats — John Ritter as the mall’s perpetually flustered overseer and Bernie Mac as a hard-charging private consultant tasked with cleaning up Willie’s messes— “Bad Santa” is a naughty present for the holiday hell-raiser in us all, and almost certainly the most gleefully foul Christmas movie on this list.
Grammatical nightmare of a title aside (is it mean to be Best Man-Holiday? Or Best-Man Holiday?), “The Best Man Holiday” is a strong attempt at rebooting the “ Family Stone ”-esque tragicomedy with a more diverse cast than usual. The sequel to 1999’s “ The Best Man ,” directed like this film by Malcolm D. Lee , switches up genres, from comedy-drama to a sort of “ Big Chill ”-style reunion movie, as Lance and Mia ( Morris Chestnut and Monica Calhoun ) ask their old friends to join them for Christmas, which is the first time they’ve all been together in fourteen years. It’s refreshing not just because, like the original, it focuses on resolutely middle class African-American characters, but for showing a Christmas revolving less around family and more around friends. It’s a little odd that the film exists at all, given the fourteen year gap, but it proves more effective than a dozen similarly-plotted Sundance movies at examining the fractures and bonds of friendship and at juggling an ensemble cast — Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Terrence Howard et al— with a lot of actors who are often underused given good material to play with here. It becomes weighed down a bit near the end, as terminal illness melodrama threatens to overwhelm proceedings, but on the whole, this is good enough to make us glad that a third movie in the trilogy is on the way next year.
Christmas movies become classics not necessarily on release, but often due to a time-honored tradition of endless TV repetition while you’re in a food coma. It happened to “ It’s A Wonderful Life ” back in the day, it happened to “ Elf ” and “ Love Actually ” since, and it’s happened to “A Christmas Story,” which airs in a continuous Christmas Eve marathon on TBS every year. Based on stories by anecdotalist Jean Shepherd , the film follows young Ralphie ( Peter Billingsley , who’d grow up to be a director and inflict “ Couples Retreat ” on us) growing up in the 1940s and dreaming of a BB gun, while his parents ( Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon ) feud over the fire, the next door dogs, and a lamp in the shape of a woman’s leg. Directed by “ Porky’s ” helmer Bob Clark , who co-wrote with Shepherd, this is a rare Christmas movie that doesn’t over-sentimentalize childhood, opting instead for a winningly specific look at family life and as much focus on the perceived injustices of pre-adolescence as on heartwarming holiday cheer. Those of us who grew up outside the U.S. and didn’t have it as a childhood staple might be a little puzzled by its place in the canon —it’s very sitcom-y, in part because Clark shoots it that way— but there are certainly worse movies to watch twelve times in a row while present-wrapping.
Within the Christmas genre, there’s that subgenre of the home-for-the-holidays film, where a dysfunctional, often estranged family are reunited for Thanksgiving or Christmas, with secrets pouring out and bittersweet laughs and tears following. It’s normally done poorly —think “The Family Stone” or that Coopers film that’s in theaters at the moment— but Arnaud Desplechin knocked it out of the park with his tremendous “A Christmas Tale.” Giving a very Gallic spin to the set-up (we have semi-open marriages, discussions of Nietzsche, you name it), this picture sees the reunion of the Vuillard family when matriarch Junon ( Catherine Deneuve ) is diagnosed with leukaemia, and black sheep Henri ( Mathieu Amalric ) returns for the first time in years. In theory, not that much differentiates this film from its American cousins, but Desplechin’s usually finely-honed sense of drama and comedy and a willingness to go deeper and darker than other similar films make it so much more. There’s a real, absolute sense of the interactions, frustrations and love built into a family, with a phenomenal cast (including Jean-Paul Roussillon, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud and Chiara Mastroianni , among others) and Desplecin’s usual deft tonal command and formal playfulness elevate it into something rich, deeply moving and hugely enjoyable. One of the best films on this list.
There’s something irritably smug about the people who announce, usually unprovoked, that “Die Hard” is their favorite Christmas movie —it’s like people whose favorite Beatle is Ringo, or who never fail to mention how they’re not on Facebook. But that doesn’t change the fact that “Die Hard” is one of the three or four best action movies ever made and an indisputably excellent Christmas film, or at least Christmas-set film. Adapted from Roderick Thorp ’s novel, it’s a lean, perfectly constructed thriller that sees NYPD Detective John McClane ( Bruce Willis ) heading to L.A, where his estranged wife ( Bonnie Bedelia ) is working, to attempt to win her back, only to be caught up when terrorists take over the building where she works. Sure, the film mostly uses Christmas as iconography and backdrop, and yes, the film wasn’t released during the season (it opened in July of that year), but the film works in part because of the backbone of reuniting an estranged family, and what’s more Christmas-y than that? Of course, it also works because of the terrific performances by Willis, Alan Rickman and others, the immaculate direction by John McTiernan, the terrific script, and more. But also: Christmas.
Nearly all of Will Ferrell ’s characters seem possessed by a sort of indefinable mania. Sometimes it’s is hidden beneath a fairly normal veneer (“ Old School ”, “ The Other Guys ”), and other times it is not (“ Step Brothers ”). In Jon Favreau ’s charming yuletide yarn “Elf,” Ferrell dials down the vulgarity and aggression that his dunderheaded comic characters often exudes and turns in one of his most earnest, poignant performances to date. The film isn’t exactly substantial —even at its best, it’s light as a cream puff— but as an example of its genre, it’s got heart and laughs to spare. The plot of the film involves Ferrell as one of Santa’s elves who grows up and travels to New Yawk to find his biological father (who turns out to be James Caan ) and his apparently never-ending quest to spread Christmas cheer, even where it is clearly not wanted. The film reflects Buddy’s restlessly optimistic tone, making it a decidedly old-fashioned and satisfying holiday entertainment (the stop-motion animation that’s heavily present early in the film fondly recalls Rankin Bass’ s animated special “ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ”). A winning mix of traditional holiday farce and a typically irreverent Ferrell vehicle (check pre-“ Game of Thrones ” Peter Dinklage ’s cameo as an explosive, insecure writer of children’s books) “Elf” holds up probably better than it should —it’s just the right mix of old and new and features one of Ferrell’s most heartrending turns.
This season will see “ Krampus ” try to capture a mix of horror, comedy and festive spirit that’s really only been pulled off once, via Joe Dante ’s glorious “Gremlins.” Like “Die Hard,” released in the summer but set at Christmas, it’s a gorgeously and subversively funny, splattery monster movie with a big heart, but aside from its snowy setting, its greatest contribution to the Christmas canon might be Phoebe Cates ’ dry, darkly hilarious monologue. “The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 years old. Me and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn’t home. So Mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. So the police began a search. Four or five days went by. Neither one of us could eat or sleep. Everything was falling apart. It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I went to try to light up the fire. That’s when I noticed the smell. The firemen came and broke through the chimney top. And me and Mom were expecting them to pull out a dead cat or a bird. And instead they pulled out my father. He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. He’d been climbing down the chimney… his arms loaded with presents. He was gonna surprise us. He slipped and broke his neck. He died instantly. And that’s how I found out there was no Santa Claus.”
The film that was until recently the most successful live-action comedy of all time, and also the inspiration for a whole generation of ’90s kids to create imaginary, elaborate traps with which they could thwart intruders, “Home Alone” is really an escalating series of frenzied, violent gags culminating is a not-so-surprisingly sentimental finish. It’s somewhat comforting in its familiarity: even if you’ve seen the film dozens of times and can see the gags coming from a mile away, “Home Alone” is still the zippy, spirited holiday classic that made Macaulay Culkin a star and cemented Joe Pesci (the same year he starred in Martin Scorsese ’s “ Goodfellas, ” go figure) and Daniel Stern as bumbling suburban bogeymen. It’s easy to see the appeal that Culkin’s Kevin McCallister has for the younger viewer: he is an unapologetic rule-breaker, living by his own set of principles. What does he do when his parents leave him alone at home for Christmas vacation? Why, he binges on junk food, watches violent movies and uses his wits and know-how to fend off two incompetent crooks who’ve been casing his parent’s posh Chicago home. The film’s violence is juvenile and slightly overblown —that staircase scene with the tarantula sure is icky— although it’s nowhere near the brutal nadir of its far less successful sequel “ Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ”. Again, there’s something comforting about that ending, even if you can’t help but marvel at how cheesy it is. Then again, is cheese necessarily a bad thing for a Christmas movie?
“It’s A Wonderful Life” (1946) A universally recognized Christmas classic, “It’s A Wonderful Life” had to battle hard to get to that status: it flopped at first and was even denounced by the FBI as being sympathetic to Communists, but became a beloved perennial via TV broadcasts in the 1970s (“it’s the damndest thing I’ve ever seen,” director Frank Capra told the Wall Street Journal in 1984. “I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud… but it’s the kid who did the work”). It’s perhaps not surprising, given that the film’s so much darker and stranger than many remember. The film sees the suicidal George Bailey ( Jimmy Stewart ) shown how life would have been without him by his guardian angel Clarence. It’s less concerned with holiday trappings than many of the films on this list, but the Christmas setting feels utterly appropriate, both for the echoes of Charles Dickens and for its spirit of the power of family and community. It’s positively novelistic in its portrait of ordinary American life in the first half, but then pulls a powerful trick in showing the impact one individual has on his people in his life.
Few filmmakers have been more associated with Christmas than Shane Black: as a screenwriter, he set “ Lethal Weapon ” and “ The Long Kiss Goodnight” in the holiday season, and as a blockbuster helmer, he brought some Yuletide spirit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “ Iron Man 3 .” So it’s perhaps appropriate that his masterpiece is also his most Christmas-y movie, in the shape of “ Kiss Kiss Bang Bang .” From its earliest moments, as petty thief Harry (Robert Downey Jr, in the role that reinvented his career) attempts to steal a toy as a Christmas present for a relative, the spirit of the holidays runs through Black’s twisty noir-action-comedy hybrid. Harry teams with gay P.I. Perry van Shrike ( Val Kilmer ) to solve the mystery of the twin suicide of his childhood sweetheart Harmony ( Michelle Monaghan ). Like many Xmas-themed actioners, this picture uses the season mostly as a backdrop rather than actual theme, but actually, as the isolated fuck-ups of Harry and Harmony are drawn together over garish, unseasonably warm L.A. December, there is something pleasingly warm and charming about the film, even as they delve into the incredibly dark underbelly of the city. Plus, few screen Santas have been as memorable as Monaghan’s outfit herein.
The existence (or not?) of Santa Claus/Father Christmas is at the heart of all kinds of Christmas movies, but it’s rarely been tackled more effectively than with “Miracle On 34th Street,” George Seaton ’s heart-swellingly sweet tale based on a story by Valentine Davies . Set in an initially rather more cynical take on post-war New York than commonly employed (it’s almost striking to see an overly-commercialized festive period in a movie nearly 70 years old), the film sees the elderly Kris Kringle ( Edmund Gwenn ) taking over the role of Macy’s Santa, winning hearts with his selfless, loving persona. Yet he’s also being accused of being mentally unsound by those suspicious of his goodness. In the end, it has to come down to the young Susan ( Natalie Wood in her breakthrough role) to save the day and convince her weary mother ( Maureen O’Hara ) of the spirit of Christmas. It’s a shameless heart-twanger in the spirit of Capra, though with a rather more scabrous wit in places, but as in the film’s universe, even the most hard-hearted cynic (or Academy member: the film was nominated for multiple Oscars and won for the screenplay and Gwenn’s performance) will surely be worn down by the time countless bags of mail are dumped in the courtroom where Santa is on trial. The John Hughes -penned 1994 remake starring Richard Attenborough isn’t bad, but curiously plays up the legal drama stuff to the extent that it starts feeling like a Christm
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