Space Invader: The New Christmas Canon
Proving that we still do make holiday classics
The Tip Sheet has spun off. Introducing Space Invaders, a newsletter about movies and pop culture that invades this space on Saturday. Arrives irregularly during this pilot phase.
It’s been 21 years since Elf and Love Actually came out in the same holiday season at the box office, and there’s been some level of conversation about why we don’t seem to make Christmas movie classics anymore.
What does that mean?
The measurement of a classic is replay, movies that you can’t start, or finish, the Christmas season without seeing at least once. There’s nothing niche about them either, which means most people are able acknowledge their influence, even if they don’t enjoy them.
Having said that, in the last two decades it just feels like we haven’t added anything new to that canon. Who do we blame for that? Hallmark? Netflix? Well, they’ve both certainly commodified the Christmas movie as a seasonal moneymaker, cranking out so many different versions of the same kind of film that they’ve watered down the market, but the canon is still alive!
So I wanted to do an experiment: Have there been any movies released since 2003 that might be verifiably good candidates to join the Christmas Canon? What are the new classics?
I came up with six…
The Polar Express (2004) – dir. Robert Zemeckis
There is something haunting about watching The Polar Express 20 years later; the uncanny valley effect is a little too uncanny. Despite that though – or maybe because of it – Express has endured to remain in regular rotation on TV at Christmas time, and despite mixed critical consensus when it was released, the film received an A+ CinemaScore from audience members. Now, 20 years older and a confirmed generational movie, The Polar Express is getting passed on, which is the surest sign that it may live on to be a classic for the ages. As for that valley, Express is probably the best of Zemeckis’ three mo-cap animated films with both Beowulf and Disney’s A Christmas Carol now being largely forgotten.
The Polar Express is now streaming on Prime.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) – dir. Shane Black.
A big comeback film for both Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr., this film is Christmas-time pulp in the best tradition of Black’s own work with screenplays for Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Now this is more Chinatown than Christmas Town, and the fact that it takes place during the holidays seems kind of incidental, but it has a great “I’m alone in my dingy apartment in my own self-misery” kind of vibe that the fits a certain type of holiday curmudgeon mindset. Spent a rotten day at the mall shopping? Put on Kiss Kiss and see a desperate man try and fail to find some semblance of control as crimes happen around him in a near-perfect neo-noir. Also, as burglar-turned-actor-turned-P.I. Harry Lockhart, Downey was finally able to shake off years of casting stigma due to his substance addictions to reclaim his spot as an A-list actor, which led him to Iron Man and the Oscar!
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is now streaming on Crave/Starz.
The Holiday (2006) – dir. Nancy Meyers.
Tucked nicely into the Myers oeuvre following the complicated romantic lives of adults in their opulent living spaces, The Holiday asks what happens if two lovelorn women throw off their funk by trading those spaces. Cameron Diaz is an L.A. film editor who switches homes for two weeks with a columnist played by Kate Winslet who lives in an idyllic English village. It’s lush, it’s funny, it’s stylish, and Winslet and Diaz are both working at their maximum levels of charm, but the real acting trick in the film is that Jack Black dials it down so hard he’s believably someone Kate Winslet might take a second look at. Not that anyone else really noticed because Jude Law is playing roguish charm at 11.
The Holiday is now streaming on Hollywood Suite and CTV On Demand.
Krampus (2015) – dir. Michael Dougherty.
Dougherty’s 2007 horror anthology Trick ‘R Treat has been embraced as a cult classic and it seemed like his 2015 follow-up Krampus was bound for the same status. It hasn’t quite gotten there, but it’s worth another look because outside the original Gremlins, there’s really no Christmas-time horror that’s able to meet in the middle between adults and older kids, something off-kilter to watch once the younger kids have gone to bed. Like other Christmas movies it’s about second chances, gratitude, and being careful what you wish more, but with evil toys, marauding gingerbread men, booby trapped decorations, and an eight-foot horned demon brought to life through good old fashioned creature effects. If this wasn’t made for cult status, I don’t know what is.
Krampus is now streaming on Crave/Starz.
The Grinch (2018) – dirs. Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney.
To be clear, nothing will ever top the 1966 CBS short produced by Chuck Jones, narrated by Boris Karloff, and adapted by Dr. Seuss himself, but this one arguably comes closer than Ron Howard’s live-action Tim Burton cosplay version starring Jim Carrey. This animated entry replaces the dour and dark Howard movie with something lighter and more colourful, and it more delicately reckons with The Grinch’s outsider status by showing early that he’s not a completely miserable crank. Benedict Cumberbatch puts on this delightfully starchy voice to play The Grinch, which allows him to make the character his own, and produced by Illumination, makers of the Minions, the film comes with a built-in style that sets it apart from what came before. It’s not perfect, but it’s well done and easily rewatchable.
The Grinch is now streaming on Netflix, Prime and Crave.
The Holdovers (2023) – dir. Alexander Payne.
With the feel and authenticity of a lost classic from the 1970s, Payne’s most recent film is a near-perfect Christmas dramedy about three lost souls stuck with each other over the holidays. Paul Giamatti is wonderful as the cantankerous teacher with a chip on his shoulder and newcomer Dominic Sessa rises to the occasion as a troubled kid seemingly forgotten by his mom and new stepfather. The MVP though is Oscar-winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph as a mother mourning her son surrounded by people who rarely stop to consider her as a person and not just the help. It’s enormously bittersweet but ultimately joyful, plus it’s a Christmas parable about understanding better the people around you and what makes them tick.
The Holdovers is now streaming on Prime.
The Bookshelf:
Anora (Sat-Mon, Thurs)
Elf (Sat-Sun)
Conclave (Sat-Sun, Wed, Fri)
Starting Friday: Flow
Galaxy Cinemas – Woodlawn:
Gladiator II
Kraven The Hunter
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Moana 2
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – 35th Anniversary (starting Sun)
The Polar Express (Sat)
Pushpa 2: The Rule
Red One (Sat-Sun)
Trailer Park Boys Presents: Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties
Wicked
Starting Thursday: Mufasa: The Lion King, Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Galaxy Cinemas – Clair:
*Temporarily closed due to flood damage.
Mustang Drive-In:
*Closed for the season.
Princess Cinemas – Twin: Anora (Sat, Mon-Thurs)
Flow (Tues)
Oh, Canada
Queer
The Return (Tues-Wed)
Rock This Town (Sat, Mon)
Y2K (Wed)
Princess Cinemas – Original:
Black Christmas – 50th Anniversary (Sat, Tues)
A Christmas Story (Sat, Thurs)
Daft Punk & Lenji Matsumoto: Interstella 5555 (Sat)
The End (Sat-Mon, Wed-Thurs)
Gremlins (Mon)
It’s a Wonderful Life (Sun, Wed)
Silent Night, Deadly Night – 40th Anniversary (Fri)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – 4K Restoration (Sun)
Apollo Cinema:
Don’t Look Back (Fri)
Heretic (Wed)
Home Alone (Sat, Tues)
Love Actually (Thurs)
Pushpa 2 – The Rule (Sun, Tues)
Viduthalai (Thurs)
This week on End Credits, Peter Salmon co-hosts as we head back to the Marvel [Adjacent] Cinematic Universe and the latest solo adventure based one of Spider-Man’s lesser-known villains. We’re going on the hunt with Kraven The Hunter, and we’re going to hunt down the movies that we’re most looking forward to seeing in the year 2025!
And finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!