Better Watch Out (2016)
Christmas-themed thriller Better Watch Out is a killer interrogation of a particular brand of toxic masculinity.
The Night Before Delivers Christmas Laughs from Festive Formula
Great Christmas films are always about family. Whether it’s the traditional soppy Santa Claus tale à la Miracle on 34th Street, Will Ferrel trying to reunite with his dad in Elf or John McClane blasting through Eurotrash terrorists to get back to his wife in Die Hard, at these films’ core remains a deeply conservative…
Love the Coopers
Hark! Another Christmas movie about the redemption of a dysfunctional family—and another lump of coal in my Christmas stocking. Love the Coopers is a woeful attempt at ‘collage’ cinema (multiple sugary plotlines populated by dull caricatures—an oeuvre seemingly popularised by 2003’s Love Actually). If you’re looking for a bit of seasonal cheer, you’re better off…
Screw It, It’s Christmas: Dreaming of a Shane Black Christmas
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) stands amidst the twisted wreckage of girders and the licks of flame wrought by the preceding spectacular action sequence. “Screw it, it’s Christmas,” he shrugs, and his legion of Iron Man suits explode overhead, striking fireworks illuminating the yuletide sky. Those wandering into Iron Man 3 last year – and…
Elf (2003)
On Christmas Eve Eve Eve, I watched Elf for the first time with my partner, over an assortment of antipasto (as is traditional in the Carbon Copy household). Elf is not particularly original, but what family-friendly Christmas film is? The plot concerns Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human adopted by the Elves of the North Pole.…
