Why are Christmas movies so enticing, even as they often contain algorithmically generated story-lines and generic characters?
Is it because it’s the end of the year and we all just want to sink into something easy, brainless and predictable? Is it because they’re something the whole family can watch together? Or because they’re always milking the sentimental ‘Christmas spirit’ and play on our private need for the ridiculous, the fantastical?
Perhaps all those things. Here are five Christmas movies recently released we can recommend.
The Family Switch – Netflix
Directed by the man who gave us Charlie’s Angels, this buttery domestic body-swap comedy plays on every narrative trope we’ve already encountered from Freaky Friday to 13 Going on 30, but it stars Jennifer Garner and Ed Helm so you know the kind of shtick you’re getting when you sit down for this 1 hour and 45 minute movie.
Garner and Helm are an ordinary, white, middle aged couple (though Garner defies this because she’s a woman in Hollywood and women in Hollywood cannot look their age) parenting two teenaged kids and a toddler who have lost the Christmas spirit (ie. wanting to spend quality family time doing family-ish things).
Their daughter is a budding soccer player and their son is a maths genius. Both teenagers are nothing like their parents. Thus ensues the conflict that transforms them into the body of their sex-identical offspring/parent. Garner ends up in her daughter’s body, and vice versa. Helm gets to be a teenage boy again. This is all thanks to a mystical fortune-teller with a vaguely Eastern-European accent.
They all work together to help the other achieve the one thing they really need to succeed (and of course, all these things land on the exact same day) and in the end, they realise more about the other. Happy endings are a given. The comedy of this movie lie in the acting chops of Garner.
Candy Cane Lane – Amazon Prime
This movie stars Eddie Murphy, which ought to be enough to convince you to watch it, right? Murphy plays a father of three, recently fired from his job as some sort of salesman, and desperate to prove he is worthy by trying to win the local Christmas decoration competition. Never mind the fact that he has three healthy children, a supportive wife, and a house that essentially qualifies as a mansion in Sydney.
He needs to bring his family together and prove he is a capable, strong father. Feeling defeated and vulnerable, Murphy stumbles into an eerie Christmas shop where a strange elf called Pepper (played by the phonemically funny Jillian Bell) lures him to sign a very long receipt in exchange for extravagant Christmas decorations Murphy wants in order to win the competition.
The following day, the magic is broken when he discovers the decorations have morphed into animals and escaped. When he returns to the shop, he discovers that he isn’t the first victim to fall for Pepper’s evil spell.
He must find some golden rings to appease her, and save himself from being turned into a Christmas decoration himself! Yes, it’s all a bit absurd and incoherent, but what the heck – it’s a Christmas movie. If you’re watching it, you’ve made an agreement with the film to suspend disbelief and just let it take you where it wants to go.
This film wants to take you towards a world where wedding rings save the day, and where parents say things to their teenage kids like “If you want to win in life, you have to learn to focus on what’s important” followed immediately by “he ain’t gonna make no money making music.”
Genie – Netflix
From one magical female character to another — Genie sees Melissa McCarthy play a genie who grants a dad (there is always a dad in Christmas films) unlimited wishes. The dad, played by Paapa Essiedu (of The Lazarus Project and I May Destroy You) is about to spend Christmas alone in New York City – his wife wants a separation, and he won’t be able to see his daughter.
What will save him now? Well, another woman of course – though this one isn’t really a normal, mortal woman, she’s a 2,000 year old genie, played by one of our generation’s best comedic actors. If you’re a fan of Melissa McCarthy, this film will give you a good dose of her usual routine — she’s fun, silly and childish. The movie is also about her discovering modern capitalism (ie. NYC during Christmas season). These are the best parts of the movie – seeing the ways McCarthy reacts to a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, and hand sanitiser, and racy lingerie.
Best. Christmas. Ever – Netflix
Ever get jealous of a friend whose life seems to have turned out perfectly? We’ve all been there. It’s especially painful when your friend is the flawlessly put-together 90s celebrity Brandy, who plays Jackie in this sappy Netflix Christmas flick.
The jealous one is Charlotte, played by the equally gorgeous Heather Graham, who on the surface has everything anyone would deem a perfect existence. Again, a set of healthy children, a huge house, and a loving husband.
But Charlotte is fuelled by an irritation towards Jackie and her yearly Christmas newsletter which seem to be ‘too perfect’. We all know the glow of Instagram beauty is simply that – a glow, yet for Charlotte, the pain of jealous can only be alleviated if she turns up at Jackie’s door over Christmas and prick the bubble of her friend’s life.
It’s petty, immature and sometimes sloppy, but we can turn a blind eye to it because it’s a Christmas movie, and Christmas movies somehow get a pass.
Leave the World Behind – Netflix
Okay, so clearly, this isn’t really one about Christmas, but it was released in the past few weeks, and it involves a family going on a spur of the moment holiday to Long Island. (Dad, check. Two healthy teenage kids, check. Huge house, check.) So it qualifies for this list!
If you want a thriller that will have your anxiety levels spiked over the course of two hours, this is the film for you. An incredible cast including Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali star in this eerie, confusing, strange yet absolutely enticing movie about two families who seek shelter in a holiday house while the world slowly crumbles around them.
The most horrifying moment is probably when the internet and phone lines are all down. Just kidding. There are plenty of frightening moments in this film, and I had one of the cosiest movie-watching experiences siting through it at a beach-house myself. Despite the irritating way the movie ends, and the fact that nothing is really actually resolved – it’s a conversation starter at any summer lunch party – so be sure to watch it. This is the movie everyone is talking about it.