Every year I binge a bunch of Christmas movies, cramming in a lot within a few days. Between the 22nd and 25th, I will have watched 25 movies. I'm pretty loose on what qualifies, some of these movies hardly featured Christmas. Yesterday I watched 6 movies, so I have 19 left at the time of typing this.
1. Terrifier 3. The opening sequence got a lot of buzz, and for good reason. It's vile and nasty, which makes up a lot of the movie. It's thankfully shorter than Terrifier 2. My main gripe with the first 2 Terrifier movies is that the pacing was too slow. It's a bit better here, but now my main gripe is the sequel baiting. It wasn't as abrasive as the first 2 movies, but in this one, they made it seem like Terrifier 3 is like a Part 1 of a story, I suppose that's how Wicked ended. Basically, Terrifier 4 is a more necessary sequel than Terrifier 3. It doesn't help make Terrifier 3 standalone, but ah well. The gore is fantastic, the story is okay for a slasher movie, with a decent leading performance by the final girl Lauren LaVera. Of the 6 movies watched yesterday, this is actually one of the most overt Christmas movies. Art the Clown wore a Santa suit about half of the time. Anyway, I like this movie, I would say it's around the level of Terrifier 2. Not a massive improvement, but at least there's no franchise decline. I'm looking forward to Terrifier 4.
2. Tangerine. Another Sean Baker movie, I wanted to watch this last Tuesday but learning Anora was available digitally made me change that plan. It's another wild and hilarious movie starring a sex worker. It came out in 2015 and the budget was a lot smaller than Anora. $100k and shot entirely on an iPhone 5s. That's crazy, but yet the movie looks really good. The story takes place during Christmas Eve, but it's in Hollywood, so you don't see any snow. It's very much an LA movie. Great cast, and like Anora, it has a very sad final leg. The final moment is wholesome, while Anora's final moment is devasting. I can't help but compare this to Anora. This was a very good movie, not at the level of Anora, but for me, it was another great look at how good a filmmaker Sean Baker is.
3. Christmas Evil. Basically Silent Night Deadly Night if it was more serious, slower paced, and less fun. It came out a few years before that movie, I consider it a rough draft of a killer Santa slasher. It's a good movie, it has a great haunting atmosphere and is like a mix of Halloween and Taxi Driver, but I would've liked it more if it was more overtly trashy. Speaking of trashy, John Waters loves this movie. He has great film tastes, but I certainly wouldn't rate this as high as he does.
4. About a Boy. This has some Christmas scenes, it's a mostly comedic British movie starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and kid Nicholas Hoult. I watched these actors earlier this month, it felt right to watch them again. Hell, this is my 3rd Toni Collette movie this month alone. I love her so much, she plays Nicholas Hoult's mom, a very tragic figure. Her story made the movie pretty dramatic and sad at times. It makes for a good balance, better than what I expected from this, a typical rom-com with Hugh Grant. It still had some rom-com cliches, but the story is richer than the average rom-com. It's based on the book of the same name, and the narration by the two main male characters made that clear. Much of the voiceover sounded like they read passages from the book. Anyway, this was a very solid movie. Hugh Grant was very complimentary of the movie, which is saying something because he usually craps on other characters he played. He said he got to play someone completely different to him and that was a thrill.
5. The Advent Calendar. French-Belgian horror movie that's a Shudder original. A paraplegic woman gets an advent calendar and has to follow the rules, which includes making sacrifices. The concept is silly and simple, but they complicate as the movie progressed, reaching a point where I was confused. A rewatch would help. Nonetheless, it has some great genre thrills, with a strong performance from the lead woman Eugénie Derouand. She goes through an interesting arc where she's a total victim at first, but kind of turns to the dark side. It's also a case of "Be careful what you wish for." I enjoyed this.
6. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Shane Black typically incorporates Christmas in his movies, so this time of year is great for watching multiple movies of his. This is one of his best. Sharp, witty, and amazing dialogue with superb performances from Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan. I don't think Monaghan gets enough credit, she's typically 4th-billed or lower in more serious movies. She's 3rd-billed here and in a neo-noir comedy, and she killed it! She matched RDJ and Kilmer's energy and was hilarious at times. The detective case here got very confusing with multiple twists and turns, including one final twist, but it's delivered with a lot cheeky energy, which was personified by RDJ's narration. The casting in this movie is amazing, I couldn't imagine any other actor playing the roles RDJ and Kilmer played. They have tremendous chemistry. I'll definitely watch this again, it might just be a new Christmas tradition. This was easily the best movie of the 6 I watched.
