When I first heard about the documentary clips compilation
film Best Christmas Movies Ever! from none other than 1982: Greatest
Geek Year Ever! writer-director Mark A. Altman, admittedly my heart sank a
little. Initially presented online as an
extended tribute to all things 1982 culturally related, originally aired on The
CW in four episodes before being fused together into a bloated 165-minute epic
that overstays its welcome and tires the viewer out, it took all the supposed
fun out of the year it was so celebratory of.
Now a couple of years later, Altman is back with more or less the same
sort of smorgasbord all-over-the-place documentary format including various
interviews with a number of notable celebrities including wrestler Mick Foley, National
Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation director Jeremiah S. Chechik, actors Kurt Fuller
and Chris Sarandon. Thankfully, however,
Altman seems to have listened to his critics and brought in his latest meditation
on pop cultural highlights in cinema just under the 100 minute mark, making for
a brisk and entertaining promenade through an entire century of Holiday
favorites including but not limited to debating whether or not some titles
necessarily qualify as ‘Christmas movies’.
Whereas 1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever! grew tiresome after
awhile, Best Christmas Movies Ever! is positioned just right with all
the extra filler wisely left in the bonus features section.
A heartwarming discourse on the history of the Christmas
movie, what qualifies the Christmas movie, going over Christmas television
films including the Rankin Bass materials like Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer, touching on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the numerous A
Christmas Carol adaptations over the century and much more. Divided into subsections including addressing
the first time Santa Claus appeared on film in the early 1900s to the
controversies surrounding the Silent Night Deadly Night films, touching
on the lore and appeal of The Nightmare Before Christmas and how many of
the Christmas movies initially didn’t catch on but over years of television
replays developed powerful followings.
A
cozy, comforting preamble to December with emphasis on some films being
watchable anytime of the year while pointing to the strange release pattern of
notable Christmas movies over the years such as Miracle on 34th
Street which was released in the summer originally, it doesn’t cover
everything but just enough to endear itself into your Christmas repertoire. As retired wrestler (my favorite) Mick Foley
says early on, Christmas isn’t for children so much as it is for adults who want
to feel like children.
Also a film about self-sacrifice and the triumph
of people coming together in unison to help each other through difficult times,
it could be the most life-affirming film ever made about accepting the
limitations of one’s life versus their personal goals and aspirations. Sure some of the documentary veers over into
debating whether or not Die Hard, Eyes Wide Shut or other films
qualify as Christmas including the notion of Christmas horror or Bad Santa,
but as a longtime viewer of It’s a Wonderful Life I came away from this
with a newly refreshed angle on Capra’s timeless masterpiece.
--Andrew Kotwicki