Christmas movies for people who don't like Christmas movies
CTV
The holidays can bring up a whole gamut of emotions, not just love and goodwill. So CTV film critic Richard Crouse offers up a list of Christmas movies for people who might not enjoy traditional Christmas movies.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” never fails to give me goosebumps. I see guardian angel second class Clarence Odbody tell George Bailey, “Remember, George no man is a failure who has friends,” and I am a puddle.
I’ve seen it countless times and will watch it at least twice this season, but my love for this heartwarming holiday perennial is not shared by my wife who finds it, and most other Christmas movies, melodramatic and manipulative.
To keep our holiday movie nights merry and bright, I found some other films that put the tinsel in Tinsel Town but are really Christmas movies for people who don’t love Christmas movies.
These films may not have traditional Christmas themes, but the holidays bring up a whole gamut of emotions, not just love and goodwill. That’s why movies with Yuletide scenes are so effective in portraying everything from drama to comedy to horror.
“Far From Heaven,” the Todd Haynes historical romance about family secrets, uses a drunken Christmas party to unveil some hard truths and, of course, without the Christmas scene in “Citizen Kane” there’d be no Rosebud mystery.
The Brat Packer flick “Less Than Zero” features a very Beverly Hills 90210 Christmas, complete with suntanned Santas, cocaine abuse and Robert Downey Jr, who told the Guardian back in 2003 that his portrayal of addict Julian Wells was his own personal "ghost of Christmas Future."
The improvised dramedy “Happy Christmas” sees Anna Kendrick as a wild young woman who crashes her brother Jeff’s traditional family Christmas celebration. “She’s not a responsible person,” says Jeff. Just like the holidays in real life, this movie offers up a heaping, helping of honest family frustration with lots of laughs and a minimum of schmaltz.
An Arizona sheriff’s department got more than 4,000 calls within 24 hours after the release of videos of a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch. Many tips will be worthless. Others could have merit. Experts say one thing’s certain: They can’t be ignored.
A five-concert “residency” by singer-songwriter and superstar Shakira in El Salvador’s capital builds on President Nayib Bukele’s yearslong effort to remake the Central American country’s international image from one of the world’s most violent countries into one of the safest.
Alexander Skarsgård doesn’t usually watch his movies more than once with an audience. But “Pillion,” in which he plays the enigmatic member of gay biker club who begins a dom-sub relationship with a younger, more inexperienced man, Colin (Harry Melling), has been an exception. He’s seen it at least four times.
Investigators in Arizona want residents near Nancy Guthrie ‘s home to share surveillance camera footage of suspicious cars or people they may have noticed in the month before she disappeared.
Investigators in Arizona are pleading with people to share home surveillance camera footage from specific dates leading up to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
Barbara Hannigan has had what most people would consider a very busy year: dozens of performances across the globe, an album release and several prestigious awards.
Friends of actor James Van Der Beek shared reactions on social media to the death of the "Dawson's Creek" star.
Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.
A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, hours after the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished from her Arizona home.
A person has been detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Authorities investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie more than a week ago released the first surveillance images Tuesday, showing a masked person on her porch the night she went missing.
U.S. singer-songwriter Chappell Roan announced on Monday that she had left her talent agency, after its CEO was named in files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Canadian-born comic actor died Jan. 30 at the age of 71. She was known for her roles in SCTV, Home Alone and Schitt's Creek.