The Hudsucker Proxy is a lesser-known Coen brothers film that’s set, if I’m not mistaken, in the month of December–starting on the first and ending at New Year’s, with a brief epilogue after. It’s a classic screwball comedy, and is always on my list for the season.
Along the wartime line, A Midnight Clear. Opposing forces temporarily lay down their arms for Christmas.
Ronin
So what do you want for Christmas?
My two front teeth.
Just finished (pun intended) watching Rare Exports. I can’t imagine a more perfect fulfilment of the request for unusual Christmas movies. Just wow. Loved it.
Movie watching will be a bit challenged over the holidays, but I do want to get to all suggestions here. Next up: The Thin Man.
Shane Black, who wrote all of these, has a hardon for Christmas. I believe his The Last Boy Scout is also set then. And it’s snowing in parts of the Iron Man 3 trailer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it will continue the trend.
Anyway, you have to see Black Christmas (the original, mind you).
Oh, oh, and The Silent Partner!
And apparently First Blood is set during Christmas. Who knew?
Edward Scissorhands
The classic version of Frankenstein was released during Christmas season…
The nightmare before Christmas of course. Here is the Boogie man’s song.
I have the weirdest entry right here: Superman II. The Christopher Reeve one. When we were kids, we’d stay up late on Christmas Eve and watch VHS tapes of stuff my parents had taped off the TV. Over time, our ancient copy of Superman II that had aired sometime in the late 70s or very early 80s became our favorite go-to watching material. It became so firmly established in our minds that when it was finally released on DVD, I went to buy it and automatically headed to the Christmas movies section.
Disney’s The Black Hole, according to cut scenes (and the novelization), actually takes place at Christmas. A trace of this survives in one line that remains in the film, where a character compares a lit-up spacecraft as looking “Like a tree on Christmas morning.”
Night of the Comet, a post-apocalyptic zombie Christmas movie, is one of my traditions.
Better Off Dead, an early John Cusack movie is another. “Man, now that’s a real shame when folks be throwing away a perfectly good white boy like that.”
And I’ll cheat and add, Get Crazy! to the list, as it’s a New Years Eve movie set at a fictionalized version of the Filmore East. (checks Amazon, as I haven’t done that in awhile) Holy shit, it’s on Amazon streaming! It’s never been released on DVD. I had a VHS copy I wore out, and went to Ebay to buy a replacement (took 2 tries before I got a good one), and made an AVI file that I can play without wearing it out. Glad to see it’s available in some form. Oh, and it’s on Youtube as well. Now, if only they’d put out a DVD.
It’s kind-of a Christmas movie, in that it takes place at Christmas, and involves a larger, philosophical discussion of notions of generosity (and Father Christmas makes an appearance). But honestly it could have taken place at any time of year and the story wouldn’t have changed significantly.
LA Confidential ?