Christmas movies aren't really about Christmas

I saw three new Christmas movies in 2023. 

Three of the ... carry the one ... 278 new Christmas movies there were on various streaming services and what have you.

If the three I saw were any indication, they've cracked the code for a Christmas movie: Just make a regular movie and add some Christmas stuff into it.

Family Switch, which we watched with my family and my mother- and sister-in-law on Christmas Eve, was an example of that. We ultimately enjoyed it quite a bit (which I can't say for the other two on this list), laughing a lot and ending with grins on our faces. 

But did it need to be about Christmas? No it did not. (I mean, the poster doesn't even have any holly or a Santa hat in it.) 

It's basically Freaky Friday, except both the kids switch with both of their parents, matched on gender. And it's sort of the second such movie Jennifer Garner has starred in. They even name check her film 13 Going on 30 just to make sure we didn't miss it. 

And whenever it goes too long without having anything to do with Christmas, they sprinkle in a carol on the soundtrack just to remind us. 

Maybe it's a Netflix thing. Netflix also put out the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Genie this year. It's basically just a genie movie, with a few scenes set in the snow and a few Christmas songs popping up to remind us. (This one was terrible. This and Candy Cane Lane, which does intrinsically have to do with Christmas, can duke it out to see which was worse.)

I'd be cynical about this, but after having my spirits lifted by Family Switch -- which was directed by McG of all people -- I'm less inclined to go that way. 

And since it's my instinct to leave you with a Christmas post that lifts your spirts, I'll put forward this thought:

Christmas movies aren't really about Christmas, anyway.

Even in the best of times, with the best of Christmas movies, Christmas is really just a backdrop. Yes we love these movies in part because they engage with the tropes of the holiday season, and they increase our sense of holiday good cheer. But even terrible Christmas movies do the first and try to do the second. The ones that succeed are a success because of something else about them ... some essential understanding of the world and the people who live in it.

So whatever you watch on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day, or even in the days after it and leading on into 2024, I hope it has that keen understanding of life -- because the rest, really, is just window dressing.

Merry Christmas. 

Sarah Silverman: the ultimate temptation for excitable movie nerds

As part of posting my reviews on ReelGood, I regularly go to YouTube to get the film's trailer for embedding in the post.

Almost every time, the first search result I get is the image you see to the right.

The title of the video being pushed on me is "50 Most Paused Movie Moments."

There are a couple things about this I find strange.

One is that the advertiser has apparently paid to have this come up in every YouTube search that contains the word "trailer." I have only a simplistic understanding of how the money works at YouTube, but I do know that to have something like this come up so regularly, in contexts that are so unrelated to it, there has to be money exchanging hands.

What I find strange is that it comes up with the word "trailer." If you are seeking to be titillated on YouTube, how likely is it that the word "trailer" is going to be one of your search terms? A trailer would actually, in most cases, be pretty clean, because most of them are going to be viewed by audiences of potentially all ages. 

Yes there are redband trailers, and you can see those on YouTube too. But the advertiser is overpaying for an algorithm that is not doing what it wants it to do, especially when the most recent trailer I searched for -- getting this result yet again -- was for the Eddie Murphy family Christmas movie Candy Cane Lane. (You can read my review here if you like.)

Then there's the poster girl they've chosen to try to titillate us.

Now, I have no idea which Sarah Silverman movie this is, but the image is barely suggestive of anything naughty. Silverman is in a pool and appears to be wearing a rather modest bathing suit. Is she bottomless? Maybe, but the image certainly isn't implying that. You have to really stretch to get there.

And then there is Silverman herself. I have always found her to be attractive, but never has she presented herself, or been really considered by anyone in the public discourse, to be a traditional beauty or to be traditionally sexy in any way. She's also now 53 years old. You'd be much more likely to use a picture of, I don't know, Megan Fox in an advertisement like this, or maybe Sydney Sweeney if you are trying to stay current -- which for this advertiser, it would really make sense to do to accomplish their goal.

Maybe they got a lifetime contract with YouTube for a relatively small fee, and I will continue to see a picture of Sarah Silverman in a pool wearing a modest bathing suit every time I search for a trailer on YouTube, from now until the end of time.