"At the risk of sounding like the Grinch, I must once again bemoan the release of Christmas movies before Thanksgiving; the temperatures may be dropping at long last, but it's still too close to the gloominess of daylight savings and too far from the belt-loosening of the actual holidays to fully indulge in Netflix's now-annual buffet of cheap Christmas confections."
"Like American chocolates that no longer, in fact, contain real chocolate but sell like gangbusters on Halloween anyway, the Netflix Christmas movie, like rival holiday movie master Hallmark, is relied upon, even beloved, for its brand of badness, for its rote familiarity (nostalgic casting, basement-bargain budgets, styrofoam snow, knowingly absurd premise) and uncanny artificial filler, for its ability to deliver hits of sugary pleasure while still somehow under-delivering on expectations."
"At worst, these films are forgettable train wrecks (last week's A Merry Little Ex-Mas); at best, they are forgettable fun, such as the Lindsay Lohan comeback vehicle Falling For Christmas, of which I remember nothing other than cackling with my friend on her couch. (Actually, at best they are memorably ludicrous, such as last year's impressively unserious Hot Frosty.) Champagne Problems, Netflix's latest Christmas concoction, disappears into the vast middle of the forgettable spectrum."
Netflix releases Christmas movies increasingly early, offering a stream of cheap holiday films beginning in mid-November. Those films rely on formulaic elements: nostalgic casting, basement-bargain budgets, styrofoam snow, knowingly absurd premises, and uncanny artificial filler. The Netflix holiday output echoes Hallmark’s familiar brand of sentimentality and badness, delivering sugary pleasure while under-delivering on expectations. At worst the films are forgettable train wrecks; at best they provide disposable, ludicrous fun. Champagne Problems, written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, lands in the vast middle of this forgettable spectrum. The film begins with an AI-esque commercial for drugstore champagne and plays out as flat, situational romcom.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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