New York rapper Kay Flock was arrested on murder charges on Thursday. The 18-year-old, born Kevin Perez, is accused of allegedly murdering 24-year-old Oscar Hernandez outside of a barbershop in Harlem earlier this month. In the incident, according to the New York Daily News, Hernandez was in the barbershop waiting to get a haircut when Perez walked by, opened the shop’s door, and asked Hernandez what he was looking at. The two eventually met outside where an argument ensued. It was here that Perez pulled out a gun and shot Hernandez in the neck and back.
Investigators believe that the shooting is gang-related as Perez is said to be involved with the Bronx-based Thirdside Gang. Despite this, the rapper’s family insists that Perez’s arrest is a case of mistaken identity as they claim he and Hernandez did not know each other.
Kay Flock recently signed a deal to Columbia Records where he released his debut project, The D.O.A Tape. The project arrives with eight songs and features from G Herbo, Dougie B, B Lovee, and more. Kay Flock and G Herbo’s collaboration, a remix of “Being Honest,” was paired with a music video that currently sits at 7.1 million views on YouTube. Elsewhere, Kay Flock stood alongside Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign for their “Not In The Mood” collaboration.
A year after impressing music lovers with his second album The GOAT last year, Polo G returned in 2021 with the goal of reaching new heights for his third project. That body of work would be Hall Of Fame and it became his first No. 1 album while giving him his first No. 1 song as well with “Rapstar.” Months after that project arrived, Polo G breathed new life into it with a deluxe reissue titled Hall Of Fame 2.0. It presented 14 additional songs including “Unapologetic” with NLE Choppa which he just released a new video for.
In the new visual, the two rappers flaunt their harsh and unforgiving demeanors backed by hard-hitting raps which they deliver in dark alleyways followed by scenes of cars burning rubber under the night sky. Polo G shared the new video just a couple of weeks after he delivered visuals for “Fortnight” and “Young N Dumb.” The track also marks Polo G and NLE Choppa’s second collaboration this year as they previously joined forces for “Jumpin’.”
As for NLE Choppa, he’s gearing up to drop his next body of work, Me Vs. Me, at the top of the year. It’ll mark his first project since his 2020 debut Top Shotta.
You can watch the video for “Unapologetic” with NLE Choppa above.
Hall Of Fame 2.0 is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.
NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Baby, it’s cold outside. And that means it’s time to head indoors, sink into our comfy couches, and stream our way to entertainment bliss. As per usual, the entertainment elves have seen fit to stuff our TVs full of new content. But between gift wrapping, meal planning, and decorating, it’s hard to find the time to pick through oodles of offerings and land on something that the whole gang will enjoy. So we’ve done it for you. Consider it a holiday gift.
One size does not fit all when it comes to binging though. You’ve got your daredevils, your romantics, and your nostalgia buffs. Maybe you have a great aunt who’s obsessed with true crime podcasts? Or perhaps a nephew who loves his apocalyptic book club? There’s something for everyone on this list. We’ve got you covered.
The Yule Log
Disney+
Okay, so this isn’t actually a type of person. It’s more of a concept. Personally, I adore those cheeseball Yule log videos on YouTube — my very favorite one features Ron Swanson. But TV Yule logs can also do quite nicely during a period of family downtime. These shows are engaging enough to pull people in for a brief period of time but chill enough that the major plot points can be followed even with big lapses in attention.
Even though the Beatles documentary Get Back (Disney+) deserves 100% of your attention (it’s really quite good), I also highly recommend using it as a Yule log conversation starter. Your mom and dad can squabble over whether or not Yoko ruined the band, the kids can tromp around to all the classic songs, and you get to avoid talking about politics. Who doesn’t love the Beatles? It’s a win-win.
Stocking Stuffers: Other options include all of the holiday munchie content out now, such as Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi: Holiday Edition (Hulu, November 4th) and The Great British Holiday Baking Show (Netflix, December 3rd). For those who enjoy competition-based shows, Blown Away: Christmas (Netflix, now) and The Great Christmas Light Fight (ABC, streaming on Hulu) may fit the bill.
The Nostalgia Buffs
Showtime
You’re likely to have people of all ages plopped down in your living room ready to zone out into a new narrative at some point. Thankfully, nostalgia is king right now, so you’ll have your share of options when trying to engage multiple generations all at once.
Did any of your family members come of age in the ’90s? Did they also love LOST? Then the new time-hopping horror series Yellowjacketson Showtime should be your go-to. The show toggles between the ’90s and the present, focusing on a group of soccer stars who had to survive in the wilderness after a gnarly plane crash in 1996. The mysterious and engaging series is still in the middle of its first season, so you and your binge buddies can say you watched it before it was cool. (Come to think of it, that’s a very ’90s thing to do.)
If the Karate Kid era of the ’80s is a more unifying time period for your gang, then the Netflix series Cobra Kai is a fun choice.
If you strike soon, you can be all caught up before the season 4 premiere on December 31st.
Stocking Stuffers: Romantic millennials will dig And Just Like That… (HBO Max, December 9th), a new chapter in the Sex in the City story. Sadly, no Samantha Jones means that you’ll have to shout your own clever double entendres at the screen though. And here are two more reboot gems for the ’90s set: Animaniacs (Hulu), and Saved by the Bell (Peacock).
The Movie Mavens
Netflix
For better or worse, more movies are going straight to streaming in the weeks after theatrical release, which means that you can now shamelessly watch while snuggled up in your fave threadbare robe. No judgment here.
Don’t Look Up(Netflix, December 25th) is one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year. With a star-studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and the queen of acting herself, Meryl Streep, the film is said to be a biting comedy that may just see some gold come Oscar night. Clocking in at two hours and twenty-five minutes, the film does have a slightly longer run time than the average movie, but that just means you’ve got more time to sneak out to heat up that leftover apple pie in the kitchen.
Stocking Stuffers: Streaming platforms are positively bursting with fantastic movie releases that may have passed you by. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut tick, tick… Boom! is an earnest and joyful look at a musical mastermind that you can stream on Netflix right now. Jane Campion’s heart-wrenching epic The Power of the Dog can also currently be found on Netflix.
The Movie Mavens: Family Edition
Disney+
There are three things that are sure in this world: death, taxes, and the suffocating awkwardness when accidentally watching a sex scene with your parents in the room. I don’t care if you’re 14 or 64, this maxim always holds true. So, for our purposes here, “family” means that there’s a refreshing lack of sex scenes, but also that you can watch these flicks with a whole range of ages in the room without worrying about having to fumble for the remote when things get a little more mature.
King Richard is a lead contender for family fun. It’s the story of Richard Williams and Oracene Price, aka Serena and Venus’s parents. The film follows the family through the early days of the girls’ training, and it is inspiring and uplifting. If you missed seeing it when it was streaming on HBO Max, it’s definitely worth it to pony up the cash for a streaming rental.
Encanto, the newest animated musical from Disney, comes complete with songs from the one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda. It will be available for streaming on Disney+ on December 24th, just in time to charm your long-term holiday guests.
Stocking Stuffers: For the very small kiddos, Clifford the Big Red Dog is available for streaming on Paramount+. The kids can have a fun time while adults can knock back a few drinks and marvel over how big that crazy dog is. He’s so big!
Even though it’s not exactly a movie, all six episodes of Hawkeye will be available on Disney + before Christmas Day for all the Marvel mavens.
The Adaptation Addicts
Netflix
Adapting books and podcasts into TV miniseries is all the rage these days, and HBO Max is serving up a fantastic page-to-screen narrative in Station Eleven. Based on the novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel, the series is a wistful and engaging narrative that follows survivors in the wake of a very deadly pandemic. The series hops through time, chronicling the direct aftermath of the chaos and following the survivors twenty-plus years into the future as they cobble together a new society.
Having seen the episodes, I can confidently say that Station Eleven is an adaptation that lives up to the original. The series has even added a few welcome twists from the novel, keeping viewers who already know the story on their toes. The ten-episode series premiered on December 16th on HBO Max with the first three episodes, and two episodes will debut every week until the finale on January 13th.
Stocking Stuffers: Starring comedy legends Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd in dramatic roles as a patient and the psychiatrist who manipulated him for almost three decades, The Shrink Next Door is an adaptation of the Wondery/Bloomberg podcast of the same name. It’s a true story, folks! Viewers who are not primed to Ferrell and Rudd tackling serious roles may not be ready to ride this ride, but those who take it will be surprised to witness the impressive range that both men have for the dramatic.
Also, for fantasy fans, season 2 of The Witcher is live, and Amazon Prime is currently rolling out new episodes of The Wheel of Time on a weekly basis, with the season premiere debuting today.
So, ready to hunker down with some holiday cookies and watch some great stuff on TV? The most wonderful time of the year is upon us, my friends. Just promise us that you won’t get stuck watching Tiger King 2.
Prior to The Long Kiss Goodnight, director Renny Harlin had crafted the multimillion-dollar pirate epic Cutthroat Island, which starred his then-wife, Geena Davis, and Matthew Modine. And though it has grown a cult following in the years since its release, the response that it got from both critics and audiences in 1995 was downright brutal. So when Cutthroat Island failed to make a dent at the box office, both Harlin and Davis decided to go with something completely different: an unapologetically R-rated action film set around Christmas (which, also failed to light the box office on fire, winning the consolation prize of a cult following… but that’s not the point).
In the movie, Davis plays Samantha Caine, a kind-hearted schoolteacher who lives with her boyfriend, Hal (Tom Amandes), and her 8-year-old daughter, Caitlin (Yvonne Zima). She suffers from focal retrograde amnesia, making her unable to remember anything about her life prior to the last eight thoroughly suburban years. When she gets into a horrible car accident, though, it unlocks all of those lost memories, slowly transforming her into the person she was before; something that saves her life when a gun-toting hitman arrives on her doorstep with every intention of killing her.
From there, Samantha and Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson), a PI she’d hired to unravel the mystery, go on a road trip to dive deeper into the puzzle of who she used to be, and the answer is rather frightening: Charly Baltimore, a highly-trained assassin who worked for a black- ops division of the CIA, and who is now being hunted by her former employers, and by a terrorist-for-hire named Timothy (Craig Bierko). Timothy will stop at nothing to keep Charly and Mitch from uncovering a planned mass-casualty terrorist attack, balancing the need with his past relationship with Baltimore.
So, to recap, we’ve got Geena Davis kicking massive amounts of ass, Sam Jackson still fresh off the accolades from his performance in Pulp Fiction, and a plot with tons of action and intrigue. Oh, and Harlin’s high adrenaline bonafides as the director of big-budget action films like Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger paired with a script from Lethal Weapon (and later, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) writer Shane Black. Add in the twinkle of Christmas lights and fresh snowfall and The Long Kiss Goodnight was perfectly engineered as a holiday feast for fans in search of something less saccharine, family-friendly, and moralistic than favorites like It’s A Wonderful Life, The Holiday, or A Charlie Brown Christmas. But it’s about more than punches and explosions.
Much like dramedies, which touch upon crucial social issues while making audiences laugh so that the drama is easier to watch and absorb, Christmas-themed action films from the ’80s and ’90s accomplish a similar purpose. The Long Kiss Goodnight, at its heart, is about Charly learning to love her daughter and embrace their life together, instead of focusing on the anger and regret she feels over losing eight years of her life and her independence. Die Hard is about John McClane realizing that he has failed to give his wife the support that she needs and deserves, and wants nothing more than to survive his encounter with these terrorists (or as Hans Gruber prefers to describe them all, exceptional thieves), so he can tell her that he’s sorry. Lethal Weapon shows us Riggs learning to bond with and care about Murtaugh and his family, and learning that suicide isn’t the answer to his grief. Even Batman Returns has Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, and Oswald Cobblepot creating their own separate personas as Batman, Catwoman, and The Penguin, which is a blessing in helping them embrace who they really are, but is a curse with how said personas prevent them from creating the lives for themselves that they need and want.
These films ground the spectacle of their action and endless quips in something that isn’t hard to link to the holidays. Namely, they let us learn about the importance of family (both biological and found), kindness towards others, and kindness towards ourselves while enjoying a beautifully choreographed action sequence that has Batman fighting the Red Triangle Circus Gang, or John McClane leaping off the roof of Nakatomi Plaza to avoid being blown up. Or Charly Baltimore going toe-to-toe with a knife-wielding Timothy, and teasing him about his dick size while doing so. So expand the argument on whether these films function merely as “alt” holiday options and remove the asterisk, because they can bring just as much comfort and joy as egg nog, ugly Christmas sweaters, and fully vaccinated kisses under the mistletoe.
‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’ is now streaming on Tubi.
Even during a pandemic, Dua Lipa has managed to keep momentum behind her 2020 album,Future Nostalgia, moving. Releasing the album early once it became clear that last year was going to go quite differently than planned, Lipa also shared a remix version called Club Future Nostalgia, and followed that up with yet another update, the Moonlight Edition earlier this year.
But after so much work behind her second album, perhaps it’s time for the pop star to focus a bit more on her personal life. In a report from People today, news broke that Dua and her longtime boyfriend Anwar Hadid — brother of Gigi and Bella Hadid — are taking a break. “Dua and Anwar are currently taking a break from their relationship and are spending time apart,” People;s source said. “They’re figuring things out right now.”
Though the pair have been dating for almost two years, the distance and pressure of being apart was reportedly part of the stress, as Dua has been in Los Angeles working on music and Hadid was in New York. There’s also a significant age gap between the two, which may or may not have come into play: Dua is 26 and Anwar is only 22. Wishing them both the best as they figure out what’s right for their relationship.
Anyone who has ever watched Keeping Up With The Kardashians knows that Kris Jenner loves to get into the holiday spirit. And she has lots to be thankful for this year too: Kim is officially single and focusing on her law career, and Kourtney, who has been on a rollercoaster of a relationship with Scott Disick for yearshas found love with someone else. The fact that Kourtney’s now-fiance, Travis Barker, has ties to the music world, surely only makes a performer like Kris even happier. She’s wasted no time doubling down on the connection, even launching her own cover of “Jingle Bells” this holiday season with — who else? — Barker on drums. Oh, and Kourtney holding it down on, ahem, the jingle bells.
“Can we start over and maybe go just a little faster,” Kris asks at the beginning of the tune, before launching into a pretty pitch-perfect rendition of the holiday classic. On Instagram, she shared a little more about the idea behind the cover. “A little Christmas fun in the studio! Christmas is my favorite and happiest time of the year and this honestly put me in the best mood and made me so happy to do!! Thank you @travisbarker for the memory and fun, and for adding your magical drums and thank you @kourtneykardash for your mesmerizing jingle bells!! Merry Christmas everyone!”
Released on Barker’s “Kravis Records,” the track runs about a minute and a half long. Long-time fans of Kris might remember her ’85 original, “I Love My Friends,” which came complete with a music video and everything. So maybe if Kourtney and Travis keep going strong, by this time next year, we’ll get a whole holiday album from Kris. Check out the song above.
Since every move he makes gets criticized, it’s commendable that Scott and his Cactus Jack Foundation did decide to continue their toy drive, hosting the second annual event yesterday. In a post to the account Instagram about the event, the Houston-based charitable foundation kept things very simple: “Cactus Jack Foundation Second Annual Toy Drive is open now. 1 toy per child, first come first serve. Southeast Community Church. 10413 Ashville, Houston 77051. 3-5 pm.”
“How can we put this….,” the band began in an Instagram caption. “We’re postponing the show. We were so excited to be performing for everyone in Brooklyn this New Year’s Eve, but the Omicron variant has thwarted our plans. We’ve made the decision to postpone our show at Barclays Center. All tickets will be honored for the rescheduled date and details regarding refunds will be offered when the new date is announced. We want everyone to stay safe and healthy and we look forward to celebrating the new year with all of you … just a bit later than originally planned.”
The band previously played a New Year’s Eve show in the transition from 2019 to 2020, announcing then that they’d be releasing a new album, their first in seven years. The New Abnormal dropped in April of 2020, so the touring cycle for that newest project has been repeatedly disrupted by Covid-19, unfortunately. Hopefully those rescheduled dates will come sooner rather than later.
As with all things, including the holidays themselves, Community was a buffet of mixed tones. Sometimes you got sharp, barbed satire. Sometimes it felt more like a loving homage. That’s why the show’s four distinct holiday-themed episodes are a perfect option for this decidedly mixed holiday season. Whether you want to soak in the nostalgia of claymation, overdo it on the saccharine sweetness of holiday sing-songiness (and Glee), or experience some light kidnapping and a brawl, there’s an option for you. Tis the season, right?
Let’s take a deeper look at those episodes (in chronological order), which you can stream on Netflix.
“Comparative Religion” Season 1, Episode 12
Community was an earnest show about the magnetic pull of a good friend group — even if it is a friend group made up of differing ideologies and personalities that bump up against each other constantly. Especially during the holidays, when Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) learns that her second family doesn’t view Christmas through the same Christian lens as she does, creating conflict as she looks to overcompensate and overcomplicate for her first post-divorce Christmas.
From Pierce’s (Chevy Chase) revelation that he’s a “level five laser lotus,” to the non-denominational Mister Winter, and an appearance by Anthony Michael Hall playing a bully 30 years after he was John Hughes’ go-to nerd, this episode is chock-full of stand-out moments, but the true jewel is how it culminates with the one-two punch of a Christmas brawl and a heartwarming sing-along. Deck the halls, indeed.
“Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” Season 2, Episode 11
The show’s second holiday episode, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” is the clear runaway of the bunch and the obvious winner for the award of “Most Likely To Be Confused For An Actual Children’s Christmas Special,” since the whole thing is a claymation winter dream. Just maybe don’t actually play it for the kids. Or do, it’s your prerogative.
The sweetest of the holiday episodes, it sidelines the group’s dysfunctions to allow them to come together to help Abed (Danny Pudi) navigate his way through heartbreak while, at the same time, dealing with Professor Duncan’s (John Oliver) efforts to exploit this breakdown to gain professional acclaim.
Even though the study group goes about helping Abed in the most ludicrous fashion (imagining themselves in an adventure that’s ever so slightly a knock on The Polar Express), the heart of the episode is unmissable, showing empathy for the pain of being away from family at the holidays, a reality that many can relate to during this season. In the end, everyone dons corny Christmas outfits and sings songs, and that’s before the episode gives us the greatest Christmas gift of all in John Oliver’s delivery of the phrase “remote control Christmas pterodactyl.” Have yourself a very merry remote control Christmas pterodactyl, won’t you?
“Regional Holiday Music” Season 3, Episode 10
The third-holiday episode, “Regional Holiday Music,” riffs on Glee and hilariously goes to the darkest place of the bunch. Remember Glee, that Ryan Murphy show about horny acapella nerds that reinstalled ’80s hits in your brain on a weekly basis? Don’t lie! Anyway, in light of the loss of two Greendale Community College glee clubs (how they’re lost is something you should see for yourself), the study group is called upon to replace them by the equivalent of “human froyo,” Mr. Rad (Taran Killam). What comes next feels like a more musically inclined and less blow-torchy version of The Thing as the study group starts acting quite strange (hey, the show and that movie even share Keith David in common). Really, this episode has the feel of a traditional holiday horror movie, which really heightens the fun of it all.
Come for the bad songs, stay for the tremendous Glee running gag (“They were this close to regionals!”) and shockingly dark turn by the time the credits roll.
“Intro to Knots” Season 4, Episode 10
The fourth and final holiday episode, “Intro to Knots,” is the loosest and weakest of the bunch (a sentiment held towards the Dan Harmon-less fourth season in general), focusing on the group essentially holding their professor hostage in order to negotiate a grade change. Because what’s more festive than being held at a dinner against your will!? Probably fighting at dinner, which also happens during this episode.
The group is in rare (terrible) form in this episode, almost immediately turning on one another for a better grade that their professor dangles in front of them, fully aware their collective selfishness will likely tear them apart. And he’s right! Annie, a perfectionist who’s on track for valedictorian, is threatened by the sudden revelation that one of her friends could snake it away from her and guesses everyone but Shirley (“You put Britta ahead of me?”) because her ego won’t let her see she also deserves it.
Luckily, because the group is who the group is, nothing (not petty disagreements or ill-advised creative switchups) can tear them apart. Except NBC… and cast departures… and I digress. The group really takes a journey to this point, feeling more like a family instead of a group pushed together by a common classroom goal (which is maybe why this episode feels a little off… though, season 4 gonna season 4). That’s why, by the end of the episode, their professor has failed to pull them apart. Doesn’t that give you the warmest of fuzzy feelings?
All in all, the four Community episodes are about the length of a Lifetime movie you could throw on but they pack a thousand times the (intentional) comic punch and sincerity. If the holidays are about being close to the folks you find most familiar, loving, and sincere, why should your holiday entertainment be any different? Do yourself a favor this holiday and give yourself the Christmas gift of watching Community.
The idea was pretty simple: reach out to a bunch of funny people (comedians and comedy writers) to get a peek into the holiday movies that they love. But why do they and, really, all of us, feel a pull to watch these films?
To some, it’s about tradition. For others, a bit of nostalgia that connects to a loved one. It might be about camp, specific charms, or spite and the unique allure of not having and/or not growing up with these things. That’s something I personally relate to as someone raised mixed-faith (but who saw Christmas overtake Hanukkah in my own living room) and a point alluded to by comic Mo Mandel (who wondered to me about the “lack of a good or really even any Hannukkah flicks.”) It’s also something Yearly Departed creator Bess Kalb breaks down perfectly.
“It’s a little immersion. You can ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland without necessarily wanting to pillage an island. You can sort of have your little taste, your little voyeuristic experiment with this. You can sort of dip a toe into what Christmas might be like.”
Who doesn’t feel that in some way, even if it has nothing to do with differences in faith? Holiday movies allow us an escape to either something we’ve never had or something we want again. Or whatever people get from Die Hard — this list is not about judging! But it’s also not about long-assed intros, so let’s get to it.
Home Alone
20TH CENTURY FOX
Anything John Hughes but especially Home Alone. As a kid I was obsessed with that movie, the idea that a kid my age could single-handedly take down two full-grown men with a couple of paint cans, some string and a blow torch he just happened to have lying around was MIND BLOWING. I will say, now that I’m a mother of a 6-year-old, when I watch that movie I can only see it from the perspective of Catherine O’Hara’s character. Overnight it went from a feel-good Holiday romp to a bone-chilling psychological thriller that even John Candy with a clarinet can’t shake. This year, we introduced my 6-year-old son to Home Alone and it’s so much fun to see it through his eyes. Thanks to having access to 104 plus streaming apps, he’s watched every Home Alone in the franchise several times. Every. One. Including but not limited to: Home Alone 3 in which four international spies working for a North Korean terrorist group are sent by their boss to retrieve a microchip that can act as a cloaking device and now that I’m saying this out loud we probably should have cut him off at Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Like Kate McCallister, we’re all just doing our best, aren’t we? – Desi Lydic (The Daily Show)
Home Alone has everything you could ask for in a holiday movie. There’s family drama, mayhem, and Christmas lights. Even returning to it as an adult with fresh eyes and a whole lot of life giving me perspective it’s still hilarious and makes me feel like a kid again, I mean not the kind of kid that could fend off two grown men with an immeasurable amount of personal injuries, but a kid even so. As an only child, I couldn’t relate to Kevin’s huge family. If I had been left home alone it would have definitely been on purpose. As someone who has lived in a place that’s been robbed, I can definitely identify with the instinct to booby trap my place with hot wheels. – Josh Johnson (The Daily Show), #(Hashtag)
The top Xmas movie to me is probably Home Alone, because without it and Macaulay Culkin, we wouldn’t have gotten his brother Kieran crushing it as Roman Roy on Succession. They should bring in Macaulay for a guest star, I’m still a big fan. Just move the plot to a nicer house and roll camera. – Mo Mandel (Small Town Throwdown, Youtube)
Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie of all time. It’s one of the few movies a father and a son can watch together during the holidays and bond without having to cry. Most holiday films are about the importance of family and being together, but you can’t be a family and you can’t be together if the German terrorist Hans Gruber is trying to blow up Nakatomi Plaza to steal $640 in negotiable bearer bonds. At least not in my home. All Is Bright is another Christmas classic. Paul Giamatti plays an ex-con who is forced to sell Christmas trees in New York City. It’s not exactly a warm and fuzzy holiday flick but it reinforces a theory I’ve always carried: Most Christmas tree salesman have served prison time. – Michael Kosta (The Daily Show, Detroit. NY. LA special)
People talk about Die Hard being an Xmas movie, but they forget that Die Hard 2 is as well, and that’s arguably even better. It’s got the bad guy getting sucked back into the airplane turbine, and I still can’t board a plane without thinking about it, and what’s more Christmasy than that?! – Mandel
I am on a four-year fast that I’m about to break. It’s my Love Actually fast. And I have abstained for four years. Because I found that I was mainlining it every year and the high was just not the same. I was not getting what I needed out of it. I was not sufficiently charmed by Hugh Grant doing his forced dancing or everybody marrying their secretary. And, so I decided to wait four years with my sister-in-law. Just wait and not watch it. And so, this year, like a presidential election or an Olympic, I will watch it again. And hopefully, the magic will be there. The small age gap between Keira Knightley and the little drummer boy age gap magic will be there. […] I will be clear about this. I do not think it is a good movie. I think that the lessons are bad. Everybody ends up sleeping with or married to the help. Sorry, the female help. I think that it’s this nonsense hodgepodge, but it’s Alan Rickman at the top of his game. Emma Thompson. And I like when they make Hugh Grant do the silly dance. I like it. – Bess Kalb (Yearly Departed)
I’m not afraid to go with a classic, which is why I’m here to tell you my favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story (1983). Because nothing says Christmas like a child desperately wanting one specific toy, getting it, and then immediately ruining it. Nothing captures the icy chill of a winter’s day like a boy getting his tongue stuck to a frozen flagpole. Nothing smacks of the holiday season like having dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. Nothing brings back the joy of childhood like receiving an item in a cereal box and finding out it’s really just an elaborate branded content advertising campaign. A Christmas Story is dark, funny, and captures the shitshow that is Christmas, largely because of all the pressure we all put on it. There’s a reason why A Christmas Story plays all Christmas Day, back to back to back. Because it IS Christmas! – Naomi Ekperigin (Mythic Quest, Netflix’s The Standups– debuting 12/29)
I am a purist and I think National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is the be all end all. I watch it every year. Randy Quaid’s, “Shitter’s full. Merry Christmas Clark,” has to be one of my favorite all-time lines. When they were like, “Hey, Griswold, where you going to put that tree?” And he goes, “Bend over, I’ll show you,” it’s so good. Also, many people don’t even remember the cartoon title sequence of that movie with Santa and the reindeer and using his candy cane walkie-talkie. It really sets a tone for the Christmas spirit. And to me, I was introduced to it when I was five. And ever since… it’s just the purest form of comedy is Clark Griswold. – Matt Hausfater (Fairfax)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension is not by definition a Christmas movie, but it is my absolute favorite movie of all time so I still watch it during the holidays. I suppose I could try to make an argument that Buckaroo is a Christ allegory and that his band of scientists, The Hong Kong Cavaliers, are his apostles… Penny is Mary Magdalene I guess, and the Lectroid ship waiting to blow up the Earth is the star over Bethlehem. Sure. Let’s do that. Yeah. Buckaroo Banzai is Jesus. It’s a Christmas movie now. – Glen Tickle (The Favorite special)
I always think about the Christmas movies that I just like to watch during Christmas. And I end up watching either the first Harry Potter, or the Lord of the Rings movies, which have nothing to do with Christmas, but I always just find myself watching those movies around the holidays. You know what, I forgot about Jingle All the Way. Batman Returns popped into my mind as a movie that I always loved as kind of where Christmas was part of the setting. But man,Jingle All The Way. – Teddy Riley (Fairfax)
You’ve Got Mail is the most important movie you can watch. It will renew your faith in humanity. We are obviously in dark times right now, and I am looking forward to, in my head, playing You’ve got Mail, so that I can get the pick me up that’s going to carry me through 2022. Very underrated Dave Chappelle performance. He’s playing a high-level Barnes and Noble books executive. It’s peak Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan. You’ve got Greg Kinnear and Parker Posey as supporting cast. You got Steve Zahn in there. It’s post-Sleepless in Seattle, where Nora Ephron realized that Harry Connick style, almost like tap dance music, makes her movies a thousand times better. And she just goes to town on it in You’ve Got Mail in the best way possible. It also is a story about a time in which the internet was your friend. Only good things can come from the internet. Then, love could come from the internet. Now the internet is a troll fest, shit hole that poisons children’s minds, but then it found love, which is so nice and special. – Aaron Buchsbaum (Fairfax)
We hope you enjoyed all these recs and have a happy, safe, and film-fueled holiday!
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and thank you @kourtneykardash for your mesmerizing jingle bells!! 
Merry Christmas everyone!”
