Sin #55: Naughty and Nice

Christmas has become a brand. It used to be a religious celebration and an opportunity for families to gather together for a chance to reminisce about their past year. In a way, shopping sprees sucked Christianity out of the equation and families cared more about presents, food and decorations than actually having a nice and quiet time with each other.

As a kid, I used to detach myself from the chaos of Christmas Eve (a thunderstorm of shopping, grooming and placing the damn lights on the tree) by watching movies on TV, most of which were, in fact, disguised morality tales (especially with the Scrooge formula in which an old man learns to be good again after he is visited by three ghosts who give him a glimpse of his past, present and future life).

At home one of our favorite Christmas movies is “A Nightmare Before Christmas” which not only is a visual marvel (result of an amazing stop-motion technique) but also a fantastic musical whose songs remain classics to this day (it’s definitely Danny Elfman’s finest score, so inspiring that even rocker Marylin Manson covered a song). Jack Skellington’s obsessions and failures always felt more poignant that any of the phony melodrama of those other holiday pictures and the movie has cemented itself as a cult favorite (ironically, also a popular recurring merchandise item) and certainly one of the best Tim Burton films (even though it was actually directed by Henry Selick, who later went on to make the brilliant “Coraline”, based on a book by fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman).

My favorite Christmas movie however is, in a way, a sort of “Grinch” knockoff, although it lacks any of the PC-elements found in family films. Terry Zwigoff’s “Bad Santa” is a dark and hilariously twisted black comedy that manages to entertain, offend and even reach some sort of poignancy at the end (just a little, I must admit). It features a manic performance by Billy Bob Thornton that reaches a kind of grandeur (it’s a blast watching him dressed as Santa Claus in a mall next to small children, completely passed out having pissed himself) and the movie never compromises from its dark origins. His relationship with Marcus, his tiny partner in crime, so to speak, is very funny and adding an obese kid to the mix only makes the movie seem even funnier.

In a way, “Bad Santa” is the perfect antidote from the hypocrisy of Hollywood movies that are merely vehicles to promote consumerism. Movies have become so earnest in their need to appeal to audiences that they never seem to risk anything. Even if you hated “Bad Santa” for its vulgarities, you have to admit that at least it reaches for the fences and never apologizes for its rudeness, to me that’s enough merit to recommend it (without ignoring that it’s very well written and acted).

As for the holiday season, well, it’s pretty clear that some traditions are hard to shake off. I guess that I’ll still be putting the damn tree on December, eating turkey and reminiscing about how crappy Christmas films are (or maybe I’ll just watch “Bad Santa” again and laugh).