Christmas Countdown!

So... it's December again!

Where I live, December means that you wake up in the dark, and the sun will have set by the time you leave work. It's extremely depressing; many people around here suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder to some degree.

I've always found that, to combat this, it help to embrace the happy aspect of December. This year, I'll be combining my Christmas cheer with my love for movies, and bringing a Christmas movie post daily until Santa's big day.

Now let me take a moment to expound on my philosophy on how to conduct film analysis. I generally critique movies based on the following pyramid:

Enjoyment is the lowest level on which a film is graded. It forms the foundation that is often lacking in so-called "art films" that focus solely on the higher levels. Above Enjoyment is Criticism: how well a film was made has a huge bearing on its quality. Atop this, we have Commentary: this is mostly dependent on the writing and direction of a film. Films which make commentaries are the most important and long lived. This is the most important aspect of a successful film, but it's also dependent on the lower levels.

It's possible for a film that is strong one one level to be lacking on the level below, but the best films are strong on all three levels e.g. Full Metal Jacket, Vertigo, Tootsie.

It is important for an analysis to mirror the strengths of the topic; it doesn't do to talk about Big Top Pee Wee or Glitter as an argument for Malthusianism, however tempting that argument may be.

So back to the topic at hand, Christmas movies rarely make it far above the Enjoyment level, so I will be treating them as such. I'll be going easy on all but the most atrocious films.

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