🎄 "I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas, and we're all in misery."

Hey all — sending this week’s newsletter a few days early because if I were to publish it on Christmas, a) no one would read it; and b) I would absolutely procrastinate on writing it until Christmas Eve.

The Ellen Griswold quote in the title notwithstanding, I’d like to wish all of you the happiest of holidays and, happier still, an end to 2020. I may send a “favorites of 2020” email sometime in the next few weeks, but probably won’t send my next proper newsletter with reviews until Fri. Jan 8. I’m hoping to watch a lot of movies in the intervening weeks, so … brace yourselves.

Gosford Park was the first time writer Julian Fellowes got to indulge his interest in the upstairs-downstairs dynamics of old-money English aristocrats, nine years before Downton Abbey became an international phenomenon. Although that show ran too long and gradually went downhill, it still worked a lot better in its largess than this attempt does.

The movie is overstuffed with characters and tries to juggle all of them, to preserve their various secrets and shifting allegiances, but the end result is a jumbled mess, saved only by the best efforts of talented actors like Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, and Maggie Smith. I’m honestly baffled at the fact that this film won Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, and by the effusive praise I’ve heard for it from critics and fans alike — my best guess is that Americans who had never seen anything like it were dazzled by all the accents and costumes and overt class warfare.

I’m dancing around a big event that happens around the midpoint of the movie, which is late enough that I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler to discuss in detail, so let’s be vague: Someone gets murdered halfway through the film, and the ensuing mystery about whodunit is just unsatisfying. Skip it. ★★★

Gosford Park is currently streaming on Peacock.

The things I love about The Nightmare Before Christmas are very similar to my favorite things about 1995’s Toy Story: Excellent animation, a parade of clever jokes, and a blissfully short runtime (in both cases, demanded by the time-consuming difficulty and cost of animation).

The big difference is that while Toy Story was the start of a new revolution in animation, Nightmare is something of a last hurrah for stop-motion, a craft nearly as old as cinema itself that defined special effects in the pre-CGI era, but was and is so impractical that few bother with it. Director Henry Selick and his team practically perfected it here, and I’m so grateful they were given four years to hone this film — and that it’s so dang weird, something that would never happen today.

The characters are all fun, even if some major players are underwritten; several of Danny Elfman’s songs are amazing earworms, particularly “What’s This?” and “Making Christmas”; and the creepy production design is beyond compare. Recommended. ★★★★½

The Nightmare Before Christmas is currently streaming on Disney+.

Having recently revisited The Muppet Christmas Carol, I decided “why not?” and decided to also rewatch A Muppet Family Christmas, a VHS copy of which was the Muppet holiday movie I viewed the most growing up.

This 1987 TV special still holds up today, stringing together covers of all the big carols with a simple story set at Fozzie Bear’s mother’s house at Christmas; at Fozzie’s urging, the Muppets show up uninvited, and are quickly joined by the characters from Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock, too. The only original song we hear in full, a Fraggles number called “Pass It On,” is a little annoying, but the Muppets performers do a fabulous job of updating and remixing holiday standards like “Sleigh Ride,” “Deck the Halls,” and “We Need a Little Christmas.” And it helps that the manic Muppet Show-style skits in between songs all work, too.

This special also features one of the darkest and funniest gags ever associated with Jim Henson’s characters, which I won’t reveal here (you’ll know it when you see it). Recommended. ★★★★

A Muppet Family Christmas is not currently streaming anywhere, but you can find multiple uploads of it on YouTube, with and without ads.

One of the things that separates a four-star movie from one that gets four-and-a-half or five stars from me is the feeling, after a great scene, that better things are still to come. That happens at least three times in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which has rightfully entered the canon of classic holiday movies.

Almost certainly the best of the Vacation series for the sheer hit rate of its gags, the movie also wins because — like its breakout star Cousin Eddie, played by Randy Quaid — its heart is bigger than its brain. Even the buffoonish and insensitive Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) is relatable here, as he tries against all odds to bring his family’s many visiting factions together for a traditional Christmas at home.

As in the other Vacation movies, my favorite part is watching how Beverly D’Angelo (playing the staight-woman, Clark’s wife Ellen) gets the most of her every second on screen. And the large supporting cast, including Mae Questel (née Betty Boop) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (pre-Seinfeld, pre-Veep) is strong, to a person. Recommended. ★★★★½

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is currently streaming on fuboTV and DirecTV.

(new additions in bold)