December 18, 2022 • 58 mins
Is it love, or just a head injury? Such are the questions asked on this special visit to A Christmas Village, a 2018 film made by Anything For Jackson team of Justin Dyck and Keith Cooper. The fabulous Carol Borden joins Emily for a full dog walk through missing goats, bad business planning, and Canadian etiquette. Be sure to check out the fantastic assortment of Carol's work and curations at the links below:
https://monstrousindustry.wordpress.com/
https://culturalgutter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Carol-Borden/author/B07TDBYR8Z?fbclid=IwAR2IUXfSnj8ewKijh38xK_iuo0Dy4TwrnjyZ7_lVp9BvatGw_neUMRd_DD4
https://monstrousindustry.wordpress.com/
https://culturalgutter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Carol-Borden/author/B07TDBYR8Z?fbclid=IwAR2IUXfSnj8ewKijh38xK_iuo0Dy4TwrnjyZ7_lVp9BvatGw_neUMRd_DD4
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
She puts the pr in promoting PiperPiper Jans, small town girl makes it
bet this Christmas. She's here topromote her grand new Christmas cookbook, My
Grammy Rose's Original Recipes. I'm surprisedyou're staying original with all the allegations allegations.
Looks like someone could use a littlepr of their own to save her
reputation. That's crag. But Iown a failing Christmas village in town.
(00:26):
I'm here today because I'm actually goingto help you free of charge. She'll
have to work her magic. Didsomeone say save the day? I don't
know what to say. Can yousay thank you? When we get started?
It's Christmas time. Scarf will letpeople think they can trust you.
I can trust me. Oh that'sthe spirit. I need a miracle.
Hi, there, you must bedelivered. I was told you needed a
(00:49):
miracle while discovering the magic of Christmas. Huh, it's incredible. How as
possible? Ah? What can Isay? I know how to turn things
around. We wish you were merryChristmas. We wish you were merry Christmas.
We wish you merry Christmas and ahappy New Year. Christ Merry Christmas.
(01:15):
A Merry Christmas. Miracles come inall shapes. Inside. It takes
a village. I have seen alot of smiles in my life. It
takes a whole lot of love tosmile like that, to fall in love
a Christmas village. Welcome back toanother stocking stuffer. We are here yet
(01:42):
again to tackle something that I thinkat one point air Don Hallmark. It's
an older one quote unquote. Byolder, I mean twenty eighteen, which
is four years old, which inthe dog Year's world of cosy Cardian Christmas
means that it has gray hair.Now that being said, maybe we liked
it, maybe we didn't. Who'sthe way I'm talking about. Well,
(02:04):
let me introduce my special guest star. You know her from the cultural gutter.
It is the one and only CarolBorden. Hello, Carol, Hello,
thank you for having me. Iam delighted to have you. We
had you and your go ish.You introduced me to that wonderful Mermaid movie
The Lore Yeah or oh, whata classic, And you were here for
(02:30):
a stocking stuff for a few yearsback. I can't remember the name of
the movie. It was one ofthe rockies, Smokey's Mountains Christmas. Oh,
yeah, it was like Christmas inthe Smokey's what I mostly remembers.
We talked a lot about hurt Zog. Yeah that made sense. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, he does notmake an appearance in a Christmas village.
That is the movie we've got todaybefore we dive in, Carol. What
(02:52):
is your general stance opinion experience withcozy Cardigan Christmas movies? Um? I
like some of them. I findquite enjoyable. I am not a serious
person, however, and I donot take them very seriously. Also,
(03:15):
I realized that I have this likedid we talk about Most Wanted Santa last
year? Did I watch that foryou? You? I feel like you
watch that on your own and toldme about it, and you were kind
of it was fascinating. What whatI'm thinking about is like Most Wanted Santa
is close to what I have realizedI consider normal movies, and everything is
(03:39):
relative go on, and most ofthese Christmas Cozy Cardigan movies are like their
own fin thing that at most havea slight overlap with what I can always
call right now normal movies, Iunderstand, Yeah, I think I do.
(04:00):
Yeah, I think I need anothercategory that, like I recognize that's
insulting, and I don't necessarily meanthat as an insult because I enjoy the
fringes of beyond the norm. Iwas going to say, you're a genre
fan. I feel I do thesame thing where I am somebody that goes
by like the Roger Ebert school ofBeverly Hills. Chhuahua can be a three
(04:23):
star movie because the audience that ismade for that's a free storm movie for
them. Yeah. And if itaccomplishes its own goals for itself, yes,
And I can say that all butfully also say A Christmas Village is
a different type of movie than RagingBowl, and they are not necessarily in
(04:44):
the same class in certain definitions ofclass. But do they They are both
doing, they both have goals,and how do they accomplish those goals?
That that is? Yeah, Iwas I was going to say, I
think that A Christmas Village is wellwithin the realm of these kinds of movies.
It's like PLoP in the center.Yes, And as far as what
(05:09):
it accomplishes in terms of cozy CardiganChristian sorry Christmas movies, um, I
don't think it's on like the higherend. Okay, but I found many
entertaining elements, and my sense ofit is it accomplished its own goal of
getting this movie fucking done for aslittle money as can be, so that
(05:34):
we can use this surplus to actuallyfeed the crew. Yes, yep,
Um, you know I'm similar,but I have maybe a wild statement to
make. I weirdly found myself veryentertained by this movie. It's like a
for me. It's like like adonut of a movie where like the center
(05:56):
romance for me was largely empty,and then there's this, like this donatedness
of the many people who live inthis village, the presence of goat,
the existence of Santa Claus, maybethe Santa Claus. Yeah, there's a
dog, there's a there's a hornyTV host. The screenwriter plays a weird
(06:19):
baker, Yes he does. Lookand oh I enjoyed the really aggressive shelter
lady who was getting rid of dogsby ambushing people on that strange television shows.
Yes see, I loved all that. Yeah. So this is to
give a little background. This isum the writing directing team. It's a
(06:41):
team because they have done many ofthese movies and then in a more interesting
movie. Aside from that, Iwas hoping we were going to talk about.
Yes, this is directed by JustinI'm assuming it's Justin Dike d I
c K. I don't know ifit's uh a Dike or Dick sound dyke,
Yeah, But I grew up ina Dutch American era area. So
(07:06):
so that's how you're doing to pronouncedexactly written by Keith Cooper. This these
guys, there's definitely like like Isometimes think of, like would I ever
want to actually interview more directors who'vedone these movies? And like, there's
really two sets of people that Iwould love to talk to. I would
love to talk to Michael Pheiffer,who we've mentioned a few times on the
(07:28):
show, and these guys, becauseI think would they there again? They
have worked together on several things,several Christmas movies, a few of which
I've seen, one of which Idid two years ago. I think A
Puppy for Christmas, not to beconfused with The Twelve Pups of Christmas,
which is directed by Michael Phifer,but a Puppy for Christmas. I actually
felt totally I could totally see,Oh my god, of course it's the
(07:50):
same team because it was a similarthing where same type of budget, same
kind of gay guys who were makinga movie. Don't forget attitude, but
also like weird spurts of humor.Um genuinely kind of enjoyable and also something
well we'll get into it when wego into the list, but a surprisingly
(08:11):
rounded lead who is more interesting thanjust a type. Um. The thing
that they have made that many,probably like actual normal listeners, have seen
is the horror movie that's on shutterAnything for Jackson? Yeah, did you
see that? No? Um,yeah it was. It was available to
(08:35):
me sort of when during festival season, but I was seeing so many other
movies for a festival season that thatone sort of slipped by me. And
I haven't caught up with all thethings yet, but it looked super interesting.
Yeah, I loved it. Um, it's very much a horror movie,
like made for me because it isabout old people, and I love
when old peoples of a horror movie. And it's um, a lot of
(08:56):
character actors, a lot of facesyou recognize, it's very Canadian, and
it's a story you haven't quite seenbefore, and it's winter and that's used
so well, and watching it justalso is so rewarding because I'm like they
know how to shoot in winter becausethey have made these movies, like yeah,
and you can see that the likeI am guessing Justin Dyke's passion is
(09:18):
probably not Christmas movies, yes,but he used them to like probably meet
a lot of people, make alot of contacts. He works with a
lot of the same casts and thingsand make the connections he needs to make
anything for Jackson and then the nextyear come back and make, you know,
another Christmas movie. So I'm finewith it because I actually kind of
(09:39):
like his Christmas movies well, andit's one of the things that was interesting
to me, like building on thatis how how the like really low end
film industry has changed, at leastin Canada, because it used to be
you made your cheap horror movies thatpeople loved for the same reasons that we're
(10:00):
talking about loving these Christmas movies,where like maybe or maybe not they're you
know, super successful, successful intheir own goals, but they often would
have an interesting idea, a weirdlyuncanny horror movie moment because of low budget,
practical effects, great lines or whatever, and then people would go on
and build their career someone else.But now there's like this level of we
(10:22):
make really cheap Christmas movies, andon one hand it provides actors with really
solid, consistent work in the year, and on the other hand, it's
like, oh, well this iswhere we get our started filmmaking, and
then we make our indie horror movieand then maybe we move on to something
else from that, Yeah, whichis wow. It sounds a little bit
(10:46):
like when directors talk about directing fortelevision, restricting film and how it's very
much a for higher job, butthey walk into a machine right then there
are deadlines. You can't you know, you can't get You can get creative,
but you need to but you stillneed to get all your shots in
this day. And there's something veryI don't know. I'm somebody that like
(11:07):
I realized, like the older Iget that my like, I'm creative,
but I work so much better withguidelines. And it's probably very similar for
a lot of these directors that itforces a certain training to you to know
how to get the right lighting quickly, how to get a child actor to
do something that when you need themto and you don't have the time or
budget to waste on it. It'sa good training. I really like your
(11:31):
point about how like they've learned howto shoot in winter now and now I'm
really looking forward to even more.Like there's been like this spurt of cool
winter horror genre movies and like,oh yeah, looking forward to that.
So why don't we talk about thestory of a Christmas Village? And for
those of you at home, thisit's a I guess that's Hallmark. It
(11:52):
feels like one that wasn't made byHallmark but was probably aired on probably purchased
by Hallmark because you look at theproduction companies and it's not Hallmark, h
and Nicely something or other. Yeah, and like it's clearly a very very
low budget. It is on Peacockcurrently, So if you have access to
Peacock, then you can watch AChristmas Village. Uh, you want to
give kind of Carol a rough synopsisof the story. Uh, there was
(12:16):
a part I wanted to ask youabout, but I will start my synopsis
first. So there is a womanPiper, and she does some kind of
Christmas book um series, but alsoshe improves other people's companies and she meets
(12:37):
this guy Tim. Who is itTim? It's Tim? Yeah? Yeah,
yes, Tim might not be wellor all. There there's a lot
of like I lived in Ontario forquite a while, and there's a lot
of Ontario going on in their relationship. I think, okay makes sense.
But she's like very efficient and veryefficious. But both of these things that,
(13:00):
like the her officiousness is like tothe benefit of Tim, because Tim
is running a failing festival, likeChristmas Festival village where you can I don't
know, I don't think. Hedoesn't charge people to come to it,
he doesn't actually take care of it. Maybe run it, I don't know.
(13:22):
And he has an abusive Santa thathe run around. Yes he does,
but what And they meet on thisstrange television show. It's like a
Good Morning America local show, butit's very confusing where the show is,
Yeah, it's it's you know what. It reminded me. It was like
(13:43):
in the lobby of a small communitycenter, um, and there didn't seem
to be any cameras. Oh mygod, you're right, there were no
cameras. And there's a really entertainingaudience like audience reaction track, like yes,
(14:05):
we never see any audience. Wedo not. There's a lot of
passive aggression that just like like flipson and off between passive aggression and support.
But somehow, and it wasn't clearto me how this happened, but
Piper claims that she has an emailfrom Tim's kids to come and fix his
festival village and she'll get a bookout of it. Because Piper gets gets
(14:26):
caught up in Piper's releasing a cookbookof her grandma's recipes. Yes, and
she thinks she's going on like doinga fluff piece for like a Regis and
Kelly, but you know, inlike the Boondocks, and instead the interviewer
then kind of brings up this thingthat Piper didn't know was going on,
which is, oh, you knowthat one of your former employees is saying
(14:48):
you stole his recipes. Yes,So Piper, being a good pr person,
spins it and immediately is like,oh, actually, um, we'll
talk about that later. I'm herebecause this guy's kids to Yeah, so
there's a good like she's a she'sa very good at her job. She
has she's just straight up live.Then yes, because because I knew that
(15:09):
the kids hadn't sent the letter,So then I was like, well where
is this coming from? Because Igot distracted in the beginning by the strange
television show Understandable, I didn't thinkto look for the cameras. That is
a have you ever done that whereum, like you've recorded, like you've
recorded a podcast or like you weredoing I don't know, like some kind
of thing that was supposed to berecorded, and you do the whole thing,
(15:33):
and then people are watching and thenlike you realize, oh, we
didn't actually record, and there's areally weird moment when you're like I just
entertained you. There's something like veryuncomfortable about that, and that now now
this whole thing is getting weird.Yes, yes, yeah, so the
kids did not, So she pretendsthe kids wrote a letter. Tim doesn't
get it. Tim's like, oh, my kids wrote you a letter even
(15:54):
though they just met you today.Yeah. I can see how he was
foul because, like I was initiallyfull and then there was no explanation other
than it turned out there wasn't aletter, and and Tim was strangely okay
with that. But Tim was likevery passive. I don't think Tim's I
think Tim had like a head injurythat I saw. I was doing what
(16:14):
I was doing my research. Isaw a series of very entertaining reviews on
letter Box, and one of themdid suggest that perhaps Tim had brain damage.
Yeah, and you get that senselike he just never seems to process
things quickly. Yes, right,Yeah, but it's it's good that he
lives in a place that's supportive forthe skills and stuff that that everyone in
(16:36):
his weird village has Christmas Yeah,and what was interesting to like, I
was surprised that they kept pivoting backto this cookie recipe lawsuit thing, because
it really seems like they spent alot of time on her fixing the festival
village. But she was like,she just had it fixed. There was
no tension, just fix, fix, fix, It's all fixed. And
(17:00):
I appreciated that. Well, Ipersonally would find her very difficult as a
human being. Um, she didread as the real person, and the
movie liked her enough that they werelike, sure, other people might consider
her like a control freak, butin this world, she's extremely helpful to
Tim. Yeah, she's kind ofa Christmas angel in this movie. Like,
(17:25):
I know, Piper is supposed tobe the leading need of a lesson,
but she is actually the hero ofthis movie. Yeah, well,
and she is. She's she isactually the hero. She's actually the love
interesting even if I'm busy watching Kennyand the strange shelter lady and the woman
who runs the Beat and Breakfast.Oh my god, there's so many great
supporting characters here. And that's sowe'll go into it because I mean that's
(17:45):
the plot. They at one pointshe's gonna go She's gonna leave the Christmas
Village, which she has completely turnedaround. Um, in part because she
discovered Santa Claus was an uber driverand they him and that's great. I
was really hoping. I mean theynever said he wasn't. They never said
he wasn't. I'm holding true thathe was. Yeah. Um, she
(18:06):
is gonna leave town because she thinksit's like she she thinks that this lawsuit
that's coming out is going to bebad press now for the Christmas Village.
So she goes to the airport toleave. He goes to the airport to
find her the planer and he leftbut like she just didn't get out.
Even that's a weird scene where they'relike their tension just is in the wrong
place. Kind of Yeah, theywalked towards each other very slowly. Yes,
(18:30):
Again, the level of self consciousnesswas one hand, really high for
a movie and on the other handvery true to real life. Well,
like, because he's at the airport, because there's a so there's a dog.
Where shouldn't mention the dog? Uma wonderful a very good boy named
Archie who is saddled on her ina wonderful move by this woman that just
(18:51):
keeps showing up and the shelter andshe just keeps finding ways to get rid
of her shelter dogs to people,and it's I love that she embarrasses them
on television. So they have totake the dog. Brilliant, brilliant moves.
It's probably very unethical, but I'msorry, no please. Part of
what's brilliant is they actually set thisin Ontario, And if they had set
(19:15):
it in any place in the UnitedStates, like I think even here in
the Midwest, a person would eithertake the dog on the TV and then
give it back or like that wouldbe the most enlighten Midwestern way to do
it. But I think everybody elsewould be like, no, you did,
I'm not doing this. I don'tI don't have a license, I
don't I don't have room. Butin Ontario she can embarrass them into doing
(19:38):
it. Yeah, Piper's like,well, I guess I have a dog.
Now I'm traveling. I don't evenhave a place to put on,
but I guess I have a dogbecause I have to. I'm Canadian.
Yeah, and I thought she wasgoing to give it to Tim and his
kids because they seemed much more capableof taking care of the animals, but
she kept it. Yeah, No, there is honor to Canada. Who
knew, I mean, I guesseverybody knew, but yeah, but like
(20:02):
the dog, so like they getshe's at the air he's at the airport
looking at her, and he thinksshe's left already, and he's very sad,
and he turns around very slowly,and then the dog starts walking towards
the dog barks. First of all, there's no other sound of the airport,
and the dog barks, and hedoesn't hear it. Somehow again head
injury, and eventually the dog walksover to him, and after again,
(20:23):
this is like a two minute sceneof him finally looking down and seeing the
dog and slowly petting the dog andthen saying, wait, Archie, why
are you here, and then realizingshe's here too, Like even that was
such a like you know and Idon't know. It's kind of reminds me
of like a rest of development whenthe third season when um uh, Michael
(20:48):
is dating Charlie's Throne and he thinksshe's quirky, but she actually, like
it, has some learning brain disaplite, like she's not all there. I
think that might be the case ofthe sky. Yeah. Yeah, I
think they compliment each other very well. Yeah, I suppose because because I
was concerned about her take like onthe on her side and her her difficulties.
(21:15):
I was concerned about her taking careof Archie, Like I was like,
I don't know that this woman couldtake care of a dog. And
then likeake, there he is takencare of her dogs, work, food,
we're taking and clearly the Archie wasvery well trained and as and as
an aside, I did enjoy howyou could always see Archie looking for their
trainer. Well that was also trueof the child actors in this movie.
(21:41):
All right, so let's dive intowhat we what we look for in these
Number one is our female lead needof a lesson. We've talked a lot
about Piper. Um. Piper isplayed by what is this actress's name because
I actually really yeah, I likedher. Yep, she is a very
(22:02):
believable person. Yeah, I thinkshe found and this is both her and
the writing. She is a veryand again like there's these guys. These
guys are smart. Um, there'sa lot of um kind of wink wink,
But but it's wink wink in away that isn't talking down to the
material. I feel like it's thereso that people that maybe are watching these
(22:25):
a little ironically can be like,oh I saw it, Okay, I
get it, I get it.Yeah, but to anybody else like no,
no, no, Like she's presentedas a career woman. Um,
you know, but but she's sassyand she's quick. Uh yeah, yeah,
I uh you know how I thinkthat the lesson was like and it
wasn't very heavy handed, because alot of these can be very heavy handed,
(22:47):
particularly when it's like learning to appreciatethe value of Christmas, because that
and I appreciate that rather than learningnot to be um be herself like yeah,
instead she can be herself in thiscontext where it's helpful. Um,
which I hope we all achieve oneday, be ourselves and be helpful and
(23:08):
find a great partner with brain damage. Yeah, if that's helpful to us
and helpful to them. But um, I lost my thought. I'm sorry.
Oh that's okay. There are somelines that are very funny. Um.
At one point, I think it'sI think it's Tamboo says to her
like, well, I know you'renot into happiness or anything that comes with
(23:30):
joy, which is such an obviousline, but it's one that normally you
don't have that line. You havethe a very close version of that line.
But like in this movie, it'sa character actually says, well,
I know you don't like to behappy. Yeah. Funny, yep,
but you know she turned out shedid certain ways. Yeah, and even
(23:52):
yeah, I liked. Is Santastripping for business or pleasure? Yes,
let's see. Now. Number twois our setting, which is either a
big, bad city, a charmingsmall town, or a magical winter wonderland.
Uh. Now the town's name iswinter Ridge. Mum, so I
didn't catch it. You they actuallysay they're in Canada. I'm pretty sure
(24:15):
they did. Yeah, fascinating,how about that? Uh. The town
is often describe like Piper is describingthe town out loud to her to her
sister a lodge. She says,um, uh, you know, it's
weird. Everybody holds the door foryou, even when you're far away.
Your sister's like, you should testit out and see how long they hold
it for you. She's like,I gad, they hold it for a
(24:36):
long time. Agn like it's funny. And there's um the sassee Santa who
is bragging about the town And doyou think there really is a Guinness World
Book of World Records entry for thetown um that has that has the most
(24:56):
people not leaving? It was kindof what he was trying to say.
Be yea, and we have twoSantas that are we have like and they're
both drivers. Yeah, oh ohthat makes sense because Santa drives a sligh.
You know, I sort of rememberedwhat I was gonna I wanted to
ask you about, because there waslike a period before we get the guy
(25:18):
who might really be Santa, whereshe and her sister are talking about some
kind of Christmas trauma that affected theirmom and why they don't like Christmas.
And I was kind of hoping thatit would turn out to be that they
were Santa's kids and that their momwas missus claws and they had been divorced.
Oh my god, you just wrotethe greatest movie of all time.
(25:42):
Thank you. Like a marriage story, but as a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Oh I want it right now.Stop everything. We're gonna stop recording right
now so that Carol can go rightthe screenplay. We're gonna email it,
We're gonna tweet it at Justin Dykeand see if we can get this going.
I'm in. But you know howwe can work it with this because
(26:02):
like maybe they didn't know their dadis so when like Santa shows up as
the uber driver, that's why there'sa connection right away. Yeah, yeah,
wow, I'm going to help themout. Wow, I love it,
um man, Okay, mine isblown. That. That's okay,
back on track if I can manageto stay on track. Our our bland
(26:23):
love interest, which is off ina widowed dad who works with his hands.
Oh well yeah, what do wehave here? Oh widow dad who
works with his hands and its farmythings to kind of he what does he
do? He loses goats? Yeah, but they're alive. True, true,
(26:44):
that is true. Like both hiskids, like all his kids,
ha are alive, so that weknow of the uh he has a great
moment so early on, like it'sit's pretty quick that Piper is like kind
of warming to him, and they'relike walking around outside and the kids are
and they're having like a cute moment. And the kids run by and like
make their make them hold hands,and the dad's like, oh, I'm
(27:06):
sorry about that, Like I'm embarrassed. And here this line. Ever since
they started watching Christmas movies, theythink I need a wife again, Like
a real Hallmark movie doesn't write thatline, but but these guys do.
And it was wonderful. And youcan tell these guys are writing a lot
of them and they're doing what theycan get their own entertainment out of.
(27:27):
Definitely h so. And Tim wasan architectural engineer, but you know,
and he worked in the big city. Um uh. And and when he
has like the moment of like tellingPiper that he loves her U this moment
also is very funny to me.He says to her, I can't exactly
(27:48):
give you the big city life.Theater, fine dining. That's that's what
the big city life is, folks. Every night, every night, I
mean theater, fine dining. Ilive in Yonkers now, technically I'm not
in the big bad city, butthe you know, however, many eight
fifteen years I lived in Manhattan,I can tell you it was either or
every night theater refined dining. Goodjob indeed, same here. And what
(28:14):
did you think of Tim's hair?Did it bother you? It made me
very uncomfortable. I was confused whenshe was telling them that she needed to
get his hair out of his eyesbecause his hair was not eat long enough
to be in his eyes. Butthere was something really like off putting about
it. I don't know how todescribe it, Like it's a little too
long but not long, and likeit I don't know, it does weird
(28:37):
movements, it parts weird right,like he could very easily have done the
mushroom part with his hair, likethat's how long it was. But I
don't know. It just made meuncomfortable. I get creeped out by weird
things. I was looking at hisshirts a lot because he was wearing they
were doing the red green thing right, oh, completely, so many And
she was in white and red fora long time till she started to feel
(29:02):
christmasy and she changed. She startedwearing like a red jacket. Okay,
but they were like it was whitewhite, and that bright Christmasy red when
she changed to red. Yes,yes, but he kept wearing like this
hunter green for a long time,and so I was watching his subtle gradations
of increasing greenness so much that Ithink I did not pay enough attention to
(29:23):
his hair. Good for you,I envy your eyeballs. Now. Number
four is the montage, which wedidn't really get any I don't think.
I feel like the plot that initiallyI was watching as the a plot,
which was not was kind of themontage because I think I think all the
(29:45):
work she did on the Festival VillageChristmas Village, I think counts as a
montage because there was no tension there. There was no problems that she was
solving specific either. It was veryjust like suddenly one every other scene was
a moment of like, look,the village is doing great. Now there
(30:06):
are people. But it was verylike aside from having gone on TV and
then brought in it, bringing ina new Santa, like what did they
actually do to this place? Yeah, And it seemed like like, you
know, the first night she's atthe bed and Breakfast and she finds it
far too Christmasy in her bedroom,which I kind of don't blame her for
because it was filled with twinkle lights. When I'm like, she's like,
I'm gonna go to sleep, andmy husband walked into that exact moment.
(30:29):
He's like, everybody, exactly,he's a bit. Is she gonna turn
a light off or take a makeupoff? I'm like, no, no,
you do not do either of thosethings of Christmas movie. No,
she got out of bed, andgod knows which, and I assume what
she did is every night she snuckout of bed and magically fixed the village,
and then she told us the nextmorning what she'd done, like,
oh, I found people from acommunity theater or you know, it makes
(30:52):
sense because she couldn't sleep in thatroom there were too many lights, so
just whatever, Okay, I justdon't sleep anymore. And she does seem
like a woman who suffers from insomnia. I gather that she is kind of
just a very productive, like oneof those like, oh I get three
to three hours of sleep at night, and I'm good like that kind of
thing, because I'm up at threeto do my appolodies and then at four
to go over the numbers and allthat. Yeah, and Tim's going to
(31:15):
help her be like, you know, you need to get more sleep,
right, you need to get fourhours? That's right, it's you know.
Number five is our dead parents ordead wife obviously, Yeah, we
have a dead wife. We don'treally know much about her, right,
Like, do we know how shedied? Do we think Tim murdered her?
Do we think she died in theaccident that damaged him's brain? Oh?
(31:36):
Man, maybe? Yeah, therewas like some sort of accident at
the architectural firm in the Big BadCity, maybe a following ibeam and he
tried to save her while they werefine dining. Yeah. Yeah, it
was like the grand opening of ourAmerican cousin. They were going to go
to the theater that night. Yeah, he took a short cut through the
(31:57):
alley by his building that he hadjust built or they had built together.
Oh I like the IBM collapsed.Yeah, and it was his design that
did it. Yeah, but shesaved him. Oh oh I like that.
Yeah. We also get a coupleof dead grandparents. Um, because
grandma is very important in this story, because we don't, like you said,
(32:20):
we don't get a dead dad.We get a mention of a mother
who's alive. Um, we getthat dad didn't Dad leave them on Christmas
Eve? Was that it? Orwas that a different movie I watched?
Maybe okay, um, but Iassume he had to go work, so
okay, m And we get adead grandma, so which grandma hasn't been
around a lot this this season?All right? And then our sassy sidekick
(32:45):
whoa boy woo boy? I say, we haven't many throw him out at
me? Who who would you like? Who? Who would you spot?
What do we got? I likedher sister, although in comparison like in
a REGULARI ish or like a higherbudget Christmas movie, I think that she
would count as the sassy sidekick.Yeah, but we have so much local
(33:07):
color in this town. Um,So we've we've talked about the shelter lady
who ambushes people when they're on TVto give them dogs. Love her and
I love how she's very um likeshe's aware of it. Like she says
to Pipers, Piper is spinning thestory with a PRS man and she says
(33:28):
to her, She's like, Ican do this too, you know,
Yeah, I love it. Ilove it. That's her there is Um.
I liked the Baker a lot Iwish there were more Kenny Kenny Um
again played by which is the actors, the rights the writer's name, uh,
because I feel like it's okay umand he's just insane and like they
(33:52):
just go with it and it works, and I found I want to see
his movie like I would watch likeI would watch all these sides sassy young
local color characters. Um. Thereis also again we have Archie, the
good boy dog kind of a colleaguemix who's very well behaved. More,
we never really had to see thegoats, and goats are very cute and
(34:13):
we even had a conversation where theytalked about what what goats are? You're
right, yes, the goats thereis uh So Millie is the name of
the innkeeper who is British, rightor some form of that area of the
world. I think she was Britishyea yeah. And we cannot forget the
(34:34):
other um best character in this movie. Hi, Hi, Andy, you
don't know me. I am Luke. I'm a friend of Tim's who Piper
is helping. Yes, yes,oh this is great. So Tim's best
friend Luke uh is going to helpout because he this is and this was
this was when I was like verylike, Oh, I've had this a
(34:57):
lot with these movies this season,where like there's been that one line that
has like confirmed for me that Iwas watching something that was made with a
little bit more um spunk. Andthey talk about how they need a photographer
to take new pictures for the Christmasvillage and Tim says like, oh,
I'll call I'll call my friend Luke, and Luke shows up and Luke take
pictures and you know, um,Piper's like, oh, like, it's
(35:20):
really nice for you to do this, like, uh, you know you
sure, like we don't have topay you. He's like, no,
no, no, I love doingthis. Um, it's just it's such
a breath of fresh air from whatI normally do. And she says,
oh, what what kind of photographerare you? And he says, did
you catch it? Yeah? He'sa crime scene photography. I do forensic
(35:42):
photos. And then the best thingit doesn't end there. Tim says,
show her some of your work.Yeah, and he keeps trying to he
does, and then like throughout themovie keeps coming up and it made me
very happy, and I wanted tosee his romance with Andy. I love
that. I love when a moviehas a B plot in romance because they
just don't always think it's worth it, and it always, to me,
(36:05):
is very rewarding because it just flesheseverything out. And yeah, him and
Andy, who have been talking onthe phone, just are immediately smitten with
each other and they meet real life, and like, they're two hot people,
so they're gonna you know, that'sgonna work out. I think they
both have a sense of humor,which I think is very helpful, especially
when you know you're in forensics exactly. I am fascinated though that this town
(36:30):
has a forensic photographer, Like,and is it because it's a small town
in small towns on one hand orfull clozy Christmas romance and on the other
hand are full of murder, oflifetime murders. I so two theories there.
One is the longgoing theory I havethat every single Christmas movie, if
you changed the music and took outthe Christmas decorations, it is a lifetime
(36:52):
horror movie. So there's that.But the other part of that is I
think Winter's Ridge is basically the Canadiancap Cove. Oh, because you're right,
like, why would this town needa forensic photographer? How many people
die in this town, Oh theydon't. One dies every week until our
most beloved citizen, Millie the innkeeper, goes out of town and then somebody
(37:15):
dies where she goes. So thisthis is actually the reboot of murdersh wrote
that we we didn't get Yeah.I was disappointed that, like obviously,
they decided that Millie would be pairedup with Jack, because you know she's
she's middle aged and Jack. ButI wish that if they had made her
(37:37):
well, because they made her missusClaws. I wish that they had captain
in character and made her a morerockabilly missus Claws. I like that.
Yeah, yea. Let's see nownumber seven is our villain um usually an
evil woman or a male boss.Typically, in this case, we do
(38:00):
we have a villainous character. Doyou do you remember who that would be?
I'd say we have like one anda half. Okay, So the
main one is that brock Guy hasstolen her grandma's cookies, which is easy
to forget about in this movie becauseshe spends so much time on the festival
village and all the stuff relating toher being sued by a company that sees
(38:24):
the recipes for her Grandma's Cookies.Takes place basically on the phone, Yeah,
on a green screen Hawaiian set orsomething. Yeah, and he and
with some really interesting two pages inHawaiian shirts. I was really trying to
figure out what they were going withthere, but whatever it worked. If
I think they were going for Americanand possible probably New Yorker, I okay
(38:50):
to say my experience having lived there, but I would say the half villain
is angry Scottish Santa. Yeah,we do briefly get angry Scottish Scante's angry
Scottish Shanta, who is just like, do you what do you think the
story there? Like, he wasdefinitely like Tim's bully in high school,
(39:13):
right, and Jim just still nevercould stand up to him and still doesn't
until Andy's not. Andy m.Piper is finally like, no, you're
fired. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am interested that he engaged in
some self examination on his own,because we don't see what transforms him.
So he just he maybe Santa wasjust a bad situation for him, and
now that he's not, you know, maybe he doesn't get along with kids,
(39:37):
or maybe it's just been too longand he wants to wear a different
suit, but he comes around andby the end he is like giving some
very sage advice. Yeah, andwaiting very patiently while they meet cute at
the airport. Yeah, like it'sthis town does things to people, you
know. Yeah. The number oh, and though we should say the whole
(40:02):
if you're wondering how the whole plagiarismof cookie recipes plays out, the movie
kind of doesn't really care, butthey do eventually resolve it, and in
a very funny way, it turnsout, um, it's not that this
guy stole her grandmother's cookies. Hedid, but it doesn't matter because the
grandmother's recipes were public domain from cookbooksthat everybody in the world had in the
(40:23):
eighteen goods. Yeah, I enjoyhow dismissive Kenny the Baker is of her
recipes. Yeah, it's like everybodyknows they're they're all basic. Yeah.
Oh, let's see soon. Numbereight is Slapstick, which I thought we
were gonna have a lot more becausethere's a dog, yeah, and we
(40:43):
have like city girl in the countryand it opens with you know, there's
like Garland falling on her and youthink it's going to go there, But
I didn't really clock much more afterthat. No, And there's goats.
There are goats. I know I'mobsessed with the goats, but I mean
they're goats, their goats. Yes, I think he didn't have enough money
for this lapstick. They couldn't riskas somebody actually twisting their ankle. Yeah.
(41:06):
Yeah, and it was really snowyso didn't really slick. So so
number nine is our sage old person, which I think in this case just
flows right into number ten, whichis Santa Claus. Yes, yeah,
because I mean Santa Claus is sageand does give important advice here. Yes.
And the other great thing about Santais there's like a couple of like
(41:30):
again very funny lines around this Santa. Because Santa shows up he's the uber
driver, and like he gets outof the car and everybody's like, oh
my god, it's Santa Claus.He's yeah, I am, I'll be
your Santa now. Great. Yeah, And immediately Piper is like, oh
my god, he's great and looksat Tim and she's like, don't worry,
(41:51):
I did a background check. Yeah, Tim says, I wondered.
I was trying to figure out howto ask that tactfully. Yes, it's
like we know what the audience isthinking. And then like similarly, at
one point, she goes back onthe talk show to now promote the village.
It's it's in full swing, soshe's there to talk about it,
and the same interviewer who was tryingto like grill her earlier is now like
(42:15):
into it in like good positive mode, and she has a line where she
says like, maybe I'll take Sama'slap for a test drive, and then
immediately she's like, oh my god, I heard how that sounded. There's
also Jack apparently has experience with farmanimals. Yes that's right, he's the
one that saves the goats. Yes, yes, good for him. I
(42:35):
hope he does get to bang Millie. Yes. Let's see. All right.
So those are our ten we havemost of them. Uh, and
then next is our bonus round.So some of the things we look for.
Lots of public domain holiday songs.Uh, there's a fair amount.
Um yeah, lots of we wishyou married Christmases, lots of deck the
(42:55):
hallses is um, nothing that reallystuck out for me? No. Yeah,
there's a busker singing deck the Halls, which you think, like,
oh, this guy's gonna get usedagain. And he does, right,
he comes back for the performance atthe village. Yep, and and and
he has like an unusual Christmas themedjackets slash, I don't know, the
(43:22):
hoodie or something, Okay, Um, he has one that is white with
black buttons like a snowman's or likebunom. But yeah, but they don't
complete the look with any kind ofhat. But of course budget and also
their fear of infringing on Frosty becauseFrosty is not public domain. You gotta
pay big bucks for that. Yeah, and I'm curious to like how much
(43:45):
of their own clothing and stuff theywere wearing all of it yeah, or
definitely recycled, Like I'm pretty sureall of the coat Spiper wears have been
worn in several of their movies.Yes, Um, there's one other like
musical moment that doesn't otherwise fall inhere, and it was I don't think
it was Christmas music. But canwe talk about the breakdancing elf? Yes,
(44:08):
we love the elf. Yes,there's an help. I wish we
got more. At the same timethat I appreciate that we never really know
what his deal is. We donot, and we don't know. I
don't think we ever find out whathis name is. H. I also
don't think we do. And Ienjoyed his background business with Angry Scottish Santa,
(44:31):
who was his initial boss, becauseAngry Scottish Santa ran both the only
Santa business in town and the onlylike elf impersonator or whatever business in town.
And this self chooses Jack the goodSanta over Angry Scottish Santas. But
he has a breakdancing scene with thebusker and he has some real moves,
(44:57):
like I think they were like,yeah, he has real moves. But
at the same time, I thinkit was difficult for him to do in
his elf costume and in the snow, which very completely legit. Sure,
so they did some cutting that Iassociate with um trying to make fights look
better. In this case, theydid the cuts away where oh, the
(45:19):
audience is reacting to move and thenthey cut back and it's a decent move,
but probably not what he is capableof. Mark ebste is the actor
and he's credited as Elf number one, though I don't remember an Elf number
two in this movie. But um, and then let's see up next,
uh is our secret family or recipeGrammy's Grammys secret obviously. Um yeah,
(45:49):
and they mentioned others, but it'sit's really just that. So oh and
there is a secret recipe revealed inthis movie of the actual first time bubblegum
invented. Ah right that I forgotabout that. Yeah, Kenny's great uncle,
Um he claims invented bubblegum from likeyou know, tree sap. Yes,
(46:13):
but it actually is poisonous, don'tdo it? Yes again, like
genuinely, I actually chuckled at thatout loud audibly. Small business in danger
is the next thing. And youknow this little North Pole um surprisingly isn't
making money, which is weird fora business that doesn't actually charge anybody anything.
Yeah, and she was really considerI watched this with Beth Watkins,
(46:37):
who from The Gutter and Beth Loof'sFollywood, and she pointed out that it
was weird to her that they werereally focused on having a quality website when
um, what she looks for ina Christmas village website is just like the
address and the phone number to gothere. What one does not need a
(47:00):
flashy website and or a job scriptwhat yeah? Yeah, yeah, uh
he does acknowledge that, like whenthey talk about like how he doesn't charge
her pictures with Santa Claus, andhe does at one point say like,
maybe that's why I'm failing. It'sa business. Yeah, I mean one
reason. Yes, Um, noproduct placement that I caught. But number
(47:24):
five is our cloying child. Sowe have two children in this movie.
Um, decline And what's a littlegirl's name? It's a little girl a
little boy. The little boy onlyhas one movie to his credit, and
it is this one. Um.The little girl I think has like grown
up to actually act page was thather name? Um? She know,
(47:47):
Yeah, she has grown up andcontinued has has quite a few credits.
Still, UM. Curious, justhow you felt about them as kids as
characters. Um, they were.They were very realistic kids, like it
was. They usually try for somethingmore angelic in some of these movies.
(48:07):
Yeah, And they were just likekid kids. And I appreciated that they
sort of just like ran around doingwhatever they were doing in some sort of
separate, entirely different movie with Archieand probably the Goats. Yeah, yeah,
like they may now that we're sayingit, I'm kind of thinking like
(48:28):
in another era they would be thetwins in the vivic. There's definitely something
that like if they were to finda necronomicon, bad things would happen.
Oh my god, Oh my god, because it's it's like angry Scottish Santa
was saying that no one ever leaves. Oh yeah, and that's why they're
(48:50):
driving so slowly on that road leavingand like walking so slowly in the airport
because you can't leave. Yeah,and it could be all these kids like
or they're they're like the yeah,the Buffy episode where like it's Hansel and
Gretel, but it's not like they'rejust actually a deep and that tricks people.
Yeah, No, there's something ominousabout them. That's why you stay
in a big, bad city.Yeah, you might get crushed by a
(49:13):
beam while dining at a theater,but it's still you're not gonna get sacrificed
to a demon. No. Iguess we did not have any holiday theme
names. Um that I caught right, Like, yeah, it seems like
it would have been an easy winfor them. Um. No finding the
perfect tree storyline, we can't.We have an ornament and he's like,
(49:35):
my kids made this ornament for you. I know you're probably gonna throw it
away, but please don't do thatuntil like after you walk away from them.
It's like, this woman's not amonster. She's not gonna like burn
this thing that your kids put timeinto. Um, No elaborate holiday cocktails,
empty coffee cup acting. I don'tknow that I really clocked any in
this movie. I don't think thatthey're really stuck out. No. Yeah,
(50:00):
uh. And the next thing,Um, one of my favorites is
actors who are trying very hard tonot actually take a bite of food on
camera. And I would say thisis another one of those movies. Sometimes
the lower the budget, the morethat doesn't happen, because the more you
get the sense that it's the onlything that's feeding the cast. Yes,
(50:20):
you know, I don't. Idon't think I I don't think they ate
Kenny. Did I mean Kenny atecookies a couple of times? Yes,
But yeah they well, I meanyou know what they remember, we're in
a small town. There's no suchthing as fine dining. No, you're
a theater. I mean really,I'll see. And then number eleven is
(50:43):
canadianisms. I'm sorry, did youcatch any canadianisms? Oh? Boy?
Are you remarking on their accents?There was just a you know, maybe
maybe we should talk about that alittle bit, just a few Um.
I think they were not, whichI kind of appreciate that. And again
(51:07):
I didn't catch them say it wasCanada, but now that they did,
um, I appreciate just how Canadianssome of the more like, because you're
right, if these people have neverleft this town, then they should have
really thick accents like Luke. Yep, they have their accents. Yeah,
And you know, maybe I'm imaginingthat they said that, and just because
(51:29):
they were being so Canadian and soundingso Canadian and not trying to sound American
or talk about like we're going toNew York tomorrow, Okay, I twelve
kilometers away? A yeah, yeahthey were yea and thes in Canada.
That was Canada. So that's theCanadian. Yes. Um. The last
(51:52):
thing is the warm Weather Watch,which you know, does it look actually
look like it is winter? Yes, it looks like it's winter. Yeah,
there's snow. That opening montage isall about like shoveling snow and prepping
for things. And oh my god, they I could see their breath and
when they were supposedly in the cabin, and I'm like Are they letting it
deliberately be cold because Santada is sohot under those less in Santa outfit or
(52:16):
is it just like it's just thatI mean, either way it works.
So overall, how did you feelabout a Christmas Village? Oh, like
I said, I feel that II enjoyed the donaity rim of it.
I was not very invested in theromance, but I would say it's realistic
(52:39):
in the sense that you're very rarelyinvested in other people's romances, which is
healthy and good because if you treatedother people's romances like these movies, oh
my god, you'd be really weird. Yes, And I liked that the
people in this movie treated other people'sromances like that, like they were happy
(53:01):
to see them together, like peoplewho were appropriately happy to see them together,
right, and other people did notcare, Yeah, their own business.
That That has been one of oneof the things I think that is
most like watching all the movies now, So because this is number what nine
or so, one of the themesthat the new things that I've noticed this
(53:22):
year and I haven't noticed so muchanother years is how many movies have really
leaned into older characters being unhealthily investedin younger characters getting it on ye where
it's like where I don't know,like I get it. Like you know,
you meet people then you think they'dbe great together and you just feel
(53:43):
like, oh man, if theycould just get past themselves, they'd be
fine. But you know, likeseveral movies this year have been like old
and old people, meaning like thesage old people of the movie, the
parents and grandparents you miss missus Claus, And so I'm doing like spending a
whole lot of time, an unhealthyamount of time, doing what they can
to get these two characters to sexuallybe interested in each other. And then
(54:04):
that's what it is saying. Itstarts to dip into like psychological thrillers and
horror at that point, like whenit's the whole town, it's horror,
and when it's like the grandparents andstuff, it's psychological thrillers. Yeah,
yeah, I like that. Ilike that. And again, you should
watch Anything for Jackson, which isabout grandparents and yeah yeah yeah, so
at all tis in um yeah,and I again, I enjoyed this more
(54:29):
than I thought I would. Iwill say, I think it's one that
you kind of have to listen to. To realize what it's that. It
is doing some interesting things and havingsome fun with itself. It's not the
prettiest looking one. It's not thelike it's not the one that I know
a lot of people who watch theselike where like they're, you know,
(54:51):
they're visiting family for Christmas and theirfamily is watching these un ironically, but
they want to kind of watch themand like laugh at them. This one,
you it might not please others asmuch as it would please somebody with
a bit of a sense of humorwatching it. For that, I think,
yeah, but yeah, I'm surprisedby how much I enjoyed this one.
It did make me laugh, sohooray uh. Now with that,
(55:15):
Carol, Um, when not um, you know, falling in love with
people with terrible hair and head injuries? What are you up to? What
are you doing? Where can peoplefind your work? Um? Well,
they can always find me at theCultural Gutter, which is a website UM
dedicated thoughtful writing about disreputable art.It's ww dot cultural gutter dot com.
(55:39):
And right now I have a pieceup on my own site, Monstrous Industry
um at WordPress dot com about TravisStevens, a wounded fawn and I am
very pleased with that piece. Ihave not seen it yet, but I've
heard wonderful things. I know you'rea big fan, so not read your
(56:00):
yet because I figured I should watchit first. I do have two paragraphs
saying how much I love it thatare spoiler free, but then I have
like a billion words of how muchI love it that are detailer detailed.
Yes, as soon as I getaround to it, I will go there
to watch to read. Yeah,I will watch your words, which is
(56:21):
the way of reading that I did. Totally. Yeah, fantastic. Well,
it has been a pleasure having you. Um. I wish you a
very nice ride on Santa's lap forthe rest of the Perhaps we can discover
whether Santa is stripping for business orpleasure. Isn't that the eternal question.
She puts the pr in promoting PiperPiper Jans, small town girl makes it
bet this Christmas. She's here topromote her grand new Christmas cookbook, My
Grammy Rose's Original Recipes. I'm surprisedyou're staying original with all the allegations allegations.
Looks like someone could use a littlepr of their own to save her
reputation. That's crag. But Iown a failing Christmas village in town.
(00:26):
I'm here today because I'm actually goingto help you free of charge. She'll
have to work her magic. Didsomeone say save the day? I don't
know what to say. Can yousay thank you? When we get started?
It's Christmas time. Scarf will letpeople think they can trust you.
I can trust me. Oh that'sthe spirit. I need a miracle.
Hi, there, you must bedelivered. I was told you needed a
(00:49):
miracle while discovering the magic of Christmas. Huh, it's incredible. How as
possible? Ah? What can Isay? I know how to turn things
around. We wish you were merryChristmas. We wish you were merry Christmas.
We wish you merry Christmas and ahappy New Year. Christ Merry Christmas.
(01:15):
A Merry Christmas. Miracles come inall shapes. Inside. It takes
a village. I have seen alot of smiles in my life. It
takes a whole lot of love tosmile like that, to fall in love
a Christmas village. Welcome back toanother stocking stuffer. We are here yet
(01:42):
again to tackle something that I thinkat one point air Don Hallmark. It's
an older one quote unquote. Byolder, I mean twenty eighteen, which
is four years old, which inthe dog Year's world of cosy Cardian Christmas
means that it has gray hair.Now that being said, maybe we liked
it, maybe we didn't. Who'sthe way I'm talking about. Well,
(02:04):
let me introduce my special guest star. You know her from the cultural gutter.
It is the one and only CarolBorden. Hello, Carol, Hello,
thank you for having me. Iam delighted to have you. We
had you and your go ish.You introduced me to that wonderful Mermaid movie
The Lore Yeah or oh, whata classic, And you were here for
(02:30):
a stocking stuff for a few yearsback. I can't remember the name of
the movie. It was one ofthe rockies, Smokey's Mountains Christmas. Oh,
yeah, it was like Christmas inthe Smokey's what I mostly remembers.
We talked a lot about hurt Zog. Yeah that made sense. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, he does notmake an appearance in a Christmas village.
That is the movie we've got todaybefore we dive in, Carol. What
(02:52):
is your general stance opinion experience withcozy Cardigan Christmas movies? Um? I
like some of them. I findquite enjoyable. I am not a serious
person, however, and I donot take them very seriously. Also,
(03:15):
I realized that I have this likedid we talk about Most Wanted Santa last
year? Did I watch that foryou? You? I feel like you
watch that on your own and toldme about it, and you were kind
of it was fascinating. What whatI'm thinking about is like Most Wanted Santa
is close to what I have realizedI consider normal movies, and everything is
(03:39):
relative go on, and most ofthese Christmas Cozy Cardigan movies are like their
own fin thing that at most havea slight overlap with what I can always
call right now normal movies, Iunderstand, Yeah, I think I do.
(04:00):
Yeah, I think I need anothercategory that, like I recognize that's
insulting, and I don't necessarily meanthat as an insult because I enjoy the
fringes of beyond the norm. Iwas going to say, you're a genre
fan. I feel I do thesame thing where I am somebody that goes
by like the Roger Ebert school ofBeverly Hills. Chhuahua can be a three
(04:23):
star movie because the audience that ismade for that's a free storm movie for
them. Yeah. And if itaccomplishes its own goals for itself, yes,
And I can say that all butfully also say A Christmas Village is
a different type of movie than RagingBowl, and they are not necessarily in
(04:44):
the same class in certain definitions ofclass. But do they They are both
doing, they both have goals,and how do they accomplish those goals?
That that is? Yeah, Iwas I was going to say, I
think that A Christmas Village is wellwithin the realm of these kinds of movies.
It's like PLoP in the center.Yes, And as far as what
(05:09):
it accomplishes in terms of cozy CardiganChristian sorry Christmas movies, um, I
don't think it's on like the higherend. Okay, but I found many
entertaining elements, and my sense ofit is it accomplished its own goal of
getting this movie fucking done for aslittle money as can be, so that
(05:34):
we can use this surplus to actuallyfeed the crew. Yes, yep,
Um, you know I'm similar,but I have maybe a wild statement to
make. I weirdly found myself veryentertained by this movie. It's like a
for me. It's like like adonut of a movie where like the center
(05:56):
romance for me was largely empty,and then there's this, like this donatedness
of the many people who live inthis village, the presence of goat,
the existence of Santa Claus, maybethe Santa Claus. Yeah, there's a
dog, there's a there's a hornyTV host. The screenwriter plays a weird
(06:19):
baker, Yes he does. Lookand oh I enjoyed the really aggressive shelter
lady who was getting rid of dogsby ambushing people on that strange television shows.
Yes see, I loved all that. Yeah. So this is to
give a little background. This isum the writing directing team. It's a
(06:41):
team because they have done many ofthese movies and then in a more interesting
movie. Aside from that, Iwas hoping we were going to talk about.
Yes, this is directed by JustinI'm assuming it's Justin Dike d I
c K. I don't know ifit's uh a Dike or Dick sound dyke,
Yeah, But I grew up ina Dutch American era area. So
(07:06):
so that's how you're doing to pronouncedexactly written by Keith Cooper. This these
guys, there's definitely like like Isometimes think of, like would I ever
want to actually interview more directors who'vedone these movies? And like, there's
really two sets of people that Iwould love to talk to. I would
love to talk to Michael Pheiffer,who we've mentioned a few times on the
(07:28):
show, and these guys, becauseI think would they there again? They
have worked together on several things,several Christmas movies, a few of which
I've seen, one of which Idid two years ago. I think A
Puppy for Christmas, not to beconfused with The Twelve Pups of Christmas,
which is directed by Michael Phifer,but a Puppy for Christmas. I actually
felt totally I could totally see,Oh my god, of course it's the
(07:50):
same team because it was a similarthing where same type of budget, same
kind of gay guys who were makinga movie. Don't forget attitude, but
also like weird spurts of humor.Um genuinely kind of enjoyable and also something
well we'll get into it when wego into the list, but a surprisingly
(08:11):
rounded lead who is more interesting thanjust a type. Um. The thing
that they have made that many,probably like actual normal listeners, have seen
is the horror movie that's on shutterAnything for Jackson? Yeah, did you
see that? No? Um,yeah it was. It was available to
(08:35):
me sort of when during festival season, but I was seeing so many other
movies for a festival season that thatone sort of slipped by me. And
I haven't caught up with all thethings yet, but it looked super interesting.
Yeah, I loved it. Um, it's very much a horror movie,
like made for me because it isabout old people, and I love
when old peoples of a horror movie. And it's um, a lot of
(08:56):
character actors, a lot of facesyou recognize, it's very Canadian, and
it's a story you haven't quite seenbefore, and it's winter and that's used
so well, and watching it justalso is so rewarding because I'm like they
know how to shoot in winter becausethey have made these movies, like yeah,
and you can see that the likeI am guessing Justin Dyke's passion is
(09:18):
probably not Christmas movies, yes,but he used them to like probably meet
a lot of people, make alot of contacts. He works with a
lot of the same casts and thingsand make the connections he needs to make
anything for Jackson and then the nextyear come back and make, you know,
another Christmas movie. So I'm finewith it because I actually kind of
(09:39):
like his Christmas movies well, andit's one of the things that was interesting
to me, like building on thatis how how the like really low end
film industry has changed, at leastin Canada, because it used to be
you made your cheap horror movies thatpeople loved for the same reasons that we're
(10:00):
talking about loving these Christmas movies,where like maybe or maybe not they're you
know, super successful, successful intheir own goals, but they often would
have an interesting idea, a weirdlyuncanny horror movie moment because of low budget,
practical effects, great lines or whatever, and then people would go on
and build their career someone else.But now there's like this level of we
(10:22):
make really cheap Christmas movies, andon one hand it provides actors with really
solid, consistent work in the year, and on the other hand, it's
like, oh, well this iswhere we get our started filmmaking, and
then we make our indie horror movieand then maybe we move on to something
else from that, Yeah, whichis wow. It sounds a little bit
(10:46):
like when directors talk about directing fortelevision, restricting film and how it's very
much a for higher job, butthey walk into a machine right then there
are deadlines. You can't you know, you can't get You can get creative,
but you need to but you stillneed to get all your shots in
this day. And there's something veryI don't know. I'm somebody that like
(11:07):
I realized, like the older Iget that my like, I'm creative,
but I work so much better withguidelines. And it's probably very similar for
a lot of these directors that itforces a certain training to you to know
how to get the right lighting quickly, how to get a child actor to
do something that when you need themto and you don't have the time or
budget to waste on it. It'sa good training. I really like your
(11:31):
point about how like they've learned howto shoot in winter now and now I'm
really looking forward to even more.Like there's been like this spurt of cool
winter horror genre movies and like,oh yeah, looking forward to that.
So why don't we talk about thestory of a Christmas Village? And for
those of you at home, thisit's a I guess that's Hallmark. It
(11:52):
feels like one that wasn't made byHallmark but was probably aired on probably purchased
by Hallmark because you look at theproduction companies and it's not Hallmark, h
and Nicely something or other. Yeah, and like it's clearly a very very
low budget. It is on Peacockcurrently, So if you have access to
Peacock, then you can watch AChristmas Village. Uh, you want to
give kind of Carol a rough synopsisof the story. Uh, there was
(12:16):
a part I wanted to ask youabout, but I will start my synopsis
first. So there is a womanPiper, and she does some kind of
Christmas book um series, but alsoshe improves other people's companies and she meets
(12:37):
this guy Tim. Who is itTim? It's Tim? Yeah? Yeah,
yes, Tim might not be wellor all. There there's a lot
of like I lived in Ontario forquite a while, and there's a lot
of Ontario going on in their relationship. I think, okay makes sense.
But she's like very efficient and veryefficious. But both of these things that,
(13:00):
like the her officiousness is like tothe benefit of Tim, because Tim
is running a failing festival, likeChristmas Festival village where you can I don't
know, I don't think. Hedoesn't charge people to come to it,
he doesn't actually take care of it. Maybe run it, I don't know.
(13:22):
And he has an abusive Santa thathe run around. Yes he does,
but what And they meet on thisstrange television show. It's like a
Good Morning America local show, butit's very confusing where the show is,
Yeah, it's it's you know what. It reminded me. It was like
(13:43):
in the lobby of a small communitycenter, um, and there didn't seem
to be any cameras. Oh mygod, you're right, there were no
cameras. And there's a really entertainingaudience like audience reaction track, like yes,
(14:05):
we never see any audience. Wedo not. There's a lot of
passive aggression that just like like flipson and off between passive aggression and support.
But somehow, and it wasn't clearto me how this happened, but
Piper claims that she has an emailfrom Tim's kids to come and fix his
festival village and she'll get a bookout of it. Because Piper gets gets
(14:26):
caught up in Piper's releasing a cookbookof her grandma's recipes. Yes, and
she thinks she's going on like doinga fluff piece for like a Regis and
Kelly, but you know, inlike the Boondocks, and instead the interviewer
then kind of brings up this thingthat Piper didn't know was going on,
which is, oh, you knowthat one of your former employees is saying
(14:48):
you stole his recipes. Yes,So Piper, being a good pr person,
spins it and immediately is like,oh, actually, um, we'll
talk about that later. I'm herebecause this guy's kids to Yeah, so
there's a good like she's a she'sa very good at her job. She
has she's just straight up live.Then yes, because because I knew that
(15:09):
the kids hadn't sent the letter,So then I was like, well where
is this coming from? Because Igot distracted in the beginning by the strange
television show Understandable, I didn't thinkto look for the cameras. That is
a have you ever done that whereum, like you've recorded, like you've
recorded a podcast or like you weredoing I don't know, like some kind
of thing that was supposed to berecorded, and you do the whole thing,
(15:33):
and then people are watching and thenlike you realize, oh, we
didn't actually record, and there's areally weird moment when you're like I just
entertained you. There's something like veryuncomfortable about that, and that now now
this whole thing is getting weird.Yes, yes, yeah, so the
kids did not, So she pretendsthe kids wrote a letter. Tim doesn't
get it. Tim's like, oh, my kids wrote you a letter even
(15:54):
though they just met you today.Yeah. I can see how he was
foul because, like I was initiallyfull and then there was no explanation other
than it turned out there wasn't aletter, and and Tim was strangely okay
with that. But Tim was likevery passive. I don't think Tim's I
think Tim had like a head injurythat I saw. I was doing what
(16:14):
I was doing my research. Isaw a series of very entertaining reviews on
letter Box, and one of themdid suggest that perhaps Tim had brain damage.
Yeah, and you get that senselike he just never seems to process
things quickly. Yes, right,Yeah, but it's it's good that he
lives in a place that's supportive forthe skills and stuff that that everyone in
(16:36):
his weird village has Christmas Yeah,and what was interesting to like, I
was surprised that they kept pivoting backto this cookie recipe lawsuit thing, because
it really seems like they spent alot of time on her fixing the festival
village. But she was like,she just had it fixed. There was
no tension, just fix, fix, fix, It's all fixed. And
(17:00):
I appreciated that. Well, Ipersonally would find her very difficult as a
human being. Um, she didread as the real person, and the
movie liked her enough that they werelike, sure, other people might consider
her like a control freak, butin this world, she's extremely helpful to
Tim. Yeah, she's kind ofa Christmas angel in this movie. Like,
(17:25):
I know, Piper is supposed tobe the leading need of a lesson,
but she is actually the hero ofthis movie. Yeah, well,
and she is. She's she isactually the hero. She's actually the love
interesting even if I'm busy watching Kennyand the strange shelter lady and the woman
who runs the Beat and Breakfast.Oh my god, there's so many great
supporting characters here. And that's sowe'll go into it because I mean that's
(17:45):
the plot. They at one pointshe's gonna go She's gonna leave the Christmas
Village, which she has completely turnedaround. Um, in part because she
discovered Santa Claus was an uber driverand they him and that's great. I
was really hoping. I mean theynever said he wasn't. They never said
he wasn't. I'm holding true thathe was. Yeah. Um, she
(18:06):
is gonna leave town because she thinksit's like she she thinks that this lawsuit
that's coming out is going to bebad press now for the Christmas Village.
So she goes to the airport toleave. He goes to the airport to
find her the planer and he leftbut like she just didn't get out.
Even that's a weird scene where they'relike their tension just is in the wrong
place. Kind of Yeah, theywalked towards each other very slowly. Yes,
(18:30):
Again, the level of self consciousnesswas one hand, really high for
a movie and on the other handvery true to real life. Well,
like, because he's at the airport, because there's a so there's a dog.
Where shouldn't mention the dog? Uma wonderful a very good boy named
Archie who is saddled on her ina wonderful move by this woman that just
(18:51):
keeps showing up and the shelter andshe just keeps finding ways to get rid
of her shelter dogs to people,and it's I love that she embarrasses them
on television. So they have totake the dog. Brilliant, brilliant moves.
It's probably very unethical, but I'msorry, no please. Part of
what's brilliant is they actually set thisin Ontario, And if they had set
(19:15):
it in any place in the UnitedStates, like I think even here in
the Midwest, a person would eithertake the dog on the TV and then
give it back or like that wouldbe the most enlighten Midwestern way to do
it. But I think everybody elsewould be like, no, you did,
I'm not doing this. I don'tI don't have a license, I
don't I don't have room. Butin Ontario she can embarrass them into doing
(19:38):
it. Yeah, Piper's like,well, I guess I have a dog.
Now I'm traveling. I don't evenhave a place to put on,
but I guess I have a dogbecause I have to. I'm Canadian.
Yeah, and I thought she wasgoing to give it to Tim and his
kids because they seemed much more capableof taking care of the animals, but
she kept it. Yeah, No, there is honor to Canada. Who
knew, I mean, I guesseverybody knew, but yeah, but like
(20:02):
the dog, so like they getshe's at the air he's at the airport
looking at her, and he thinksshe's left already, and he's very sad,
and he turns around very slowly,and then the dog starts walking towards
the dog barks. First of all, there's no other sound of the airport,
and the dog barks, and hedoesn't hear it. Somehow again head
injury, and eventually the dog walksover to him, and after again,
(20:23):
this is like a two minute sceneof him finally looking down and seeing the
dog and slowly petting the dog andthen saying, wait, Archie, why
are you here, and then realizingshe's here too, Like even that was
such a like you know and Idon't know. It's kind of reminds me
of like a rest of development whenthe third season when um uh, Michael
(20:48):
is dating Charlie's Throne and he thinksshe's quirky, but she actually, like
it, has some learning brain disaplite, like she's not all there. I
think that might be the case ofthe sky. Yeah. Yeah, I
think they compliment each other very well. Yeah, I suppose because because I
was concerned about her take like onthe on her side and her her difficulties.
(21:15):
I was concerned about her taking careof Archie, Like I was like,
I don't know that this woman couldtake care of a dog. And
then likeake, there he is takencare of her dogs, work, food,
we're taking and clearly the Archie wasvery well trained and as and as
an aside, I did enjoy howyou could always see Archie looking for their
trainer. Well that was also trueof the child actors in this movie.
(21:41):
All right, so let's dive intowhat we what we look for in these
Number one is our female lead needof a lesson. We've talked a lot
about Piper. Um. Piper isplayed by what is this actress's name because
I actually really yeah, I likedher. Yep, she is a very
(22:02):
believable person. Yeah, I thinkshe found and this is both her and
the writing. She is a veryand again like there's these guys. These
guys are smart. Um, there'sa lot of um kind of wink wink,
But but it's wink wink in away that isn't talking down to the
material. I feel like it's thereso that people that maybe are watching these
(22:25):
a little ironically can be like,oh I saw it, Okay, I
get it, I get it.Yeah, but to anybody else like no,
no, no, Like she's presentedas a career woman. Um,
you know, but but she's sassyand she's quick. Uh yeah, yeah,
I uh you know how I thinkthat the lesson was like and it
wasn't very heavy handed, because alot of these can be very heavy handed,
(22:47):
particularly when it's like learning to appreciatethe value of Christmas, because that
and I appreciate that rather than learningnot to be um be herself like yeah,
instead she can be herself in thiscontext where it's helpful. Um,
which I hope we all achieve oneday, be ourselves and be helpful and
(23:08):
find a great partner with brain damage. Yeah, if that's helpful to us
and helpful to them. But um, I lost my thought. I'm sorry.
Oh that's okay. There are somelines that are very funny. Um.
At one point, I think it'sI think it's Tamboo says to her
like, well, I know you'renot into happiness or anything that comes with
(23:30):
joy, which is such an obviousline, but it's one that normally you
don't have that line. You havethe a very close version of that line.
But like in this movie, it'sa character actually says, well,
I know you don't like to behappy. Yeah. Funny, yep,
but you know she turned out shedid certain ways. Yeah, and even
(23:52):
yeah, I liked. Is Santastripping for business or pleasure? Yes,
let's see. Now. Number twois our setting, which is either a
big, bad city, a charmingsmall town, or a magical winter wonderland.
Uh. Now the town's name iswinter Ridge. Mum, so I
didn't catch it. You they actuallysay they're in Canada. I'm pretty sure
(24:15):
they did. Yeah, fascinating,how about that? Uh. The town
is often describe like Piper is describingthe town out loud to her to her
sister a lodge. She says,um, uh, you know, it's
weird. Everybody holds the door foryou, even when you're far away.
Your sister's like, you should testit out and see how long they hold
it for you. She's like,I gad, they hold it for a
(24:36):
long time. Agn like it's funny. And there's um the sassee Santa who
is bragging about the town And doyou think there really is a Guinness World
Book of World Records entry for thetown um that has that has the most
(24:56):
people not leaving? It was kindof what he was trying to say.
Be yea, and we have twoSantas that are we have like and they're
both drivers. Yeah, oh ohthat makes sense because Santa drives a sligh.
You know, I sort of rememberedwhat I was gonna I wanted to
ask you about, because there waslike a period before we get the guy
(25:18):
who might really be Santa, whereshe and her sister are talking about some
kind of Christmas trauma that affected theirmom and why they don't like Christmas.
And I was kind of hoping thatit would turn out to be that they
were Santa's kids and that their momwas missus claws and they had been divorced.
Oh my god, you just wrotethe greatest movie of all time.
(25:42):
Thank you. Like a marriage story, but as a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Oh I want it right now.Stop everything. We're gonna stop recording right
now so that Carol can go rightthe screenplay. We're gonna email it,
We're gonna tweet it at Justin Dykeand see if we can get this going.
I'm in. But you know howwe can work it with this because
(26:02):
like maybe they didn't know their dadis so when like Santa shows up as
the uber driver, that's why there'sa connection right away. Yeah, yeah,
wow, I'm going to help themout. Wow, I love it,
um man, Okay, mine isblown. That. That's okay,
back on track if I can manageto stay on track. Our our bland
(26:23):
love interest, which is off ina widowed dad who works with his hands.
Oh well yeah, what do wehave here? Oh widow dad who
works with his hands and its farmythings to kind of he what does he
do? He loses goats? Yeah, but they're alive. True, true,
(26:44):
that is true. Like both hiskids, like all his kids,
ha are alive, so that weknow of the uh he has a great
moment so early on, like it'sit's pretty quick that Piper is like kind
of warming to him, and they'relike walking around outside and the kids are
and they're having like a cute moment. And the kids run by and like
make their make them hold hands,and the dad's like, oh, I'm
(27:06):
sorry about that, Like I'm embarrassed. And here this line. Ever since
they started watching Christmas movies, theythink I need a wife again, Like
a real Hallmark movie doesn't write thatline, but but these guys do.
And it was wonderful. And youcan tell these guys are writing a lot
of them and they're doing what theycan get their own entertainment out of.
(27:27):
Definitely h so. And Tim wasan architectural engineer, but you know,
and he worked in the big city. Um uh. And and when he
has like the moment of like tellingPiper that he loves her U this moment
also is very funny to me.He says to her, I can't exactly
(27:48):
give you the big city life.Theater, fine dining. That's that's what
the big city life is, folks. Every night, every night, I
mean theater, fine dining. Ilive in Yonkers now, technically I'm not
in the big bad city, butthe you know, however, many eight
fifteen years I lived in Manhattan,I can tell you it was either or
every night theater refined dining. Goodjob indeed, same here. And what
(28:14):
did you think of Tim's hair?Did it bother you? It made me
very uncomfortable. I was confused whenshe was telling them that she needed to
get his hair out of his eyesbecause his hair was not eat long enough
to be in his eyes. Butthere was something really like off putting about
it. I don't know how todescribe it, Like it's a little too
long but not long, and likeit I don't know, it does weird
(28:37):
movements, it parts weird right,like he could very easily have done the
mushroom part with his hair, likethat's how long it was. But I
don't know. It just made meuncomfortable. I get creeped out by weird
things. I was looking at hisshirts a lot because he was wearing they
were doing the red green thing right, oh, completely, so many And
she was in white and red fora long time till she started to feel
(29:02):
christmasy and she changed. She startedwearing like a red jacket. Okay,
but they were like it was whitewhite, and that bright Christmasy red when
she changed to red. Yes,yes, but he kept wearing like this
hunter green for a long time,and so I was watching his subtle gradations
of increasing greenness so much that Ithink I did not pay enough attention to
(29:23):
his hair. Good for you,I envy your eyeballs. Now. Number
four is the montage, which wedidn't really get any I don't think.
I feel like the plot that initiallyI was watching as the a plot,
which was not was kind of themontage because I think I think all the
(29:45):
work she did on the Festival VillageChristmas Village, I think counts as a
montage because there was no tension there. There was no problems that she was
solving specific either. It was veryjust like suddenly one every other scene was
a moment of like, look,the village is doing great. Now there
(30:06):
are people. But it was verylike aside from having gone on TV and
then brought in it, bringing ina new Santa, like what did they
actually do to this place? Yeah, And it seemed like like, you
know, the first night she's atthe bed and Breakfast and she finds it
far too Christmasy in her bedroom,which I kind of don't blame her for
because it was filled with twinkle lights. When I'm like, she's like,
I'm gonna go to sleep, andmy husband walked into that exact moment.
(30:29):
He's like, everybody, exactly,he's a bit. Is she gonna turn
a light off or take a makeupoff? I'm like, no, no,
you do not do either of thosethings of Christmas movie. No,
she got out of bed, andgod knows which, and I assume what
she did is every night she snuckout of bed and magically fixed the village,
and then she told us the nextmorning what she'd done, like,
oh, I found people from acommunity theater or you know, it makes
(30:52):
sense because she couldn't sleep in thatroom there were too many lights, so
just whatever, Okay, I justdon't sleep anymore. And she does seem
like a woman who suffers from insomnia. I gather that she is kind of
just a very productive, like oneof those like, oh I get three
to three hours of sleep at night, and I'm good like that kind of
thing, because I'm up at threeto do my appolodies and then at four
to go over the numbers and allthat. Yeah, and Tim's going to
(31:15):
help her be like, you know, you need to get more sleep,
right, you need to get fourhours? That's right, it's you know.
Number five is our dead parents ordead wife obviously, Yeah, we
have a dead wife. We don'treally know much about her, right,
Like, do we know how shedied? Do we think Tim murdered her?
Do we think she died in theaccident that damaged him's brain? Oh?
(31:36):
Man, maybe? Yeah, therewas like some sort of accident at
the architectural firm in the Big BadCity, maybe a following ibeam and he
tried to save her while they werefine dining. Yeah. Yeah, it
was like the grand opening of ourAmerican cousin. They were going to go
to the theater that night. Yeah, he took a short cut through the
(31:57):
alley by his building that he hadjust built or they had built together.
Oh I like the IBM collapsed.Yeah, and it was his design that
did it. Yeah, but shesaved him. Oh oh I like that.
Yeah. We also get a coupleof dead grandparents. Um, because
grandma is very important in this story, because we don't, like you said,
(32:20):
we don't get a dead dad.We get a mention of a mother
who's alive. Um, we getthat dad didn't Dad leave them on Christmas
Eve? Was that it? Orwas that a different movie I watched?
Maybe okay, um, but Iassume he had to go work, so
okay, m And we get adead grandma, so which grandma hasn't been
around a lot this this season?All right? And then our sassy sidekick
(32:45):
whoa boy woo boy? I say, we haven't many throw him out at
me? Who who would you like? Who? Who would you spot?
What do we got? I likedher sister, although in comparison like in
a REGULARI ish or like a higherbudget Christmas movie, I think that she
would count as the sassy sidekick.Yeah, but we have so much local
(33:07):
color in this town. Um,So we've we've talked about the shelter lady
who ambushes people when they're on TVto give them dogs. Love her and
I love how she's very um likeshe's aware of it. Like she says
to Pipers, Piper is spinning thestory with a PRS man and she says
(33:28):
to her, She's like, Ican do this too, you know,
Yeah, I love it. Ilove it. That's her there is Um.
I liked the Baker a lot Iwish there were more Kenny Kenny Um
again played by which is the actors, the rights the writer's name, uh,
because I feel like it's okay umand he's just insane and like they
(33:52):
just go with it and it works, and I found I want to see
his movie like I would watch likeI would watch all these sides sassy young
local color characters. Um. Thereis also again we have Archie, the
good boy dog kind of a colleaguemix who's very well behaved. More,
we never really had to see thegoats, and goats are very cute and
(34:13):
we even had a conversation where theytalked about what what goats are? You're
right, yes, the goats thereis uh So Millie is the name of
the innkeeper who is British, rightor some form of that area of the
world. I think she was Britishyea yeah. And we cannot forget the
(34:34):
other um best character in this movie. Hi, Hi, Andy, you
don't know me. I am Luke. I'm a friend of Tim's who Piper
is helping. Yes, yes,oh this is great. So Tim's best
friend Luke uh is going to helpout because he this is and this was
this was when I was like verylike, Oh, I've had this a
(34:57):
lot with these movies this season,where like there's been that one line that
has like confirmed for me that Iwas watching something that was made with a
little bit more um spunk. Andthey talk about how they need a photographer
to take new pictures for the Christmasvillage and Tim says like, oh,
I'll call I'll call my friend Luke, and Luke shows up and Luke take
pictures and you know, um,Piper's like, oh, like, it's
(35:20):
really nice for you to do this, like, uh, you know you
sure, like we don't have topay you. He's like, no,
no, no, I love doingthis. Um, it's just it's such
a breath of fresh air from whatI normally do. And she says,
oh, what what kind of photographerare you? And he says, did
you catch it? Yeah? He'sa crime scene photography. I do forensic
(35:42):
photos. And then the best thingit doesn't end there. Tim says,
show her some of your work.Yeah, and he keeps trying to he
does, and then like throughout themovie keeps coming up and it made me
very happy, and I wanted tosee his romance with Andy. I love
that. I love when a moviehas a B plot in romance because they
just don't always think it's worth it, and it always, to me,
(36:05):
is very rewarding because it just flesheseverything out. And yeah, him and
Andy, who have been talking onthe phone, just are immediately smitten with
each other and they meet real life, and like, they're two hot people,
so they're gonna you know, that'sgonna work out. I think they
both have a sense of humor,which I think is very helpful, especially
when you know you're in forensics exactly. I am fascinated though that this town
(36:30):
has a forensic photographer, Like,and is it because it's a small town
in small towns on one hand orfull clozy Christmas romance and on the other
hand are full of murder, oflifetime murders. I so two theories there.
One is the longgoing theory I havethat every single Christmas movie, if
you changed the music and took outthe Christmas decorations, it is a lifetime
(36:52):
horror movie. So there's that.But the other part of that is I
think Winter's Ridge is basically the Canadiancap Cove. Oh, because you're right,
like, why would this town needa forensic photographer? How many people
die in this town, Oh theydon't. One dies every week until our
most beloved citizen, Millie the innkeeper, goes out of town and then somebody
(37:15):
dies where she goes. So thisthis is actually the reboot of murdersh wrote
that we we didn't get Yeah.I was disappointed that, like obviously,
they decided that Millie would be pairedup with Jack, because you know she's
she's middle aged and Jack. ButI wish that if they had made her
(37:37):
well, because they made her missusClaws. I wish that they had captain
in character and made her a morerockabilly missus Claws. I like that.
Yeah, yea. Let's see nownumber seven is our villain um usually an
evil woman or a male boss.Typically, in this case, we do
(38:00):
we have a villainous character. Doyou do you remember who that would be?
I'd say we have like one anda half. Okay, So the
main one is that brock Guy hasstolen her grandma's cookies, which is easy
to forget about in this movie becauseshe spends so much time on the festival
village and all the stuff relating toher being sued by a company that sees
(38:24):
the recipes for her Grandma's Cookies.Takes place basically on the phone, Yeah,
on a green screen Hawaiian set orsomething. Yeah, and he and
with some really interesting two pages inHawaiian shirts. I was really trying to
figure out what they were going withthere, but whatever it worked. If
I think they were going for Americanand possible probably New Yorker, I okay
(38:50):
to say my experience having lived there, but I would say the half villain
is angry Scottish Santa. Yeah,we do briefly get angry Scottish Scante's angry
Scottish Shanta, who is just like, do you what do you think the
story there? Like, he wasdefinitely like Tim's bully in high school,
(39:13):
right, and Jim just still nevercould stand up to him and still doesn't
until Andy's not. Andy m.Piper is finally like, no, you're
fired. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am interested that he engaged in
some self examination on his own,because we don't see what transforms him.
So he just he maybe Santa wasjust a bad situation for him, and
now that he's not, you know, maybe he doesn't get along with kids,
(39:37):
or maybe it's just been too longand he wants to wear a different
suit, but he comes around andby the end he is like giving some
very sage advice. Yeah, andwaiting very patiently while they meet cute at
the airport. Yeah, like it'sthis town does things to people, you
know. Yeah. The number oh, and though we should say the whole
(40:02):
if you're wondering how the whole plagiarismof cookie recipes plays out, the movie
kind of doesn't really care, butthey do eventually resolve it, and in
a very funny way, it turnsout, um, it's not that this
guy stole her grandmother's cookies. Hedid, but it doesn't matter because the
grandmother's recipes were public domain from cookbooksthat everybody in the world had in the
(40:23):
eighteen goods. Yeah, I enjoyhow dismissive Kenny the Baker is of her
recipes. Yeah, it's like everybodyknows they're they're all basic. Yeah.
Oh, let's see soon. Numbereight is Slapstick, which I thought we
were gonna have a lot more becausethere's a dog, yeah, and we
(40:43):
have like city girl in the countryand it opens with you know, there's
like Garland falling on her and youthink it's going to go there, But
I didn't really clock much more afterthat. No, And there's goats.
There are goats. I know I'mobsessed with the goats, but I mean
they're goats, their goats. Yes, I think he didn't have enough money
for this lapstick. They couldn't riskas somebody actually twisting their ankle. Yeah.
(41:06):
Yeah, and it was really snowyso didn't really slick. So so
number nine is our sage old person, which I think in this case just
flows right into number ten, whichis Santa Claus. Yes, yeah,
because I mean Santa Claus is sageand does give important advice here. Yes.
And the other great thing about Santais there's like a couple of like
(41:30):
again very funny lines around this Santa. Because Santa shows up he's the uber
driver, and like he gets outof the car and everybody's like, oh
my god, it's Santa Claus.He's yeah, I am, I'll be
your Santa now. Great. Yeah, And immediately Piper is like, oh
my god, he's great and looksat Tim and she's like, don't worry,
(41:51):
I did a background check. Yeah, Tim says, I wondered.
I was trying to figure out howto ask that tactfully. Yes, it's
like we know what the audience isthinking. And then like similarly, at
one point, she goes back onthe talk show to now promote the village.
It's it's in full swing, soshe's there to talk about it,
and the same interviewer who was tryingto like grill her earlier is now like
(42:15):
into it in like good positive mode, and she has a line where she
says like, maybe I'll take Sama'slap for a test drive, and then
immediately she's like, oh my god, I heard how that sounded. There's
also Jack apparently has experience with farmanimals. Yes that's right, he's the
one that saves the goats. Yes, yes, good for him. I
(42:35):
hope he does get to bang Millie. Yes. Let's see. All right.
So those are our ten we havemost of them. Uh, and
then next is our bonus round.So some of the things we look for.
Lots of public domain holiday songs.Uh, there's a fair amount.
Um yeah, lots of we wishyou married Christmases, lots of deck the
(42:55):
hallses is um, nothing that reallystuck out for me? No. Yeah,
there's a busker singing deck the Halls, which you think, like,
oh, this guy's gonna get usedagain. And he does, right,
he comes back for the performance atthe village. Yep, and and and
he has like an unusual Christmas themedjackets slash, I don't know, the
(43:22):
hoodie or something, Okay, Um, he has one that is white with
black buttons like a snowman's or likebunom. But yeah, but they don't
complete the look with any kind ofhat. But of course budget and also
their fear of infringing on Frosty becauseFrosty is not public domain. You gotta
pay big bucks for that. Yeah, and I'm curious to like how much
(43:45):
of their own clothing and stuff theywere wearing all of it yeah, or
definitely recycled, Like I'm pretty sureall of the coat Spiper wears have been
worn in several of their movies.Yes, Um, there's one other like
musical moment that doesn't otherwise fall inhere, and it was I don't think
it was Christmas music. But canwe talk about the breakdancing elf? Yes,
(44:08):
we love the elf. Yes,there's an help. I wish we
got more. At the same timethat I appreciate that we never really know
what his deal is. We donot, and we don't know. I
don't think we ever find out whathis name is. H. I also
don't think we do. And Ienjoyed his background business with Angry Scottish Santa,
(44:31):
who was his initial boss, becauseAngry Scottish Santa ran both the only
Santa business in town and the onlylike elf impersonator or whatever business in town.
And this self chooses Jack the goodSanta over Angry Scottish Santas. But
he has a breakdancing scene with thebusker and he has some real moves,
(44:57):
like I think they were like,yeah, he has real moves. But
at the same time, I thinkit was difficult for him to do in
his elf costume and in the snow, which very completely legit. Sure,
so they did some cutting that Iassociate with um trying to make fights look
better. In this case, theydid the cuts away where oh, the
(45:19):
audience is reacting to move and thenthey cut back and it's a decent move,
but probably not what he is capableof. Mark ebste is the actor
and he's credited as Elf number one, though I don't remember an Elf number
two in this movie. But um, and then let's see up next,
uh is our secret family or recipeGrammy's Grammys secret obviously. Um yeah,
(45:49):
and they mentioned others, but it'sit's really just that. So oh and
there is a secret recipe revealed inthis movie of the actual first time bubblegum
invented. Ah right that I forgotabout that. Yeah, Kenny's great uncle,
Um he claims invented bubblegum from likeyou know, tree sap. Yes,
(46:13):
but it actually is poisonous, don'tdo it? Yes again, like
genuinely, I actually chuckled at thatout loud audibly. Small business in danger
is the next thing. And youknow this little North Pole um surprisingly isn't
making money, which is weird fora business that doesn't actually charge anybody anything.
Yeah, and she was really considerI watched this with Beth Watkins,
(46:37):
who from The Gutter and Beth Loof'sFollywood, and she pointed out that it
was weird to her that they werereally focused on having a quality website when
um, what she looks for ina Christmas village website is just like the
address and the phone number to gothere. What one does not need a
(47:00):
flashy website and or a job scriptwhat yeah? Yeah, yeah, uh
he does acknowledge that, like whenthey talk about like how he doesn't charge
her pictures with Santa Claus, andhe does at one point say like,
maybe that's why I'm failing. It'sa business. Yeah, I mean one
reason. Yes, Um, noproduct placement that I caught. But number
(47:24):
five is our cloying child. Sowe have two children in this movie.
Um, decline And what's a littlegirl's name? It's a little girl a
little boy. The little boy onlyhas one movie to his credit, and
it is this one. Um.The little girl I think has like grown
up to actually act page was thather name? Um? She know,
(47:47):
Yeah, she has grown up andcontinued has has quite a few credits.
Still, UM. Curious, justhow you felt about them as kids as
characters. Um, they were.They were very realistic kids, like it
was. They usually try for somethingmore angelic in some of these movies.
(48:07):
Yeah, And they were just likekid kids. And I appreciated that they
sort of just like ran around doingwhatever they were doing in some sort of
separate, entirely different movie with Archieand probably the Goats. Yeah, yeah,
like they may now that we're sayingit, I'm kind of thinking like
(48:28):
in another era they would be thetwins in the vivic. There's definitely something
that like if they were to finda necronomicon, bad things would happen.
Oh my god, Oh my god, because it's it's like angry Scottish Santa
was saying that no one ever leaves. Oh yeah, and that's why they're
(48:50):
driving so slowly on that road leavingand like walking so slowly in the airport
because you can't leave. Yeah,and it could be all these kids like
or they're they're like the yeah,the Buffy episode where like it's Hansel and
Gretel, but it's not like they'rejust actually a deep and that tricks people.
Yeah, No, there's something ominousabout them. That's why you stay
in a big, bad city.Yeah, you might get crushed by a
(49:13):
beam while dining at a theater,but it's still you're not gonna get sacrificed
to a demon. No. Iguess we did not have any holiday theme
names. Um that I caught right, Like, yeah, it seems like
it would have been an easy winfor them. Um. No finding the
perfect tree storyline, we can't.We have an ornament and he's like,
(49:35):
my kids made this ornament for you. I know you're probably gonna throw it
away, but please don't do thatuntil like after you walk away from them.
It's like, this woman's not amonster. She's not gonna like burn
this thing that your kids put timeinto. Um, No elaborate holiday cocktails,
empty coffee cup acting. I don'tknow that I really clocked any in
this movie. I don't think thatthey're really stuck out. No. Yeah,
(50:00):
uh. And the next thing,Um, one of my favorites is
actors who are trying very hard tonot actually take a bite of food on
camera. And I would say thisis another one of those movies. Sometimes
the lower the budget, the morethat doesn't happen, because the more you
get the sense that it's the onlything that's feeding the cast. Yes,
(50:20):
you know, I don't. Idon't think I I don't think they ate
Kenny. Did I mean Kenny atecookies a couple of times? Yes,
But yeah they well, I meanyou know what they remember, we're in
a small town. There's no suchthing as fine dining. No, you're
a theater. I mean really,I'll see. And then number eleven is
(50:43):
canadianisms. I'm sorry, did youcatch any canadianisms? Oh? Boy?
Are you remarking on their accents?There was just a you know, maybe
maybe we should talk about that alittle bit, just a few Um.
I think they were not, whichI kind of appreciate that. And again
(51:07):
I didn't catch them say it wasCanada, but now that they did,
um, I appreciate just how Canadianssome of the more like, because you're
right, if these people have neverleft this town, then they should have
really thick accents like Luke. Yep, they have their accents. Yeah,
And you know, maybe I'm imaginingthat they said that, and just because
(51:29):
they were being so Canadian and soundingso Canadian and not trying to sound American
or talk about like we're going toNew York tomorrow, Okay, I twelve
kilometers away? A yeah, yeahthey were yea and thes in Canada.
That was Canada. So that's theCanadian. Yes. Um. The last
(51:52):
thing is the warm Weather Watch,which you know, does it look actually
look like it is winter? Yes, it looks like it's winter. Yeah,
there's snow. That opening montage isall about like shoveling snow and prepping
for things. And oh my god, they I could see their breath and
when they were supposedly in the cabin, and I'm like Are they letting it
deliberately be cold because Santada is sohot under those less in Santa outfit or
(52:16):
is it just like it's just thatI mean, either way it works.
So overall, how did you feelabout a Christmas Village? Oh, like
I said, I feel that II enjoyed the donaity rim of it.
I was not very invested in theromance, but I would say it's realistic
(52:39):
in the sense that you're very rarelyinvested in other people's romances, which is
healthy and good because if you treatedother people's romances like these movies, oh
my god, you'd be really weird. Yes, And I liked that the
people in this movie treated other people'sromances like that, like they were happy
(53:01):
to see them together, like peoplewho were appropriately happy to see them together,
right, and other people did notcare, Yeah, their own business.
That That has been one of oneof the things I think that is
most like watching all the movies now, So because this is number what nine
or so, one of the themesthat the new things that I've noticed this
(53:22):
year and I haven't noticed so muchanother years is how many movies have really
leaned into older characters being unhealthily investedin younger characters getting it on ye where
it's like where I don't know,like I get it. Like you know,
you meet people then you think they'dbe great together and you just feel
(53:43):
like, oh man, if theycould just get past themselves, they'd be
fine. But you know, likeseveral movies this year have been like old
and old people, meaning like thesage old people of the movie, the
parents and grandparents you miss missus Claus, And so I'm doing like spending a
whole lot of time, an unhealthyamount of time, doing what they can
to get these two characters to sexuallybe interested in each other. And then
(54:04):
that's what it is saying. Itstarts to dip into like psychological thrillers and
horror at that point, like whenit's the whole town, it's horror,
and when it's like the grandparents andstuff, it's psychological thrillers. Yeah,
yeah, I like that. Ilike that. And again, you should
watch Anything for Jackson, which isabout grandparents and yeah yeah yeah, so
at all tis in um yeah,and I again, I enjoyed this more
(54:29):
than I thought I would. Iwill say, I think it's one that
you kind of have to listen to. To realize what it's that. It
is doing some interesting things and havingsome fun with itself. It's not the
prettiest looking one. It's not thelike it's not the one that I know
a lot of people who watch theselike where like they're, you know,
(54:51):
they're visiting family for Christmas and theirfamily is watching these un ironically, but
they want to kind of watch themand like laugh at them. This one,
you it might not please others asmuch as it would please somebody with
a bit of a sense of humorwatching it. For that, I think,
yeah, but yeah, I'm surprisedby how much I enjoyed this one.
It did make me laugh, sohooray uh. Now with that,
(55:15):
Carol, Um, when not um, you know, falling in love with
people with terrible hair and head injuries? What are you up to? What
are you doing? Where can peoplefind your work? Um? Well,
they can always find me at theCultural Gutter, which is a website UM
dedicated thoughtful writing about disreputable art.It's ww dot cultural gutter dot com.
(55:39):
And right now I have a pieceup on my own site, Monstrous Industry
um at WordPress dot com about TravisStevens, a wounded fawn and I am
very pleased with that piece. Ihave not seen it yet, but I've
heard wonderful things. I know you'rea big fan, so not read your
(56:00):
yet because I figured I should watchit first. I do have two paragraphs
saying how much I love it thatare spoiler free, but then I have
like a billion words of how muchI love it that are detailer detailed.
Yes, as soon as I getaround to it, I will go there
to watch to read. Yeah,I will watch your words, which is
(56:21):
the way of reading that I did. Totally. Yeah, fantastic. Well,
it has been a pleasure having you. Um. I wish you a
very nice ride on Santa's lap forthe rest of the Perhaps we can discover
whether Santa is stripping for business orpleasure. Isn't that the eternal question.
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