Christmas movies for people who don't like Christmas movies

The holidays can bring up a whole gamut of emotions, not just love and goodwill. So CTV film critic Richard Crouse offers up a list of Christmas movies for people who might not enjoy traditional Christmas movies.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” never fails to give me goosebumps. I see guardian angel second class Clarence Odbody tell George Bailey, “Remember, George no man is a failure who has friends,” and I am a puddle.

I’ve seen it countless times and will watch it at least twice this season, but my love for this heartwarming holiday perennial is not shared by my wife who finds it, and most other Christmas movies, melodramatic and manipulative.

To keep our holiday movie nights merry and bright, I found some other films that put the tinsel in Tinsel Town but are really Christmas movies for people who don’t love Christmas movies.

These films may not have traditional Christmas themes, but the holidays bring up a whole gamut of emotions, not just love and goodwill. That’s why movies with Yuletide scenes are so effective in portraying everything from drama to comedy to horror.

“Far From Heaven,” the Todd Haynes historical romance about family secrets, uses a drunken Christmas party to unveil some hard truths and, of course, without the Christmas scene in “Citizen Kane” there’d be no Rosebud mystery.

The Brat Packer flick “Less Than Zero” features a very Beverly Hills 90210 Christmas, complete with suntanned Santas, cocaine abuse and Robert Downey Jr, who told the Guardian back in 2003 that his portrayal of addict Julian Wells was his own personal "ghost of Christmas Future." 

The improvised dramedy “Happy Christmas” sees Anna Kendrick as a wild young woman who crashes her brother Jeff’s traditional family Christmas celebration. “She’s not a responsible person,” says Jeff. Just like the holidays in real life, this movie offers up a heaping, helping of honest family frustration with lots of laughs and a minimum of schmaltz.