Stocking Stuffers 8.10: A Christmas Village (2018) with Carol Borden

She puts the pr in promoting Piper Piper Jans, small town girl makes it bet this Christmas. She's here to promote her grand new Christmas cookbook, My Grammy Rose's Original Recipes. I'm surprised you're staying original with all the allegations allegations. Looks like someone could use a little pr of their own to save her reputation. That's crag.

But I own a failing Christmas village in town. I'm here today because I'm actually going to help you free of charge. She'll have to work her magic. Did someone say save the day? I don't know what to say.

Can you say thank you? When we get started? It's Christmas time. Scarf will let people think they can trust you. I can trust me.

Oh that's the spirit. I need a miracle. Hi, there, you must be delivered. I was told you needed a miracle while discovering the magic of Christmas. Huh, it's incredible.

How as possible? Ah? What can I say? I know how to turn things around. We wish you were merry Christmas.

We wish you were merry Christmas. We wish you merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Christ Merry Christmas. A Merry Christmas. Miracles come in all shapes.

Inside. It takes a village. I have seen a lot of smiles in my life. It takes a whole lot of love to smile like that, to fall in love a Christmas village. Welcome back to another stocking stuffer.

We are here yet again to tackle something that I think at one point air Don Hallmark. It's an older one quote unquote. By older, I mean twenty eighteen, which is four years old, which in the 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's the way I'm talking about.

Well, let me introduce my special guest star. You know her from the cultural gutter. It is the one and only Carol Borden. Hello, Carol, Hello, thank you for having me. I am delighted to have you.

We had you and your go ish. You introduced me to that wonderful Mermaid movie The Lore Yeah or oh, what a classic, And you were here for a stocking stuff for a few years back. I can't remember the name of the movie. It was one of the rockies, Smokey's Mountains Christmas. Oh, yeah, it was like Christmas in the Smokey's what I mostly remembers.

We talked a lot about hurt Zog. Yeah that made sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he does not make an appearance in a Christmas village. That is the movie we've got today before we dive in, Carol. What is your general stance opinion experience with cozy Cardigan Christmas movies?

Um? I like some of them. I find quite enjoyable. I am not a serious person, however, and I do not take them very seriously. Also, I realized that I have this like did we talk about Most Wanted Santa last year?

Did I watch that for you? You? I feel like you watch that on your own and told me about it, and you were kind of it was fascinating. What what I'm thinking about is like Most Wanted Santa is close to what I have realized I consider normal movies, and everything is relative go on, and most of these Christmas Cozy Cardigan movies are like their own fin thing that at most have a slight overlap with what I can always call right now normal movies, I understand, Yeah, I think I do. Yeah, I think I need another category that, like I recognize that's insulting, and I don't necessarily mean that as an insult because I enjoy the fringes of beyond the norm.

I was going to say, you're a genre fan. I feel I do the same thing where I am somebody that goes by like the Roger Ebert school of Beverly Hills. Chhuahua can be a three star movie because the audience that is made for that's a free storm movie for them. Yeah. And if it accomplishes its own goals for itself, yes, And I can say that all but fully also say A Christmas Village is a different type of movie than Raging Bowl, and they are not necessarily in the same class in certain definitions of class.

But do they They are both doing, they both have goals, and how do they accomplish those goals? That that is? Yeah, I was I was going to say, I think that A Christmas Village is well within the realm of these kinds of movies. It's like PLoP in the center. Yes, And as far as what it accomplishes in terms of cozy Cardigan Christian sorry Christmas movies, um, I don't think it's on like the higher end.

Okay, but I found many entertaining elements, and my sense of it is it accomplished its own goal of getting this movie fucking done for as little money as can be, so that we can use this surplus to actually feed the crew. Yes, yep, Um, you know I'm similar, but I have maybe a wild statement to make. I weirdly found myself very entertained by this movie. It's like a for me. It's like like a donut of a movie where like the center romance for me was largely empty, and then there's this, like this donatedness of the many people who live in this village, the presence of goat, the existence of Santa Claus, maybe the Santa Claus.

Yeah, there's a dog, there's a there's a horny TV host. The screenwriter plays a weird baker, Yes he does. Look and oh I enjoyed the really aggressive shelter lady who was getting rid of dogs by ambushing people on that strange television shows. Yes see, I loved all that. Yeah.

So this is to give a little background. This is um the writing directing team. It's a team because they have done many of these movies and then in a more interesting movie. Aside from that, I was hoping we were going to talk about. Yes, this is directed by Justin I'm assuming it's Justin Dike d I c K.

I don't know if it's uh a Dike or Dick sound dyke, Yeah, But I grew up in a Dutch American era area. So so that's how you're doing to pronounced exactly written by Keith Cooper. This these guys, there's definitely like like I sometimes think of, like would I ever want to actually interview more directors who've done these movies? And like, there's really two sets of people that I would love to talk to. I would love to talk to Michael Pheiffer, who we've mentioned a few times on the show, and these guys, because I 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 I did two years ago. I think A Puppy for Christmas, not to be confused 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 same team because it was a similar thing where same type of budget, same kind of gay guys who were making a 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 we go into the list, but a surprisingly rounded lead who is more interesting than just 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 shutter Anything for Jackson? Yeah, did you see that? No? Um, yeah it was.

It was available to me sort of when during festival season, but I was seeing so many other movies for a festival season that that one sort of slipped by me. And I haven't caught up with all the things yet, but it looked super interesting. Yeah, I loved it. Um, it's very much a horror movie, like made for me because it is about old people, and I love when old peoples of a horror movie. And it's um, a lot of character actors, a lot of faces you recognize, it's very Canadian, and it's a story you haven't quite seen before, and it's winter and that's used so well, and watching it just also is so rewarding because I'm like they know how to shoot in winter because they have made these movies, like yeah, and you can see that the like I am guessing Justin Dyke's passion is probably not Christmas movies, yes, but he used them to like probably meet a lot of people, make a lot of contacts.

He works with a lot of the same casts and things and make the connections he needs to make anything for Jackson and then the next year come back and make, you know, another Christmas movie. So I'm fine with it because I actually kind of like his Christmas movies well, and it's one of the things that was interesting to me, like building on that is how how the like really low end film industry has changed, at least in Canada, because it used to be you made your cheap horror movies that people loved for the same reasons that we're talking about loving these Christmas movies, where like maybe or maybe not they're you know, super successful, successful in their own goals, but they often would have an interesting idea, a weirdly uncanny 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 make really cheap Christmas movies, and on one hand it provides actors with really solid, consistent work in the year, and on the other hand, it's like, oh, well this is where we get our started filmmaking, and then we make our indie horror movie and then maybe we move on to something else from that, Yeah, which is wow. It sounds a little bit like when directors talk about directing for television, restricting film and how it's very much a for higher job, but they 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 still need to get all your shots in this day. And there's something very I don't know.

I'm somebody that like I realized, like the older I get that my like, I'm creative, but I work so much better with guidelines. And it's probably very similar for a lot of these directors that it forces 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 them to and you don't have the time or budget to waste on it. It's a good training. I really like your point about how like they've learned how to 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 the story of a Christmas Village? And for those of you at home, this it's a I guess that's Hallmark. It feels like one that wasn't made by Hallmark but was probably aired on probably purchased by Hallmark because you look at the production 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 Peacock currently, So if you have access to Peacock, then you can watch A Christmas Village.

Uh, you want to give kind of Carol a rough synopsis of the story. Uh, there was a part I wanted to ask you about, but I will start my synopsis first. So there is a woman Piper, and she does some kind of Christmas book um series, but also she improves other people's companies and she meets this guy Tim. Who is it Tim? It's Tim?

Yeah? Yeah, yes, Tim might not be well or all. There there's a lot of like I lived in Ontario for quite 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 very efficious.

But both of these things that, like the her officiousness is like to the benefit of Tim, because Tim is running a failing festival, like Christmas Festival village where you can I don't know, I don't think. He doesn't charge people to come to it, he doesn't actually take care of it. Maybe run it, I don't know. And he has an abusive Santa that he run around. Yes he does, but what And they meet on this strange television show.

It's like a Good Morning America local show, but it's very confusing where the show is, Yeah, it's it's you know what. It reminded me. It was like in the lobby of a small community center, um, and there didn't seem to be any cameras. Oh my god, you're right, there were no cameras. And there's a really entertaining audience like audience reaction track, like yes, we never see any audience.

We do not. There's a lot of passive aggression that just like like flips on and off between passive aggression and support. But somehow, and it wasn't clear to me how this happened, but Piper claims that she has an email from Tim's kids to come and fix his festival village and she'll get a book out of it. Because Piper gets gets caught up in Piper's releasing a cookbook of her grandma's recipes. Yes, and she thinks she's going on like doing a fluff piece for like a Regis and Kelly, but you know, in like the Boondocks, and instead the interviewer then kind of brings up this thing that Piper didn't know was going on, which is, oh, you know that one of your former employees is saying 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 here because this guy's kids to Yeah, so there's a good like she's a she's a very good at her job. She has she's just straight up live. Then yes, because because I knew that the kids hadn't sent the letter, So then I was like, well where is this coming from? Because I got distracted in the beginning by the strange television show Understandable, I didn't think to look for the cameras.

That is a have you ever done that where um, like you've recorded, like you've recorded a podcast or like you were doing I don't know, like some kind of thing that was supposed to be recorded, and you do the whole thing, and then people are watching and then like you realize, oh, we didn't actually record, and there's a really weird moment when you're like I just entertained you. There's something like very uncomfortable about that, and that now now this whole thing is getting weird. Yes, yes, yeah, so the kids did not, So she pretends the kids wrote a letter. Tim doesn't get it. Tim's like, oh, my kids wrote you a letter even though they just met you today.

Yeah. I can see how he was foul because, like I was initially full and then there was no explanation other than it turned out there wasn't a letter, and and Tim was strangely okay with that. But Tim was like very passive. I don't think Tim's I think Tim had like a head injury that I saw. I was doing what I was doing my research.

I saw a series of very entertaining reviews on letter Box, and one of them did suggest that perhaps Tim had brain damage. Yeah, and you get that sense like 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 for the skills and stuff that that everyone in his weird village has Christmas Yeah, and what was interesting to like, I was surprised that they kept pivoting back to this cookie recipe lawsuit thing, because it really seems like they spent a lot 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 I appreciated that. Well, I personally would find her very difficult as a human being. Um, she did read as the real person, and the movie liked her enough that they were like, sure, other people might consider her like a control freak, but in this world, she's extremely helpful to Tim. Yeah, she's kind of a Christmas angel in this movie. Like, I know, Piper is supposed to be the leading need of a lesson, but she is actually the hero of this movie.

Yeah, well, and she is. She's she is actually the hero. She's actually the love interesting even if I'm busy watching Kenny and 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 so we'll go into it because I mean that's the plot.

They at one point she's gonna go She's gonna leave the Christmas Village, which she has completely turned around. Um, in part because she discovered Santa Claus was an uber driver and they him and that's great. I was really hoping. I mean they never said he wasn't. They never said he wasn't.

I'm holding true that he was. Yeah. Um, she is gonna leave town because she thinks it's like she she thinks that this lawsuit that's coming out is going to be bad press now for the Christmas Village. So she goes to the airport to leave. He goes to the airport to find her the planer and he left but like she just didn't get out.

Even that's a weird scene where they're like their tension just is in the wrong place. Kind of Yeah, they walked towards each other very slowly. Yes, Again, the level of self consciousness was one hand, really high for a movie and on the other hand very 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?

Um a wonderful a very good boy named Archie who is saddled on her in a wonderful move by this woman that just keeps showing up and the shelter and she 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 to take the dog. Brilliant, brilliant moves. It's probably very unethical, but I'm sorry, no please. Part of what's brilliant is they actually set this in Ontario, And if they had set it in any place in the United States, like I think even here in the Midwest, a person would either take the dog on the TV and then give it back or like that would be the most enlighten Midwestern way to do it.

But I think everybody else would be like, no, you did, I'm not doing this. I don't I don't have a license, I don't I don't have room. But in Ontario she can embarrass them into doing it. Yeah, Piper's like, well, I guess I have a dog. Now I'm traveling.

I don't even have a place to put on, but I guess I have a dog because I have to. I'm Canadian. Yeah, and I thought she was going to give it to Tim and his kids because they seemed much more capable of taking care of the animals, but she kept it. Yeah, No, there is honor to Canada. Who knew, I mean, I guess everybody knew, but yeah, but like the dog, so like they get she's at the air he's at the airport looking at her, and he thinks she'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 he doesn't hear it. Somehow again head injury, and eventually the dog walks over to him, and after again, this is like a two minute scene of him finally looking down and seeing the dog and slowly petting the dog and then saying, wait, Archie, why are you here, and then realizing she's here too, Like even that was such a like you know and I don't know. It's kind of reminds me of like a rest of development when the third season when um uh, Michael is dating Charlie's Throne and he thinks she'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 of the sky.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they compliment each other very well. Yeah, I suppose because because I was concerned about her take like on the on her side and her her difficulties. I was concerned about her taking care of Archie, Like I was like, I don't know that this woman could take care of a dog. And then likeake, there he is taken care of her dogs, work, food, we're taking and clearly the Archie was very well trained and as and as an aside, I did enjoy how you could always see Archie looking for their trainer.

Well that was also true of the child actors in this movie. All right, so let's dive into what we what we look for in these Number one is our female lead need of a lesson. We've talked a lot about Piper. Um. Piper is played by what is this actress's name because I actually really yeah, I liked her.

Yep, she is a very believable person. Yeah, I think she found and this is both her and the writing. She is a very and again like there's these guys. These guys are smart. Um, there's a lot of um kind of wink wink, But but it's wink wink in a way that isn't talking down to the material.

I feel like it's there so that people that maybe are watching these 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 presented as a career woman. Um, you know, but but she's sassy and she's quick. Uh yeah, yeah, I uh you know how I think that the lesson was like and it wasn't very heavy handed, because a lot of these can be very heavy handed, particularly when it's like learning to appreciate the value of Christmas, because that and I appreciate that rather than learning not to be um be herself like yeah, instead she can be herself in this context where it's helpful. Um, which I hope we all achieve one day, be ourselves and be helpful and 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 some lines that are very funny.

Um. At one point, I think it's I think it's Tamboo says to her like, well, I know you're not into happiness or anything that comes with joy, which is such an obvious line, but it's one that normally you don't have that line. You have the a very close version of that line. But like in this movie, it's a character actually says, well, I know you don't like to be happy. Yeah.

Funny, yep, but you know she turned out she did certain ways. Yeah, and even yeah, I liked. Is Santa stripping for business or pleasure? Yes, let's see. Now.

Number two is our setting, which is either a big, bad city, a charming small town, or a magical winter wonderland. Uh. Now the town's name is winter Ridge. Mum, so I didn't catch it. You they actually say they're in Canada.

I'm pretty sure they did. Yeah, fascinating, how about that? Uh. The town is often describe like Piper is describing the town out loud to her to her sister a lodge. She says, um, uh, you know, it's weird.

Everybody holds the door for you, even when you're far away. Your sister's like, you should test it out and see how long they hold it for you. She's like, I gad, they hold it for a long time. Agn like it's funny. And there's um the sassee Santa who is bragging about the town And do you think there really is a Guinness World Book of World Records entry for the town um that has that has the most people not leaving?

It was kind of what he was trying to say. Be yea, and we have two Santas that are we have like and they're both drivers. Yeah, oh oh that makes sense because Santa drives a sligh. You know, I sort of remembered what I was gonna I wanted to ask you about, because there was like a period before we get the guy who might really be Santa, where she and her sister are talking about some kind of Christmas trauma that affected their mom and why they don't like Christmas. And I was kind of hoping that it would turn out to be that they were Santa's kids and that their mom was missus claws and they had been divorced.

Oh my god, you just wrote the greatest movie of all time. 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 right the screenplay. We're gonna email it, We're gonna tweet it at Justin Dyke and see if we can get this going. I'm in. But you know how we can work it with this because like maybe they didn't know their dad is so when like Santa shows up as the uber driver, that's why there's a connection right away. Yeah, yeah, wow, I'm going to help them out.

Wow, I love it, um man, Okay, mine is blown. That. That's okay, back on track if I can manage to stay on track. Our our bland love interest, which is off in a widowed dad who works with his hands. Oh well yeah, what do we have here?

Oh widow dad who works with his hands and its farmy things to kind of he what does he do? He loses goats? Yeah, but they're alive. True, true, that is true. Like both his kids, like all his kids, ha are alive, so that we know of the uh he has a great moment so early on, like it's it's pretty quick that Piper is like kind of warming to him, and they're like 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 sorry about that, Like I'm embarrassed. And here this line. Ever since they started watching Christmas movies, they think I need a wife again, Like a real Hallmark movie doesn't write that line, but but these guys do. And it was wonderful. And you can tell these guys are writing a lot of them and they're doing what they can get their own entertainment out of.

Definitely h so. And Tim was an architectural engineer, but you know, and he worked in the big city. Um uh. And and when he has like the moment of like telling Piper that he loves her U this moment also is very funny to me. He says to her, I can't exactly 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. I live in Yonkers now, technically I'm not in the big bad city, but the you know, however, many eight fifteen years I lived in Manhattan, I can tell you it was either or every night theater refined dining. Good job indeed, same here.

And what did you think of Tim's hair? Did it bother you? It made me very uncomfortable. I was confused when she was telling them that she needed to get his hair out of his eyes because his hair was not eat long enough to be in his eyes. But there was something really like off putting about it.

I don't know how to describe it, Like it's a little too long but not long, and like it I don't know, it does weird movements, it parts weird right, like he could very easily have done the mushroom part with his hair, like that's how long it was. But I don't know. It just made me uncomfortable. I get creeped out by weird things. I was looking at his shirts 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 for a long time till she started to feel christmasy and she changed.

She started wearing like a red jacket. Okay, but they were like it was white white, 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 I think I did not pay enough attention to his hair. Good for you, I envy your eyeballs. Now.

Number four is the montage, which we didn't really get any I don't think. I feel like the plot that initially I was watching as the a plot, which was not was kind of the montage because I think I think all the work she did on the Festival Village Christmas 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 very just like suddenly one every other scene was a moment of like, look, the village is doing great. Now there are people.

But it was very like aside from having gone on TV and then brought in it, bringing in a new Santa, like what did they actually do to this place? Yeah, And it seemed like like, you know, the first night she's at the 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, and my husband walked into that exact moment. He's like, everybody, exactly, he's a bit. Is she gonna turn a light off or take a makeup off?

I'm like, no, no, you do not do either of those things of Christmas movie. No, she got out of bed, and god knows which, and I assume what she did is every night she snuck out of bed and magically fixed the village, and then she told us the next morning what she'd done, like, oh, I found people from a community theater or you know, it makes sense because she couldn't sleep in that room there were too many lights, so just whatever, Okay, I just don'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 one of 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 three to do my appolodies and then at four to go over the numbers and all that.

Yeah, and Tim's going to help her be like, you know, you need to get more sleep, right, you need to get four hours? That's right, it's you know. Number five is our dead parents or dead wife obviously, Yeah, we have a dead wife. We don't really know much about her, right, Like, do we know how she died? Do we think Tim murdered her?

Do we think she died in the accident that damaged him's brain? Oh? Man, maybe? Yeah, there was like some sort of accident at the architectural firm in the Big Bad City, maybe a following ibeam and he tried to save her while they were fine dining. Yeah.

Yeah, it was like the grand opening of our American cousin. They were going to go to the theater that night. Yeah, he took a short cut through the alley by his building that he had just built or they had built together. Oh I like the IBM collapsed. Yeah, and it was his design that did it.

Yeah, but she saved him. Oh oh I like that. Yeah. We also get a couple of dead grandparents. Um, because grandma is very important in this story, because we don't, like you said, we don't get a dead dad.

We get a mention of a mother who's alive. Um, we get that dad didn't Dad leave them on Christmas Eve? Was that it? Or was that a different movie I watched? Maybe okay, um, but I assume he had to go work, so okay, m And we get a dead grandma, so which grandma hasn't been around a lot this this season?

All right? And then our sassy sidekick 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 liked her sister, although in comparison like in a REGULARI ish or like a higher budget Christmas movie, I think that she would count as the sassy sidekick. Yeah, but we have so much local color in this town. Um, So we've we've talked about the shelter lady who ambushes people when they're on TV to give them dogs.

Love her and I love how she's very um like she's aware of it. Like she says to Pipers, Piper is spinning the story with a PRS man and she says to her, She's like, I can do this too, you know, Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's her there is Um. I liked the Baker a lot I wish 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 um and he's just insane and like they just go with it and it works, and I found I want to see his movie like I would watch like I would watch all these sides sassy young local color characters.

Um. There is also again we have Archie, the good boy dog kind of a colleague mix who's very well behaved. More, we never really had to see the goats, and goats are very cute and we even had a conversation where they talked about what what goats are? You're right, yes, the goats there is uh So Millie is the name of the innkeeper who is British, right or some form of that area of the world. I think she was British yea yeah.

And we cannot forget the 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 help out because he this is and this was this was when I was like very like, Oh, I've had this a lot with these movies this season, where like there's been that one line that has like confirmed for me that I was watching something that was made with a little bit more um spunk. And they talk about how they need a photographer to take new pictures for the Christmas village 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 really nice for you to do this, like, uh, you know you sure, like we don't have to pay you. He's like, no, no, no, I love doing this. Um, it's just it's such a breath of fresh air from what I normally do.

And she says, oh, what what kind of photographer are you? And he says, did you catch it? Yeah? He's a crime scene photography. I do forensic photos.

And then the best thing it doesn't end there. Tim says, show her some of your work. Yeah, and he keeps trying to he does, and then like throughout the movie keeps coming up and it made me very happy, and I wanted to see his romance with Andy. I love that. I love when a movie has a B plot in romance because they just don't always think it's worth it, and it always, to me, is very rewarding because it just fleshes everything out.

And yeah, him and Andy, who have been talking on the 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's gonna 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 has a forensic photographer, Like, and is it because it's a small town in small towns on one hand or full clozy Christmas romance and on the other hand are full of murder, of lifetime murders. I so two theories there. One is the longgoing theory I have that every single Christmas movie, if you changed the music and took out the Christmas decorations, it is a lifetime horror movie.

So there's that. But the other part of that is I think Winter's Ridge is basically the Canadian cap Cove. Oh, because you're right, like, why would this town need a forensic photographer? How many people die in this town, Oh they don't. One dies every week until our most beloved citizen, Millie the innkeeper, goes out of town and then somebody dies where she goes.

So this this 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 paired up with Jack, because you know she's she's middle aged and Jack. But I wish that if they had made her well, because they made her missus Claws. I wish that they had captain in character and made her a more rockabilly missus Claws. I like that.

Yeah, yea. Let's see now number seven is our villain um usually an evil woman or a male boss. Typically, in this case, we do we have a villainous character. Do you do you remember who that would be? I'd say we have like one and a half.

Okay, So the main one is that brock Guy has stolen her grandma's cookies, which is easy to forget about in this movie because she spends so much time on the festival village and all the stuff relating to her being sued by a company that sees the recipes for her Grandma's Cookies. Takes place basically on the phone, Yeah, on a green screen Hawaiian set or something. Yeah, and he and with some really interesting two pages in Hawaiian shirts. I was really trying to figure out what they were going with there, but whatever it worked. If I think they were going for American and possible probably New Yorker, I okay 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 was definitely like Tim's bully in high school, right, and Jim just still never could 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 was just a bad situation for him, and now that he's not, you know, maybe he doesn't get along with kids, or maybe it's just been too long and he wants to wear a different suit, but he comes around and by the end he is like giving some very sage advice. Yeah, and waiting very patiently while they meet cute at the airport. Yeah, like it's this town does things to people, you know. Yeah.

The number oh, and though we should say the whole if you're wondering how the whole plagiarism of cookie recipes plays out, the movie kind of doesn't really care, but they do eventually resolve it, and in a very funny way, it turns out, um, it's not that this guy stole her grandmother's cookies. He did, but it doesn't matter because the grandmother's recipes were public domain from cookbooks that everybody in the world had in the eighteen goods. Yeah, I enjoy how dismissive Kenny the Baker is of her recipes. Yeah, it's like everybody knows they're they're all basic. Yeah.

Oh, let's see soon. Number eight is Slapstick, which I thought we were gonna have a lot more because there's a dog, yeah, and we have like city girl in the country and it opens with you know, there's like Garland falling on her and you think it's going to go there, But I didn't really clock much more after that. No, And there's goats. There are goats. I know I'm obsessed 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 risk as somebody actually twisting their ankle. Yeah. Yeah, and it was really snowy so 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, which is Santa Claus.

Yes, yeah, because I mean Santa Claus is sage and does give important advice here. Yes. And the other great thing about Santa is there's like a couple of like again very funny lines around this Santa. Because Santa shows up he's the uber driver, and like he gets out of 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 looks at Tim and she's like, don't worry, I did a background check. Yeah, Tim says, I wondered. I was trying to figure out how to ask that tactfully. Yes, it's like we know what the audience is thinking.

And then like similarly, at one point, she goes back on the talk show to now promote the village. It's it's in full swing, so she's there to talk about it, and the same interviewer who was trying to like grill her earlier is now like into it in like good positive mode, and she has a line where she says like, maybe I'll take Sama's lap 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 farm animals. Yes that's right, he's the one that saves the goats. Yes, yes, good for him.

I hope he does get to bang Millie. Yes. Let's see. All right. So those are our ten we have most 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 wish you married Christmases, lots of deck the hallses is um, nothing that really stuck out for me?

No. Yeah, there's a busker singing deck the Halls, which you think, like, oh, this guy's gonna get used again. And he does, right, he comes back for the performance at the village. Yep, and and and he has like an unusual Christmas themed jackets slash, I don't know, the hoodie or something, Okay, Um, he has one that is white with black buttons like a snowman's or like bunom. But yeah, but they don't complete the look with any kind of hat.

But of course budget and also their fear of infringing on Frosty because Frosty is not public domain. You gotta pay big bucks for that. Yeah, and I'm curious to like how much of their own clothing and stuff they were wearing all of it yeah, or definitely recycled, Like I'm pretty sure all 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 in here, and it was I don't think it was Christmas music. But can we talk about the breakdancing elf?

Yes, we love the elf. Yes, there's an help. I wish we got more. At the same time that I appreciate that we never really know what his deal is. We do not, and we don't know.

I don't think we ever find out what his name is. H. I also don't think we do. And I enjoyed his background business with Angry Scottish Santa, who was his initial boss, because Angry Scottish Santa ran both the only Santa business in town and the only like elf impersonator or whatever business in town. And this self chooses Jack the good Santa over Angry Scottish Santas.

But he has a breakdancing scene with the busker and he has some real moves, like I think they were like, yeah, he has real moves. But at the same time, I think it 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 I associate with um trying to make fights look better. In this case, they did the cuts away where oh, the audience is reacting to move and then they cut back and it's a decent move, but probably not what he is capable of. 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 recipe Grammy's Grammys secret obviously. Um yeah, and they mentioned others, but it's it's really just that. So oh and there is a secret recipe revealed in this movie of the actual first time bubblegum invented. Ah right that I forgot about that. Yeah, Kenny's great uncle, Um he claims invented bubblegum from like you know, tree sap.

Yes, but it actually is poisonous, don't do it? Yes again, like genuinely, I actually chuckled at that out loud audibly. Small business in danger is the next thing. And you know this little North Pole um surprisingly isn't making money, which is weird for a business that doesn't actually charge anybody anything. Yeah, and she was really consider I watched this with Beth Watkins, who from The Gutter and Beth Loof's Follywood, and she pointed out that it was weird to her that they were really focused on having a quality website when um, what she looks for in a Christmas village website is just like the address and the phone number to go there.

What one does not need a flashy website and or a job script what yeah? Yeah, yeah, uh he does acknowledge that, like when they talk about like how he doesn't charge her pictures with Santa Claus, and he does at one point say like, maybe that's why I'm failing. It's a business. Yeah, I mean one reason. Yes, Um, no product placement that I caught.

But number five is our cloying child. So we have two children in this movie. Um, decline And what's a little girl's name? It's a little girl a little boy. The little boy only has 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 that her name? Um? She know, Yeah, she has grown up and continued has has quite a few credits. Still, UM.

Curious, just how you felt about them as kids as characters. Um, they were. They were very realistic kids, like it was. They usually try for something more angelic in some of these movies. Yeah, And they were just like kid kids.

And I appreciated that they sort of just like ran around doing whatever they were doing in some sort of separate, entirely different movie with Archie and probably the Goats. Yeah, yeah, like they may now that we're saying it, I'm kind of thinking like in another era they would be the twins in the vivic. There's definitely something that like if they were to find a 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 driving so slowly on that road leaving and 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're just actually a deep and that tricks people. Yeah, No, there's something ominous about them. That's why you stay in a big, bad city. Yeah, you might get crushed by a beam while dining at a theater, but it's still you're not gonna get sacrificed to a demon. No.

I guess we did not have any holiday theme names. Um that I caught right, Like, yeah, it seems like it would have been an easy win for them. Um. No finding the perfect tree storyline, we can't. We have an ornament and he's like, my kids made this ornament for you.

I know you're probably gonna throw it away, but please don't do that until like after you walk away from them. It's like, this woman's not a monster. She's not gonna like burn this thing that your kids put time into. Um, No elaborate holiday cocktails, empty coffee cup acting. I don't know that I really clocked any in this movie.

I don't think that they're really stuck out. No. Yeah, uh. And the next thing, Um, one of my favorites is actors who are trying very hard to not actually take a bite of food on camera. And I would say this is another one of those movies.

Sometimes the lower the budget, the more that doesn't happen, because the more you get the sense that it's the only thing that's feeding the cast. Yes, you know, I don't. I don't think I I don't think they ate Kenny. Did I mean Kenny ate cookies a couple of times? Yes, But yeah they well, I mean you know what they remember, we're in a small town.

There's no such thing as fine dining. No, you're a theater. I mean really, I'll see. And then number eleven is canadianisms. I'm sorry, did you catch any canadianisms?

Oh? Boy? Are you remarking on their accents? There was just a you know, maybe maybe we should talk about that a little bit, just a few Um. I think they were not, which I kind of appreciate that.

And again I didn't catch them say it was Canada, but now that they did, um, I appreciate just how Canadians some of the more like, because you're right, if these people have never left this town, then they should have really thick accents like Luke. Yep, they have their accents. Yeah, And you know, maybe I'm imagining that they said that, and just because they were being so Canadian and sounding so Canadian and not trying to sound American or talk about like we're going to New York tomorrow, Okay, I twelve kilometers away? A yeah, yeah they were yea and thes in Canada. That was Canada.

So that's the Canadian. Yes. Um. The last 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 is all 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 so hot under those less in Santa outfit or is it just like it's just that I mean, either way it works. So overall, how did you feel about a Christmas Village? Oh, like I said, I feel that I I enjoyed the donaity rim of it.

I was not very invested in the romance, but I would say it's realistic in the sense that you're very rarely invested in other people's romances, which is healthy and good because if you treated other 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's romances like that, like they were happy to see them together, like people who were appropriately happy to see them together, right, and other people did not care, Yeah, their own business. That That has been one of one of 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 themes that the new things that I've noticed this year and I haven't noticed so much another years is how many movies have really leaned into older characters being unhealthily invested in 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'd be great together and you just feel like, oh man, if they could just get past themselves, they'd be fine. But you know, like several movies this year have been like old and old people, meaning like the sage 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 unhealthy amount of time, doing what they can to get these two characters to sexually be interested in each other. And then that's what it is saying. It starts to dip into like psychological thrillers and horror at that point, like when it's the whole town, it's horror, and when it's like the grandparents and stuff, it's psychological thrillers.

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I like that. And again, you should watch Anything for Jackson, which is about grandparents and yeah yeah yeah, so at all tis in um yeah, and I again, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I will 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 having some fun with itself. It's not the prettiest looking one. It's not the like it's not the one that I know a lot of people who watch these like where like they're, you know, they're visiting family for Christmas and their family is watching these un ironically, but they want to kind of watch them and like laugh at them. This one, you it might not please others as much as it would please somebody with a bit of a sense of humor watching it. For that, I think, yeah, but yeah, I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.

It did make me laugh, so hooray uh. Now with that, 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 people find your work?

Um? Well, they can always find me at the Cultural Gutter, which is a website UM dedicated thoughtful writing about disreputable art. It's ww dot cultural gutter dot com. And right now I have a piece up on my own site, Monstrous Industry um at WordPress dot com about Travis Stevens, a wounded fawn and I am very pleased with that piece. I have not seen it yet, but I've heard wonderful things.

I know you're a big fan, so not read your yet because I figured I should watch it first. I do have two paragraphs saying how much I love it that are spoiler free, but then I have like a billion words of how much I love it that are detailer detailed. Yes, as soon as I get around to it, I will go there to watch to read. Yeah, I will watch your words, which is 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 for the rest of the Perhaps we can discover whether Santa is stripping for business or pleasure. Isn't that the eternal question.