Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Holiday Movie Guide

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

It's holiday movie season, and there are so many new movies to choose from. So where do you start? We've got you covered. This year we've got the return of Lindsay Lohan, a shirtless Chad Michael Murray, and a cameo from Travis Kelce's mom. We discuss: Our Little Secret, Meet Me Next Christmas, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, and The Merry Gentleman.Check out Linda's full holiday movie guide here. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Aisha Harris. And before we start the show, we're closing in on the end of another year. Wow, I can't believe it. And our team is looking back at all the great conversations we've been able to bring you in 2024 because of your support. We dove into the sleeper hits and the shows you shouldn't sleep on, the sequels and the prequels and our favorite binge watches. We stayed up all night to catch you up on the Oscars and the Emmys and debated the best fictional bands and the pop culture hills will die on. And it's all because listeners like you step up to support our work, either by giving to your local station or by joining NPR Plus. NPR Plus has grown a lot this year. And we want to say an extra special thank you to those supporters right now. You know who you are. If you don't know what I'm talking about, NPR plus is a sweet way to support the independent public media you rely on from NPR. So when you sign up for a simple recurring donation, you support our mission of creating a more informed public and get special perks for more than 25 NPR podcasts. like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, and even exclusive and discounted items from the NPR shop and the NPR Wine Club. So by donating now, you'll find not only NPR's award-winning journalism across the country and around the world,

but also the stories that make you laugh out loud, the ones that might make you cry because they resonate so deeply, and the quirky ones that can only come from the wonderful world of public radio. Join us on the plus side today at plus.npr.org. Thanks so much. It's that time of year again holiday movie season. And as ever, there are so many new movies to choose from. And of course, some are more memorable than others.

So where do you start? We've got you covered. This year we've got the return of Lindsay Lohen, a shirtless Chad Michael Murray and a cameo from Travis Kelsey's mom. And those are, by the way, in three different movies. I'm Linda Holmes. And I'm Aisha Harris. And today we're offering up a guide to some of this year's holiday movies on

Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Well, it's just the two of us today talking about a subject that I think is very near and dear to both of our hearts, the holiday movie magic of it all. Absolutely. There are a huge number of these every year. I wrote a guide to them that you can find over at NPR.org. Did. Did not write up all of them, but wrote up more of them than we will have time to talk about

today. You can obviously find the full lists at Hallmark and Lifetime. and BET and Up TV and obviously Netflix. And it's difficult to get everything. But we're going to try to give you some of the bigger ones. Yeah. And look, we do have to acknowledge the hot frosty in the room because this was probably the buzziest of all the holiday movies of this year.

We're not going to be talking too much about it. But, you know, I think you and I, Linda, both enjoyed it. We've talked about it on social media. You wrote about it. Oh, it's very cute. It's very cute. And that's the Netflix movie starring Lacey Chabair as a woman who suddenly falls in love with the Frosty of the Snowman, who turns into a real man, a hot frosty, as they would say. It's absolutely true.

And I think the fact that they brought in Craig Robinson and Joe LaTrulyo to play the law enforcement added a necessary sense of kind of more conventionally comedic comedy to that movie. Helped a great deal. I liked that one. I liked that one. I thought it was fun. Agreed. Well, let's actually dig into the movies we're going to talk a little bit more about. And let's start with the first one. Linda, this is called Our Little Secret. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that one? Yeah, you know, a couple years ago, Lindsay Lohen had this movie called Falling for Christmas, which was very cute. Also, I think from that people kind of started to think, yeah, you know, this is maybe a reasonable avenue for her to pursue. I was not surprised to see her back this year in not. Our Little Secret. Here she plays a woman named Avery, who's engaged to this very nice guy named Cameron. She goes home for Christmas with him, and she runs into both his terrifying mother, played by Kristen Chenoweth, who is having the time of her life. And her ex, Logan, who is played by Ian Harding.

So Logan is there because he's dating Cameron's sister. So now everybody is crammed into the same house. She and her boyfriend, ex and his girlfriend, and mother, family. There are all kinds of family secrets that eventually emerge, including some that involve their neighbors and family friends who are played by Tim Meadows and Judy Reyes.

And there's a sequence about being accidentally high in church, which is the kind of thing that I think like broad movies like this so often have a somebody accidentally gets high thing. And I usually don't think they're funny. I thought they got away with it here. I thought it was pretty cute. But yeah, there's a lot going on in this one. This one is streaming on Netflix.

What did you think of our little secret? Oh, I really enjoyed this. I mean, one of the things, and I think this will be a common theme amongst a lot of the movies that we're talking about today, is that I feel as though the rom-com genre, and specifically the holiday rom-com genre, it's had to expand its per view and not just do the simple, like, girl goes back home to her small town after, like, making it big in the city and then falling in love with, like, the hot farmer. I mean, that still exists. But now we have to add an extra. layers of complications and make it even more convoluted. And this whole thing is very convoluted. It kind of screwbally even in many ways. It does. It has an almost like screwbally, farcy kind of, you know, people coming in and out of rooms and oh my God, what did you just say? And just like,

that kind of thing that kind of snowballs. And yeah. It's very charming. And Lindsay Lohen, you know, I think she is such a particular kind of actress where like she has found her lame now and I think she fits in it perfectly. Yeah, she has a very, you know, that very distinct husky kind of voice, her dry delivery. She's not one of those actors who's like, of course, going to like disappear into a role, but she is someone you just enjoy spending time with. And this is the type of movie that I could see going back and rewatching perhaps even more than the falling for Christmas one, which I also enjoyed.

But this one just has that like extra oomph of, again, Kristen Chenoweth, love her, Tim Meadows. The plot machinations around why the Lindsay Lohan character and her boyfriend initially break up at the beginning, he was kind of a jerk. Like actually, like really very much a jerk about, you know, her family and her background. And the reason they broke up was very kind of like, by the end of it, I was a little, why are they getting back together? But he has to definitely work his way back into her good graces and maybe yours as well. Exactly, exactly. But still very fun. So, yeah, I liked it.

And I appreciated the fact that this one, you know, in falling for Christmas, she plays kind of a spoiled, rich girl who it's one of those like, and then I got hit on the head and I was nice. And it's kind of like overboard with Goldie Hawn in that way. Yeah. And I think in that one, she kind of played into the fact that she has this reputation as kind of like a mess of a person. And I think in this one, she's gone a little bit back to like, okay, I don't have to do that all the time. Yeah. I can play a regular person. And I liked seeing her do that.

And I thought this was cute. Yes, yes. So our next movie is Meet Me Next Christmas. I've seen it. Linda, I feel like I might be able to convince you to watch it. I thought it was really cute. Yeah, absolutely. When you talk a little bit more about it, maybe I'll be able to explain why I did not leap upon it.

But go ahead. So Meet Me Next Christmas stars Christina Malian as Layla. Basically a character, I'm not really sure exists. in real life, a Pentatonics superfan? I think they do exist. I think they do exist. Well, okay. So for a refresher, for those who are not familiar with pentatonics or just have, like, somehow completely blinked it out of their mind, pentatonics is the very popular Acapella group who suddenly become ubiquitous for a few weeks every holiday season before melting away from collective memory like Frosty the Snowman for the rest of the year. The first thing I'm going to know.

The first thing I should say is I encountered pentatonics. So they won the third season of the reality show, the sing-off. Yes. Which was actually, which was for like Acapella groups. And it was one that I actually really liked that show. But the way that Acapella, which is a genre close to my heart, is presented, does not always thrill me the way that it is marketed and presented. So I probably had a little bit of like a, uh-huh. reaction. But tell me about the rest of it. Yeah, yeah. So look, Layla's determined to get her hands on these

last minute tickets to their sold-out Christmas Eve concert because who wouldn't be. She hopes to reconnect there with a guy she had a meet cute with a year earlier. So as one does, she hires a personal concierge, Teddy, to help her secure the tickets. He's played by Deval Ellis. And they traverse New York City, face numerous challenges, including a weird mime at one point, sparks between Lela and Teddy, of course, begin to fly. I mean, to your point, Linda, I think how much you like this movie will depend on how much you can withstand or take or enjoy pentatonics. They do play a relatively big part in this movie. Like, they're not in every scene, but they're kind of like the Greek chorus who are following as these things happen and they chime in.

And, of course, there's a performance at the end. But they don't overtake the story. So I think if you can just kind of like, you know, there is a whole subplots actually that involves Lela and Teddy. One of the challenges that they try to get a ticket with is to do a performance where the prize, the first prize is our tickets to the show. And so it involves drag queens. Like I think it's Teddy's one of his either relatives or friends or whatever who's played by Kailen Allen. You might recognize him as like an influencer who was often on the Ellen show. Okay.

So, yeah, like, there's a whole scene where he's, like, teaching them how to do choreography and dance and there's drag queens. It's fun. It's very fun. It's light. And Christina Malianna is just, she's, she's charming. Her and the guy who plays steady are very charming. So I think you'd enjoy it. Yeah.

I mean, I think I probably wouldn't. As I said, it's not a thing against Acapella, which I love. Yes. It is more the treatment and marketing of it in, as you sort of mentioned, in the holiday. season specifically. There are these like Christmas musicians that I know are active year-round, and yet you all of a sudden you really hear a lot more of them around Christmas time. Trans-Siberian orchestras, another one, which they have this kind of bombastic. Yeah. And I say that affectionately, bombastic Christmas music, which as one of my friends once

it kind of sounds like you're in a besieged city being shelled with snowballs. So there are these like Christmas bands, but I like her. I like Christine A million. And she's, He's done, obviously, a lot of these kinds of movies. And, you know, I tend to like her. So I definitely am, I think I'm going to add this to my list. I just have not gotten to it yet. But this one is streaming on Netflix also. And we should say these lean toward Netflix partly because Hallmark is still the one that I would say makes them in the most volume with the most success.

Right. But Netflix puts a little more muscle behind each individual one in most cases, right? Like Netflix has probably put a little more umph behind Hot Frosty than, you know, then Hallmark puts behind any individual movie, you know? Yes, yes. Well, speaking of Hallmark, we do have one Hallmark movie we're going to be talking about. This one I have not seen. And I have reservations similar to you when it comes to Pentatomics where I'm like,

football. Tell us about it. This one is called Holiday Touchdown, a Chief's Love Story. And over the summer, the news broke that Hallmark was going to make a Christmas movie in partnership with the Kansas City Chiefs. And this was at sort of the height of the discovery and tracking of the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey romance. And so I think when the news broke of this, people assumed this was going to be like a take on that story. But it isn't really. It's about a woman named Alana who's played by Hunter King, whose whole family is chief's fanatics, including her.

grandfather played by Ed Begley Jr., which is awesome. Oh, nice. They end up as finalists in the team's fan of the year contest and their handler is this, like, cute guy played by Tyler Hines, who is kind of one of the hallmark mainstays as a guy. First of all, I just want to say totally unethical for him to start, like, fooling around with her when she's up for fan of the year, you know, with the team. Yes, yes. But nevertheless, we're not supposed to worry about it.

integrity. There's a whole thing about a family superstition involving a knit hat that somebody in the family has to be wearing for the team to win on Christmas. So there's stuff about like superstitions and magical thinking about sports. It is a romance. It is a family story. But it is also a huge branding opportunity for the city chiefs. You'll see a lot of chiefs signage and merch and the stadium. And even the city, I mean, I would say, even Kansas City in general, the mayor has a cameo. Wow. This has already premiered on Hallmark.

You can find it airing from time to time for the rest of the season if you look for it. I did live text my reactions to this to our producer Mike Katzv, who is both a Kansas City guy and a chiefs fan so that he could clarify things like, is that a real chief's mascot? And I would send him like a little picture of the chief's mascot. And he would say, yes, that's a real chief mascot. So, you know, I think if you enjoy this with a Kansas City native or an NFL fan or even like someone whose family is obsessed with sports, they might get out of it more than, you know, somebody else. Yeah. I mean, look, I've encountered more of those and I have Pentatonic's fans in the wild. So, like, this already seems a little bit more realistic to me.

Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. It sounds kind of like that movie 80 for Brady where it's just like, oh, yes, we're going to incorporate as much of this home teacher. paraphernalia and whatever in there. So that sounds charming. I'm still not sure if I have the stomach for a football movie. But I think that for people whose families really have powerful sports team traditions. Yeah.

I think there may be some stuff in here that is really, that is appealing and that they do understand. Like, there are families where they're very obsessed with getting together and watching the sports team, especially over the high. holidays. I try to cut them a lot of slack for this one, although I will say, as with Pentatonics, the kind of brand partnership is a little overwhelming. You get the sense that the NFL in general and the Kansas City Chiefs in particular are being, you know, you're being given the hard sell on both. Yeah, yeah. But I do think the leads are charming. And there are a ton, by the way, of cameos from chiefs and chiefs adjacent people. There are some places. And who have cameos, also Travis Kelsey's mom.

But no, Taylor, is there? No, no, no. There's no Taylor and there's no Travis either, but there's, his mom is seen working behind the counter at a barbecue place, at a Kansas City barbecue place. And she's got Kelsey on the back of her football jersey, and they address her as Donna. And so, you know, she also has a cameo in one that takes place in Philly. Philadelphia, where her other son plays. There's one called Christmas on Call. That's actually really cute. It's about EMTs. That sounds sweet. It's really sweet. And she shows up in that one

working behind the counter at a cheese steak place, obviously. Same thing. Eagles jersey. That is a cute nod to the fact that she has two sons and not just one who have been in the NFL. So no favoritism for Mama Kelsey. So that is Holiday Touchdown, a Chief's love story that's airing on Hallmark. intermittently and also I'm sure you can find it if you devr it or able to stream it. The last one we're going to talk about is the merry gentleman. Linda and I have both seen it. And this is, you know, I think whoever pitch it was probably like, magic mic, but with the holidays in the background. Yes.

Or the Fulmonte. Yes, or Fulmonte. That's an even better comparison. Britt Robertson plays Ashley. She's a professional dancer in a rocket-style troupe who's fired for being too old. She's fired and then she returns to her small hometown for Christmas and learns that her parents' bar is on the verge of closing. This might be the most generic. Like, this is what we think of when we think of holiday rom-com movies of this bunch that we're talking about.

Save the family small business. Save the family small business. And to try and save this small family business, Ashley comes up with a bright idea to stage a sexy all-male review featuring the local talent who all appear apparently are very good-looking or at least conventionally good-looking. looking. Yes, and she just knows them all, which is very lucky. Yes. One of those men is Luke, played by Chad Michael Murray. Of course, you know, One Tree Hill fame amongst other things. And he just so happens to be single and healing from a broken heart. Poor Chad Michael Murray. Poor, poor, poor Chad. So Linda, how did you feel about this one? I thought it was okay. Like that was sort of my, this felt to me like a very okay movie. I will say,

This is not the most important thing about it. But Netflix did something strange with men's hair this season. There's something very kind of aggressively fluffy about Chad Michael Murray's hair in this movie that I don't care for. There's also something kind of limp about the snowman's hair in Hot Frosty that I don't care for. You know, that's Dustin Milligan. That's a good looking man. That's Ted from Schitt's Creek. That's a good looking man in Hot Frosty.

And he looks kind of, I don't know, his hair's. kind of hanging down. I don't know. And you can tell that I didn't get super into this movie because I spent a lot of time thinking about hair during this movie. I did find the dance sequences a little bit cringy and ended up fast-forwarding through them a little bit. I just find like the PG-13 kind of sexy dance to be a little, you know, questionable in terms of how much I was going to enjoy it. I did appreciate it when there was one guy. I, At one point, one of the kind of other locals sort of decides that he needs to get involved. And I was looking at him going, who is that? Who is that? I know who that is. Who is that? And it's Maxwell Caulfield, who I knew from, you know, his youth when he was in Greece, too,

and very early episode of Beverly Hills 90210 and stuff like that when he was a young man. Still looks good. Yeah, yeah. Happy for him in his suspenders with his full chest hair out. Appreciate that for, you know, love that for him. But yeah, this one, I think the love story fell a little flat for me in this one. Yeah, I would agree. Calling the dancing PG-13 is even generous.

It feels like this is not magic bike. But I think the thing about it that felt at least somewhat believable to me was that these guys didn't look like professional dancers. Like, some of them were hitting their marks. Some of them were, they looked slightly uncomfortable. It's not like they were told like, oh, you're going to start dancing at this thing. and all of a sudden their inner, you know, magic mic came out. It felt convincing for a small town. It also felt convincing that the women in that small town would be going crazy for it

because it didn't seem like much else was happening in that town. Yes. And I did appreciate the fact that it wasn't like, you know, they started performing, they were discovered and they ended up like going to Broadway or something like that. You know, I appreciated the fact that it kind of stayed like, you know, I think it was maybe even a little. hopeful to have them like written up in the local paper but that's of sort of as far as it went like it really kind of stayed as a thing that was just enough to sort of she's just trying to save the music venue which in fairness you know small music venues are they suffering they are that is a true

fact yeah i did enjoy the fact that her parents bar slash music venue is called the rhythm room and i was like that sounds risque even before you started the all-male review i thought this one was fine. I think the chemistry of the love story just didn't quite ignite for me, which is, which is always what I'm ultimately looking for. Yeah. So that is the Merry Gentleman, which is streaming on Netflix. And of course, as we've already mentioned, there are so many more movies we couldn't get into airing on other networks, you know, Lifetime, Paramount, BET, Hallmark, Hallmark. But as we mentioned, Linda has a holiday movie guard over at NPR.org. So definitely check that out. And we will have a link to that.

our show notes. You should definitely let us know what you think about this year's holiday movies and what you're watching this holiday season. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCH. That brings us to the end of our show. Linda Holmes, there's no one I would rather talk about this with more than you. Thank you. Absolutely same, my friend. This episode was produced by Hufza Fatima and Lenin Sherburn and edited by Jessica Reedy and Mike Katzen. Hello, Kamin provides our theme music. Thanks so much for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all tomorrow.