12 of the best alternative festive films |
Fancy a change from The Muppet Christmas Carol? BBC journalists pick the films that get them in the holiday mood.
Stanley Kubrick's final film is about many things. It's about a bizarre and deviant world of elites. It's about men who can't handle women's sexuality. And it's about the holidays. Christmas may be the last thing on your mind when you think of Eyes Wide Shut, but the constant glow of twinkling lights is more than just a setting. We're all pressured to feel happy in the last weeks of December, but sometimes, less jolly Christmases bring the sting of disappointment instead. You can learn to accept that – or, like Tom Cruise's protagonist, you can try to force the world to obey your fantasies, and watch as things spin out of control. (Thomas Germain)
Most of us are familiar with The Snowman, the cartoon based on Raymond Briggs's picture book: it debuted on the UK's Channel 4 in 1982, and its musical centrepiece, Walking in the Air, has been trilled by choristers ever since. But fewer people have seen another Briggs adaptation, Father Christmas, which was made nine years later. It's a much funnier and ruder short film, in that it imagines Father Christmas (voiced by Mel Smith) to be a curmudgeonly loner who lives in an English town, moans about the "blooming weather", and likes a strong drink or two. Still, who can blame him, considering that he doesn't have any elves to help him or a Mrs Claus to keep him company? In its own cheeky way, this flawless half-hour is just as magical as The Snowman, and its hard-working hero is lovably caring at heart. Watching it with my children every Christmas Eve, without fail, is blooming marvellous. (Nicholas Barber)
Harry Lighton's Pillion depicts the romantic awakening of shy Colin (Harry Melling), a traffic warden with little luck in love – but not many heartwarming festive romances begin with a haphazard sexual encounter in a dank South London side street on Christmas Day. After a chance meeting with the imposing leather-clad biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), Colin's life starts hurtling down a different road, and Ray wastes no time unlocking previously unexplored elements of Colin's sexuality. Tackling themes of grief and belonging, Pillion takes in the kinky paraphernalia of harnesses, wrestling and revving engines while never losing sight of its emotional core: two people working out an unconventional romantic path. Pillion is sure to become an alternative Christmas classic – but it may not be one for all the family. (Martha Henriques)
The original Die Hard is much debated as a Christmas film, but what is often overlooked is that its sequel is undoubtedly one. While Bruce Willis's first outing as tired cop John McClane is set at that most perilous of festive gatherings, an office Christmas party, the sequel takes place at one of the few locations even more stressful – a busy airport on Christmas Eve. We know the date because Willis mentions it in the first minute of dialogue, with the word "Christmas" cropping up a further nine times through the film. Along with the twinkly lights, tinsel, festive music and machine guns swathed in wrapping paper, there is snow this time, too. And a high-speed chase on snowmobiles. What could be more Christmassy than that? By the time Let it Snow starts playing and the credits roll, I'm ready to hang up my stocking. (Richard Gray)
In Pride, love is all around – but isn't always welcome. The film is set in 1980s Britain, when the policies of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government are about to unite the most unlikely political bedfellows: striking miners and gay-rights activists. The miners in........