Happy Holidays
Christmas movies on NoBudge. Of course, there’s the requisite family tensions, as seen in “Disforia” and “Clean Blood,” but this isn't light family viewing -- they register almost as horror films. Contrast to those dark visions with a couple of silly L.A. comedies with “Gilbert’s Little Christmas” and “A Seasonal Thing,” stand out with their warm weather settings and anything-goes humor. There’s also a sprinkling of loneliness and melancholy as in “Storms Named After People,” and holiday grumpiness like in the documentary, “The Christmas Light Killer.” Perhaps the most quintessential Christmas films of the group are “The Letter” about an odd letter written to Santa, and “Kim Bush’s Abduction,” a comedy about a missing mom at a Christmas party.
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The Letter
A little girl receives a letter from Santa Claus in this short and sweet holiday film from director Eric Paschal Johnson, co-director of “Observatory Blues”. Over a series of richly melancholic 16mm compositions of a young girl lugging a Christmas tree through fields and forests, Santa narrates a...
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Movie + 2 extrasCarmen & Moony
Movie + 2 extras
A semi-recovered kleptomaniac goes home for the holidays and is joined by an unlikely guest. Kate Adams and Max Azulay direct “Carmen and Moony,” a romantic comedy where antics, bits, and banter unravel at the dinner table and beyond. It’s a snowy winter day and Carmen is returning home to celebr...
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Bruised Fruit Tastes Sweeter
On a car trip, a young couple tries to maintain a fragile relationship. Jake Kolton directs “Bruised Fruit Tastes Sweeter,” a quiet drama that unfolds in waves of unresolved feelings and built-up tensions. After speaking with his mother, Miguel feels stressed out about the upcoming Christmas holi...
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Betty Feeds The Animals
Betty loves animals, she loves them so much that every day she puts 30 bowls of food outside of her home to feed them. James P. Gannon directs “Betty Feeds The Animals,” a cozy portrait about an eccentric older lady “caring for something that no ones cares for.” The Super 8mm documentary profile ...
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Burnt Toast
On a remote mountaintop in Vermont, a charismatic hippie makes his living selling novelty toasters. “Burnt Toast,” directed by Timothy Racca Morrish, is a documentary portrait of an unconventional online business run by a fun-loving, pot-smoking, guitar-playing, oddball. In lively anecdotes, Gale...
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Snow Angel
A young woman drifts through a series of wintry adventures after leaving her backyard and heading into the woods. A lovely stop-motion animation by Evie Metz and Nick Daly, “Snow Angel” envisions a magical place where you can ride a reindeer, or ice skate on a pond encircled by giant sunflowers. ...
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Gilbert's Little Christmas
Gilbert refuses to have a sad Christmas this year. NoBudge regular Alex Kavutskiy directs “Gilbert’s Little Christmas,” an L.A. holiday comedy which monitors an aspiring entrepreneur (his big idea is hamburgers on a stick) that’s lost all hope after being dumped on Christmas day a year ago. Gilbe...
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Clean Blood
A Christmas movie about family, the Apocalypse and an immaculately pregnant man. “Clean Blood” is one of the strangest shorts you’ll ever see. It’s a blood-soaked affair with an outlandish premise but just as defined by an ultra mundane family argument. Written, directed and produced by Jordan Mi...
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The Christmas Light Killer
Every night in December, residents of a small Philadelphia suburb flock to a holiday light show, and at the end of each night, one man drives the 2 mile stretch, shutting off all the lights. This documentary profile by director James P. Gannon follows the lovable grump, James Cochran, on his nigh...
