Aarcflick

At the risk of sounding like the Grinch, I must lament once again the release of Christmas movies before Thanksgiving. The temperatures may finally be dropping, but we're still too close to the blues of the time change and too far from the holiday splurges to fully enjoy Netflix's now-traditional annual feast of cheap Christmas sweets. Nevertheless, its content machine keeps churning, offering treats as substantial and long-lasting as cotton candy since mid-November. Like American chocolates that no longer contain real chocolate but sell like hotcakes at Halloween, the Netflix Christmas movie—like its rival Hallmark, the queen of Christmas movies—is used, even adored, for its peculiar style, its mechanical familiarity (nostalgic cast, minuscule budgets, polystyrene snow, deliberately absurd premise), and its undeniable artificial filling, for its ability to deliver doses of sugary pleasure without ever quite living up to expectations.  Director: Mark Steven Johnson Writer: Mark...