Nutcrackers (David Gordon Green, 2024, USA)
Nutcrackers represents something of a return to form for director David Gordon Green after his several years working on reboots of major studio horror franchises (Halloween and The Exorcist). Green has had one of the more interesting careers in Hollywood over the past two decades, starting in the world of independent cinema (George Washington, All the Real Girls), then transitioning to bigger budget stoner comedies (Pineapple Express), and then transitioning into big studio horror movies. Nutcrackers feels closest in spirit to the independent films Green made at the beginning of his career, with some flourishes of Terence Malick on display here and there.
Nutcrackers probably owes more to the films of John Hughes however than any arthouse auteur. It is a classic fish-out-of-water Christmas comedy with Ben Stiller playing a materialistic city guy who has to watch after his late sister's rambunctious four sons living in the middle of nowhere in Ohio. Initially resistant, he gradually grows attached to the boys and begins forming a relationship with their social worker (Linda Cardellini). Nutcrackers is formulaic, but this is not to say it is a bad film. The four boys, all non-actors, actually are the highlight of the film - more so than Stiller.
Critics seem to not be enjoying the schmaltz of Nutcrackers, but the film is an easygoing addition to the yearly Christmas canon. It is a film that the cast and filmmakers enjoyed making, and this resonates onscreen. Green would probably be best suited to making more of these kinds of throwbacks to 80s family comedies than making big studio horror franchise movies. His overall sensibility seems much more suited to this. Nutcrackers is unlikely to garner any critical praise, but it will make a fine Christmas watch. Admittedly the plot is a bit messy but it gets the point across.
6/10
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