Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 10, 2020     Shelton Mason County Journal
PAGE 25     (25 of 40 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 25     (25 of 40 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
December 10, 2020
 
Newspaper Archive of Shelton Mason County Journal produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




IN THE Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Page A—25 Hallmark Christmas movies have made a science of sentimentality ' KirkiBoxleitner I kbox/eitner@masoncounty com As much as I want to see cin- ema and television provide venues for avant-garde art that challenges au- diences, I’d be lying if I tried to claim that I don’t also en- joy entertainment that aspires to be as I formulaic as possi— ble, in all the. most comforting ways, which is why I love the Hallmark Christmas TV movie genre without any trace of irony. When I lived in Europe and Ja- pan, I took advantage of every oppor- tunity to savor the local cuisine, but sometimes, I just craved the plain familiarity of an American-style fast- food cheeseburger, and as much as I revel in the more experimental out- put of David Lynch and Cronenberg, I will always be a mark for the Mar- By KIRK BOXLEITNE ” DEN: “THEATERS vel Cinematic Universe’s superhero formula. That’s why I call it the Hallmark Christmas TV movie “genre,” since Hallmark has spent so many years churning out multiple Christmas TV movies per holiday season that its writers have made a science out of sentimentality. It’s reached the point Where streaming services such as Netflix, and even full-fledged film studios such as Universal, have been able to appropriate and adapt the code that the Hallmark Channel cracked to begin with, with clever subver- sions such as Netflix’s “A Christmas Prince” and Universal’s “Last Christ- mas.” The platonic ideal of a Hallmark Christmas TV movie is a nine-act play starring a former child actress you’re likely to recognize from the 19805 and/or 19905, engaging in a meet-cute plot pairing an ambi- tious, career-minded, big-city busi- nesswoman with a more humble, bestubbled, salt-of-the-earth handy- man who’s a born-and-bred native of Bremiér Road'o Shelton 360-426-4707 www.SkyLineDrive-ln.com Gates Open 6:00 pm, Show at 7:00pm Showtimes for the week of 12/11 17 Friday 8: Saturday 12/11 & 12 Croods: A New Age (PG) followed by Half Brothers (PG-13) "Sunday Switch" Sunday 12/13 Half Brothers (PG-13) followed by . Croods: A New Age (PG) V Monday, 12/14 PRIVATE RENTAL Tuesday & Wednesday 12/15- 16 CLOSED Thursday, 12/17 PRIVATE RENTAL" whatever Christmas—themed small town she suddenly finds herself stuck in for the duration of the holidays. 'Candace Cameron Bure and her costar from both “Full House” and “Fuller House,” Jodie Sweetin, prob— ably qualify as the reigning queens of this particular roost, although Lacey Chabert, who built her career on her roles in “All My Children” and “Party of Five,” has made a strong showing of her own in the Hallmark stable. My favorite, though, has to be the fire-haired Alicia Witt, who ap- peared in David Lynch’s “Dune” and “Twin Peaks” before co-starring with Cybill Shepherd in her 1990s sitcom‘ “Cybill,” since Witt infuses her per- formances with a puckish playful- ness and just a hint of mischievous self-awareness — complete with a smirk and a sparkle in her eye, akin to the pinches of nutmeg and cinna- mon that one should add to any good eggnog or pbsset —— that a number of her fellow female leads lack. As, reductive as the formula might sound, it’s like a haiku, or a tone poem, or a three-chord song, in that l" LUNHH ’. lHHlHJH-r run 0 its limitations themselves become part of the creative challenge that makes the execution of the formula’s latest iteration so faScinating. Will our driven, no-nonsense lady and her more rustic, take-it-easy beau be complete strangers, or will we learn that they grew up together, before her desire to climb the corpo- rate ladder took her away from her festive, cozy hometown? . Likewise, will it be the guy or the gal who’s the single parent, either via divorce or their spouse passing away, to an adorable moppet who still believes in Santa? In more recent years, Hallmark has gotten really daring with its for- mula, by casting some of its female leads as the keepers of their home- towns’ Christmas cheer, charged with melting the hearts of the hand- somely square-jawed Scrooges who would otherwise bulldoze over be— loved local landmarks in the name of industrial development. see MOVIES, page A-26 Book now at littlecreek.com Ll‘T’I‘H}, (Emu ‘ CASINO'RESORT m_mw—wr