Holiday movies: The treats amid the annual tinsel barrage
Framed as a 19th-century bedtime story, the “dandily overstuffed” musical stars Forest Whitaker as a toymaker who goes bankrupt because of a thieving protégé (a top-hatted Keegan-Michael Key), only to make a comeback with help from his granddaughter. “The magic is in the brilliant costumes, pixie-dusted production design, and soaring musical numbers.” Nearly every frame “spills over with joy and jubilance.” Netflix
Mariah Carey’s Magical Music Special
The best of the offerings from Apple TV+ deserves mention even though it’s not a movie, said Brett White in Decider.com. A 50-minute holiday special built around a thin plot about Mariah Carey saving Christmas, it’s “overboard, next level, ridiculous, jubilant, a train wreck, and a masterpiece all in one,” and we can only hope that every network will soon attempt its own “beyond extra” holiday extravaganza. Everything’s big, from the sets to the choreography, and there are even some “sincerely great” moments, such as Carey’s girl-group number with fellow pop divas Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande. Apple TV+
Deliver by Christmas
Hallmark has 39 new original Christmas movies on its slate this year, and this is the best of the “cheerily cheesy” bunch, said Tierney Bricker in EOnline.com. A widower (Eion Bailey) and a local bakery owner
(Alvina August) bond during phone conversations, and then unknowingly bump into each other for “one meet-cute after another” as the single dad works to give his son the best holiday ever. “Imagine if Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail came together in the most unexpectedly delightful way.” Dec. 12, 22, and 25, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
The Christmas Setup
This year, “all the networks finally agreed that gay people exist, even at Christmas,” said Rebecca Alter in NYMag.com. Lifetime’s first Christmas romance about a gay couple earned my interest even before release because it features “actual living goddess” Fran Drescher as a Milwaukee mom who tries to set up her lawyer son with his high school crush when he’s home for the holidays. Drescher’s scene-stealing alone might be enough. Dec. 12 and 17, Lifetime
Dear Santa
Made independently and available for home rental, this documentary about the Postal Service’s annual effort to help answer kids’ letters to Santa is “one of the most wonderful films of the year,” said Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times. It mixes interviews with “beyond-adorable” children and glimpses of the adult volunteers in and outside the USPS who work to make wishes come true. Childfriendly and “unabashedly sentimental,” the film “serves as a reminder that there are an awful lot of truly good people in this world.” In theaters or $7 on demand