Why Hallmark Films are a Necessity for Christmas

Why Hallmark Movies are a Necessity to Celebrating Christmas

During the month of December, my mom and I sit down every single night and watch at least one Hallmark Christmas movie together. It is a tradition that we’ve had for years, and I’m sure by now we’ve watched every single one.  But no matter how many times we re-watch the movies, it always leaves us with that feel-good feeling.  Hallmark movies have that power to leave you in the Christmas spirit.

That doesn’t mean that these movies aren’t cringey and so cheesy that it’s hard to look at the screen… because they are. They are full of cringey moments and scenes that make you want to shove your face in a pillow and scream, but they are so worth it.  They make you feel light-hearted and as if Christmas is really special and full of happiness. 

Christmas is one of my favourite holidays and it makes the darkness of December seem so much lighter.  It’s a time that, for me, is full of family and celebrating and spending time with my loved ones. These are all traits that appear in almost every Hallmark movie ever filmed.  They almost always follow the path of someone who hates Christmas but ends up finding someone who changes their heart and makes them love again.  It’s all very unrealistic, but it’s the kind of light-hearted romantic film that everyone needs in their life.  They are films with almost no depth, but ones that you can watch at the end of a long day when all you need to do is relax and stop thinking.

If you’re looking for a care-free and spirit-filled Christmas film, just Google any Hallmark movie.  Even though they are rarely well-produced movies, they always have endless amounts of cheer and can boost your mood in just a few moments of watching.

              For me, Hallmark Christmas movies are a big part of a tradition that my mother and I follow every year, but that doesn’t stop me from encouraging others to watch these light-hearted films.  The films, full of the Christmas Spirit, are always capable of making you leaving your room feeling better, even if the level of reality is very far-fetched.  This is why I feel that they are 100 per cent a necessity for Christmas, and make December a very holly jolly month! I recommend indulging yourself in some extra cheer this year, and I promise you won’t regret it!

Happy December and I hope you have a Merry Christmas! 😊

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Esther J

Esther is a lover of travelling and is always going to new places. To pass time between adventures she can usually be found with her nose in a book

Martin Scorsese, Please Reconsider Your Definition of “Cinema”

Movies are art. Why should we exclude one kind over another in that discussion?

Cinema: a place where people go to watch films for entertainment.

Or: The business and art of making films.

Those are the definitions easily found within modern dictionaries. But that’s not really what we mean when someone declares that a modern movie is “not cinema.”

What we really mean is, “What is art?”

Martin Scorsese is a director of Academy-nominated movies including The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), a crime film about the a stockbroker’s rampant corruption and decadence. He is known mainly for crime films and gangster movies like Goodfellas (1990), which follows gangsters attempting to climb their way up the ladder of a New York mob before unraveling and falling prey to drug addiction.

Martin Scorsese

In an interview with Empire magazine in October, Scorsese mentions that superhero movies are “not cinema,” likening them to “theme parks”. In an opinion piece published in The New York Times, he clarified his remarks, adding that while he means no animosity towards Marvel films, “many of the elements that define cinema as I know it are there in Marvel pictures. What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk. The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes.”

As the opinion piece goes on, he comments that superhero movies have taken over the big screen and that productions – such as his own works that are more cerebral and less high-octane in nature – are being increasingly edged out, lambasting the trend of big-budget movies taking fewer risks. As he puts it, “there’s worldwide audiovisual entertainment [AKA superhero movies], and there’s cinema [AKA Goodfellas, The Irishman, The Shining].” Bold comments are mine.

You will note the three movies I inserted as examples of movies Scorcese made or liked are ones that are generally liked as well. The Shining is not exactly an underground, irrelevant movie hit. The Wolf of Wall Street is a movie made in this decade with roughly an 80% per cent critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. While I have watched very little of Scorsese’s work, it’s hard to deny his skill in film-making

In other words, Scorsese is hardly just some stodgy codger living in Hollywood’s attic. He remains part of the here and now.

So why does what Scorsese directs qualify as “cinema” where Marvel or DC’s offerings don’t?

Yes, there tends to be thematic principles that have guided the latest trend of superhero movies for nearly the past decade since the original Iron Man: Good vs Evil, Justice, Cooperation, Responsibility, Family…

Those are themes worth exploring. Just as Scorsese directs and participates in movies focusing on the aspects of humanity that will bring about its own downfall, superhero movies focus on the aspects of humanity that will bring about its own rise to a utopia. Both are equally valid, even if the latter aspect is an easier pill to swallow than the former.

Does Wonder Woman running through No Man’s Land not count as “cinema”? What about when she experiences firsthand the horror of mustard gas, wandering through a village that had been brimming with life a few hours prior but now was an eerily silent graveyard? Is the deafening silence of a goddess processing the true extent of human cruelty for the first time not enough emotion to be “cinema”?

Thor experiences PTSD following defeat brought on by his fatal flaw – his sense of pride. Do his attempts to scrape and claw out of the deep, dark hole of depression, only to still be found worthy by the mythical weapon Mjolnir not count as “cinema”?

What counts as “cinema”, Scorsese? Because superhero movies, even if they are safe, even if they are produced seemingly en-masse to the exclusion of other films, still touch the hearts of millions of people worldwide.

What is cinema? It is art as a moving picture.

Marvel is art.

DC is art.

Scorsese is art.

Movies are art. Please don’t exclude one genre, theme, or director over another. Reconsider your definition of “cinema.”

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Jean-Michel Vaillancourt

Jean-Michel Vaillancourt is a D&D fanatic, a video game enthusiast, a book-lover, and an eternal seeker for the art of storycraft in modern TV pop culture.