I rounded off my Christmas Day viewings with a film that had been recommended to me a few days prior by my mum. Who caught this one on 'Pluto TV' and sent it my way as she knows I enjoy 'weird stuff' and movies that have a bit more life behind the eyes than the average hallmark production.
And so; I took the plunge on 'A Christmas Karen' while under the influence of enough Pork and chicken to put a continent to sleep, and Y'know? Chalk me down as actually really quite pleasently surprised by this one. Based on the marketing and branding, I was expecting absolute dross of the highest order, low quality content that existed purely to cash in on a meme-ey name and AT BEST, something that may kill 70 or so minutes inoffensively.
But no! 'A Christmas Karen' actually plays down its 'low hanging fruit' elements, while using the basic plot of 'A christmas Carol' to lean into those elements in such a way that doesnt feel forced, unpleasent or awkward.
The plot? well...Its the day before Christmas and Floridas worst 'Karen' is on the warpath, shutting down a christmas lights festival, getting a child run hot coco stand closed down and chastising several people (including slurring minority and LGBTQ groups). But this Karens gone too far, as that night she's visited first by the ghost of her old boss (who was also a huge 'Karen') who warns the still living 'Karen' that she has to change her 'Karen-ey' ways, before telling her shes gonna get visited by three ghosts...yadda yadda yadda...it's 'A Christmas Carol' but modernized and laced with 21st century 'Guardians of the galaxy' style self aware humour. Thats what this is...
Which means pretty much that the film will live or die by the quality of its writing and on how well it manages to pull off the cine, direction and performances. And I think it actually doesnt do too badly honestly.
The writing feels a little stale by bigger movie standards, but for a low budget effort, I thought it was actually kind of witty. The script does play around with a few elements of the original story (a key example being that 'Karen' has to hold onto the robes of the ghosts while they're showing her visions, because if she lets go, wherever she's stood will suddenly get propelled into the 'current time' present. Leading to some actually quite funny moments. Such as a scene where the 'Ghost of Christmas Past' takes Karen back to her childhood home in the late 70s to see how she treated her siblings. But on letting go of the robes She's propelled back into 2022 where a VERY confused man in a string vest gets the fright of his life and runs off into the darkness, returning with a shotgun to fend off the intruders.
they play with that time jumping element quite well, and its almost a shame they abandon the exploration of jumping about in time by the middle of the second act (I assume for budgetary reasons), as I feel there was quite the unimined comedy shaft to be found in there.
The tone is gentle, maybe a *Little* too reliant in places on the idea that this 'Karen' is racist and homophobic for cheap laughs. they generally get that aspect right (playing it at laughing AT Karen for being stupid, rather than WITH her for what shes saying) But they hit those note a few times across the runtime, and by the end it had worn thin.
Outside of that though, theres fun to be had, the plot is by the by (Its a christmas Carol...Its surprisingly hard to screw that basic premise up given literally EVERY TV show has done a 'Christmas Carol' episode by now..) But the dialogue and broader humour in this thing is actually quite enjoyable. A lot of the humour hits more than it misses, the characters all feel quite fresh (It reminded me a little bit of 'Scrooged' in terms of how they play the relationships between 'Karen' and the ghosts...and how the ghosts are portrayed as imperfect weirdos rather than the etheral characters in the book. The titual 'Karen' is MERCIFULLY given a BIT more complexity than just 'The Meme' which is the REAL saving grace of this thing as it could have got irritating FAST had they just made her the meme and stuck to that for 97 minutes.
The pacings pretty solid, it slows down a *touch* in the middle, but It opens strong and ends (predicatbly...) sticking the landing, though I maybe would have liked to have seen Karen still not *quite* get things right...rather than her just waking up not racist, homophobic or willing to call the cops on kids under the age of 8 anymore.
Its actually a pretty strong script given what the film *could* have been, and I had absolutely no qualms about sitting through it while I recovered from intensive 'buffet scarfing'.
The direction and cine were a bit of a letdown honestly, there is a clear vision portrayed here, but it is the unfortunate situation of a film not quite having the budget to realise it's vision effectively. As a result, while the edit itself is largely fine and the transitionary effects were actually kind of impressive, the rest of the film suffers. Theres a LOT of ultra cheap looking CG effects throughout the film, some scenes feel a bit like they were arranged via 'a friend of a friend doing a favour' rather than it being the fully intended vision for the film.
The grading for the film is a little *too* vibrant and an uneven colour palette makes the film feel like several different movies got stuck together, theres no visual coherency, it's just "what looks best for the scenes" Which means it ends up looking like a tapestry, rather than a movie.
Sequence building is also a tad problematic, while they largely nail the edits for the humour on this thing (its definitely got comic timing) the actual scene structurings are a bit odd. Sometimes scenes seem to overuse the B-roll for no reason at all, other scenes seemed to have been cobbled together with whatever was available in the can. Which really didnt help with the coherency problems in the grading and direction, and REALLY didnt help convey the more important moments in the script. It never gets *truely* awful...It just...never got genuinely impressive...and never really rose above 'Acceptable'
The performances are pretty bob on for me, with special mentions going to Michele Simms as 'Karen' Who I think does actually manage to channel a bit more complexity into the role and I feel really actually does the role a good service. Her redemption does seem to channel 'Alistaire Simms' style of 'goofy scrooge' Which I dont think she *quite* nailed...But she's good for like...80% of this thing, Im not gonna quibble.
The supporting cast too are strong, with Meghan Colleen Moroney (Karens Dead Boss), Rolin Alexis (The Ghost of Christmas Past) And Lee Karlinsky (The Ghost of Christmas Future) all being standout performances worth singing the praise of for animated, original takes on existing old characters. Bringing the kind of energy that this film needed to really just break ahead of the mediocrity slurry that dominates the 'Christmas Film' industry.
In fact, the absolute worst element of this film (and even this isnt irredeemably awful) is the scoring. Which seems to be predominantly library tracks and public domain audio. It really works against the film in my opinion by stripping it of a unique identity. Ive used tracks in my youtube videos that feature in this movie, and while im not saying you cant use royalty free stuff in your films (they really can help smooth over the cracks) if you ONLY use library and royalty free tracks. It can often make your film feel unoriginal or lacking that final grade of polish...On its own it would have been a minor quibble, but because of the iffy cine and direction issues i've raised above...it does kind of tip this thing over the edge to a point where I cant out and out love it in the way I would something like 'Scrooged'.
'A Christmas Karen' is a gentle bit of fun holiday cinema. I wouldnt say it was suitable for children. But for a young adult/teen crowd and up, this would likely yield a few laughs and a plesent enough way to sing an hour and thirty seven over the holidays.
Its a film that...While it wouldnt be at the top of my 'To Watch' pile next year, would definitely be one i'd recommend if you were looking for somrthing a bit different to check out, AND it WOULD be one i'd be more than happy to watch again next year!
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-christmas-karen/
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