The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Cup of Cheer

Cup of Cheer | Movie review
4 December 2020
Ben Flanagan
Avatar
Ben Flanagan
4 December 2020

Movie and show review

Ben Flanagan

Cup of Cheer

★★★★★

Release date

7th December 2020

Links

TwitterInstagramWebsite

As it has passed into December, there can no longer be any begrudging of those who choose to binge the entire canon of Christmas Holiday movies. Beyond Elf and Die Hard lies a cycle of Hallmark movies, produced quickly and cheaply and for maximum confectionary effect. For those who grow weary of every overlit festive rom-com their streaming algorithm throws at them, Cup of Cheer offers a tongue-in-cheek parody.

Mary (Storm Steenson) is a high-achieving go-getter in “the big city” who is assigned a magazine story in a seasonal small-town tourist trap (her hometown, naturally). In a classic meet-cute, the journalist bumps into Chris (Alexander Oliver), a grouchy barista, when he accidentally pours an entire bucket of hot chocolate over her. Soon, they’re forced to stay together through the season as they fight to save Chris’ cocoa café – The Cup of Cheer – from closure. Meanwhile, a time-travelling Prince shows up, preceded by whacky circumstances and playful character names like Rudolph Hitler and Chris Miss. 

Cup of Cheer particularly recalls ironic David Wain parody comedies like They Came Together, a collection of one-liners and visual gags that amplify the genre while paying tribute to the gears and tropes that make storytelling possible. This takes the audience to bizarre and depraved places, like a baking montage that includes bleeding eyes, or a bathroom confrontation with shots of the antagonist wiping excrement onto his hands. These non-sequiturs move fast, poking fun at the tiny elements that make up the film and highlighting how our collectively ruined attention spans encourage cinema to be experienced subliminally. The picture outstays its welcome a little – tightening some of the longer sketches would have given the feature a healthier zip – but Cup of Cheer will rescue those tearing their hair out at saccharine holiday movies by offering a healthy dose of cynicism.

★★★★★

Ben Flanagan

Cup of Cheer is released digitally on demand on 7th December 2020.

Watch the trailer for Cup of Cheer here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

The Road Dance

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Rhino

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

The Innocents

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Benediction

★★★★★
Lauren Devine
Read More

This Much I Know to Be True

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Vortex

★★★★★
Joseph Owen
Read More

Father Stu

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Everything Everywhere All at Once

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Ben Flanagan

Cup of Cheer

★★★★★

Release date

7th December 2020

Links

TwitterInstagramWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • When You Finish Saving the World
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Marcel!
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Enys Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • The Stranger
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Eo (Hi-Han)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Tripping with Nils Frahm: An interview with the contemporary German composer
Finborough for Free: S-27 at Finborough Theatre | Theatre review