Happy Holidays everyone! To celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, I've decided to complete a daily review series of 12 Christmas movies leading up to the big 12/25. To qualify, the movies have to be tied to Christmas in some way and also something I've never seen before. I'll be going in chronological order. So, without further ado, if you got chestnuts, roast 'em - and enjoy my 12 Days of Christmas Movies!
Rare Exports
Dir. Jalmari Helander
Though there have been a great many movies with unique depictions of Santa Claus over the years, I think Rare Exports takes the cake for having the weirdest. Starting out almost like John Carpenter's horror classic The Thing, we find that the real Santa has been encased in the icy mountains of Finland for decades and a rich, eccentric billionaire has hired a construction unit to uncover Santa's tomb. Meanwhile, a clever young boy, Pietari (Onni Tommila) and his down-on-his-luck dad (Jorma Tommila) live in the mountains, hunting deer for the season to make ends meet. But when they find that the deer have been slaughtered by an unknown force, and a mysterious, bearded man shows up, soon it's not just the deer that are in danger...
Despite its insane premise, Rare Exports plays it straight and never winks at the camera. Its style feels more in the vein of an 80s-era Spielberg adventure like ET or The Goonies than a spoof. It's told from a strong child's point of view with a layer of drama underlying the chaos, such as a moment where, on Christmas Eve, all Pietari and his dad have to eat for dinner are gingerbread cookies. There are many twists and turns along the way, playing with our conceptions of "Santa mythology" in fun ways (I don't want to give it away, but this movie's depiction of elves is... stark).
It's also a surprisingly beautiful-looking movie, with a magnificently festive use of color and light. There are so many strong visuals that it's one of those times where the subtitles could be turned off and you'd still be able to tell exactly what's going on. The visual inventiveness on display here has a cartoonish quality (in a good way) and reminded me of early, pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson. I'm actually surprised this director hasn't really struck up a bigger career.
Rare Exports is short and sweet at just under 80 minutes, not overstaying its welcome, and makes me hope that Jalmari Helander finds his "breakthrough" down the line. Definitely a nice little "stocking stuffer" for anyone into weird-ass Christmas movies.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Trailer:
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