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With its foul language, gross and inappropriate humor, violence, dark tones, and perversions of many of the things we've come to find warmth in about Christmas, this movie became something I will treasure watching every December. I know that many have a saccharine sweet view of all things religious and corporate that surround the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and/or the exchange of presents in a spending frenzy where people far more on others than they would on themselves in hopes that the gifts they get in return will be at least halfway decent. I guess that last statement betrays some of my stance, though not as you might think.

I find Christmas to be like a typical movie. Most of the build up is torture. You have to cram for mid-terms, shop for all of your friends (and in the process start making tough decisions about who you really aren't friends with anymore), fight crowds at malls, and maybe put up with a snowstorm or two. As the 25th gets closer, that stuff gets compiled with travel plans, time-off requests, arrangements as to who is visiting who, where they will sleep, and often the decision as to bringing an outsider in to meet a family that, get along or not, they will be putting up with for at least a few hours, if not days. Making wish lists, scraping together extra cash, decorating the house in sub-freezing temperatures, it all makes the holidays a living hell more often than not.

Then, somewhere along the way, just as things seem to be their bleakest, you're sitting in a food court finishing up some fries, or lost on some backroad detour because there was some accident on the ice, and all of a sudden you get that first hint of the joy of Christmas. It's usually a surprise, at least for me. The radio station plays a Christmas song you'd forgotten about but always liked. You see lights on somebody else's house. The snow coming down isn't a nuisance. It's beautiful. You know there's still a lot of hell to go through, but somehow you've been reminded of why we all do it year after year.

Then Christmas Eve rolls around. You have the next day or so off. You're done shopping, done classes, done doing everything except the good stuff. Seeing the look on somebody's face when they open what you got them, and even if they don't like it, you can appreciate the obvious white lie. Cookies and eggnog. Getting presents from people. A nice fire. The music, the classic movies, and if you're lucky maybe a little surprise under the mistletoe.

This movie captures that in the way "Christmas Vacation" and "The Ref" always have for me. All of the chaos, the arguing, the complications, the failures, building up to that point where despite everything that's gone to pieces around you, there's a moment in our messed up lives to step back and look at what's good. I can't say this is an entirely happy movie. Actually, it's fairly twisted and dark. You know what? So were a lot of my Christmases. Now I'll have another star to guide me when those hit.