This will likely be the last of the holiday movies this year, unless someone has a suggestion for a “New Year’s” movie that isn’t About Last Night.

Gratuitous full frontal nudity is fine, but when it also involves Rob Lowe during his cocaine days…*shudders*

This is my review of The Bruery Arbre:

Miracle on 34th Street, a movie capturing the imagination of children throughout every generation since Hollywood became a thing, primarily because they remade it multiple times

During Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade an old man with a beard admonishes the parade’s grand marshal:  Santa Claus.  Turns out the guy Macy’s hired to wear the suit was not up to par for this old man. After a brief kerfuffle Doris, the Macy’s corporate toad running the parade, lets the old man, named Kris Kringle, don the suit and be Santa Claus for the duration of the parade.

I love it when women wear …shoulder pads.

Turns out everyone loved the guy.  Doris then hired Kringle to be the department store Santa and as it turns out everyone loved the guy—until they didn’t.  Was he a pedophile, a sociopath, a mass murderer that kidnapped children to a secret location where they would be subject to unconscionable acts by the worlds elite?  Yes, but actually no.  They are very clear Kringle claiming to be the actual Santa Claus was completely insane and therefore could not in good conscious be allowed around children.  Put the old man in the nuthouse they said!

This is really a subplot, the main plot was focused around Doris’ daughter, coming around to the belief Kringle was exactly who he said he was.  This was actually a bigger deal in 1947 than it sounds because as it turns out Doris is a divorcee, a struggling feminist succeeding in man’s world (or something) and Kringle’s influence on her daughter would ultimately lead her and her daughter into becoming a Trad-wife (again). Doris filled the girl’s head with lies.  Its terrible, really.

Ultimately, this becomes headline news when the State of New York gets involved with determining Kringle’s sanity.  Doris’ neighbor, Fred, happens to be a lawyer that defends Kringle in court and ends up winning…by presenting as evidence the federal government recognized Kringle as Santa Claus.  By federal government, I mean the US Postal Service, who collected every letter in New York addressed to Santa Claus and sent it to his jail cell to be rid of the letters.

 

Can this be made again today?  Yes.  They remade it twice in the 1950’s, in 1973, re-released it in the 80’s after adding color, and again in 1994.  The most recent version starring the tycoon from Jurassic Park as Kris Kringle, the guy from Hamburger Hill as Fred, and the generic redhead that’s in every “family film” in the 90’s.  It was controversial for having deviated too much from the original story, having religious undertones, and the fact that Macy’s wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.  The trouble is our culture is now so obsessed with tolerating, if not celebrating “my truth.”  Anyone claiming to be Santa Claus is probably the most sensible sounding thing from the crackpots of today.  So there’s really no conflict to drive the plot forward.

Another thing I found interesting was the original was controversial in its time for portraying a divorced woman; Doris was played by Maureen O’Hara.  Even though she was in dozens of movies I only recognized her from three:  this movie, The Parent Trap, and Big Jake—all of which her character was divorced…or separated.  Jake was old school and simply abandoned his family like a real man.  This now is so commonplace its almost become unheard of for people to be married to one person for life.  I’m sure someone will get around to remaking it starring a fat lady (I’ll let you pick one) as Kris Kringle.

 

The Bruery puts out a ton of limited releases and I haven’t really come across one that I found disappointing.  Aside from the price, these tend to be around $25-$30 now.  Typically they specialize in Trappist styles, but this one from 2017 is more of a barleywine but not quite to that level.  There are three versions each corresponding to the level of char on the barrels used to age the beer.  These are not reused bourbon barrels, so its not a whiskey focused flavor.  Medium char, according to the brewer is the standout.  Certainly a holiday beer but good luck finding it. The Bruery Arbre: 4.7/5