News

Even with Michael Dougherty’s Krampus invading theaters this year, Chris Kasick’s Uncle Nick will assuredly be the creepiest Christmas tale of the holiday season. Demonic elves and killer toys might get a few screams, but there’s nothing more horrifying than a drunken Uncle who’s contemplating some inter-step-family boinking. Mike Demski’s screenplay scrutinizes every family-get-together cliché in this Yuletide clusterf#ck, with the sleaze factor jacked up to sloppy, mythical levels of alcoholic debauchery. This is the family dinner every dysfunctional family dreads, especially if memories of Cleveland-based sports teams are only more cause for sadness. Forget about a bad Santa, this Christmas is all about one bad uncle.

Posehn stars as the lewd, crude, and far-too-jolly Uncle Nick, who kicks off his Christmas Eve with a whiskey Old Fashioned that never seems to find itself fully empty. His brother, Cody (Beau Ballinger), invites Nick over...

I’m not sure what your holiday traditions are, but in my family, it’s not Christmas until you’ve watched at least one movie that makes you realize your family is not that bad, because it could always be worse. I joking, of course, but let’s say “hypothetically” that I’m not.

For me, ever since I first saw National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation at an age probably too early to be watching the film, I’ve had a special place in my heart for Clark Griswold. A man with a good heart and no sense to navigate in the world. Year after year, I watch that film like a big eyed, innocent child all over again, and when Clark finally loses his shit in front of everyone, chugging back the adult egg nog, inside I’m saying “Amen, brother!”

What the Hell am I babbling on about,...

Uncle Nick could still turn out to be a black comedy yuletide classic, but it’s going to be foremost remembered as a piece of trivia as the only (first?) comedy that renowned documentarian Errol Morris ever produced (Uncle Nick director, Chris Kasick, is a regular actor in Errol Morris-directed commercials). In a resume that includes hard looks at genocide, war atrocities, and however you want to categorize the sexual mishaps of Tabloid, Uncle Nick’s broad black comedy looks particularly out of place, but maybe Morris knows something we don’t.

That said, the first green band trailer isn’t a particularly strong argument for the movie’s actual quality. It’s not a great first impression to release a sanitized, mildly suggestive trailer for a movie about a skeezy, obnoxious, foul mouthed drunk uncle, but the preview does serve as a good look at the ensemble cast...