A Very Murray Christmas

In the USA, where Consumerism is the true national religion, the mass media represent a cruel myth that life is like a Hallmark greeting card or a Joel Osteen fantasy, which inevitably leads most of us to feel something like Charlie Brown or George Bailey.

Paradoxically, the Charlie Browns and George Baileys of the world might like to spend an hour sitting on the sofa, listening to Xmas music, imagining a warm fireplace and snow outside the window, maybe tossing back a couple drinks or taking a little toke. Perhaps to indulge in a little nostalgia, or perhaps to pause and be grateful for food in the belly, a warm place to stay, and whatever friends or companions one actually has in this complex and difficult world.

Before the merchants and the religious fanatics seized upon it, the Winter Soltice was the pagan season of Yule, a time of song, feasting, alcohol and socializing. (Look it up if you don't believe me!)

This is a show of song, and of actors pretending to eat, drink and performing lightly comedic dialogue so as to simulate socializing. Additionally, this show takes pains to acknowledge the fact that real life is nothing like the saccharine shopping-mall mega-church fantasies which propel most Xmas season programming.

The banter and music are mostly amusing, sometimes even quite good, and there is even a hint of genuine sentiment at one point, but thankfully not overdone.

Sometimes you want a TV show that is not heavy or demanding, a kind of electronic fireplace to keep you (and hopefully a companion) company for the better part of an hour, and sometimes you need a little help getting through the holiday season. Some people find the videotronic images of Bill Murray and Paul Shaffer to be an amiable presence. If you are such a person and have a nominal appreciation for irony, this is a good show to watch.

This is the subversive Christmas special you'd expect from Bill Murray. It's not a FILM, with a PLOT, like so many (millenials?) are complaining about. Maybe they're too young to remember what an old-timey Christmas special was. It was some super-annuated celebrity picking up a cheque filming a Christmas special in mid-summer with the help of some Hollywood pals. But there are also a bunch of alleged Bill Murray fans complaining they wanted to see him in Ghostbusters or Groundhog Day character. What's the matter with you people? If you want to see Murray in those characters, rent those movies. The hint is right in the title - a Very Murray Christmas. Right? Bill Murray takes the Christmas special template, drains out the saccharine and injects his B-flat take on Christmas. Some pals come along for the ride but nobody is really who they seem to be. Is that Amy Poehler noted comedian or is she a character. Wiffled-spined Michael Cera is actually a wanna-be super agent. The waiters are a music group. The waitress is stunning and talented Jenny Lewis. And Miley Cyrus, who I wouldn't jump in to save if she was drowning in my bathtub, delivers a rendition of Silent Night that will have you re-evaluating all you thought you knew, loved and hated about that song. This is a Chistmas special for people who love Christmas once, probably hate it now but wished they still loved it, are driven to madness by shtty mall Christmas music, and maybe wouldn't mind being snowed in at a NY hotel bar with a guy like Paul Shaffer playing the piano while randoms join in and cheer each other by singing. As a guy who thinks the original Grinch cartoon is the greatest Christmas special ever shown on TV, and who thinks It's a Wonderful Life is Hollywood at its most crass, I will watch A Very Murray Christmas every December from now on, assuming I'm willing to cough up for Netflix.

Bill Murray worries no one will show up to his T.V. show due to a terrible snow-storm in New York City.

I may be rating this special a little low. It is hard to say, because I did not know going in to it what this would be, and I was somewhat disappointed that it was not funnier or more silly. It basically amounts to a series of special guests singing Christmas songs. Which is nice, but really nothing all too different from any other special, and seems like a waste of Murray's talent.

One thing I found the most confusing was that some people were themselves (Murray, Chris Rock, George Clooney) while others (Jason Schwartzman, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones) were not. Why not just have everyone be themselves?

Just saw this on DVD, a little more than a year after it came out. Sure, it is not that "funny" if you are expecting SNL level comedy, but I really enjoyed it. First, I had never heard the song "Christmas Blues" before. Not bad at all. And the later group performance of "Fairytale of New York" (originally by The Pogues from the late 1980's) was just great. (I guess I have to write a little more - right now my review is not long enough for IMDb.) It was interesting to see David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) of the New York Dolls. I see that he was also in the 1988 Bill Murray film "Scrooged". And I was not familiar with Jenny Lewis, but she is a very good singer. I got this on a whim, but am really glad that I saw it.

It's a strange thing: I don't think I would have taken so much of a liking to A Very Murray Christmas had I not avoided most of the Christmas music this season. Sometimes it's shoved in your ears in such a way that you can possibly feel blood running out (it may depend how much time you're stuck or need to go for some reason to the mall or certain stores where there's some madman's idea of a joke to keep Christmas music going, some of it recorded before your grandparents could walk). But I think by mostly not hearing too much of it this time - also I didn't see it last year when it premiered, and it'd be too hipster-ironic-dumb of me to see it during the summer - I quite enjoyed it. I might even go so far as to say it's one of the better things Sofia Coppola's directed... maybe ever?

That may speak to me not being a huge admirer of her films since Lost in Translation. But here, I liked that she was cutting loose and trying her hand at more improvisational comedy (if it was improv, some of it certainly feels that way and Murray gets a co-writing credit with Coppola) and at filming musical sequences. Except for the last few numbers near the end, when it turns into "dream sequence" time, she keeps her camera and cutting simple, not too showy, letting the performers take center stage. Does that mean all of these people sing well? Maybe not, but since I went in with somewhat low expectations, I was delighted to see the actors who I never thought could sing much - Maya Rudolph especially with a cover of 'Christmas Baby Please Come Home', and also Rashida Jones and whoever played the one waitress at the bar - so that made up for duds like Jason Schwartzman (and holy god that IS David Johansen!)

This has been fairly low rated, and I think I can understand what might be high expectations for such a thing; Bill Murray has been elevated to the status of a cultural icon over time (by hipsters, sure, and there's even a nod to that with the whole 'want your picture with me?' bit where Murray offers to the Jones character, a bride, that he does that sometimes, but also the general public), and so one might expect a lot of hilarity. I found myself laughing a lot through this because the tone is so loose and not really caring about pleasing anyone except themselves. I think I was hooked once Chris Rock showed up as the most reluctant 'No, I'm NOT singing' performer here, and while some numbers are stronger than others, the energy and fun is always there.

This all said, I don't know if I'd watch it more than once, at least for a while, and it certainly gets an extra point for including the Pogues 'Fairytale of New York' (if only it included Tom Waits's 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minnesota'!) and a surprisingly great turn from Miley Cyrus (the first time I connected with a performance of 'Silent Night' in as long as I can remember). But I wasn't going in expecting a whole lot, which may have been part of it, and yet at the same time I was impressed by what Coppola and Murray were able to pull off with a silly premise that everyone acknowledges is silly, and all led by Paul Shaffer who, come on, who doesn't like Paul? If you're in the right frame of mind (and not too burnt out) for Christmas covers and some bits of self-referential comedy, this is a nice slice.