Films are baked into the fabric of Press Play, so we’re going to pass the microphone around the staff. Meet everyone who makes this show happen, and hear about the holiday movies we can’t live without.
Madeleine Brand, host: Bridget Jones’s Diary
This takes place in a year, beginning and ending on Christmas. It’s basically Cinderella with lots of alcohol, cigarettes, and sexist lechery. Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is torn between love interests Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
“I love how the movie winks with both eyes — it's not subtle at all — at Pride and Prejudice. Bridget Jones’s Diary isn't technically a Christmas movie because it came out in April of 2001, a few months before 9/11 and everything else that followed. Looking back, it seems like the end of the Bill Clinton-Tony Blair good times. And that big old Hallmark movie-like romantic clinch and fake snow at the end of the film, it's a cliche, but it just feels right. It's the perfect Ender. Wait a minute.”
Brian Hardzinski, senior producer: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Steve Martin plays a buttoned-up, priggish marketing exec named Neal Page, who keeps running into a boorish, obnoxious fellow traveler named Del Griffith (John Candy). Everything that can go wrong — does go wrong. That includes flight delays, train breakdowns, and being forced to share a single bed in a hotel room with a stranger.
“There are so many laugh-out-loud moments. … I think my favorite is John Candy driving them both into oncoming traffic, but neither of them realize it. But in the end, this movie has so much heart. As annoying as he is, Dale is just so vulnerable, and relatable, and really an authentic person. And Neal, who spends the entire movie wound way too tight, learns to accept people as they come, and find some good even in a person that you just can't stand. A good lesson for every holiday season, but especially this one.”
Robin Estrin, fill-in producer: The Daytrippers
Stanley Tucci and Hope Davis play a husband and wife who seem really happy — until the morning after Thanksgiving, when he goes into the city for work, and she finds a love letter addressed to him from someone she doesn't know. She enlists her close-knit and dysfunctional family to track him down and find out what’s going on with him and their marriage.
“It has something that a lot of movies that get made today completely don't have, and that's a good, simple plot, and a run time under two hours. What it says about relationships will make you laugh and break your heart.”
Stephen Gregory, managing producer: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Charlie Brown, who complains about all the materialism during Christmas, directs the school’s holiday pageant, per Lucy’s suggestion. He struggles to get everyone in the right spirit — and the wilty, skeleton Christmas tree he finds is no help. In steps Linus, with his signature blue blanket, to give the tree some life and help teach everyone the meaning of Christmas.
“Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, of course, scored the story … with signature arrangements of Christmas carols like O’Tannenbaum, but he also added original compositions like the iconic Linus and Lucy. I think my favorite song from the show was another original composition called Skating.
I grew up in Michigan, where the snow used to start falling in November and wouldn't let up until April. The animation of Charlie Brown Christmas captures the barren trees, snow drifts, and frozen lakes that were my playground in the winter. And the song Skating perfectly evokes the excitement of that first big snow.”
Eddie Sun, Report LA fellow and fill-in producer: A Christmas Story
This follows Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), a boy who’s yearning to get the Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas. He doesn’t get along with his dad, his mom dotes on him, and the neighborhood bully is always trying to get him.
“My parents immigrated from China, so the whole concept of the holiday season, with all the lights, the music, and this time to show love and warmth and gratitude, the whole thing was foreign to them. That's why A Christmas Story stood out to me when I watch it. I think that's what a true blue American Christmas looks and feels like.
And also, there's a part of the movie that I always remember. It's not when Ralphie unboxes the Red Ryder rifle, and it's not the triple dog dare, nor the lamp that looks like a sultry leg. It's when the family ends up at a Chinese restaurant and orders a Chinese turkey, which was just a roasted duck. Sure, it was quite distasteful, and it aged pretty horribly. But it was through that scene where I learned something that I think is truly American: Even when everything else is closed, the Chinese restaurant stays open, even on Christmas.”
Nihar Patel, freelance producer: Trading Places
In this comedy, Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is a haughty investor who gets framed as a criminal, then a down-on-his-luck con artist, Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy), is chosen to take over Winthorpe’s positon. Their swap is all concocted by two millionaires taking bets. When Winthorpe and Valentine find out, they get revenge.
“The movie also manages to make commodities futures trading not only interesting, funny and suspenseful, but also super vicious. Aykroyd and Murphy team up to take on the rich old guys by trading something called frozen orange juice futures. I didn't know what those were then, and I don't know what those are now, but it was super entertaining to watch them win.”
Angie Perrin, producer: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
In this 1974 animated TV special, a newspaper letter in the town of Junctionville questions Santa’s existence, so Saint Nicholas cuts the town from his toy delivery route. The letter writer (a mouse), his dad, and a local clockmaker try to win Santa’s favor again by building a singing clock tower.
“Honestly, I haven't been into Christmas movies since I was a kid. So I'm struggling to come up with anything. And I turned my mom, and I'm like, ‘Do you remember my favorite?’ She starts singing [‘Christmas Chimes Are Calling Santa’]. I immediately flashed back to being a little girl, watching an entire town sing that song in hopes that Santa wouldn't pass them over, otherwise they wouldn't have Christmas at all.”
Zeke Reed, fill-in producer: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
This live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ book stars Jim Carrey as the aloof green Grinch who steals everything Christmas-related from the cheery citizens of Whoville. But his icy personality stars to melt when he meets Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen).
“I relate to the Grinch. Watching The Grinch as an adult, I now pick up on the underlying political critiques of materialism, religious fundamentalism, and capitalism. He's a degrowth environmentalist. He's anti-gluttony and food waste. And he calls out the endless greed that props up the system. Sadly, though, in the end, it seems the Grinch too gets co-opted into false Christmas consciousness. So go ahead, call me a Grinch, just as long as you mean before he too got brainwashed.”
Sarah Sweeney, director of talk programming at KCRW and a manager of Press Play: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
“[The original animation] reminds me of my mom, I love the music and adorable little Cindy Lou. But I've grown surprisingly fond of the Jim Carrey live-action version in recent years. My husband Chris and I watched it for the first time a few years ago. I thought it was pretty good. I'm kind of a Grinch purist. But he thought it was absolutely hilarious. Chris isn't a super Scrooge by any means, but he's not exactly Mr. Holly Jolly either. So to see him crack up at Jim Carrey's over-the-top Grinch really warmed by heart. And we've watched that version together every year since.”
Mario Saavedra, technical director: Die Hard
This action classic takes place on Christmas Eve, when NYC cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) visits his estranged wife and their kids at her workplace holiday party. However, terrorists swoop in, and McClane must save the day.
“I know it's not a traditional holiday movie, but hey, it takes place on Christmas Eve, and it has everything, right? It's got action, comedy, and memorable lines. It's fun, entertaining, and tells a great story.”
