{"id":8178,"date":"2024-11-10T13:44:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T18:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8178"},"modified":"2024-12-15T18:37:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T23:37:25","slug":"the-best-christmas-pageant-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/10\/the-best-christmas-pageant-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Dallas Jenkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ryan Swanson, Platte Clark and Darin McDaniel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dan Haseltine and Matthew S. Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: C. Kim Miles\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 8, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Judy Greer, Pete Holmes, Molly Belle Wright, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, Beatrice Schneider, Mason D. Nelligan, Matthew Lamb, Ewan Wood, Essek Moore, Kynlee Moore, Nolan Grantham, Kirk B.R. Woller, Lorelei Olivia Mote, Danielle Hoetmer, Mariam Bernstein, Lauren Graham.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I never heard of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever <\/strong>until I saw the preview. I didn\u2019t know it was a best-selling book. I didn\u2019t know it was made into a TV movie starring Loretta Swit and a young Fairuza Balk. I knew nothing about it at all. To me, it looked like a movie you\u2019d seen on the Christian equivalent of the Hallmark Channel. The only missing was Candace Cameron Bure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I also didn\u2019t expect The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/strong> to be as good as it is. I didn\u2019t expect to be moved as much as I was. Yet there I was, sitting in the theater, fighting back a few tears as it reached its predictable happy conclusion. How could this be, I thought? Me, a guy who lives for cinematic bloodbaths like Terrifier 3 and Violent Night, how is this happening? The truth is I\u2019m a softie at heart. I enjoy corny sentimental holiday movies (almost) as much as copious amounts of gore and mayhem. There, I outed myself, are you happy?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in an indeterminate past (sometime in the 70s most likely), the story takes in the small town of Emmanuel where everybody looks forward to the annual Christmas pageant at the town church, the hub of social activity. Alas, not all is perfect in the otherwise idyllic town. Everybody, even the adults, live in fear of the Herdmans, described by the narrator as \u201cthe worst children in the world\u201d. They do it all. They steal, curse, smoke cigars, set fires, push other kids around and generally cause mayhem wherever they go. The worst is the oldest sibling and ringleader Imogene (Schneider). She makes life miserable for classmate Beth (Wright) who prays to God to make the Herdmans go away. If only it was that easy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Well, they say The Lord works in mysterious ways. Nobody could have expected the events that transpire. It all starts when the woman who\u2019s directed the pageant for many years has to bow out due to an injury. Beth\u2019s mom Grace (Greer, Halloween) volunteers to take the reins as a way to show the town\u2019s super-moms she\u2019s good for more than bringing the cookies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, little brother Charlie (Rodriguez) tells one of the Herdmans he gets all the desserts and sweets he wants at Sunday school. This prompts the whole brood to show up at church one Sunday. Then they hear about the pageant. Imogene has never heard the Nativity story before. None of them have. Once they do, Grace decides she wants to play Mary. She also wants her brother Ralph (Nelligan) to be Joseph, her other three brothers- Claude (Lamb), Leroy (Wood) and Ollie (Moore)- to play the Wise Men and baby sister Gladys (Heiman) as the angel who speaks to the shepherds. Strangely enough, none of the other kids volunteer to play the parts. Grace puts the Herdmans in the play much to the horror of the whole congregation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Beth, and everybody but Grace, is convinced the unruly Herdmans will ruin the pageant. It\u2019s what they do. It\u2019s an especially important one with it being the 75th<\/sup>. The town\u2019s sourpuss super-moms want Grace to kick them out of the pageant. Grace won\u2019t budge. She believes they\u2019ll come through. They\u2019ve already shown interest in the story in expressing their desire to kill off King Herod for sending people to kill baby Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will grant that the Herdmans are a wild bunch. Why wouldn\u2019t they be? They have no adult supervision at home. Dad is gone and Mom works all the time. Of course they\u2019re going to raise hell. However, I can think of one kid that\u2019s worse than any of them. That would be Alice (Mote), an annoying goody-two-shoes who writes down all the bad things the other kids do so she can report back to her mother (Hoetmer), the head super-mom. She\u2019s played Mary for the past three pageants and resents being replaced by a Herdman. This is the kid that deserves to be smacked. She\u2019s a brat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of course, nobody gets smacked in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/strong>. It doesn\u2019t get more violent than a snowball fight and a few exaggerated threats from the Herdmans. This is a movie that honors its PG rating and keeps it sacred. There\u2019s nothing remotely sexual, crude or vulgar. No drugs or alcohol. A kid is seen smoking a cigar. In terms of language, a few utterances of \u201cMy God!\u201d is as rough as it gets although there is one scene depicting one of the Herdmans cursing out his teacher, but you only see his mouth moving while the other kids look on in shock.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen), The Best Christmas Pageant Ever <\/strong>is one of the sweetest Christmas movies I\u2019ve seen in a long time. It\u2019s very well-intentioned. It sends a nice message about acceptance, understanding, compassion and not judging others. It also has something to say about the true meaning of Christmas. I can\u2019t recall a single mention of presents or Santa. It\u2019s all done without the slightest trace of cynicism, commercialism or condescension. Even better, it\u2019s done well. All of the acting is good. That is to say, none of it is bad. Schneider is especially good as Imogene, a preteen who has a good reason for wanting to play Mary. Her transformation as she gets into her role is convincing. Her performance in the pageant will bring tears to your eyes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really have no reason to come down on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/strong>. it\u2019s a nice movie, a very nice one at that. Sure, some of the church ladies are catty and judgy, but all is right with the world by the time the kids take their final bow. I like that we\u2019re told what becomes of the Herdman kids later in life. I love that The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/strong> is so positive. I still enjoy a good holiday bloodbath, but it\u2019s nice to balance them out with a piece of Christmas candy.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Dallas Jenkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ryan Swanson, Platte Clark and Darin McDaniel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dan Haseltine and Matthew S. Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: C. Kim Miles\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 8, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Judy Greer, Pete Holmes, Molly Belle Wright, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, Beatrice Schneider, Mason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Best-Christmas-Pageant-.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10402,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions\/10402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}