Lifetime Christmas Movie Review: The Christmas Contract (dir by Monika Mitchell)

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

There’s a very clever scene at the beginning of The Christmas Contract.

Jack Friedman (Robert Buckley) is a writer who can’t get any of the big publishing houses to even take a look at his new book. However, Jack’s agent informs him that they might change his mind if he does some ghostwriting. One can see from Jack’s reaction that this is not the first time that he’s been asked to be a ghostwriter and it’s not something that he particularly enjoys. Still, because one does have to eat, Jack agrees.

His agent tells him that he’ll be ghostwriting the latest installment in a very popular but critically dismissed series of romance novels. He’s told to go read the previous book in the series and then to basically rewrite it, just changing a few details so that it can be advertised as a totally new book. He’s given a list of plot points that the publishers want to be included in the book. Again, it’s not particularly important how the plot points are integrated into the story. Instead, they just have to be there.

Moonlight dance? Yep.

Kisses under the stars? Yep.

Oh, and the book needs to take place in Louisiana.

Now, you don’t have to be a part of the industry to realize that, in this scene, Jack is serving as a stand-in for every writer who has ever been assigned to write a Hallmark (or, let’s just be honest here, Lifetime) Christmas movie. Don’t try to reinvent the season, just make sure that the basics are there. Pick a new location and you’re ready to go!

With that scene, the makers of The Christmas Contract are acknowledging that, “yes, this is another Lifetime holiday movie.” And yes, it’s going to remind you of a lot of other Lifetime holiday movies. But, that still doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it. After all, the appeal of a movie like this is to be found in its familiarity. In an often chaotic world, there’s something to be said for the comfort of a good, if predictable, romance novel. The same can be said of a Lifetime Christmas movie.

Anyway, it’s a good thing that the publishers want the book to be set in Louisiana because that’s where Jack spends his holiday. He’s actually accompanying a recently single woman named Jodie (Hilarie Burton) back to her home for Christmas. Because Jodie’s ex-boyfriend is going to be visiting with his new girlfriend, Jodie doesn’t want her family to know that she’s single. So, Jack pretends to be her boyfriend. They even sign a contract ahead of time. And, yes, you can guess exactly what ends up happening but, again, that’s kind of the point with a movie like this.

The cast, which includes several veterans of One Tree Hill, does a good job with the material but the true star of this film is the state of Louisiana. This film makes full use of the beautiful Louisiana landscape and the celebratory nature of the state’s culture. It may have been predictable but it was still enjoyable. Spending the holidays with Jodie, Jack, and the family looked like a lot of fun.

Film Review: Boyfriend Killer (dir by Alyn Darnay)

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the Lifetime film, Boyfriend Killer, there was a brief scene that I really liked and I think it epitomizes why I enjoyed this film and why I watch Lifetime films in general.

In the scene, Sandra Durro (Barbie Castro, who also produced this film) shares a hug with Krystal Kellers (Kate Mansi), her son’s girlfriend. The camera quickly cuts back and forth from Sandra’s face to Krystal’s face and the audience sees that both of them have the same look of irritation and loathing on their face. That really does get to a basic truth. A mom is never going to fully trust her son’s girlfriend. And a girlfriend is always going to suspect that her boyfriend’s mom is judging her.

Of course, Sandra has good reason to not fully trust Krystal. Boyfriend Killer opens with the death of Sandra’s son, Preston. Preston, who was handsome and charismatic and had a great life ahead of him, was killed in a car crash and Sandra suspects that it wasn’t an accident. When Sandra and her friend Carrie (Yancy Butler) are packing up Preston’s things, Krystal suddenly shows up and announces that she wants to help.

From the first minute we meet Krystal, there’s something off about her. She claims to be sad but her grief is almost too theatrical. It’s almost as if all she knows about being sad is what she’s seen in the movies. Add to that, Krystal claims that she and Preston were deeply in love, despite the fact that Preston rarely spoke about her. Krystal always seems to be sneaking around the house, searching for something. When Sandra gets near Preston’s computer, Krystal freaks out. Krystal explains that she and Preston both used that computer so if Sandra touches it, she’ll actually be invading Krystal’s privacy.

Well, what’s a mother to do?

It turns out that things between Preston and Krystal were never as perfect as Krystal claims. In fact, shortly before his death, Preston had told Krystal that he never wanted to see her again. Could that have had something to do with the fact that Krystal tried to convince Preston to kill her ex?

Sandra certainly thinks that it might. However, before Sandra can really pursue her suspicions, she has a funeral to attend, a funeral that Krystal makes all about her. It turns out that Krystal has an announcement to make, one that catches everyone by surprise…

Boyfriend Killer is a fun melodrama, one that pretty much epitomizes everything that we love about Lifetime movies. Barbie Castro is relatable and sympathetic as the grieving mother (you really want her to get justice for her son) and Yancy Butler provides good support as her friend. Kate Mansi, who played a similar role in Unwanted Guest, is a force of nature in the role of Krystal. Krystal is a familiar Lifetime character — the duplicitous temptress — but Mansi plays the role with such determination and drive that Krystal becomes a wonderfully hissable villain. Krystal is less defined by the bad things she does than by her total confidence that she’ll never get caught. You alternate between marveling at how far she’ll go and eagerly anticipating the moment when she gets her comeuppance.

Finally, I have to make special mention of Patrick Muldoon, who plays Sandra’s alcoholic ex-husband. To a certain group of pop culture fanatics, Muldoon will always be known as Jeff, the handsome college student whose smile and killer dance moves inspired Kelly to dump Zack on Saved By The Bell. (Hell, I would have dumped Zack for Jeff. Jeff’s in college, has a great smile, and is a manager at the Maxx. Zack’s in high school and spends all of his time with Screech.) And some are always going to think of Muldoon as being the doomed Zander Barclow in Starship Troopers.

However, over the past few years, Patrick Muldoon has given some seriously good performances. They haven’t gotten the attention that they deserve but he was excellent in both Patient Killer and Deadly Revenge. And he’s excellent here, playing a well-meaning guy who cannot shake his demons. It’s a good and poignant performance, one that elevates the film.

One of the great things about Lifetime is that they constantly rebroadcast all of their movies so keep an eye out for Boyfriend Killer!

Music Video of the Day: You Might Think by The Cars (1984, dir. Jeff Stein, Charlie Levi, & Alex Weil)

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Well, you might think this came out after A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), but you’d be wrong. That movie came out in November and appears to have had an early limited release in October of 1984 while this music video premiered in March of that year. If you didn’t know that, then you probably would lump this in with all the other films that were inspired by that movie. It even comes complete with a bathtub sequence. When I was younger this was just that other early computer graphics music video that goes along with Money For Nothing by Dire Straits, but never seemed to get as much play on MTV. That’s probably because The Cars didn’t explicitly mention MTV in the song. The music video actually has less in common with horror movies of its’ era, and relies on classic monster movies such as The Fly (1958), King Kong (1933), and Robot Monster (1953).

This was pretty ambitious for the time, coming in with a budget of $80,000, which according to Wikipedia was about three times as much as was spent on music videos of the time. It also did quite well that year at the VMAs, getting nominated for six awards. It won the first VMA for Video of the Year. It also won awards from Billboard and the Videotape Production Association’s Monitor Awards.

What is amazing to me is how many credits I found attached to this music video.

The obvious one is the girl. That’s Susan Gallagher. I love how her IMDb bio mentions all kinds of things like where she trained to act, that she was cast in commercials, was on the TV Show Safe Harbor, worked for The Home Shopping Network, etc. No mention that she just happened to be the star of one of the most well-known, revolutionary, and heralded music videos of the 1980s. You might think that would be something you would want in your biography seeing as it instantly disambiguates her from just any old actor for a large number of people. Even her “other works” section only mentions that she was a National Guest Spokesperson for Dirt Devil Products. She seems to have largely dropped out of acting till the 2010s. She appeared in I Killed My BFF (2015) on Lifetime and has even gotten into directing recently.

Robin Sloane was the creative director on the music video. She worked/works for Elektra Records. I can only find one more credit for her in mvdbase, but based on IMDb, I am betting she worked as a creative director and producer on more than just Violet for Hole and One for Metallica.

Sloane came onboard after director Jeff Stein showed her some visual effects work that was being done by the company Charlex. He’s worked on around 40 music videos including some other well-known ones such as Don’t Come Around Here No More for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and the hilarious Cherry Pie for Warrant.

The music video was also directed by two of the founders of Charlex: Alex Weil and Charlie Levi.

Alex Weil seems to have only worked on one music video, but apparently was a pioneer in the video medium in general. I was able to find two of his short films on YouTube.

I was able to find a few more credits for Charlie Levi. He wrote and directed the movie Childless (2008). I even found an interview with him about the movie.

If that interview is to be believed, then he worked on more music videos than just this one.

There appears to be some disagreement between sources, but I think we can just assume that Jeff Stein, Alex Weil, and Charlie Levi all produced the music video.

Danny Ducovny shot the music video. I can find only a few credits for him, but one of them happens to working as an “additional photographer” on the film Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987). I’m going to just assume that he shot the infamous scene from that movie. It makes me happy any time I can post it.

Yes, he also happens to be David Duchovny’s older brother despite the slightly different spellings of their last names.

Danny Rosenberg was one of the editors. I couldn’t find many other film credits, but he appears to have worked on two movies in the Wee Sing series. However, I do know what he does today thanks to his LinkedIn profile. He is now “Lord Protector/Chief Engineer” at Meta/DMA. According to their own website, they “write the code that makes the whole world sing.” This guy just can’t get away from working in things that sing one way or another.

The other editor was Bill Weber. There are a lot of Bill Weber’s on IMDb, but I am pretty sure that number III and V are him seeing as they both feature a bunch of LGBTIQ films along with working with Grateful Dead back in the 1980s.

Kevin Jones worked as the Lighting Director. Seeing as IMDb seems to have more Kevin Jones’ than they know what to do with, I have no idea what other credits he may have after this music video.

Bob Ryzner was the Art Director. I can’t find anything on him.

The only other credit I could find is for the company Charlex themselves who appear to have worked on the music video for Jealous by Beyoncé. I’m willing to bet there are many more, much like I completely believe that Robin Sloane was involved in more music videos as well.

That’s it! Enjoy this trip back to the early days of both music videos and computer animation going mainstream.