Bill Murray is doing a live Christmas TV special. But New York is snowed in and nobody’s showing up. But the show must go on. Or must it?
And there you have it. An hour-long Christmas special for Netflix, plus special celebrity cameos. And Bill Murray, the world’s greatest living actor.
While simultaneously being a throwback to cheesy, chintzy holiday specials from the TV days of yore, there is also a casual, measured and ever-present sardonic tone to this musical comedy extravaganza. Under the guiding, and entirely unexpected* directorial hand of Sofia Coppola, there’s a stillness to this, a contemplative, occasionally saddened mood to the proceedings. And at the same time, there’s Miley Cyrus in a Christmas mini-dress and George Clooney mixing up some martinis with Paul Shaffer.
Murray isn’t much of a singer, although that was always part of the schtick, especially when he played Nick the Lounge Singer in the early SNL days. His act, updated lo these many decades later is that he’s just that same old showman; an out of place relic from a time when an off-key crooner in a hotel showroom could get away with singing some yuletide standards without successfully managing the high notes.
In this special, made for the Netflix streaming service under the most capable handling of director Coppola, things are kept to a perfectly brief hour, and the cameos register as little more than that. Chris Rock, George Clooney and Miley Cyrus play themselves, essentially. Michael Cera and Amy Poehler play fictional showbiz phonies, while Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman and Rashida Jones show up to sing along with the fun of it all. It pays tribute to the Christmas specials of yore, all the while being an impressively knowing pisstake much in the way Colbert did this same thing a few years back with his A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! Funny, fun, and occasionally touching in just the right doses.
George Clooney, also not a singer, does a bit of singing behind a Christmas tree, but mostly along the lines of Santa wantin’ some lovin’. The whole thing is an extended bit, just a bunch of folks having some fun for the holidays. Nothing is at stake; we’re all in it because we said yes after a few too many vodka martinis.
Nobody gets embarrassed by the proceedings, it is in fact so goofy, so charming, and at times so classically old school and charismatic that it’s the kind of thing designed and executed to elicit broad smiles and thoughts of pure unadulterated whimsy. Miley Cyrus, by the way, has some very impressive pipes on her and does her tunes absolute justice. She’s great.
The whole thing is great, but much like your oft-cited Christmas confection, is not something to be taken seriously, or in large doses.
* Unexpected, probably in the same way it was unexpected that Coppola Sr would have directed a 3D Michael Jackson music video for a Disneyland ride in Captain Eo.