Silent Night

With a stunningly honest performance from the director’s son — Jojo Rabbit star Roman Griffin Davis — Silent Night balances the eccentricities of a Christmas get-together with nihilistic acceptance of certain doom, making for a film that’s both bleak and dryly funny.

Griffin has made a comedy, but she pulls no punches.

Most of Silent Night’s pleasures are to be found in the strength of its cast – Knightley, whose comic talent is frequently underused, can turn on a kind manic perkiness that’s as endearing as it is absolutely terrifying. It’s a smile that says, yes, if I ever were to murder you, they’d never find the body.

Griffin juggles her many characters well, and she’s very smart about weaponizing the coziness of Christmas movies to make uncomfortable points. Silent Night may wind up being a successful calling card for her (as a director if not as a screenwriter), but for all the beautiful wrapping, it’s mostly an empty box.

Writer/director Camille Griffin’s feature filmmaking debut is an ambitious but muddled mix of Christmas comedy and apocalyptic drama.

The characters, despite their histrionic representation of the wealthy class, are not compelling enough to carry the movie, nor are the horrors of the outside world fleshed out enough to frighten.

The film misplaces the root of our current existential dilemma, then covers it with tepid droll comedy and clunky melodrama.

Отличный фильм, только концовка разочаровала

Not quite funny as you'd expect, and not too bleak as it could be. 'Silent Night' struggles a lot with what it wants to be, and it shows during the whole film. Also, the anti-vaccines vibe, although unintentional, is kind of distressing. Either way, maybe it wasn't that good idea to question science with the posture of some of the characters. Still better than the insufferable 'Don't Look Up,' but pretty forgettable in the end.

Even with the good catalyst for all the events and stuff this film attempts, from the black comedy to its melodrama close to the ending. The mix is too cluttered that nothing manages to grab the spotlight enough for the narrative to have a better common thread. The highlights are the performances, but from there on out, Silent Night is a film that sounded more interesting in talk than in execution.

Silent Night is a black comedy without the comedy, there's some satire in here too but it's quite frankly stupid. This is a Christmas film that doesn't aim very high but manages to fall waaaaaay below the bar - 3 Xmas stars

Rarely been so annoyed by a film...I keep reading that the movie is anti-vaccine propaganda, especially post-Covid. You could see it that way if you want to. But I didn’t have that much willpower, at least. I think what’s really happening here is an attempt to pack the old Orwellian tune of self-determination versus external control into an overly satirical, black-humored setting—creating a classic anti-Christmas movie for all the cynics out there.Unfortunately, "Silent Night"—not to be confused with "Silent Night" (the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" remake) or "Silent Night" (the John Woo flick where the guy doesn’t say a word or something—the one that, funnily enough, has the exact same movie poster as "Violent Night", but I digress)—just doesn’t **** characters are unbearable; you’re practically waiting for them to take the pills so there’s finally some peace and quiet. The “black-humored” provocations and verbal sparring are all dull, unfunny, and don’t push any boundaries. The discussions about free will versus “what the government says” don’t ignite any real debate. Then someone must’ve hit shuffle on the Christmas playlist because every few minutes, a former hit song plays—from Michael Bublé to Boney M. The effects are also on Syfy-Tele5 level (even car headlights are computer-generated these **** me, though, the film doesn’t work because of its premise, which isn’t nearly as clever as the writer probably thought. And this is where the pandemic comparisons come back into play: If some people can completely lose their minds because a vaccine is being “forced” on them—a vaccine that PROTECTS them from a painful death—if they march in tin-foil hats and keep death lists, how am I supposed to believe that everyone unquestioningly follows the government and takes pills that will definitely KILL them? Especially in the age of fake news?There are a few positive things: Art was excellently played, as was the creepy cousin, and the kids in general were much better than the adult actors. The ending is predictable, but given everything I’ve said, I would rather have watched Art’s adventures as he tries to survive in a wasteland. The best moments in the film were the unexpected difficulties of familial suicides—it’s the kind of thing Monty Python could’ve pulled off, only better and funnier.Conclusion: 90 minutes can feel like an eternity.