The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Review By Afdah
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Barbara Robinson's 1972 novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Made is not based on a true story, but the 2024 film amusingly ends with stills of certain characters and biographical captions informing us of what happened to each of them. I've managed to avoid every iteration of the Hardman multiverse in my 43 years. Stream this movie on Afdah Tv.
I know the theatrical adaptation is a staple on the table, boosting young resumes and boosting the finances of many community theaters for decades. I'd never read, seen or acted in it. I only found out about it after seeing this Lionsgate production and director Dallas Jenkins.
The story is set in one of those little towns you see in literature, with a population of about 50, where everyone knows everyone, and everyone only talks about the annual Sunday School Christmas play at church. To be honest, this year is the 75th anniversary of the game, so it's a big deal. When the longtime leader "fell" and broke both his legs, Grace agreed to take over. The aforementioned cowboys are six rambunctious kids living in a rundown house. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was abandoned. They insult teachers, steal, commit arson, bully, and are generally a terror to everyone. One day, they come to church when they hear there will be free food. One thing leads to another, and they end up winning amazing roles in the pageant.
The film is narrated by Lauren Graham, who plays the adult version of Grace's daughter Beth. Young Beth is played by the fantastic Molly Bell Wright. The child actors are all convincing, especially Beatrice Schneider as Imogene Hardman, who ends up playing the Virgin Mary, much to the annoyance of a girl who has played the Virgin Mary for the last few years but is now reduced to being part of the "Choir of Angels." The adult actors are entertaining as they play overblown, melodramatic, old-fashioned sitcom parents. They tackle every beat with honesty and never seem ashamed of doing what they do and do it their way.
In the last few years, we've seen the films Eat the Rich and Eat the Patriarchy. An unexpectedly relevant thread emerges from this 52-year-old book. You could call it "Eating the Cullens." It's an unbreakable mirror held up to the straitlaced, wealthy football, theater and other mothers who want things to continue as they were before, especially when their own children are the primary focus and profit from it. When they come together to voice their opposition to the Hardman family's involvement in beauty pageants, they say their sentences together, in turns, a few words at a time, as if they were part of the same person.
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