Warren Cantrell

There’s an odd, weirdly cozy relationship between Christmas and crime, at least in cinema. Hollywood’s scribes churn out “holiday” films on the regular, and since conflict drives story, nefarious doings often get stirred into the plot-stew of Yuletide yarns. Today’s list ranks the various Christmas capers that have popped up in Christmas films throughout the years, and judged them based on their creativity, ultimate success, and quality of presentation.

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Today we celebrate every toker, smoker, and joker who ever had the mantle of responsibility thrust upon them in film, and rank them based on the success they experienced navigating their various situations.

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Today’s list is an exploration of all the known truths of the Terminator universe, for while the quality of each installment has varied over the years, certain commonalities have not.

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Feig’s ability to breathe fresh air into a somewhat stale concept bodes well for his and Ms. McCarthy’s expected reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise, which might very well succeed if it is as sharp and creative with its writing and comedy set pieces as Spy is.

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Currently playing at the Seattle International Film Festival, and riding high on the laurels won at Cannes and the Caesars (Adèle Haenel won Best Actress at both), Love at First Fight is a light, interesting, gorgeous, and ultimately successful take on the familiar rom-com standard.

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Currently playing at the Seattle International Film Festival, A Blast is anything but, and only hints at something potentially special beneath all the misshapen debris.

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Mr. Bacon’s time in Hollywood has been defined by humility, hard work, dedication to his craft, and a selfless commitment to every professional endeavor, big or small. As he worked the red carpet leading into Seattle’s historic Egyptian Theater, all of this professionalism and good-natured courtesy was on display.

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Showing at SIFF 2015 now, the doc License to Operate examines the volunteer organizations that have formed in L.A. in an effort to curb violence and create lasting lines of communications between the neighborhoods and civic officials (police included).

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In My Skinny Sister (Swedish: Min lilla syster), Swedish pre-teen Stella (Rebecka Josephson) is having a hard enough time navigating the minefield that is adolescence without the passive torment doled out by her big sister, Katja (Amy Deasismont).

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Set Fire to the Stars stars Elijah Wood as real-life poet John Brinnin, who in 1950 arranged the first American reading tour for the Welsh literary legend, Dylan Thomas (Celyn Jones).

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Currently playing at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, Breathe Umphefumlo is a witty, thoughtful, and enjoyable take on a classic opera standard.

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Currently playing at the Seattle International Film Festival, Cub follows a troop of Belgian boy scouts on an excursion into the French countryside for a multi-night camping trip.

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2015’s opening night revelry lived up to this proud, boozy tradition, and got yet another festival underway with a bloody, profane spy-themed comedy that set a magnificent tone for things to come.

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Currently playing at the Seattle International Film Festival, Personal Gold is a personal experience gilded in the minds of those who participated and filmed it. For anyone else watching, it’s an infomercial wrapped in a rote exercise in pedantic feel-good documentary filmmaking. This is like going to a baseball game that has a 20-minute time-share pitch before the first at-bat, and again between every half-inning.

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Currently playing at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, fans of dark, twisted, mean-spirited Sci-Fi could do a hell of a lot worse than Circle.

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