1994’s The Ref, starring Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, and Judy Davis, is a great way to kick off your Christmas movie schedule. Every year, I try to watch it, but I always try to watch it first. I wait for other classics like Elf, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Die Hard. It’s not because I love The Ref more, but because it’s so damn bleak. Of course, that bleakness is also what makes it brilliant.
There Aren’t Many Dark Comedies Around The Holidays
I love a good dark comedy, and those are in short supply on the list of the best Christmas movies of all time. Sure, plenty of Christmas movies have dark elements, like Cousin Eddie kidnapping Clark’s boss in Christmas Vacation, and Santa Claus in A Christmas Story. There are also darker comedies like another of my favorites, Scrooged, that end on a positive note. Few are truly dark all the way through, and The Ref is dark with a capital D, right up until it’s over.
Sure, you may point to movies like Bad Santa or 2022’s Violent Night (which is getting a sequel next year), but those are as much gross-out comedies as they are dark satire. The Ref kind of stands alone in that regard. It’s not gross or crude, it’s just bitingly satirical and, again, very dark. Kevin Spacey, for all his personal problems, is brilliantly cast as the feckless but angry husband to Judy Davis’ exhausted wife, and their on-screen chemistry is really what makes the movie work. Denis Leary is as funny in the film as he has ever been in anything.
Why Everyone Should Start The Holidays With This One
Last year, for a myriad of reasons, I didn’t have a lot of holiday cheer. One of the more minor reasons for that, I believe, is that I didn’t stick to my usual routine. I kick off every Christmas season by watching my favorite concert film, The Last Waltz, after Thanksgiving lunch, followed by Die Hard (or another ‘80s action flick set at Christmas) or The Ref that night. I then work my way through all my favorites over the three or four weeks leading up to Christmas, and usually end with A Christmas Story on Christmas itself.
Recently, I’ve come to realize that The Ref is really where I should always start (after The Last Waltz, of course), because it makes me grateful for how normal my family is around the holidays. It’s easy to forget that. It’s an emotional time of year, and it’s a stressful time of year. Work (at least for me) gets very busy, and combined with the pressures of holiday parties and shopping for gifts, it can get emotional. The Ref reminds me that things could be so much worse, even with a seemingly perfect family on the outside.
So, this year, I’ll be watching The Ref on Thanksgiving night before I go to sleep, and I’ll wait to watch Die Hard (which is available with a Hulu subscription) on Saturday as I set up my tree and hang the lights. Yippie-ki-yay!