Unseasoned director Vincenzo Conrorio helms 2024's The Christmas Brew. And yeah, it's not the most Christmassy movie with Christmas in the title. "Brew" is about beer though in spades, the same way last year's A Christmas Vintage was about well, wine. "Was there ever a world in which I got to keep running my brewery?" Easy there big guy, good times ahead.
The Christmas Brew, well it's like watching a holiday flick where you ditch the cutesy hat, nuzzle the slow burn, and go for the more entrancing, silly season spectacle. I mean there's a little less Yuletide schmaltz and a little more at stake in terms of the fate of its characters. Every frame feels like small town, Upstate New York (because it is). Every scene involves the actors in various pregnant pauses, as live and/or otherwise, coffee shop music inhabits almost every bit of background noise. Heck, I was waiting for the owner of Starbucks to pop up on screen via some shameless plug. In case y'all didn't know, the biggest roastery reserve in the world does occasionally serve the suds in various locations.
So yeah, "Brew" stars Kaitlyn Lunardi, James Liddell, and Jeremy Cohen. Now for all intensive purposes, is the film a romcom where the two leads get their googly eyes on and take forever to rendezvous? Sort of but not really (if that makes any sense). And is "Brew" more about the corporate takeover of a business where it's you know, "just business?" Ding ding ding! Give the man a prize. The Christmas Brew has a diegesis where a consultant tries to help purchase a local, ale-making establishment only to later find out that her company plans to turn it into a gas station and/or a quasi, 7-Eleven (ugh). "Sweetheart, I don't think you understand how this racket works". Okay Gordon Gekko, whatevs. "Brew" up.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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