It’s a bit early for Christmas films. Some of our neighbors haven’t yet taken down the spiders and skeletons in their yards, and the weather has just barely started to turn cold. Most Americans are more concerned with finding the right turkey for Thanksgiving than they are with searching for holiday films to put them in a Christmas mood. Like it or not, the season for watching Home Alone, Elf, and It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time is just around the corner, and this year, the season brings with it a brand new Christmas film that might just become a family classic: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. The Overview Life in Emmanuel would be a utopia for young Beth Bradley and her brother Charlie if it weren’t for the five Herdman kids. A wild crew at best and bound for the state penitentiary at worst, the Herdmans steal and lie with impunity, set fire to decrepit wood sheds, and take school lunches without so much as a thank you. The only place the Herdmans don’t go is church, that is until Charlie tells them there are snacks to be had at Sunday school. When they don’t evaporate in a cloud of smoke — something Charlie was quite sure would happen the minute the Herdmans walked through the door — they promptly volunteer for all the lead parts in the town’s 75th Annual Christmas pageant, directed for the very first time by Beth’s mom, Grace (Judy Greer). The whole situation puts Grace in the very difficult position of facing down the church’s uppity moms while pulling off a production where “Mary” doesn’t puff on a cigar and the manger isn’t set on fire. It’s only when settling down for the very first rehearsal that Grace realizes she has a much more serious problem on her hands: The kids who volunteered to play Mary and Joseph have never even heard the Christmas story. When they do, they advocate for a scene in which they hang King Herod. The Review The film is based on a book of the same name, and the story has already been committed to the screen (a Christmas special back in 1987), but this rendition adds much-needed depth to the characters in a way that mostly prevents the film’s conclusion from feeling contrived. Usually, Christian films like this one suffer from a signature fault: they tend to prioritize evangelism over storyline and ultimately do a bad job at both. Somehow, Dallas Jenkins (who is famous for his popular television series, The Chosen) managed to direct a film that prioritized telling a good story and therefore serves as good evangelism — for the most part. There are a few moments where Jenkins seems to have gotten very excited about the message and wanted to make sure that the audience got the point, but the film is self-aware enough for the audience to write it off as all in good taste. The film is downright funny and manages to accomplish that very difficult thing we all loved about old Disney films. There’s humor for the kids, and there’s humor for their parents. The film engages in the kind of comedy Roald Dahl employed in The BFG and Harriet Lothrop perfected in The Five Little Peppers and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Absurd things happen, and when they do, they’re both believable and funny. Then there are the choice (and well-chosen) lines for the parents that will make every wannabe church volunteer snicker just a little. It’s a conservative’s movie — there’s a nuclear family, a strong and delightful father figure, a Christ-based message, and not a hint of rainbow to be seen — but it doesn’t quite feel like it. Not only are the audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes overwhelmingly positive, but the critics couldn’t quite bring themselves to tear it apart, although Variety and the Hollywood Reporter did try. The stellar acting and heartwarming storyline have done well so far at the box office. During its initial week, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever earned $10.8 million across 3,000 theaters and has received warm praise from public voices like Lila Rose. It’s certainly worth taking the whole family to see the film this year in theaters, and it seems quite likely that The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will enter the canon of beloved family Christmas classics that find their way onto our screens at the end of every year. READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: Now That Trump Won, Catholic Bishops Have a Choice Amish for Trump AI Chatbots Lean to the Left. That’s a Problem for Elections. The post New Film Might Just Be the Next Christmas Classic appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.