Noel

A bunch of people having a miserable Christmas Eve find their lives intertwined – and possibly redirected – thanks to either serendipity or divine intervention. You decide. How you decide will probably determine whether you enjoy “Noel” (2004) or not. If you’re religious, or if you see a roomful of horse manure and feel certain someone gave you a pony, your faith will probably lead you to a thumbs-up. If you’re the type who’ll scratch their head as Susan Sarandon copes with workplace sexual harassment, party crashing, a dying mom and the prospect of pulling a George Bailey, pass on this one.

White Palace

If there was ever a role that seemed to have been created just for Susan Sarandon, it’s that of Nora Baker in “White Palace” (1990). You see, the thing about Sarandon is that both you and she know there’s plenty of women more beautiful than her, but her attractiveness strikes at a visceral level that you can’t understand or resist. So having her play a redneck St. Louis waitress to James Spader’s uptight Jewish yuppie is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, this rom-com lacks in com and while it presents interesting questions about class and privilege, the answer is clumsy and derivative.

A Bad Moms Christmas

Apparently, “Bad Moms” was such a surprise hit (as if it was still a surprise that in 2016, there was a market for R-rated shock-comedies starring women) that the makers got Mila Kunis and everyone else back together to crank out a sequel in a little more than a year. Even better (as in not better), it’s Christmas themed. So we have “A Bad Moms Christmas” (2017) trying to catch lightning in a chimney. But whereas the original had just the right amount of mommy pathos, this one overdoes things (sequels always do) by pitting the moms against their moms.