Hot Frosty (2024)

December 4, 2024 5:31 PM

Widow Kathy (Lacey Chabert) magically brings a snowman, Jack (Dustin Milligan), to life. His innocence helps her heal and find love again. They bond before the holidays, but he's doomed to melt. Directed by Jerry Ciccoritti and written by Russell Hainline. Streaming on Netflix.
posted by edencosmic (15 comments total)

My friend asked me twice in two weeks if I'd watched this yet and I promised her I would. It's mostly the movie you expect, but it also has a decent amount of weirdness that makes it delightful.

Milligan gives such a loose and fearless performance. He's having fun. Chabert is a sweetheart and I felt weirdly taken in by the emotions of this movie.

It's not a masterpiece of cinema or anything -- it's still a Netflix Christmas movie -- but I liked it much more than I expected. It's now in my Christmas movie rotation. I'm glad my friend convinced me to watch it.
posted by edencosmic at 5:34 PM on December 4, 2024 [7 favorites]

The screenwriter wrote a review in Letterboxd and it's delightful.
posted by Omon Ra at 5:53 PM on December 4, 2024 [4 favorites]

We enjoyed it just fine. It’s a movie that knows exactly what it is and just goes with it. Good, uncomplicated, seasonal fun.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:17 PM on December 4, 2024 [5 favorites]

also on the blue
posted by chavenet at 6:40 AM on December 5, 2024 [1 favorite]

The Pitch Meeting video for this is hilarious.
posted by ceejaytee at 10:43 AM on December 5, 2024 [6 favorites]

IMO, the pitch meeting is better than the actual movie. They had an idea but had no idea what to do with it, or how to end it. Whatever. It's a silly holiday movie, and makes about as much sense as the Frosty the Snowman cartoon.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:49 AM on December 6, 2024 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed the meta-ness of the 'she looks like a girl I went to high school with' joke and the way that signalled exactly how seriously you are intended to take this movie (in case the title and everything else hadn't already done that).
posted by nangua at 2:25 PM on December 6, 2024 [3 favorites]

You know what? I unexpectedly enjoyed it without reservation.

I do think it would be a fun double-feature with Poor Things, just to contrast the two different directions a film can go with basically identical concepts.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:30 AM on December 8, 2024 [1 favorite]

So a couple things not mentioned above. Like a lot of these Christmas romances this one is made in Canada but this one in particular is made in the small town of Brockville Ontario (home to Canada's first rail tunnel, sadly not featured in the film) which I don't think any others have been, certainly none that feature the cute downtown as much as this one. This movie is directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, probably better known by normal people for his massive work on many Canadian made shows (Schitts Creek most Americans would know). However... he is also director of one of the great Canadian cult films Psycho Girls and the less perfect Graveyard Shift 1 & 2.

So saying that, I did enjoy this dumb film more than I care to admit (hey my tax dollars funded this so I have to watch it). And we made my kid watch it and they were deeply embarrassed for us, themselves and our fellow Canadians. My only complaint - hardly any Snowman body horror.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:49 PM on December 8, 2024

I saw this under possibly the best circumstances: we really wanted to watch a new holiday movie and had just bounced off of both Dear Santa and Nutcrackers.

This was familiar but not crassly rote, and had a silly premise that was presented unironically/cheerfully. It's bad, but in a knowing, harmless way, not a cynical agents-and-algorithms-fucking-hate-you way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:30 AM on December 11, 2024

"How does soup sound?" is now a frequently-reused gag in our house.

Very silly, very enjoyable.
posted by k3ninho at 4:19 PM on December 11, 2024

This was super fun. Milligan is an absolute delight, start to finish. Chabert also turns in a lovely performance, though she looks entirely too well put together in every single scene for someone who claims "I haven't been taking care of myself, my house, my personal life, since Paul."
posted by solotoro at 10:31 AM on December 17, 2024

My friend and I watched this last night and we were consumed by wanting world building for this weird, weird town. I mean, I’m used to all of these small towns that are obsessed with Christmas from other made for video/streaming Christmas movies, but the thing with the sheriff and the comment about their last murder being 100 years ago left both of us wanting to have fanfiction to explore this strange, strange town.

We also really needed to know who sculpted the hot snowman in the first place, which maybe was addressed but I missed? Still, I need to know. I was also amused by how there’s the Brooklyn Nine-Nine crew and then there’s the Schitt’s Creek crew/Canadian actors who guest star on everything, and then the random American who pops up—I’m glad everyone gets a chance now to do cheesy Netflix movies about Christmas-obsessed small towns that are also still somehow big enough to support shops with narrow, niche interests and large schools and streets filled with shoppers at the holiday.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 11:19 AM on December 23

I was never on board the "Love, Actually" train but I recognize the need for a single holiday romcom to rule them all. This is that romcom.
posted by rikschell at 5:28 AM on December 28

I finally got around to watching it and for a movie with a completely "this is for the lulz" premise (I love Russell Hainline), it WORKS. It works like While You Were Sleeping works, when that shouldn't either. Everyone rolls with the crazy pretty much immediately. The ladies are horny. Joe Lo Truglio is a fun delight. Craig Robinson is rocking the crazy. But especial props have to go to Dustin Milligan for making this character work. He may start out fresh and new, but I'm not kidding when I say this guy grows up quickly (I said on TV Tropes he has a superpower of being able to pick up all these skills via television) and somehow manages to have more thoughtfulness, respect, and emotional depth after a few days than most regular adult human men do after decades of growing up the usual way.

It's just totally warped yet endearing, even if you're all "that doctor is the least curious person ever" and "how do y'all know a snowman is dead if he didn't actually melt?" and "how are they going to get legal ID for this guy?" (Plus I feel sorry for the actor for being that cold and that thin and rolling in snow and eating ice cubes.) This was seriously like the best holiday movie I saw all year, GO FIGURE.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:10 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]