Hanukkah On The Rocks | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hanukkah On The Rocks is this year’s Hallmark Hanukkah movie. I am so glad that it wasn’t Leah’s Perfect Gift. That would have been sad.

Tory (Stacey Farber) is a lawyer who gets laid off shortly before the first day of Hanukkah. While debating where to go with her life, she finds herself temporarily bartending at Rocky’s, a local dive bar. With the help of bar regular, Sam (Marc Summers), and his son, Jay (Daren Kagasoff), Tory figures out what is really important to her.

Most of the time, I find the annual Hanukkah movie to be better than some of the Christmas movies. And this year is no different. I loved that Hanukkah isn’t just a background holiday that happens to be celebrated as the plot progresses. No, there are actual celebrations with lighting the candle each night, kids playing dreidel, and Tory creating specialty themed cocktails. And since the bar was celebrating every night, they welcomed all of their patrons to celebrate, not just the Jewish ones. It was so refreshing after the awfulness of Leah’s Perfect Gift.

The only negative I have for the movie is the secondary conflict between Tory, Jay, and Sam. I don’t want to spoil that part of the plot but I really don’t understand why Jay got upset about it. Especially at Tory. It was another of those “Why didn’t you tell me this?” - “Because they asked me not to!” types of conflicts and I hate those. Don’t blame the person who was asked not to tell. Blame the person that did the asking. Thankfully, it’s not the main conflict and it’s solved pretty quickly. So it doesn’t really ruin the beauty of the rest of the movie.

Rating: Can we get non-alcoholic versions of those drinks?

Round And Round | 2023 Christmas Movies

Every year, Hallmark releases one Hanukkah movie. This year it is Round And Round.

It is night seven of Hanukkah. Rachel (Vic Michaelis) is going to her parents’ Hanukkah/anniversary party. At the party, her grandmother gives her a dreidel to use in the cousins game. After spinning the toy, Rachel gets stuck in a time loop, reliving day seven over and over.

Frequently, Hallmark’s Hanukkah movies are my favorite of the season. And this year is no different. We’ve seen a lot of time loop movies that use the same tired old tropes. The big difference in Round And Round is that Rachel doesn’t rely on herself to figure out how to end the loop. Not only does she use love interest, Zach (Bryan Greenberg), she also uses his friend, Seth (Amitai Marmorstein). As the nerdy characters, they bring forth all of their pop culture knowledge to figure out which time loop story will solve her problem. It brings a different sort of camaraderie that we don’t see too often. I thought it made the movie quite enjoyable.

Rating: I would live in that time loop. More donuts please!

Hanukkah On Rye | 2022 Christmas Movies

I feel bad putting Hanukkah On Rye under the Christmas movie banner because it’s not a Christmas movie. But, alas, we only get one Hanukkah movie per year.

Jacob’s (Jeremy Jordan) family runs a Jewish deli in California. Looking to expand the business, he travels to New York City to sign the lease for a second location on the east coast. He meets Molly (Yael Grobglas), whose family runs the oldest Jewish delicatessen in New York City. When their grandmothers sign each of them up to be paired with a soulmate through a Jewish matchmaker, the duo are unwillingly paired with each other. Will opening a competing deli ruin their budding love?

Jeremy Jordan is an amazing actor. I don’t think I have ever not liked one of his projects. Little did I know that Yael Grobglas would be a perfect pairing with him. A lot of times in Hallmark movies, it feels like the actors are just reading lines. These two feel like they ARE the characters. It was so perfect.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away, even though there aren’t really any surprises here. But I do think you should watch it. This may be one of the best holiday movies on the Hallmark roster this year.

Eight Gifts of Hanukkah | 2021 Christmas Movies

I think next year I might reclassify the “Christmas movie” reviews as “Holiday movie” reviews. There’s usually only one Hanukkah movie per year shoved in the middle of the pile of Christmas movies but I would love to branch out into movies about other holidays. If those movies exist, anyway. Give me some recommendations about not-Christmas movies!

Sara (Inbar Lavi) is an optometrist who is looking for love. Her long-term relationship ended four months ago and she’s about ready to get back into the dating pool. She has met two men that she is considering dating but on the first night of Hanukkah, an anonymous suitor leaves a present on her doorstep with promises of seven more gifts to come. Is the mysterious man her ex, one of the two men courting her, or someone she has overlooked since childhood?

Eight Gifts of Hanukkah was a sweet movie. Granted, I spent way too much time wondering where I knew Inbar Lavi from but that is my problem, not the movie’s. (The answer is Lucifer. She played Eve.) I found her to be a great leading lady. She has this ability to pull off wide-eyed innocence yet not make the character look childish. She is also very good at bringing that feeling of nostalgia when you look at a sentimental item. I’m not sure how she does is but she made me miss her grandmother and we only know the character from an old picture!

This movie isn’t for someone wanting to learn more about Hanukkah. Head over to the 2019 movie Mistletoe & Menorahs, also starring Jake Epstein (I swear he’s everywhere), for that. There also isn’t a ton of mystery in this movie. The audience can tell pretty quickly who the anonymous gift-giver is. However, the movie does have a certain sweetness to it, which I’m crediting entirely to Lavi.

To those people looking for something a little different from your typical Hallmark Christmas movie, Eight Gifts of Hanukkah is a nice breath of fresh air. I’m not sure this will make my favorite list this year but it is worth watching. Even if you only watch it to shake things up a little.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! | 2020 Christmas Movies

When is a Christmas movie not a Christmas movie, when it’s a Hanukkah movie! Every year, we get one Hanukkah movie. Last year was Mistletoe & Menorahs. This year it’s Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

Christina (Mia Kirshner) was adopted as a baby. After her adoptive mother passes away, she takes a DNA test to find out her heritage. Not only does she find out that she is half Jewish, she also finds a close familial connection. When she is contacted by the connection, she finds her entire biological family.

A lot of times, the annual Hanukkah movie focuses solely on the religious aspects of the holiday. While Love, Lights does show us some of the traditions, it mostly focuses on the family as a whole. The movie isn’t about Hanukkah; it’s about a family welcoming in a new member. I love it.

Even the romance in the movie isn’t a typical Christmas movie romance. David (Ben Savage) doesn’t need Christina’s help and he doesn’t need to help her. They just spend some time together enjoying each other’s company.

Normally, I complain about how stupid the Big Conflict is in a movie. Love, Lights doesn’t really have a conflict. (There is a small one about David moving away for an undetermined amount of time to write a book but it is quickly resolved and unnecessary.) All of the dramatic tension comes from the fact that Christina doesn’t want to disrespect her adoptive mother’s memory by finding her biological mother and going from a family of two to a family of seven. Anyone from a large family would know that is more than enough tension for a movie.

I absolutely loved this movie. Mia Kirshner and Ben Savage are great actors. It’s almost like these roles were created for them specifically. All of the supporting cast are great as well. Everyone compliments each other perfectly. Please go watch Love, Lights, Hanukkah! so that Hallmark knows we need more of these types of movies.

Mistletoe & Menorahs | 2019 Advent Day 10

If you will recall, I banned the Marvista (or Mar Vista or MarVista) production company from last year’s Christmas movie list. Because they make terrible movies that have multiple names. When I turned on Mistletoe & Menorahs, I was greeted with the dreaded Marvista logo. I actually shuddered. But I made it through the movie…..let’s talk about it.

Christy (Kelley Jakle) is a toy company executive trying to land a new client. When she gets invited to the client’s holiday party, she is excited because she is all about Christmas. Her co-worker, Samantha (Cory Lee), quickly tells her that the client is Jewish! Samantha sets Christy up with her son’s history teacher, Jonathan (Jake Epstein), who will teach her all about Hanukkah. Meanwhile, Jonathan needs to learn about Christmas in order to impress his girlfriend’s father.

As Marvista movies go, this one was not terrible. It does have an alternate name, of course. A Merry Holiday. Mistletoe & Menorahs is a better title.

Also, this is the second time this season we have seen Jake Epstein as the male lead. He also was the writer/nanny in A Storybook Christmas. While it’s weird to see actors appear in more than one Christmas movie per season, I don’t mind it. Jake is a very charming leading man. (I bet that Marvista filmed this movie years ago and only released it now. That tends to be the way they work.)

The movie itself is pretty good, for the most part. My main problem is that Jonathan teaches Christy all about the history of Hanukkah while Christy only teaches him about the surface of Christmas. She teaches him about decorating trees and wrapping presents but nothing about the story behind Christmas. Maybe that is how the writers kept the story from getting too preachy. It just seemed a little odd.

Well, should you watch this? Yes. This isn’t a great movie. There are definitely some flaws. But it was entertaining and I think I might try to find other movies starring Jake Epstein. He is quite charming.