Now that the holiday season is in full swing, this is the time you dust off the old classics like "A Christmas Story" or "Christmas Vacation," and sit around the TV with those nearest and dearest.
But starting Friday, you'll have another movie to add to the holiday canon.
"The Night Before," starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie as three friends who go out to find the ultimate party on Christmas Eve, might look like just another dumb Christmas comedy — but it's much more. Not only hilarious, it combines a "Hangover"-style party-hard/male-bonding vibe with classic holiday movies of the past to create something that's certain to be an instant classic.
Don't believe us? Here are the reasons why we're right.
Warning: some spoilers for the movie.
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1. This isn't your parents' Christmas story
Co-written and directed by Jonathan Levine, who grabbed people's attention with the urban indie "The Wackness" and found success with "Warm Bodies," this is a story catered to the late-twenties/early-thirties demo, people who are thinking about starting a family but still have the urge to go wild (and play the Nintendo 64 classic Bond videogame "GoldenEye") once in a while.
2. Run DMC's Christmas song gets respect
One of the joys of the film is its appreciation of a holiday classic like Run DMC's 1998 anthem "Christmas in Hollis." The three friends in the movie perform the song a couple of times in very different settings. In both instances it's perfect.
3. Ilana Glazer is the perfect Grinch
One half of the funniest duo on television, comic Ilana Glazer briefly parts from her "Broad City" pal Abbi Jacobson so she can make Mackie's life a living hell in the movie as the "Grinch" of the story.
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