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Ben Stiller could have easily made Nutcrackers, a Christmas-season comedy about a work-obsessed single man who becomes a reluctant guardian to his four unruly nephews, in 1999, as he was making the transition from broad comedy support into more shaded leading roles. He could also have made it in 2009, after becoming...

After a disastrous conclusion to his foray in horror with his doomed Exorcist reboot, David Gordon Green is back to form in Nutcrackers, a somewhat by-the-numbers comedy starring Ben Stiller. Like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, though, I was drawn to this film because of its heart. Amongst the tense political climate and general separation America seems to be facing, it’s nice to shed the cynicism, a message that makes this a nice addition to Hulu’s catalog.

Nutcrackers Review

Mike (Ben Stiller) works at an advertising firm or something like that and is about to make a big deal. It’s not particularly important what he does; all that’s important is that he has a boring external goal that he has to face after the death of his sister thrusts him into the role of adoptive father to four children in a rural dump. The kids sort...

Ben Stiller returns to a lead role for the first time in six years, teaming up with Director David Gordon Green to bring to life the film Nutcrackers. The Hulu original movie debuted at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and will be available to stream on November 29. We had the pleasure of chatting with Ben Stiller, Linda Cardellini, and the four Janson brothers ahead of the film’s release.

Nutcrackers follows Nick, a workaholic forced to travel to rural Ohio to look after his recently orphaned nephews. Stillers’ return to films is met with a warm blanket. The movie isn’t slapstick funny but more of a family comedy. You will want to grab the kids, microwave popcorn, and enjoy family movie night. The Janson brothers will have the kids laughing, and Stiller’s reactions will have the adults laughing. It’s the type of movie that makes you feel like a kid again.

After successfully reviving one legendary horror franchise and not quite managing to relaunch another, David Gordon Green needed a “bit of a palate cleanser.”

Since Halloween, his 2018 reboot of the John Carpenter slasher pic, Green has become a bit of a go-to-guy for mid-budget horror masters Blumhouse, delivering a full trilogy of new Halloweens — with Halloween Kills in 2021 and Halloween Ends in 2022 — as well as last year’s The Exorcist: Believer, an unsuccessful attempt to bring back the spinning-head world of demonic possession created by William Friedkin in his 1973 classic.

But after six years of screams and jump scares, “it felt like a time to reset,” Green says. “After doing a run of horror movies, I felt like switching gears.”

What Green did next was Nutcrackers, a family-friendly comedy starring Ben Stiller as Mike, an uptight workaholic who is forced to take over guardianship of his rambunctious, newly orphaned nephews.