SpiritOppy

This is a fun movie to get in the Christmas spirit while wrapping gifts for family. It's entertaining, and while it's not the highest budget or the most experienced actors, I think it's clear that the creators had a lot of fun making it.

It's also a bit of an enigma-- I'm genuinely not sure who the primary audience is. Is it a reimagining of a Christmas movie for adults, complete with assassins and, as one review points out, the b-word? Is it a goofy saccharine movie for kids about the spirit of Christmas and generosity? Is it an Elf knockoff? Is it FUN? Yes, yes, yes, and YES.

I really appreciated that they didn't do the typical romance plot, too. That was refreshing!

All in all, it's fun to have on in the background. I genuinely was pleasantly surprised by a lot of it. If you go in with the expectation that it's a low budget movie, you'll enjoy it.

I live in the city now, but having grown up in a rust belt town, this short film gave me vertigo with how realistically it captured such a place, especially through the eyes of kids, as I haven't been back since. It's very immersive and well-filmed, and captures the nuance of rural rust belt life in a way I haven't often seen on film. If you're missing your hometown but don't want an overly sentimentalized or overly vilified interpretation of rural life and people, this is a cool film for you. And if you're from the city, this is a great way to get a glimpse into another world. There's a lot of heart in this film.