Christmas is a season where everyone gathers and likes to be around one another, but if you’ve seen enough animated Frosty and Santa fare, sometimes you just need a little more mature storytelling.
That’s why I wanted to make a top 10 Christmas movies for adults, stuff that you can watch after everyone goes to bed. Stuff that maybe can be part of your tradition of unwinding, laughing, or just seeing the underbelly of a city.
Let’s dive in.
1. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Todd Field
Stanley Kubrick’s final masterpiece is perhaps the ultimate “anti-family” Christmas film. Unless your family is part of an elite sex cult. The film follows Dr. Bill Harford on a surreal, night-long odyssey through New York’s sexual underworld as his marriage flails. It’s nothing short of amazing.
2. Bad Santa (2003)
- Director: Terry Zwigoff
- Writers: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
- Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac
Bad Santa is the gold standard for holiday cynicism and big laughs. Billy Bob Thornton gives an iconic performance as Willie T. Stokes, a whiskey-soaked, safe-cracking mall Santa who hates children and himself in equal measure. This film stays gleefully nasty and is a pitch-black comedy that manages to find a tiny heart at the end.
4. Carol (2015)
- Director: Todd Haynes
- Writer: Phyllis Nagy
- Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler
Set in 1950s New York, Carol is a visually stunning romance that tells the story of an aspiring photographer who falls for an older, glamorous woman trapped in a loveless marriage. The holiday season provides the narrative catalyst for their forbidden love and the brutal custody battles of the era.
5. Die Hard (1988)
- Director: John McTiernan
- Writers: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza
- Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson
While the debate rages on about its genre, Die Hard is undeniably an adult Christmas staple. Although I think all kids should watch it, too. It is a masterclass in action geography and tension, centering on John McClane’s attempt to save his estranged wife from terrorists during a Nakatomi Plaza Christmas party. Yipee Ki Yayyyye.
6. In Bruges (2008)
- Director: Martin McDonagh
- Writer: Martin McDonagh
- Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes
This dark crime comedy follows two Irish hitmen hiding out in the medieval Belgian city of Bruges during Christmastime after a job goes horribly wrong. The fairy-tale setting, complete with snow and holiday markets, is the perfect place for the themes of guilt, purgatory, and existential despair.