Bad Santa (2003)
Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa
Going from one profane Christmas movie to another, Bad Santa is about a foul-mouthed conman named Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) who pulls off a yearly scam in which he and his partner (Tony Cox) pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. Things go awry when the misanthropic yet lonely Willie befriends a troubled kid and a suspicious security boss (the late Bernie Mac) discovers his plot.
Directed by Terry Zwigoff, an idiosyncratic moviemaker with a special love for outsiders (Crumb, Ghost World), Bad Santa is perhaps the most subversive, offensive Christmas movie ever made—with Thornton as a truly despicable character who, for once, does not receive a total personality transplant by the movie’s end.
It’s one of our favorite grumpy Christmas movies.
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