[“The Butch Who Stole Christmas” is the first film of my “5 Queer Holiday Shorts for 2022” post. To read the next review, “Xmas Eve Eve”, click HERE.]
Not to be confused with VH1’s queer Christmas film, “The Butch Who Stole Christmas” is one of my interesting finds this year. This queer holiday short film from Amanda Holland’s YouTube channel, Girl Ship TV, is a lesbian parody on the iconic animated film “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” – complete with animations! This queer Christmas short film has a couple issues that brought down my overall rating, but I found it quite amusing how closely the story parodies the original. So what worked – and what didn’t? Keep reading to find out more!
Synopsis of “The Butch Who Stole Christmas”
synopsis
The Critique
Parodies are tricky beasts to manage; they can either work quite well, or they can flounder like a fish out of water. Thankfully, “The Butch Who Stole Christmas” treads the line in a way that works. The opening animation pulls quite a lot of the rhyming lyrics from the classic Dr. Seuss poem, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. Naturally there are subtle changes, such as swapping out the Grinch for our lesbian lead, Ginny, and the reason of why she hates Christmas is due to her ex-partner breaking up with Ginny over Christmas. And later on, Amanda Holland borrows even more from the poem. After the bartender acts like a grinch to Ginny and Lou, the girls decide to remove all of the Christmas decorations from the bar – and of course, they get caught by the bartender mimicking the iconic moment of the poem where Cindy Lou Who spies the Grinch taking their tree away.
The trouble begins when the script of this queer holiday short film deviate from the parody source material. Suddenly, the writing becomes rather flat and feels rather forced at times. Heck, even the comedic lines don’t always land correctly. Additionally, while I realise that this is a short film and not a feature film that has time to develop depth to the story & characters, the romantic plot between Ginny and Lou moves VERY fast! In the course of a single day, the girls meet – after Lou’s tree cracked Ginny’s car windshield, so she’s actually angry at Lou from the get-go! They spend a couple of hours together in the bar, where things slowly melt between two two as love blossoms. And it’s enough to convince Ginny to go along with Lou’s crazy idea to steal all of the Christmas decorations from the bar? Which somehow causes Ginny’s broken heart to melt enough to allow Lou to start decorating the cabin before sharing a romantic kiss? Frankly, the entire plot moves so fast that it gives the viewer whiplash. (Especially since they don’t even stay together in the end!)
Unfortunately it’s not only an issue of poor writing; the acting in this queer Christmas short film is equally subpar and at times melodramatic. Jim Carrey can pull of the snark of the Grinch, but Amanda Holland’s parody of the grinch character as Ginny comes off instead as whiney and uninteresting. The other issue I have is that after viewing some other content on Holland’s YouTube channel, Girl Ship TV, it appears that that’s actually how Amanda Holland is normally. So while she might have been reading out lines for a script, it wasn’t acting.
Thankfully, both Lys Perez as Lou and Brittany Ashley as the annoying bartender portray their characters well enough that it offsets the distaste I have for Holland’s acting. Perez’s Lou has a constant cheeriness that is fun to watch, and in a way makes sense at why Ginny would gradually cheer up after spending time with Lou. I also loved her costume! While it pokes fun at the cliche of a butch lesbian, her character is exactly the opposite which gives off the message that stereotypes aren’t always accurate. Meanwhile Ashely’s bartender actually elicits a few chuckles when she insists that it’s “Merry Christmas” and NOT “Happy Holidays”, and then later refusing to turn off the Christmas song which brings back Ginny’s breakup (and was actually more Grinch-like than anyone else in this short!) While I didn’t buy her naivety while parodying Cindy Lou Who, I realise that it still works within what Holland was trying to recreate.
But not all is horrible about “The Butch Who Stole Christmas” – I absolutely LOVED the animation sequences! Set on a white background utilizing black ink lines and the selectively coloured green-filled areas really helped set up the parody. Equally, I enjoyed the use of onomatopoeias overlaid on the actual real-life scenes. It was whimsical and cute which paired nicely with the interspersed voiceovers (narrated by Chantel Houston) that move this short film along.
While this queer Christmas film has issue in just about every aspect, I actually enjoyed it! The parody of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” along with the cute animation sequences were the key elements that won me over, despite a dislike of Holland’s writing, acting, and the whiplash storyline of this short film. Equally, I have to give credit that they created a very lesbian queer Christmas film, which we certainly need more of! Overall, “The Butch Who Stole Christmas” is a pleasant addition to the queer holiday short film niche by adding a cute lesbian romance into a classic story.
Queer Relevance of “The Butch Who Stole Christmas”
As with most of the films I review, there is no doubt that “The Butch Who Stole Christmas” is a queer film! Ginny is a lesbian who’s upset after her girlfriend broke off the engagement. And Lou is equally the romantic counterpoint lesbian to come in and warm up Ginny’s broken heart. And I cannot overlook the cute pun over the stereotypical “butch lesbian” – I mean, plaid shirt and an lumberjack’s ax? Overall, Amanda Holland and her team have created a very queer, very lesbian Christmas short film which adds to the already limited niche of queer holiday films.
