10 Underrated Christmas Movies You Need To See

8. Joyeux Noel

Carol 2015
Sony Pictures Classics

What made the first World War stand out from its sequel, as well as every war before and after it, was the sheer CHAOS of it. There was no ideological cause for the war, really, no two warring sides with opposing views of the world. Just a bunch of major and minor grievances across Europe that all erupted at once and didn't stop until most of the known world was blasted to bits.

Under such circumstances, the incredible true story about the British and German troops who stopped fighting for one night on Christmas Eve so they could both celebrate this holiday makes a lot more sense. And the story is brought to beautiful life by director Christian Carion in the film Joeux Noel.

The movie is everything you want out of both a Christmas movie as well as a WWI movie, capturing the warmth and cheer of Christmas as well as balancing the horrific inevitability of what's going to happen the minute Christmas is over and these new friends have to return to their sides of this senseless war.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?