David Gordon Green hangs a left turn into heartwarming kid antics with Nutcrackers

Ben Stiller could have easily made Nutcrackers, a Christmas-season comedy about a work-obsessed single man who becomes a reluctant guardian to his four unruly nephews, in 1999, as he was making the transition from broad comedy support into more shaded leading roles. He could also have made it in 2009, after becoming a family-comedy brand name with the Meet The Parents and Night At The Museum series. In fact, he probably could have made it at any point in the past 30 years. He also could have skipped making it entirely; do we really need another movie where a superficial yuppie always barking into a cell phone learns how to parent against his will?

Sometimes, though, a bunch of heartwarming bullshit is nonetheless part of someone’s artistic process. Nutcrackers seems to be a part of Stiller’s, enticing him to his first starring role in seven years and his first original mainstream comedy vehicle in over a decade; more interestingly, it’s also the latest in director David Gordon Green’s ongoing series of genre pivots. Green was once known for making gently oddball, Malickian indies; then he was known for his unexpected swerve into Apatow-era stoner comedy. At this point, a quarter-century into his career, he’s executed several more of those hairpin turns: returning to indie character studies, making a couple of true-life dramas, doing a whole Halloween sequel trilogy (plus a bonus Exorcist nonstarter) and now, why not, throwing himself into just about the most uncool type of movie possible, one where adults learn life lessons from orphaned moppets.

As with so many great directors, though, familiar material becomes a comfortable fit for Green’s specific interests—and the process here was more direct than usual. After reconnecting with a college friend, Green met her four sons, loved their rambunctious energy, and wanted to put them in a movie, with that dynamic becoming a guiding force in Leland Douglas’ screenplay. Whether through the writing or Green’s direction, a lot of the boys’ quirks and dialogue feel observed, rather than recited. In its accessible way, Nutcrackers explores a theme Green has returned to repeatedly since his 2000 debut George Washington: How children attempt to make their way in the world when they’re left to their own devices, whether by choice or tragedy.

For siblings Justice (Homer Janson), Junior (Ulysses Janson), Samuel (Atlas Janson), and Simon (Arlo Janson), it appears to be a bit of both. Their parents have died, but that may only explain the degree of messiness in their rural-Ohio lives, not the lifestyle itself. Their ballet-dancing mom’s estranged brother Mike (Stiller) arrives to find a cozy farmhouse gone to seed, overrun with animals, food-mess, and long-haired boys who don’t hesitate to, at one point, steal Mike’s prized car and attempt to jump it over a small swimming pool. Clearly, they’ve been raised with freedom to indulge both their creativity and their baser little-boy instincts; the movie is muddy, figuratively and occasionally literally, about the precise philosophy that led the kids’ parents to raise them this way. (Are they home-schooled because they’re too free-spirited for institutional learning, or are they uncontrollable because they haven’t been to real school?)

Some of the kids’ anarchic antics are funny in a traditionally slapsticky, crowdpleasing sort of way. (Green has cited movies like Uncle Buck as an influence, though the parental-figure slobbiness is reversed here.) What Green adds to the material is a sense of genuine wildness—and, at times, eerie ritual. He recognizes something tribal about the raising of close siblings, and their near-feral nature adds jolts of humor and, eventually, heartbreak. It also lends some credence to the notion that Mike would take a little while to warm up to the boys, as he attempts to complete a stressful work assignment while pestering Gretchen (Linda Cardellini), their child-services rep, about finding them a permanent home.

Even so, Mike manages to come across as a little slow on the uptake, especially given that most of the story elements come straight from the screenwriter stock room. There’s a setpiece where Mike brings the boys to a Christmas party thrown by an avuncular rich guy (Toby Huss), in hopes of impressing him enough to adopt them; there’s also the matter of the local dance studio owned by Mike’s late sister, where the makeshift family eventually plans to put on their own modified version of The Nutcracker—doubling as a potential audition for new parents. By this point, Mike might as well be talking to and about ghosts on the other end of his business calls. That the performance remains convincing is probably a tribute to the stealth professionalism Stiller conceals underneath his well-known shtick.

In one sense, the predictable outcomes and emotions of Nutcrackers limit it, keeping it well within the guardrails of heartwarming entertainment the likes of which Green has only really explored in The Sitter, of all things. Some audiences, even or especially fans of Green’s previous work, may well resist it for that exact reason. Yet the movie’s familiarity also allows the satisfaction of seeing the framework filled with skill and care. Stiller returns to his flustered-dork routine reinvigorated; you may have forgotten, in all the sequels and listless underdog comedies, what crack timing he brings to simple acts like issuing impotent threats or trying to sound mildly cool. Though there isn’t really room for each kid to get his own distinct story arc, they’re all quite funny and endearing, with Homer Janson particularly affecting as the eldest of the group, who feels nascent stirrings of responsibility that he shouldn’t be forced to shoulder.

It’s a shame such an unusually cinematic formula comedy has been consigned to Hulu for the holidays. The 35mm celluloid cinematography from Michael Simmonds gives the movie a lot of warmth, bringing out Green’s love of natural landscapes dotted by industrial decay. Green even manages to bring ground-level lyricism into a dance-recital finale; it might, however briefly, cause a twinge of re-evaluation in the matter of whether it was so weird after all, for Green to share creative associations both with Malick and Apatow. All told, Nutcrackers works well enough to overlook the few narrative shortcuts the movie takes in spots where a Green-like detour would have been more welcome. Nutcrackers may not win over Green skeptics who wonder why he can’t sit still in the indie realm. But for those who appreciate his combination of genuine eclecticism and instantly recognizable style should find the movie as a thoughtful gift.

Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: Leland Douglas
Starring: Ben Stiller, Homer Janson, Ulysses Janson, Atlas Janson, Arlo Janson, Linda Cardellini, Toby Huss
Release date: November 29, 2024 (Hulu)