Elf

Elf is a masterpiece of a holiday movie. It wraps generational anxieties in timeless childish humor.

Through the child-like Buddy and his step-brother Michael, the film is a prototypical coming-of-age story. Schoolyard bullying, reconciling with puberty and crushes, living with helicopter parents. All with a lens of ‘me versus the world’. Michael has selfish and naïve motivations, but is reinforced to be a ‘good kid’ just dealing with external stressors. Buddy is treated diminutively for being childlike, and rejoices in it anyway, but his interactions with the love interest Jovie cement the character’s teen-ish feeling. He struggles with the desire to impress his crush, and his step-brother/best friend. He is awkward and uncertain of himself but he grows into self-confidence through the film.

Through the newly-employed Buddy and the still-employed Jovie, the film explores post-modern concerns of the working class and struggles with capitalist society. Buddy’s employment history includes Santa’s workshop (in which he under-performs and experiences depression), the retail floor of Gimble’s (where he excels but is under-appreciated by his ‘supervisor’), and the mailroom of Greenway Press (in which he is beloved by coworkers but punished by faceless corporate overlords.) Jovie’s character can more or less be summarized by ‘hates her job’; her every scene (in the first half of the film, at least) makes a passing remark about how little she cares for Gimble’s. Her stated distaste for the holidays is explained away as distaste for what her employer forces her to do: dress in a (provocative?) costume, mind children instead of performing normal job duties, meet absurd requests or expectations (“six inch ribbon curls”), and so on.

Furthermore, Buddy clashes violently with the external consultant, Miles, brought in to produce Greenway Press’ next book. This is overtly cast as a conflict between ’normal people’ doing honest work, and out-of-touch elites pumping out content for profit. In fact, the scene may cross into an uncomfortable area for some people, as it is a parody of a very real life experience: retaliation from an employer for speaking against a poorly- researched stereotype with inclusivity and fair representation of marginalized cultures. The scene is dampened by also demonstrating Buddy as uninformed, given the uncertainty about whether the consultant lives with a real condition (i.e., dwarfism or some other developmental condition) or is just a personification of stereotypical toxic masculinity (i.e., he is short).

There’s even a plot thread of conflict between citizens and police. The artistic direction for this Central Park Rangers cast surely came straight from the Nazgûl of Lord of the Rings. This is a facet that only ripens with age.

It is also worth mentioning how Walter was pressured into working late on Christmas Eve. I have to imagine everyone over the age of 20 knows the uncomfortable and distressing conversation with family about not being able to during the holidays, because it’s complicated, and plane tickets and gas are expensive, and it’s not that you don’t care but you don’t have enough PTO earned, and the modern workforce is not like what they grew up with. Walter’s scene is but an intimation to this, but it is notable.

Through Walter and Emily, and also Papa Elf, the film explores parental anxieties. Fears of failing to raise children ‘right’, of judgment from other people about how children ought to be raised, of not being present enough, of not being enough. Buddy is not exactly a conventional runaway. He is first encouraged to fly the nest by Papa Elf, and the later ‘runs away’ from Walter. Even so, his story hits all the marks for a middle school summer reading list. Also, the film gets props for exploring adoptive parenthood, step-parenthood, birth parenthood all in the same light.

A brief exploration of Elf’s genre is warranted.

Elf composes an unexpected level of fantasy. There is meaningful thought towards an elf ‘race’ and how they interact with the rest of the world. Fictional cultural differences, including culture shock, are investigated. The adventure of traveling from Santa’s workshop to New York City, from the Candy Cane Forest to the Lincoln Tunnel, is either a literary bookend or cheap running joke.

Elf also composes a soft (or low) sci-fi. Santa’s workshop and sleigh are fantastical but explained with a steampunk-ish level of science. It is by no means a well-thought-out environment (Santa cannot reveal himself to the world because the ‘Paparazzi have been trying to nail [him] for years) but there was some consideration and aesthetic design nonetheless.

And of course, Elf is a holiday comedy. But that’s not interesting.