#santa bootcamp

Peaks

Emily’s mother is deaf (and played by a deaf actress) and they spend a chunk of the movie communicating in sign. I feel like the majority of disability representation you find in these movies is with precocious and/or heartwarming children, so it was nice to see an adult in this role.

Pitfalls

I’m pretty sure the eponymous Santa Bootcamp is. A cult. Flat out. The two leads are more or less bullied into joining by its charismatic leader. Training in Santa Bootcamp includes marching and running in uniform. Trainees are essentially barred from outside contact while at Santa Bootcamp, and may have their phone taken away if caught using them. Part of the regular lesson plan is coaching Santa trainees in how to answer, rationalize, or deflect anything that puts the Santa way of living under fire.

Emily’s indoctrination into the cult of Santa gets its own bullet point, because it’s particularly egregious. She only shows up there because she needs a Santa performer recommendation, but she is immediately bullied into participating in the training - including the above mentioned marching, uniforms, and lack of outside communication. The Mrs. Claus cult leader continuously talks down to her, making this woman beg for any scrap of approval she can get, while constantly plotting behind her back about how special she is and how she has great plans for her. Girl, run. Girl, run.

Emily’s treatment, coupled with how Mrs. Cult Leader is constantly talking about how handsome Aiden is while also dragging him into the training, also gives me the vibe that she’s just trying to remake these two in her and her own husband’s (younger and hotter) images and this is just some wildly nonconsensual kink roleplay she’s forcing everyone to play out for her own entertainment.

At the end of the movie, Mr. and Mrs. Cult leader get into their corvette and fly off into the sky. I think this is meant to imply that they are the actual Santa and Mrs. Claus, but it does nothing to beat the cult implications. A cult doesn’t stop being a cult just because it’s run by Mrs. Claus.

Emily’s family company is called Strauss and Strauss. There is a logo in their lobby that is clearly three S’s linked together. Where does the third S come from?