DVD, BLU-RAY & STREAMING - I AM SANTA CLAUS

FOLEY IS SANTA

I Am Santa Claus

***

Review by Paul Preston

Documentaries can often live or die on the subjects they follow. Obviously, with a film like “Man on Wire”, a guy like Philippe Petit is a great subject crying out for a doc to profile him, same with “American Movie”’s Mark Borchardt. But when you want to highlight a certain aspect of society – back-up singers, teen basketball, what-have-you, you’ve got a great subject, but you’re left looking for who will be the most interesting people to profile. In the case of “I Am Santa Claus”, a doc following a year in the life of real-beard Santa Clauses, the diversity and eccentricities of the men profiled make the film a winner.

Produced by WWE legend Mick Foley and directed by Tommy Avallone, “I Am Santa Claus” follows:
– Santa Jim, a gay man who partakes in “Bear” gatherings
– Santa Frank, a BBQ expert who has legally changed his name to “Santa Claus”
– Santa Bob, a pious, SoCal Santa Claus with great locales to practice his trade
– And Santa Russell, just the opposite, struggling with being damn-near down-and-out

The points-of-view and storylines vary greatly following these gentlemen as they rear up for the most important (and lucrative) time of the year – the holidays. There’s a fifth storyline that features self-professed Christmas fanatic Foley himself, who wants to try his hand at portraying Santa in a high-profile Christmas village, adding a will-he-or-won’t-he-pull-it-off element. No storyline falters, so you never find yourself waiting for the film to get back to the most interesting subjects, they’re all pretty damn interesting.

To go into further detail about what these real-beard Santas do the other eleven months of the year would be to spoil the fun. But let’s just say that there’s a “Yoda”, of sorts, of the Santas who Foley wishes to learn from and the head of the real-beard Santa society who has a particular…fetish. Sense of humor and sincerity are nicely co-mingled to keep the film from being repetitive and the photography and music choices wisely prevent the movie from lapsing into reality TV hackwork. This is a real movie.

Avallone and Foley employ a documentary style that allows the characters to speak for themselves, whether they’re waxing philosophical about the most magical time of the year, or being practical about trying to survive in a most unique profession. And without a host or on-screen narrator to offer cynical jibes, the film never has a negative or condescending view of its subjects, which is usually a more interesting way to approach, leaving the takeaway opinions of the Santas up to the viewer.

If you’re not careful, you could be the cynic viewing this movie, as the ending shoots high by capturing Christmas eve in the Foley home, and the not-often-performed Santa home visit. The response to Santa’s visit by Foley’s kids is charming, and a cynic could brush it off as filmmaker manipulation, but take it from the source – Mick Foley was a guest on The Movie Guys’ podcast, The Movie Showcast, and laid out how special that night was for him and his family. Take it for what it is and that moment is a refreshing, unabashedly optimistic and positive Christmas message.