“Red herring or plot point? You decide.”

Justin’s rating: This is how I feel about 30% of the holiday season and 100% of Oscar season

Justin’s review: As we all know, the life span of a meme is usually measured in mere weeks, perhaps months. If something catches on, you best get as much mileage out of it before it stops being amusing and/or relevant. In retrospect, the era of Grumpy Cat (circa 2012-2014) was more successful than most. There was something amusingly wholesome about an adorable yet crabby-looking kitty who tapped into our nascent dark sides.

Unlike most memes, Grumpy Cat leveraged her adorable puss into a full-fledged movie. Granted, it was a fluffy (har) Lifetime Christmas flick, but that’s still more than you’ve done with your life. And you know what? It’s actually pretty good!

My teen daughter and I hunkered down over Thanksgiving to watch the travails of Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, something that may become a new annual tradition for us. It’s not exactly the deepest or most nuanced plot ever devised, but it’s pretty amusing from start to finish. That’s more than I can say for most anything else that comes out of Lifetime these days.

Grumpy Cat (voiced by Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza) is an unwanted pet store cat at the mall who spends her days snarking at anyone and everything around her. She is absolutely adorable despite her grumpy face, but still, nobody wants her. She doesn’t care. Everyone around her is dumb. She’s got the perpetual case of the Mondays.

Grumpy Cat’s predictable and lazy life is upset one day when a pre-teen named Crystal starts hearing the kitty’s voice. At the same time, a pair of not-at-all-inspired-by-Home-Alone burglars break into the mall at night to steal a $1 million dog from the pet store. We’re just going to gloss over some ordinary pet store getting a dog worth that much and go with it.

Crystal and Grumpy Cat end up pairing up to thwart the thieves as light hijinks take place over the mall at night. There’s a paintball showdown, a car chase, and not an inconsiderable amount of slapstick. Really, Crystal does all of the work while Grumpy Cat is there to look cute and drolly comment on the evolving situation.

As I said, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever has no real depth. It takes a stab at making us feel for Crystal being lonely, but that’s easily the weakest part of the movie and should be ignored on the advice of your doctor. What makes this kid-focused movie worth seeing is its willingness to be silly and have a lot of fun breaking the fourth wall.

Aubrey Plaza enjoyed an easy paycheck doing the same semi-sour, semi-cheeky performance that she did as April on Parks and Rec, and that is OK with me. The way she tacked on a “meow” as an afterthought on everything she said made me crack up, as did Grumpy Cat’s willingness to disrupt the movie, insult the viewers, and be lightly antisocial. There are even some good digs toward Lifetime that impressed me with the movie’s self-awareness.

I also want to give a shout-out to a rather unconventional Santa who gets all of one scene but is charming and atypical as can be — especially when he rolls under a bench to “magically” disappear.

Sometimes you need a Christmas special that isn’t trying to teach you anything or emotionally manipulate you — except to manipulate your sense of humor. Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever offers wry jokes and genuine chuckles with a side helping of a funky feline.

Intermission!

• “Deck the halls? Deck me in the face.”
• We were promised car chases, huge explosions, and a hero in a leotard and cape who saves the world
• I dig the wrapping paper tearing credits
• Carla is the happiest snake on the planet
• The superstar dog has his own theme chant
• That elf guy is wearing the same costume from Elf
• Grumpy’s paintball cannon never depletes its ammo
• Subtle references to euthanasia and molestation… yay Lifetime?
• The product placement
• Jumping out of a car to open doors because the movie doesn’t have the budget to break through them