Film pick: Elf

Every year, we need a film that serves as a complement to (or an antidote for) It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. This year, the Coolidge Corner Theatre is obliging with Jon Favreau's Elf (2003), in which, with demented and innocent puerility, Will Ferrell plays a human child raised among Santa's helpers in the North Pole who goes in search of his real father. It's very funny, and sometimes too sweet, but a good excuse to see James Caan on screen. The Coolidge is at 290 Harvard St, Brookline | December 10-11 @ midnight | $9 | 617.734.2500 or coolidge.org.