A Christmas pageant gets updated by troublesome kids, and it works.

I like to consider the holidays as Tax Season for Film Critics, because we do tend to get busy with a lot of the new movies, whether they’re commercial or independent. I like to try to get as much done as possible before the Oscars and Golden Globes kick in.

So one of the new movies I have to review is a holiday film called “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” which is about five of the meanest, nastiest kids in the community who decide to take part of the annual Christmas pageant, which regards the Nativity Story. It’s a Christmas movie, which has to be the perfect time for bad kids to change their ways and give their feared potential victims a new outlook on their lives.

I was skeptical as I was watching this movie, because it does get corny at times, but it does have some good holiday spirits inside as well as its ability to thrive against cynicism. The kind where even the most troublesome kids can find some change within their lives. I know it sounds corny the way I’m describing it, but that’s basically what I was thinking during my viewing experience.

Lauren Graham gives awkward “Christmas Story” like narration as the older version of Beth (Molly Belle Wright), whose mother Grace (Judy Greer) must take over for the pageant’s temporarily indisposed host. Now that this event is celebrating its 75th anniversary, the stakes are much higher. So, that means there can’t be any screw ups or trouble whatsoever.

Unfortunately for the rest pageant and the community, trouble comes in the form of the Herdmans, who are the bad kids I’ve mentioned a few paragraphs ago. They consist of Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), Leroy (Ewan Wood), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Ralph (Mason D. Nelligan), Ollie (Essek Moore), and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman). At first, they only come to the church for the free desserts, but their passion in movies inspire them to volunteer for the pageant.

Last summer, I’ve praised “Sing Sing,” which was about prisoners using acting as a sign of escapism during their incarceration at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It was a powerful film that represented the very reason why we go to the movies, whether they’re good or bad. To use escapism from the difficulties we deal with in our lives.

Seeing these bad kids using the same thing in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” reminded me of that film. Even mischievous kids have good taste in movies. That I now know. I’m still conflicted by its corny tone, but then again “Love the Coopers” or “Home Sweet Home Alone” were much worse films of the holiday genre. And I especially liked Greer as the main mom and Schneider as the oldest Herdman child. They deliver with the right amount of jolly consistency, especially when the host constantly warns the young girl about saying the lord’s name in vein.

I can already tell these kids have absent parents and whatever drama they’re accused up forces them to give up the play, but at the last minute, they come around. I can see that a mile away, but that doesn’t mean the movie has to be mean-spirited about it. In fact, when the show begins, there’s a good sense that allows us to forget about the stress and fears these kids have put others into. This is not a perfect holiday classic, but it still keeps you interested in how these bad kids will keep the pageant going. Maybe they won’t get coal in their stockings if they realize the error of their ways.