Terry Zwigoff - many may remember his excellent Crumb - has come back with a memorably irreverent black comedy, following the exploits of a beer-swilling, abusive, womanizing Santa (Billy Bob Thornton), who has a deal going with elf-playing dwarf Marcus (Tony Cox) to do the Santa bit for kids by day and rob department stores by night.

Its an elaborate ruse, made all the more complicated by the arrival of a snotty fat kid (Brett Kelly), who refuses to take offence, despite Billy Bob's best efforts to insult him. He's indebted to the kid really, since a gay hobo is attempting to hump him at the time in the car park.

Meanwhile, Santa is screwing half the female shop staff ("By the time I've finished with you, you won't be able to sit down for a week"), casing the joint with his goblin friend, verbally abusing children, cutting deals with a suspicious security guard (Bernie Mac) and keeping a departmental manager at bay with threats of a disability rights case.

The part of Santa is tailor-made for Thornton - think wisecracking drunk and miserable - and Cox gives great support as an equally cynical goblin. If you like your humour suitably black, you'll love the dialogue. It provides laughs from one minute to the next early on, which is a pretty good jokes-hitting ratio, dipping slightly towards the end, although the ending holds up well.

Perhaps it is a shade more of a boys' fun movie, but a mixed audience will share much of the jaded cynicism regarding Christmas and all the materialism that goes with it. Arguably, this is Zwigoff's finest to date.