It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder (2022)

Diana and her friend Riley are into true crime, and also work together at a business Diana started. When her aunt Tippy is found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs, Diana is convinced she was murdered. Tippy was always so careful about holding onto the railing, so there is no way she would have fallen.

When Diana arrives in town, she is suspicious of anyone who might have been around Tippy - the housekeeper, the lawyer, the detective neighbor who was peeking through the hedge, and the ex husband. 

She meets Tippy’s next door neighbor Breanna, who says Tippy was her best friend. She also reconnects with her ex boyfriend Matt, who ends up on the suspect list after he enters the house without asking and is roaming downstairs. 

Diana keeps asking the detective if there are any updates about Tippy's death, even though she’s repeatedly been told they are not looking into it since it was ruled an accident.  But Diana won’t give up. Her passion for true crime and talks with Riley solidify something is wrong with the death.

When she can’t find the Christmas village Tippy used to put out every year, she wonders if someone took it. Later she discovers the houses and figures are worth up to one thousand dollars each, and becomes more convinced Tippy was murdered. Egged on by Riley, Diana gets deeper into investigating and plans to confront the person she thinks murdered Tippy, which isn’t a great idea. If a murderer thinks you’re the only person who knows the killed someone, you’ll likely be murdered too.

This movie showed up on Tubi in a list of Christmas horror movies so I thought it was horror. The logo at the beginning was LMN, which I didn’t realize was Lifetime Movie Network. So that tells you everything you need to know.  It was actually okay and the cliches were pretty amusing.  There were a lot of red herrings about who the murderer was, and Diana fell for all of them.

In the first seven minutes, we are bludgeoned over the head about how Diana has a successful business. Through out the movie this fact is shoved down our throats over and over. And that is the only violence in this film.

Ridiculous dialogue

Diana: She was cleaning the basement floor, like really scrubbing it.

Riley: I don’t know. You’ve got to keep an eye on her, Diana. You know what they say, never underestimate the help.

Diana: Yeah, she seemed angry about something.

Mrs. Hobart: You’re the entrepreneur.

Diana: Oh… no, I just, I own a small company in San Francisco.

The detective neighbor peeking through the hedges

Has anyone ever served ears of corn after a funeral?

Going to check out the noise in the basement after
believing her aunt was murdered in the basement = no survival skills