Review: With its self-deprecating humor, 'A Very Jonas Christmas Movie' is good company

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I can’t name a single song by the Jonas Brothers, but I can tell you their names — Joe, Kevin and Nick — and that they made a sitcom, “Jonas” (second season titled “Jonas L.A.”), back in 2009 that I liked a lot.The memory of that show was enough to get me kind of excited for “A Very Jonas Christmas Movie,” premiering Friday on Disney+ — which, as it happens, I also like.

The humor is self-deprecating, the setting international, the weather wintry, the company good.The plot, which is basically “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” minus Steve Martin, John Candy and Thanksgiving, plus the Jonas Brothers, Christmas and magic, finds the boys — are they boys or are they men, it’s a point of discussion — in London, a few days before Christmas on the last night of a six-month tour.While they are good at being the capital-B Jonas Brothers onstage facing screaming thousands, they are less adept at being the small-b brothers after the curtain comes down.

Their relationship seems pretty normal to me, but to each his own necessity.Here they delineate their characters.Joe (to Nick): You’re the uptight responsible one.Kevin (to Joe): You’re the relatable tramp.I’m the relatable —Nick: — human cardboard.Joe: — forgettable Curly.Nick: — the world’s most unlikely rock star.Joe: Not Nick or Joe.Kevin: I was going to say “handsome, relatable everyman,” but fine.Anyway! The tour is over and the relatable tramp wants to go out and party, suggesting it could be epic.

“We are three extremely exhausted dads in our 30s,” replies the uptight one, “how epic could it be?” And so, while his siblings FaceTime with their IRL families, Joe finds himself on a British barstool — a pubstool — beside a bearded stranger in a red leather jacket.You will recognize the actor as Jesse Tyler Ferguson and the character as St.

Nick, barely disguised.Touched by J...