Poets Holiday Movie List
I wanted to put together a list of movies that people watch in their own custom holiday rituals, and maybe expand the idea of what a holiday movie is. Or not. Either way, I'm looking forward to watching some of these titles.
--CK
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Every holiday season, my family watches Tombstone (1993). It has nothing to do with the holidays, though there is some snow and festiveness...eventually, sort of. We love the irreverence of Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday character in contrast with the stoic Earps, and the varied mirror-image of the hateful villains (to include the system of law enforcement). We love the presentation of human fallibility and the artistry of the cinematography, the straightforward storytelling and the portrayal of the American West as truly problematic as opposed to romantic, and the general subversiveness of it as a Western. A quotable classic!
Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) This is as much a seasonal film as a holiday film, which reminds me how tied holidays are to seasons. The opening scenes celebrate tree-lined, autumn-hued streets, teenagers in sweaters carrying school books, leaves and hair whipped by the breeze, pumpkins on porches, suburban hedges, a creep in a William Shatner mask, and needling synth motifs. Haddonfield, Illinois is a welcoming but deeply troubled place that feels all the more familiar to me because it was filmed in Southern California, where I grew up. Watching it is a bit like going home for the holidays.
White Christmas (1954) - I watched this movie growing up - in love with musicals and wanting to learn to dance and sing. It's simplistic and strangely patriotic (gee I wish I was back in the army) to a certain extent and problematic (Mandy & sisters) but it always feels like the holidays when I watch it and I remember being a child mesmerized and dreamy.
Dirty Dancing (1987) - a year-round favorite for me that makes me cringe and giggle and cry. It's much more complex than it seems speaking to issues such as class and abortion. I can watch it no matter my mood and it brings me greatly comfort when times are tough. I don't know anyone that loves it like I do. I guess the dancing and mood and unforgettable lines lift and sway me & take me on a small journey to the Catskills.
American Ninja Warrior (2009- ) - Originally a Japanese game show, this contest has participants competing against each other to move through a surreal, Nerf-like obstacle course. The goal is to first, make it through (it is nearly impossible), and second to get the best time. My mother loves this show and my sister, her husband, my daughter, and I spend Christmas at my mother’s house every year. We literally travel over the river and through the woods to get to grandmother’s house (she lives in the Virginia countryside). At several points during our visit we all find ourselves watching it together, rooting for the underdog, collectively moaning when someone wipes out painfully. I can’t say there is anything intrinsically “holiday” about the show itself, but shit do we look forward to watching it with grandma.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve perceived a shift that likely isn’t unique among first-gens, especially those who left our place of birth at a very young age. I grew up feeling constantly embarrassed— of accents, foods I brought to school for lunch, not knowing pop culture references, being a shy kid who had yet to feel adept in any language but was called on to translate constantly. Now, I feel a growing urgency— a want to hold fast to thinning tethers between me & my Motherland. Which is kind of goofy, because what does it mean to be of a place when you’ve set foot in it thrice since childhood & can’t speak for more than a few minutes without subbing out a word in English to say what you really want to say. But anyway. The Irony of Fate, or With A Light Steam (1976) is a classic Russian romcom. Every year since its release, it has been broadcast in Russia & nearly all former Soviet republics on New Year’s Eve. The plot hinges on banyas & the uniformity of Soviet public architecture, & it gives me an intense nostalgia for a culture that’s scarcely mine (or anyone’s, now) & yet feels so close to me. I grew up with a New Year’s Tree (like many Jews who left the Soviet Union, my family maintains our ёлка tradition, celebrating the secular symbol connected to the Russian New Year) & закуски (a spread of cold snacks intended to pair well with vodka), & parents who couldn’t part with their banya habit, to the point where my uncle built one in the basement of their suburban Philly home.
I’ve rewatched it several times over the years— over the phone with Alex on our respective laptops, trying to see how long we can go without breaking out of Russian-speaking, & while puttering around with Gala & Karina, preparing our own New Year’s celebration in New York, cackling self-reflexively at our all-black & [faux] fur aesthetics-- & it feels like almost-home. It’s a sort of Бальзам на душу; a balm for the soul. My Russian soul, specifically. They’re (I don’t know who they are, but whatever) making an American remake with Emma Roberts, & I look forward to rolling my eyes at it. Some things, fortunately, are untranslatable.
In the past I have watched Gremlins or something like National Lampoon’s x-más with family. Gremlins is certainly more fun than the latter. But for my own self I love watching La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty) by Sorrentino every Xmas eve, late at night.
On Netflix: Let It Snow, Single All the Way, Christmas Inheritance, Holidate, Love Hard, Holiday Calendar, The Princess Switch trilogy…, The Christmas Prince trilogy…, Father Christmas Is Back, Christmas Survival, Christmas in the Square, A New York Christmas Wedding, The Knight before Christmas, Home for the Holidays [Norwegian series--so cute]
I find that the academic year and its responsibilities make it hard for me to “get into” the holidays. In the last two or three years, I have used sappy, formulaic holiday movies to force me into caring about Christmas earlier than I post final grades. I started out hate-watching them, but eventually found that I was actually comforted by them. I didn’t even have to “enjoy” them. I just wanted to think about the smell of gingerbread, the taste of hot chocolate, and the way a fireplace feels on a cold night. I watch, complaining about inappropriate footwear and insufficient coats. But I watch and eventually, feel what I want to feel about the holidays.
The Thing. Or The Shining is a holiday movie. Fargo is a good holiday movie.
My sister and I went on a tear one year and watched all of the Star Wars movies with Harrison Ford in them. That was fun.
Every year around Christmas I watch Meet Me in St. Louis. Surprise! I don’t usually like musicals, but this one is pretty great. The “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” scene, during which the little sister is tearing down all her snow people, is so heartbreaking. I also watch Gremlins, which is so hilarious. Also, the gremlins sort of remind me of my kids - ah! Finally, my all-time favorite Christmas movie is Fanny and Alexander. I have yet to make it through the long version, but maybe I will this year! I have a thing for long books and long movies. Five hours I think. There are REAL candles in the Christmas tree and everyone is drunk and having sex and there’s a Jewish puppeteer.
My fondest memories on Christmas itself are ones where everyone disappeared and I was left the only one awake. And a few years ago, at one such Christmas, I decided to watch late on Christmas Eve—101 Reykjavík. This movie takes place over a holiday season, and is an utter time capsule of the maiden and slacker’s cove that Reykjavík Iceland was back in 2000 before everyone went to party there. It’s in Icelandic, English, and Spanish. There’s imagined, ironic violence. There’s the staggering beauty of the landscape and the language, which caused a love affair in me that has never dimmed…Tangerine is another amazing non-traditional Christmas movie. Through a happenstance viewing of Les Misérables on a Good Friday, I really feel that's an Easter movie.
—Cindy Arrieu-King
My favorite holiday movie is Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990) about Tom Townsend a college student who falls in with a group of Manhattan debutantes and their classmates one winter break. Initially critical of this milieu, Tom eventually becomes one of the crew, concealing his middle-class roots and spending every evening flitting from opulent living room to opulent living room. I like the movie because it reminds me of the sensorial pleasures of being bitterly cold and entering a party where everyone is dressed up and little drunk, the warm air hitting your cheeks. In some scenes, Tom walks the streets of the upper east side in a thin winter coat, refusing to take s taxi. The icy streets make a contrast against the softly lit drawing rooms where everyone looks ruddy. And the costuming is so good, set on the border between the late 80s and early 90s--the movie features so much ruched taffeta and bows and little pumps with black tights against a backdrop of giant Christmas trees. I often watch Metropolitan to go to sleep. It makes me want to be warm, quiet, not overthink it.
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