Holiday viewing.

"Most Christmas movies are tales of redemptive hysteria - witness the stuttering ecstasy of Alastair Sim in A Christmas Carol or Jimmy Stewart's desperate happiness in the last scenes of It's a Wonderful Life." But for Verlyn Klinkenborg, writing in the New York Times, a family favorite for years has been The Bishop's Wife, "a modest movie, but it has its exaltations."

"At a time when secularism is being blamed for the erosion of Christian values, cinemagoers should perhaps ask themselves whether the true spirit of Christmas can indeed be found in such flawed fare as The Nativity Story. Or whether, as has so often been the case, we should look outside of the evangelical canon for films which best embody the values of peace on earth and goodwill to all men," suggests Mark Kermode in the Observer. "Happy Christmas!"

At Cinematical, Erik Davis presents "24 reasons to watch all 24 hours of A Christmas Story on Christmas Day."

The Siren catches up with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in an unusual Christmas movie, Remember the Night: "The screenplay was written by Preston Sturges, but this is a sentimental romance, not one of his trademark farces. Biographer Donald Spoto says Remember the Night was written soon after Sturges's marriage (his second of four, but a honeymoon's a honeymoon), and it carries the gleam of newfound love."

Salon's TV critic Heather Havrilesky presents "a holiday viewing guide for the whole dysfunctional family, one that gracefully sidesteps anything remotely wholesome or heartwarming, dodges any and all gratefulness and hand-holding, and veers recklessly into the realm of bad attitudes, heavy drinking, filthy sex, gratuitous violence and tragic endings, preferably peppered with a glib disdain for all that is sweet and lovely and joyful in the world. What could be more festive?"

At Facets Features, Brian Elza picks nine holiday viewing faves "for cool kids": "A few of these films aren't necessarily Christmas movies, but each brilliantly captures some of the feelings associated with the holidays in one way or another: Cold, lonely, anxious, bloated, sick of the saccharine sweetness, and so forth."

David Lowery's definition of a Christmas movie is fairly open as well. Wes Anderson, Pedro Almodóvar...

Online browsing tip. Greenbriar's "Five Days of Christmas."

Online viewing tip #1. Season's greetings from Jamie Stuart.

Online viewing tip #2. The Little Matchgirl at TickleBooth.

Online viewing tip #3. Ray Pride reminds us of Judy Garland's eye-moistening rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

Online viewing tips. "Cybercinema's Christmas goodie rules are simple this year : if it's quirky, twisted, blackly comic, bleakly wintry, or frankly just in the worst possible seasonal taste, then it's fuel for our Yule."

Updated: "It's a Wonderful Life."

Posted by dwhudson at December 25, 2006 7:59 AM