And, of course, the best of them, it s a wonderful life. it s a story about greed and goodness and charity and hope all wrapped up into one. i can t think of christmas and christmas eve without thinking of it s a wonderful life. it s my childhood. when i was little, i would get into the big chair with my dad and we d watch the movie because it was my dad s favorite movie. i remember seeing it the first time with my family and crying and being shocked and a little bit embarrassed by the emotions. i don t know how many times i ve seen it s a wonderful life. i always see something new. it s a beautiful black-and-white gem that probably has gone down in motion picture history as the perfect screenplay and the perfect execution of that perfect screenplay. capra, stewart. can you beat that? i don t think so. america has just been through
And they re sex workers, so they re living on the fringes of society. and telling the story at christmastime is a very important part of why that movie works. this is about who is your family? who are you going to turn to? who are you going to come to at the end of the day? christmas is an opportunity to show that even if you don t have a traditional family, you can still be surrounded by love. i think some of the most moving depictions of christmas are people being thrown together. hey! merry christmas. merry christmas. they find a way to celebrate and they find a way to create community. there s a big difference between christmas movies and then the television episodic christmases. because these are characters we live with throughout the year, and then we re spending christmas with them, too. merry christmas, fonz. yeah, yeah, merry christmas, huh? merry christmas. i grew up watching tv and the
Kid. it s a great simple story, mostly told from the kid s point of view. ho, ho, ho. no! it s funny and sweet, but cinematically really original. ah! god, it s hard to beat home alone for me. macaulay culkin. iconic performance. this house is so full of people. it makes me sick. home alone is about what if you re gone away for the holidays what else could we be forgetting? and you forgot your child. kevin! i ve made my family disappear. just the fun and the hijinks of that film. it is on the mount rushmore of holiday movies. i remember just thinking that i was fully transported into, like, this could actually happen to me as a five-year-old. it was terrifying, that idea, but also so exciting. being liberated from family responsibilities, but at the same time, taking on family responsibilities to protect the home and repel the bad guys. it becomes, basically, a looney tunes cartoon. you guys give up? or are you thirsty for more? at the same time,
Not just for a christmas story, any story. the idea that no matter how miserable a life you lead, if the christmas spirit touches your heart, you can find redemption. come on and sit on santa s
And we realized that it wasn t in the recipe, it was in the love. the ingredient that mattered that was missing was her love. when i was writing it, that s the woman that i was channeling. it was in the magic of love. the invention of jeronicus jangle. jingle jangle is a piece of black joy, with this fantastical christmas adventure. jingle jangle, i wrote it because i wanted my sons to have a story with some people that looked like him in this fantasy world. this is my wonderful family. what makes jingle jangle a christmas movie is what made it s a wonderful life a christmas movie.