Holiday Favorites

Updated December 28, 2012.

We've really enjoyed writing and publishing guest Holiday Favorites this year. If you're looking for something different to watch during the holiday season (or any time), here are our (and their) suggestions.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

This installment comes from Nathan Christ, director of the Austin music documentary Echotone. Here's his pick:

This holiday season, I'm re-watching Twin Peaks.

It's not a film per se, but a series of one-hour films, and it's pure cinema. It speaks about society in a magical and mysterious way. It's the story of a community and is bursting with melancholy romance, spirituality, and battling archetypes. Most of its characters seek to be good but are frequently disrupted by shocking bursts of evil and violence, which takes on a visceral and chilling significance for me in our recent times.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

Kim LeBlanc, location scout for the Texas Film Commission and recent newlywed, tells us about her pick:

Don't get me wrong, I could watch George Bailey run up and down the idyllically snow-covered streets of Bedford Falls joyfully shouting "Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old building and loan!" until the cows come home. There's a reason why the classics are the classics. And no matter how many times I've seen it and no matter how hard I try, every time a bell rings, not only does an angel get its wings but invariably, a Kim also has to finish off a box of Kleenex. That's just the way it is.

Yet aside from the more obvious holiday fare out there -- i.e. It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas (oh those fabulously festive dance numbers!) -- as of late I have to say my favorite flick to watch during the holidays is quickly becoming The Thin Man (1934).

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise. 

This installment comes from Brandon Dickerson, director and co-writer of Sironia.

Seeing a film on Christmas Day has been a tradition since I was a kid and one we've continued with our own family the past few years. We started early with special Alamo Drafthouse screenings of Gremlins and It's a Wonderful Life with our kids and I'm certain that Elf and Love Actually will be enjoyed at home in the few days leading up to Christmas celebrations.

Whereas all of those films would make my "Holiday Favorite" list, along with A Christmas Story, my absolute favorite movie to enjoy during the winter holidays is Millions. Danny Boyle's playfully directed story of a seven-year-old boy who discovers a bag of English pounds just days before the currency is switched to euros, grabs me every time I see it. It's also at the top of my "man-I-wish-I-somehow-directed-that-film" list.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

Austin filmmaker Bob Byington brings us today's Holiday Favorites. Byington's unique comedies include Harmony and Me and [RSO] Registered Sex Offender. His most recent film, Somebody Up There Likes Me, premiered at SXSW 2012 (Don's review), will be released in theaters in February 2013 ... we hear it will open in Austin on February 22 at Violet Crown, and will keep you posted. Here's what Byington has to say about his favorite movie at this time of year:

The first time I saw Bad Santa it didn't play for me, and like some of my other favorite movies, the second viewing went really well.

The chemistry between the kid (Brett Kelly) and Billy Bob Thornton is great. And the scene where Billy Bob talks about how hitting a kid gave him the strength to go on living -- there's nothing like that.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise. 

This installment comes from Andrew Disney, writer/director of Searching for Sonny, the Fort Worth-shot detective-movie spoof that screened at Austin Film Festival in 2011 (Mike's review). Here's his pick:

I started writing with the intention to impress everyone. First I thought Gremlins, but it was already taken. Then I thought Kiss Kiss Bang Bang because I do love films set during Christmas that have little to do with the holiday. But deep down inside I knew it would all be false. There's one Christmas movie I've watched every Christmas Eve since I was nine. Of course, I'm talking about the 1994 hit movie starring Tim Allen ... The Santa Clause (with special emphasis on the "e").

I distinctly remember sitting in the theater listening to my dad try to explain the legal definition of "clause" to me and my younger sister. The entire movie hinges on this pun, and I don't think I quite got it as a kid. As a nine-year-old, where would I ever encounter a "clause"? But now that I'm older and I'm looking back, I love how wonderfully bizarre this movie is.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

I've watched Bill Murray in the 1988 classic Scrooged every year since its release. Directed by Richard Donner (known for a few other favorites of mine: The Toy, The Goonies, Ladyhawke and Radio Flyer), Scrooged holds a special place in my heart for many reasons.

For one, the movie has quintessential late 80s New York City charm. I had never visited NYC before moving there from small-town West Texas, and I lived there for 12 years. When I arrived off the turnip truck, the only images I had in my head were from childhood movies and TV shows. Scrooged was one of them, along with Sesame Street, Baby Boom, When Harry Met Sally, Wall Street, etc. It turns out Scrooged was closer to the truth, but in a good way.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

This installment comes from David Gil, Marketing Manager for the Violet Crown Cinema:

There are a number of films that I enjoy re-watching when the holiday season rolls around. I never really thought about which ones were my favorite until I was asked to pick one to write about. Immediately I thought of films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, which may top the list though Love Actually (I’m not ashamed to admit it) is gaining momentum with each passing year. Yet, as I sit down to write this, there seems to be one title that I keep going back to: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.

Jim Henson adapted the Russell [and Lillian --ed.] Hoban book into a television special the year I was born, which may explain in part my connection to it. The story is about Emmet Otter and his Ma, who, despite having no money, dream of buying each other the perfect Christmas gift. Think O. Henry’s "The Gift of the Magi" but with a twist… and the wonderful music of Paul Williams. This film was a staple on early HBO during the holidays and I would watch it every chance I got because once Christmas was over, I wouldn’t see it again for another year. The sets, the songs, the puppetry were all classic Henson on par with the creativity and originality of the first three Muppet films.

By Aaron Malzahn

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

They don't make movies like Gremlins anymore. It is one of those rare holiday films that manages to successfully combine the warm, fuzzy holiday feeling of family togetherness with the strange, bizarre and gruesome humor of cheesy horror flicks. It does this so well in fact that most people, just like Die Hard, forget that Gremlins is a Christmas film. But it is, and the first time I ever saw this loveable gem of a movie was wrapped up next to a roaring fire when I was a kid and sipping a big glass of egg nog witnessing a gremlin explode in the microwave. This movie, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the PG-13 rating.

Produced by Steven Spielberg and his company Amblin entertainment back in 1984 hot off the heels of his blockbuster film ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Gremlins opened on the same day as Ghostbusters, and came in second in the box-office draws. Originally written as a spec script by Chris Columbus, Spielberg bought it when it came across his desk and hired Joe Dante (coming off of a hiatus after The Howling) to direct. It was a critical and commercial hit during its lifetime in the theatre and went on to spawn a sequel and a massive marketing campaign.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

I wrote about a few of my favorite holiday classics last year, but neglected to include Meet Me in St. Louis! The 1944 film can be paired with 1949's In the Good Old Summertime for a Judy Garland turn-of-the-century Christmas double feature. These are two of my favorite Garland roles, but Meet Me in St. Louis has an edge because it contains her splendid performance of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (as well as "The Trolley Song," yay).

The year is 1903, and the multi-generational Smith family is upper-middle-class, living in their Victorian home and eager for the World's Fair in St. Louis. Esther (a 22-year-old Garland) is in her late teens, pining for her pipe-smoking young neighbor ("The Boy Next Door"). Oldest sister Rose (Lucile Bremer) is a senior in high school, long-distance dating a college man. Brother Lon is about to enter Princeton, and the two youngest daughters Agnes and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) are in grade school.