Movie Club

'Tis the season to give back, and this year Movie Club is giving back to you with our Top Christmas picks for the perfect night at home. If you are feeling joyous or if you are feeling blue, and you miss your fellow Movie Club friends, put on their holiday pick and image they are right there with you.

Merry Christmas from all of us, to all of You !

OUR PICKS

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Lauren & Holly

Lauren - The greatest holiday movie ever made, Christmas or otherwise. Guarantee I will cry laughing, pairs well with a joint and a bowl of butterless popcorn.

Holly - National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s a hilarious movie, but it is also sentimental for me. It was Armando and my second date (first run, in the theater!). This was before cell phones and due to things… we were both two hours late and still somehow still met up.

Home for the Holidays

Cheryl

Starring Holly Hunter, a single mom dealing her dysfunctional family over Thanksgiving (apparently not Christmas?), is funny and charming and hits all the holiday-movie notes. But it’s Robert Downey Jr. as her gay brother who won me over when I first saw the movie as a not-yet-out baby queer. This is Robert Downey Jr. in his sweet, doughy years, before sobriety and questionable politics. I just liked seeing him on the screen, and I still do.

The Family Stone

CiCi

Aside from a cast full of people in their dramatic comedy prime (Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, SJ Parker, Claire Danes, Luke Wilson) and two near-legends (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson), and a snippet of Judy Garland singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” (the best version of that song), it has three great lines of dialogue that I think about all the time.

“I love you. And you are more normal than any other...asshole sitting at this table.”

“What’s so great about YOU guys?” “Oh, nothing. It’s just that we’re all we’ve got.”

“You have a freak flag. You just don’t fly it.”

It's A Wonderful Life

Robyn

When someone asks me what my favorite Christmas movie is, I always say It’s a Wonderful Life because James Stewart and its magical story. 
But I’ve broken that tradition of watching it every holiday as I’ve gotten older. I feel the most excitement when I watch The Holiday, Eyes Wide Shut and While You Were Sleeping. Those three are in a tie for my favorite.
But then of course there’s The Santa Clause and Home Alone 

The Family Man

Albert

The House, the kids, the wife, the car, it's a trap isn't it? Or is it exactly what he never knew he wanted. Nic Cage is amazing in this movie that scared my teenage years with the pursuit of the family I still don't have, but after this movie, convinced myself I needed. This isn't my favorite Christmas movie, but it is the one that has made the longest lasting impact on me in my most formative years.  Sit back and watch the tears roll in as non other than the shaman of acting gives another stunning performace as himself. 

Love Actually

Hiedy

 remember first watching this movie for a college class assignment and couldn’t believe I had not given it a chance sooner. The mix of emotions I feel watching this movie brings me so much comfort. So, every holiday, I turn to this movie and it’s as if I’m watching it for the first time all over.