This place is like the circus with alcohol. How have I never been here?

#34. When Harry Met Sally (1989).

I wish I could do this on New Year's Eve! :D (The link, not the picture, sheesh.)



I would love to do the Alamo Drafthouse's WHMS evening with full menu (with all the toppings "on the side"!)

It has enough xmas in it to make the list, but I think most of us associate this one with New Years, as the Alamo apparently does...but as I said previously, New Years counts too!

Anyway, this one still makes me laugh even though I've seen it an ungodly amount of times, so that's got to mean it's still cute.

#33. Metropolitan (1990).

It's not surprising how much I like this movie, even though the characters really aren't so likable. I'm still drooling for Whit Stillman's new Damsel in Distress to come out, assuming it's still being made and all is going well...



Not many people know this movie, it's very low budget and it's very New York. I don't know much about the Upper East Side crowd or the debutante ball phase of life those kids go through, but it's still interesting, especially since the audience gets the perspective of the outsider, Tom Townsend, who is also quite poor. (I always kind of wanted to name my cat Tom Townsend, even though I sort of loathe the character himself. I've always been far more partial to the more openly obnoxious qualities of the Chris Eigeman character!)



It occurred to me not that long ago that even as a child I was always drawn to the pretentious, uptight (and often mocked) characters in cartoons. For example, I always liked Ratty in The Wind in the Willows. Poor Ratty. And then I always felt really bad for Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh, who, let's face it, is the bitter alcoholic of the bunch.

Anyway, back to Metropolitan...so I like the character-driven pretentious stuff sometimes, sue me.

This is a good Christmas movie, though it's not really a Christmas movie. But it's set in New York (mostly) during Christmas and makes for some great sets and scenery.

#32. Holiday Inn (1942).

This is one of my top, top traditional xmas movies. I have the original, which unfortunately includes the blackface number for Lincoln's birthday. Hmm. I usually fast forward or hit the loo on that one. In all honesty, I can appreciate the times, cringe and endure it, but it's also just the poorest number of the bunch.



Ha ha, I sort of wish I hadn't look at the trivia on imdb. Apparently Marjorie Reynolds' singing was dubbed! :O I had no idea!

Apparently they shot a Labor Day dance number but it got nixed. And I knew this one:

For the "drunk" dance, Fred Astaire had two drinks of bourbon before the first take and one before each succeeding take. The seventh (last) take was used in the film.

This was also the film for which "White Christmas" was written, not the actual film White Christmas, which I saw for the first time last year and has got to be one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever seen.



It's probably always been obvious, but apparently yes, the real Holiday Inns were named after this film, which kind of depresses me a little. They are perfectly fine hotels, I suppose, it's just a shame they have nothing in common with the film whatsoever other than ripping off the name.

#31. Home Alone (1990).

So I'm cheating a little here. I saw this last xmas (or most of it) when my nieces were in town. I don't need to see it again this year, and I think it should be on the list for variety. Plus I really remember the first time I saw it. It had nothing to do with the movie itself, but both my sisters and I went to the neighborhood theater on Christmas Eve so my parents could finish wrapping presents. (Not that I was told that at the time.)



My oldest sister would have been 17, then Alex would have been 13 going on 14 and I was 11. It was really just fun going out to the theater with them, and the movie was fun (not fantastic or abysmal either way). But it was a really good time, I know I laughed and enjoyed the movie. And ahhhh, the film had yet to be bludgeoned to death by repetition and Macaulay Culkin hadn't been utterly destroyed by the family drama and fame machine mix.

I'm not a big fan of visual gags and slapstick, not even at that age, but it was still fun as a kid. When I saw it last year I appreciated it in that way that, as an adult, you are thankful when a kid's movie doesn't make you want to disembowel yourself while you watch it. Always a plus.

#30. Joyeux Noel (2005).

Here's one I've only come to know in the past couple years, and this was second time to see it. I liked it even better this time, really great movie.



It is set during World War I, and certainly it has its bleak moments, but there are so many cute moments and of course the whole story is very sweet, so it's still a very nice Christmas movie. I don't think I could recommend this one enough--this is what a Christmas movie should be. (If it can't be black and white with musical numbers or else animated and intelligent!)

Really great music, too. A+.