Holiday Viewing: The Best Man Holiday

Bust a gut laughing, or cry your guts out: You get it both ways

"...How do you like your Christmas movie? Raunchy comedy, or wracking-sob melodrama? With The Best Man..."

Dec. 10, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: Gremlins

Classic black comedy has the blues

"...her two pivotal scenes in Gremlins, expert and enduring holiday catharsis...."

Dec. 8, 2017 Screens Post by Raoul Hernandez

Holiday Viewing: The Spirit of Christmas

A ridiculous delight in the Hallmark movie pantheon

"...It’s becoming a modern Christmas tradition: the inundation of holiday romances. Almost 30 movies were made for the Hallmark..."

Dec. 12, 2017 Screens Post by James Renovitch

Holiday Viewing: Silent Night, Deadly Night

When your Christmas nightmares come true

"...the elephant in the room, right? Oh, there’s traditional holiday movies like Christmas in Connecticut, Elf, some Downton Abbey..."

Dec. 23, 2017 Screens Post by Josh Kupecki

Holiday Viewing: Elf

One for the whole family

"...good food (mostly made by my mom), and watching movies and our favorite shows...."

Dec. 5, 2017 Screens Post by Mark Fagan

Holiday Viewing: Remember the Night

The key to a merry Christmas is a shoplifter in the house

"...Does going home for the holidays have you fretful? Are you fearing the same old,..."

Dec. 18, 2017 Screens Post by Robert Faires

Holiday Viewing: White Christmas

The one we can't seem to quit

"...White Christmas is that it’s not a very good movie. It’s not even the best version of Bing Crosby..."

Dec. 13, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: Eyes Wide Shut

Stanley Kubrick’s lovely holiday tale of marriage and orgies

"...It’s a solid entry into the nouvelle vague of holiday viewing (just stop it with Die Hard, okay?). Kubrick’s..."

Dec. 19, 2017 Screens Post by Josh Kupecki

Holiday Viewing: Bad Santa

Foul-mouthed fun for the holidays

"...Bad Santa was a curious choice for director Terry..."

Dec. 15, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: A Christmas Tale

Turns out Christmas dinner is just as fraught in French

"...And that is one of the many minor miracles..."

Dec. 3, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: A Christmas Carol

In this season of giving, who is the best Scrooge?

"...This Christmas Eve, Turner Classic Movies stays up late for one of the first great..."

Dec. 24, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: Christmas in Connecticut

It's a wonderful lie

"...Christmas movies usually come wrapped in a message: appreciate the little..."

Dec. 22, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: Black Christmas

The giving season can be murder in the original slasher

"...It's not the original holiday horror. Two years earlier, in 1972, ABC inexplicably decked..."

Dec. 2, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: TV Christmas Episodes

Celebrate the season in Sunnydale, the Oval Office, and more

"...The thing about holiday episodes from television series is, they don’t always age..."

Dec. 14, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: The Thin Man

A merry, blotto Christmas (mind the dead body in the bedroom)

"...just a shocking amount of alcohol imbibed in this movie.) Journeyman director W. S. Van Dyke – nicknamed “One..."

Dec. 25, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: Diner

Or how I fell in love with Mickey Rourke

"...all in love just trying to live in that movie. The clothes: ties and peacoats all the way, perhaps..."

Dec. 16, 2017 Screens Post by Josh Kupecki

Holiday Viewing: Krampus

How to avoid being dragged away on Krampusnacht

"...In his follow-up, 2015's Krampus, Dougherty turns to another holiday, and yet again suburban America gets on the wrong..."

Dec. 7, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: The Shop Around the Corner

The essential Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie (no, not that one)

"...Klara and Kralik’s love story. That doesn’t mean the movie is all softness; Lubitsch gooses laughs from an adulterous..."

Dec. 1, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Holiday Viewing: The Nightmare Before Christmas

A holiday hybrid for outcasts

"...hidden, but all too present, feeling exacerbated by the holidays. While the season is known for jolly family get-togethers,..."

Dec. 21, 2017 Screens Post by Marisa Mirabal

Holiday Viewing: Downton Abbey Christmas Specials

We rank the holidays with the Crawley family

"...4) The Season 5 Christmas Special: “A Moorland Holiday” I know I’m not alone in thinking the Bates/Anna..."

Dec. 17, 2017 Screens Post by Josh Kupecki

Holiday Viewing: Doctor Who at Christmas

Which are the best (and worst) of the BBC classic's Xmas specials?

"...His self-imposed exile is ended by a raucous, bizarre adventure with sentient evil snowmen, and Richard E. Grant as..."

Dec. 11, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Some Santas belong on the naughty list

"...That's fine if it's Sundblom's Santa spying on you...."

Dec. 9, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: The Dead

The shadow of Christmas past hangs long over Huston's classic

"...independently wealthy that can afford to take a month's holiday, or that can hold a massive dinner party at..."

Dec. 4, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Holiday Viewing: The Gospel According to St. Matthew

“The most sublime Texts ever written”

"...Letters at 3AM column in the Chronicle on Easter movies: “The Gospel According to St. Matthew was filmed in..."

Dec. 20, 2017 Screens Post by Nick Barbaro

Holiday Viewing: The Lion in Winter

It’s 1183 … but squabbling with the family is timeless

"...me out of jail.” Henry: “It’s only for the holidays.”..."

Dec. 6, 2017 Screens Post by Kimberley Jones

Chronicle Recommends: Seasons Beatings

Our top picks for holiday movies with a twist

"...the Chronicle's film critics, it seems. For this month's movie recommends, we have some unconventional films for the season...."

Dec. 6, 2018 Screens Post by Chronicle Film Staff

What’cha Watchin’?

Get in the spirit of the season with these holiday movie recommendations

"...What is Christmas without an advent calendar? This year, the Austin Chronicle film elves prepared..."

Dec. 22, 2017 Screens Column

Bite-Sized News: Christmas Edition

Announcing the new elftastic Buddy’s Park n’ Pizza

"...hostess gift or basis for your own DIY cider adventures – as well as a Carpenter Hotel tote bag..."

Dec. 14, 2018 Food Post by Emily Beyda

Book Tour Confidential

"...Thus at every book's advent come also much ritual and ceremonial, launch parties, merry-making,..."

May 21, 1999 Books Feature by Carol Dawson