The Cinematheque

This holiday season, cozy up to the comforts of one of cinema’s most hilarious and endlessly rewatchable Christmas movies—set in 1940s Indiana but shot mostly in 1980s Toronto! The life of nine-year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) is filled with much schoolboy drama: conflicts with bullies, the attentions of an overprotective mother (Melinda Dillon), and daily discipline meted out by ​“the Old Man” (Darren McGavin). With Christmas rapidly approaching, Ralphie’s desperate desire for a BB gun overwhelms any good sense the boy can muster, while warnings from his mother, teacher, and even Santa that he’ll ​“shoot his eye out” only send him deeper into reverie. The film, directed by Porky’s helmer Bob Clark (whose other Christmas story, Black Christmas, screens for decidedly older audiences as part of our Canada on Screen series), appeals to the seasonal nostalgic in all of us—where love, warmth, and varying degrees of minor tragedy all factor into holidays at home with the family.