Simply Perfect

Powerful

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A Christmas Story (1983) Director: Bob Clark 7/10 First watched as adult, Finally get references! Disliked narration, Don't recall my Christmases Being this cute or zany. Tanka, literally "short poem", is a form of poetry consisting of five lines, unrhymed, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format. #Tanka #PoemReview

I would have given this 10 stars but deducted one for the combination of stealth homophobia and gender rigidity (pink nightmare and electric sex heterosexuality assumption). Yes, in 1983 everyone making mainstream films made these assumptions (that everyone is hetero) but the complete absence of gay people is something that doesn't impress me as a gay person. Imagine if your people were consistently erased from film and television and you grew up, watching "family" entertainment that erased you from existence? The closest thing to a gay character is the bit part with the boy in line who likes the Tin Man and the Wizard of Oz. We're used as extremely tiny bit parts, as weirdos, and that's it.(Let's not pretend that Hollywood didn't know gay people exist. The entire underlying plot of All About Eve is about how gayness is evil and heterosexuality (heterosexual marriages in which women abandon their careers) is pure. The Children's Hour was about how sad, but necessary, it is for gay people to kill themselves. One of the very earliest American films, prior to homophobic censorship codes, showed two men dancing with a violinist playing. So, no, just because it was 1983 isn't enough of an excuse. We exist whenever someone wants someone to kick in the eye.)* That said, this film is just breathtakingly great from start to finish. The casting is perfect. The acting is flawless. The writing is fantastic.If you haven't seen the film you need to. It's nostalgic, funny, and heartwarming.*The opposite of this is seen in current television, where banal stereotyped gay characters are pretty common as more than bit parts. In this film, would it have ruined it for the Ralphie to have a second brother, one who is gay? No. It wouldn't have ruined the film. It would have made gay kids like me feel a lot happier when watching it with the family every year, growing up. I would have felt like I was valued and didn't have to lie about myself in shame, which I did at the time because everything told me that was the expectation.

My God, how quickly time flies! "A Christmas Story" celebrates its 34th anniversary this year, which means that all the kids that fill the classroom or stuck their nose on the toy shop window, from Ralphie to his little brother Randy, are in their mid-forties, even that poor little Flick who stuck his ill-fated tongue on the pole (the film's defining image) will turn 50 the next year. And speaking for myself, it's been 24 years that I watched it (fittingly with my kid brother) on a Saturday afternoon and I remember we laughed, we laughed a lot. We weren't from the narrator's generation, but it didn't make it any less accessible or enjoyable. I guess this says a lot about the way the charm of "A Christmas Story" operates, it finds a voice that can speak to any child of any generation and any country, any adult too.Indeed, the age of the film doesn't matter actually, many movies are as old without being classics. Many movies dealt with Christmas with far richer and 'entertaining' plots without reaching that little sparkle of truth and wit. In fact, many movies featured kids that were far smarter than Ralphie, with more 'interesting' problems, but were instantly forgotten. There's just something about "A Christmas Story" that rings the right note, something that works. It didn't work immediately, in a year where "Return of the Jedi" was the phenomenon, and comedies like "Risky Business", "Vacation" or "Trading Places" attracted more crowds, critics welcomed Bob Clark's film with timid enthusiasm. Others, like Vincent Canby, criticized it while conceding a touching nostalgic value. But the attention got warmer with time, people realized they could watch this film and watch it again, that they could enjoy it as well as their parents or their kids, that the quest of Ralphie could resonate more strongly in the parents' hearts. They also saw that unlike indisputable classics like "It's a Wonderful Life", the film didn't rely on its ending, it was interesting from beginning to end. Slowly, the film became the consummate feel-good family Christmas movie, with the charm of nostalgic classics filled with colorful characters like Fellini's "Amarcord" or Woody Allen's "Radio Daus", with a similar wit coming from the voice-over narration of Jean Shepherd. It's set in the 40's, the kids aren't even baby-boomers, but there's a classic tropism established by Ebert that the more specific a story is, the more universal it is, even more universal since the film is about childhood.And what better time than Christmas to amplify the most basic aspects of that magical yet volatile time? We all know the story: "Little Ralphie wants the new Red Ryder B.B. Gun" only to bump into the same frustrating answer: "You'll shoot your eye out". You have everything in that premise: the powerlessness of children, the fetishism surrounding toys and the obstruction of overprotective mothers, it's the eternal struggle between kids and parents, culminating in Christmas time and forcing a child to seek escapism in dreams or find stratagems to convince his parents, same as parents who use tricks to talk them into finishing their plates.. It's Childhood becomes a time where communication is never a straight line. And some attempts are so pathetically deemed to fail that it elevates Ralphie as one of the most adorable Christmas protagonists.There's something so irresistible in the face of little Ralphie (played by Peter Bilingsley), he's not your smart ass cute-looking kid, not a Kevin McAllister, he's just an average little boy whose dreams are all focused on the holy grail of all toys and trying to find the proper language to communicate it to his father, his mother or eventually his teacher. The father played by Darren McGavin Is a no nonsense man who spends his time swearing but is oblivious to the fact that his kid would have grew an awareness of a few dirty words. The mother played by Melinda Dillon is more diplomatic and sweet (love the scene where she tries to convince Randy to eat) but God forbid she ever hears swearing, she then becomes the 'bad cop' who knows how to wipe dirty words off a child's mouth, with the perfect brand of soap. The film contains all the elements of childhood, friends, parents, toys, bullies, toadies, daring and double-daring (not to mention triple-daring), snow games, toys, joys and deceptions. Indeed, one of the most interesting scene involves the discovery of an ad message behind a secret code (proof that even at those times, publicity was frustratingly omnipresent). The closest to sensual awakening comes from the comical introduction of a sexy lamp made of a leg, causing a great deal of jealousy between the couple. The film looks likes a series of vignettes but to avoid the episodic feeling, there's that common thread, that constant goal that never deserts Ralphie's mind: the B.B. Gun and the inevitable "Eye-shooting" line, inspiring a hilarious comment coming, of all persons, from Santa Claus himself.But "A Christmas Story" is not about the gun, but about these wishes that obsessed us as kids. And there's just a gentleness about this film, an innocence that rhymes with intelligence, a desire to talk to the inner child inside us without losing the adult touch, that the narration comes from an adult voice creates the perfect bridge between the two worlds, and makes the film such a unique experience. That and the fact that every scene is original and there's a sense of detail that makes each viewing richer than the first. It's a film that grows on you and gets more special every time you watch it.Not to mention that it's hilarious, you won't shoot your eye out, but you'll laugh your ass off.

When I saw A Christmas Story repeatedly described as the 'best Christmas film ever', I knew I'd be invariably disappointed. This sweet and sentimental story is a family-focused tale about a young boy growing up in the 1940s and desperate for a toy gun for Christmas. Yep, the usual American preoccupation with commercialism, and not a patch on the likes of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.It is, however, the sort of film that kids would love, given that it charts children getting up to repeated mischief in much the same way as Richmal Crompton's JUST WILLIAM books. I can imagine that it's the type of film that people would watch themselves as a kid in the 1980s and grow up loving it with a fuzzy feeling of nostalgic warmth, which is fair enough.The twist about A Christmas Story is that it's actually a Canadian film, directed by the one and only Bob Clark, whose Black Christmas is one of the ultimate Christmas horror films ever made. As for this film, it's watchable and fitfully amusing, featuring the usual pratfalls and scenes of kids getting their tongues stuck to frozen poles. The main character is a bit annoying although not as much as I'd feared and old-timer Darren McGavin helps to anchor things as his dad. Indeed, I found it entertaining enough, just not the classic I'd read about.