Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas [Paperback]

Alonso Duralde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2010

Don't waste another second of your valuable holiday time on another boring Christmas movie. Film critic Alonso Duralde highlights the best - and worst - movies of the Yuletide season with this fun and informative film guide. Whether you're looking for the classics, family favorites, holiday horror, Christmas-themed crime epics, or the most wonderfully awful cinematic lumps of coal, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas will point you and your rental queue in the right direction. Whether your idea of a holiday classic is White Christmas, Bad Santa, Die Hard, Eyes Wide Shut, or Gremlins, you'll find the right film for you, as well as an exhaustively entertaining breakdown of the various screen Scrooges, from Alistair Sim to Jim Carrey to...Tori Spelling? And get ready to encounter movies you may never have heard of from the gritty noir Christmas Holiday, starring 1930s singing ingenue Deanna Durbin in her first hard-bitten adult role, to the loony Santa Claus, a Mexican kiddie movie in which St. Nick teams up with Merlin to fight the devil! Plot synopses, video availability, and fun facts - did you know the actor cast as Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life was also in the running to play mean old Mr. Potter? - make this a stocking stuffed with information you'll turn to every Christmas season.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alonso Duralde (West Hollywood, CA) is the author of 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men. He has written about film for MSNBC.com and the Advocate, among others, and programmed film festivals, including Outest and the USA Film Festival/Dallas. A regular contributor to The Rotten Tomatoes Show, Duralde has been featured in documentaries for IFC and Starz, and on the Brokeback Mountain and Valley of the Dolls DVDs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Limelight Editions (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879103760
• ISBN-13: 978-0879103767
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a lifelong movie nerd who managed to stay out of theaters and away from the DVD player long enough to write two books about film: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books, 2005).

You can read my reviews of current movies at TheWrap.com, check out my weekly DVD column "High & Low" at Movieline.com, and watch me talk about new films with other critics on the YouTube series WHAT THE FLICK?! I also work with several film festivals, including Sundance and Outfest. My previous gigs include "The Rotten Tomatoes Show" on Current, Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Advocate, Artistic Director of the USA Film Festival/Dallas, and, back in high school, every possible gig at a suburban movie theater in College Park, Ga., from tearing tickets to running the projector. I'm lucky enough to be partnered with the very funny Dave White, whose book EXILE IN GUYVILLE you should absolutely read.

Dave and I also host a weekly movies podcast called Linoleum Knife you might enjoy; subscribe to the show on iTunes or stream us on Stitcher Radio.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a terrific guide! November 8, 2010

By typeface69

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Duralde does a wonderful job going beyond the obvious holiday tropes and curates a truly inspiring list of Christmas classics. The chapter on holiday heist films is wonderfully inspired, but if you also want a detailed analysis of all the major Christmas Carols out there, Movie Little Christmas does the job as well.
Plus, you gotta love an author who can use the word "codswallop" when he picks apart the mistake that was Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Wonderful Book December 17, 2010

By K. Usey

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Despite the too-easy title of my review, don't make the mistake of thinking that this terrific compendium of Christmas cinema touches only on the safe and familiar. "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" is the perfect listing of holiday movies, making sure to include beloved classics like Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, and the myriad versions of A Christmas Carol, but also branching out into such different holiday-film categories as heist and horror. Independent L.A. film critic Alonso Duralde brings an encyclopedic knowledge of film to his task, but never condescends or comes across as anything less delightful than a true lover of movies, and Christmas movies in particular. If you can't wait for December to bring you Hollywood's holiday goodies every year, "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" will whet your appetite for merry movies all the year through. Leonard Maltin just included it on a list of essential movie reference books, and having read through it twice, dog-earing all the way, I have to agree.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book you'll be glad you read! October 27, 2010

By Mike McGranaghan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the most clever book ideas I've ever come across. Some of my favorite holiday films are covered here, as are some less familiar movies that I now want to see. You're guaranteed to make a few new discoveries as well. Anyone familiar with Alonso Duralde's written reviews or his TV work on "The Rotten Tomatoes Show" and "The Grid" knows that he combines a vast knowledge of cinema with a sharp sense of humor. That's what makes "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" so much fun to read. Highly recommended for the holiday season, or any time of year!

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It makes a wonderful gift - and with good reason! October 16, 2010

By Kurt B. Reighley

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Like Duralde's previous book, "101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men," "Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas" condenses a terrific amount of information and trivia into lively, witty prose that never runs on too long. The author, a seasoned critic and pop culture savant, clearly loves his subject matter - even when he's dealing with a film he expresses dislike for - and that makes this read that much more enjoyable. There are at least two chapters ("They'll Be Scary Ghost Stories: Holiday Horror" and "The Worst Christmas (Movies) Ever: Lumps of Coal in Your Cinema Stocking") so funny and compelling that, despite pressing deadlines and grown-up concerns, I found myself unable to set this book aside till I finished them (thank God that roast didn't burn). The chapter on myriad adaptations of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" actually made me see the holiday chestnut from surprising new angles, and the thorough appendices open the door to even MORE viewing possibilities. This book make a great gift for any Christmas buff or film fanatic, but make sure to buy two, cuz once you leaf through "Movie Little Christmas," you'll want a copy of your own.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great and fun book! December 19, 2012

By Christopher Robles

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is such a fun book about movies, Christmas movies, movies set during Christmas, and all of the movies in between. The writing it engaging, clear, informative and funny; you can tell that author loves Christmas movies, and movies in general. Fun book and a fun spin on the topic of Christmas movies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Fine holiday fun", to quote 'Clueless' December 19, 2012

By Vanina

Format:Paperback

Having discovered Alonso Duralde through the DVD extras on the 'Valley of the Dolls' DVD, where he steals the show, I immediately ordered this book when I saw it announced. By writing with his usual charm (just check out his reviews on thewrap.com), Duralde accomplishes two things in this book: he manages to be one of the few film critics that don't grate on your nerves, and his take on Christmas is that it's not necessarily all sweetness and light.

I love Christmas, but realise not everyone does (or at least, not to the full extent..) and there's something for everyone in here. Even for the biggest Christmas film fans there's surprises littered around the book (the list of "Christmas" films, regular films that feature Christmas, is a goldmine), and for people not too familiar with holiday films, there's intelligent and funny descriptions of some of the best festive films that make you want to seek out more obscure titles. A real treat!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Christmas Fun! December 18, 2012

By NashvilleMom

Format:Paperback

Duralde clearly has such a love of movies and Christmas. This book is just fun! Though anyone who can diss Santa Claus Conquers the Martians may be a little suspect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everytime You Turn A Page..... December 8, 2012

By Cherezee

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Christmas movies are so fun to watch and this book is informative with fun facts and information about some of our favorite movies. I never see much about one of my favorites, the remake of Christmas in Connecticut with Tony Curtis/Dyan Cannon.