Christmas Vacation at Nitehawk

Without anyone really noticing, Christmas Vacation, which screened last weekend as part of Nitehawk's Naughty and Nice holiday program, seems to have become a pop culture holiday classic almost on par with A Christmas Story. Several of the attendees at the sold-out brunch show were dressed as characters or in Christmas Vacation-themed outfits, and there's even a website devoted to selling Christmas Vacation memorabilia. (And if you can't buy the amazing late-80s-via-the-the-28th-century outfits that Margo and Todd sport, you can just make your own.) But the movie's now-iconic status is well deserved. The jokes are still funny, and the pathos at the movie's heart --- its evocation of the painful expectations we put on Christmas through our nostalgia for Christmases that never were --- feels more central and pointed with each annual viewing.

Photo: thanks