She's a Beaut, Clark!

A few more weeks into revising, and things are coming together nicely, I think. Incidentally, I caught Christmas Vacation on TV this holiday season, as I'm wont to do, and I stand firm in my contention that it is the single best Christmas movie ever made. It achieves the thing that all art is striving for, which is a perfect illusion. Everything that happens, every character, every tiny detail feels absolutely authentic (with the possible exception of Eddie kidnapping Clark's boss, even if the sentiment is familiar). I find myself at least chuckling at almost every scene. The flow of the story, and the sequencing is such that I become totally convinced of its reality. It feels more like a time capsule of actual events rather than fiction. It's one of two Christmas movies that don't feel contrived in some way, the other being A Christmas Story. There are a few other gems out there (Scrooged), but it's hard to make a holiday movie that could be considered good at any time of year. So far, no film has pulled it off as well as this 1989 classic. Little did anyone know how true Clark's famous last words would prove to be - "I did it."