What is the best Christmas movie? Traditionalists swear by standards like It’s a Wonderful Life, the more irreverent might cite Scrooged, and many love to say it’s Die Hard before indulging in their really bad Alan Rickman impersonations. But there’s a case to be made for Joe Dante’s 1984 blast of suburban mayhem, Gremlins: It’s a film about family, about responsibility, and about loving people despite their flaws—but it’s also about rocketing angry old rich people through walls, finding new and disgusting uses for a microwave oven, and the pure joy to be found in fucking shit up with cackling glee (for example, if you’re still lying to your children about Santa Claus, this movie is going to expose your ass in a very rude way), thus capturing the well-intentioned chaos that, for many, defines the holiday season. by Bobby Roberts