Attaboy, Clarence

When it comes to holiday classics, I’m partial to the festive antics of Die Hard (“Now I have a machine gun — ho ho ho!”). But many kids and families — and, on wistful days, certain single adults — lean toward Frank Capra’s 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. Capra clearly needed a restorative break from the early 1940s, when he was directing wartime propaganda films, and this rather shamelessly wide-eyed, gooey-hearted parable turned out to be chicken soup for his soul. Not everyone agreed. The Jimmy Stewart flick flopped when it was first released, and most reviews picked it apart for being too mawkish and sweet. Needless to say, it’s aged well. Even 70 years later, it seems, we crave the arrival of guardian angels.

It’s A Wonderful Life: Thursday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 1 p.m. Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst, (413) 253-2547, amherstcinema.org.

— Hunter Styles