It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic Christmas-time movie and an icon of Hollywood’s golden era, but not in the rose-tinted sense director Frank Capra intended. The story of a small-town family man brought to the brink of suicide suddenly turns into a harrowing drama that draws heavily on the style of film noir. Perhaps it’s time to reexamine It’s a Wonderful Life as more than a feel-good festive movie.
About the author
Liverpool University graduate Graham previously ran the film sections at The Movie, Stills, Elle, Interview, The New York Daily News, and artinfo.com. His writing on movies has appeared in Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Cineaste, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Village Voice, Screen Daily, theartsdesk.com, Art in America, and Art Forum. He co- wrote and co-hosted the television show Cinema. A New York Film Critics Circle member, he has edited books on Dennis Potter and Ken Loach. His interests include the work and travels of Robert Louis Stevenson, nineteenth-century painting, British history and folklore, Native American culture, and psychogeography.
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