Adam Schendel’s review published on Letterboxd:
It's a Wonderful Life is a classic so culturally influential and imitated in pop culture that it can be hard to appreciate what a cinematic masterpiece the movie is. Until you watch it in its entirety.
An experience that I will never forget as a 14 year old watching the movie on television for the first time during an NBC broadcast, the movie instantly became my personal favorite film, while also turning me on to Jimmy Stewart as an actor and classic film as a hobby, all of which changed my movie habits and tastes for life.
This movie is about the inherent worth and dignity of every person, that "no man is a failure who has friends." The plot has been imitated to death in Christmas TV specials ever since, but the power of this story has never been replicated.
Frank Capra is at his apotheosis as a director, taking themes he had developed in previous movies such as "You Can't Take It With You," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe," and constructs the ultimate story of the every man being challenged by life itself. Not a scene is wasted in this film, and every sequence seems to build up to eventually give the film's brilliant and joyful ending its emotional punch. The film veers from hilarious screwball comedic antics typical of the era to unforgettable romantic drama to some of the darkest portrayal of family life and personal frustration seen on film as of 1946, with some "Twilight Zone"-esque fantasy mixed in for good measure.
James Stewart is vital to the movie's magic, giving my personal favorite acting performance of all time as George Bailey, especially impressive given his five year hiatus as an actor in order to serve as a pilot in World War II. Important contributions are made by the wonderful supporting cast, especially Donna Reed, Henry Travers, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, and Samuel S. Hinds.
It's a Wonderful Life is the rare film that can get away with such a title. I could write a book about what I love about it, and all of the aspects that make it my favorite film of all time. But the best way to appreciate it is to sit down, especially in December, and to realize all over again the magic and wonder of a movie to truly inspire a joy for life.
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