The Must-Do List: Look into Our Movie Past

1. Art begrudgingly imitates life in American Splendor when legendary comic book writer and music critic Harvey Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, pitches his strip to counterculture artist R. Crumb in Shay’s Pizza Shop, a drab East Side diner the real Pekar frequented. 4007 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, 216-431-6339

2. Jack Cleveland Casino pays tribute to its past as a Higbee’s department store and its A Christmas Story role by creating holiday window displays like the one where Ralphie first spotted the Red Ryder BB gun. 100 Public Square, Cleveland, 216-297-4777, jackentertainment.com/cleveland

3. We worship Tremont’s onion-domed St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral for the one joyful moment — a traditional wedding between Steven and Angela — in 1978’s The Deer Hunter before war’s horrors take over. 733 Starkweather Ave., Cleveland, 216-741-1310, sttheodosius.org