Home Alone for the holidays

December 11, 2024 8:24 AM

Patrick Explains HOME ALONE (And Why It's Great). Single link YouTube by Patrick Willems (previously) that's pretty great about a pretty great movie.
posted by skynxnex (28 comments total)

A fun fact about Macaulay Culkin is that he created an online poll to help him choose a middle name and when "Macaulay Culkin" won, he did indeed legally change his name to Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [13 favorites]

Dustin Hoffman absolutely despised the comedic cartoon violence in this film, a child-oriented version of Straw Dogs.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:50 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

a child-oriented version of Straw Dogs.

Best line from that thread:

Yeah, Straw Dogs has a bit more rape and murder and a lot less Christmas cheer, but

posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:02 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

After reading a description of Straw Dogs it appears to have virtually no overlap except improvised boobytraps being used against other people. Dang, that's a horrible comparison. Home Alone is clearly a throw back to the physical comedy of the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hard, and Looney Tunes, to name a few. Even the physical comedy in The Goonies was a lighter version of this.

It's probably not surprising that my grandmother LOVED Home Alone, in fact, it was a hit with all my grandparents. It's got an amazing cinematic pedigree. Chris Columbus directing, story/script by John Hughes, and music by John Williams, and then perfectly cast, and it's not a dang surprise at all that it's a pretty great movie.

Speaking of the score, David Collins devoted two episodes to the music on his The Soundtrack Show podcast, which are worth a listen to anyone who loves diving into musical scores.
posted by Atreides at 9:50 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

I didn't really take that as a sincere comparison between Home Alone and Straw Dogs, more like a film nerd joke.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:03 AM on December 11, 2024 [5 favorites]

Because of the ugly kid on the movie poster, I've never wanted to see this film. I find its reoccurring seasonal appeal perplexing. Question: If I like the 3 Stooges, will I like Home Alone? And if I DON'T like the Stooges, and find their 'humor' repellent...
posted by Rash at 10:51 AM on December 11, 2024

Home Alone is, depending on your viewpoint, the peak or the nadir of mass market 80's/90's slapstick kid comedies. If you hate those, this will not change your mind.

For me, I saw it at 15 and it was maybe the first time I thought to myself that I didn't have to like popular stuff. I was already watching Goodfellas and the like, and the idea that I wasn't actually required to see and have an opinion on whatever other kids liked was liberating. So I hated it, reflexively. I saw it again as a parent and recognized it as a very fun, mostly harmless movie for younger kids.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:07 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]

At this point, my primary enjoyment of the film is knowing that, after Culkin sorted his exploitative parents/residual financials situation, he was able to eventually retire from acting and comfortably lead his life as the casual drug user/dilettante/hipster fuckwad so many of us dreamed of being in our youths.

You go, Mac. Ride with Adam Green on tour and cover Kokomo. Start a VU cover band that changes all the lyrics to be about pizza and sing about lactose intolerance. Play Kurt Cobain in a Father John Misty video. Do it. Do it for all of the other child actors who didn't last this long, but surely wanted to be fucked up weirdoes who never really work again.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:15 AM on December 11, 2024 [15 favorites]

I've always thought the scene in the church with the old guy is really endearing, worth the rest of the movie, which is alright, but not a Christmas-time must see for me or anything.

National Lampoons Vacation is from the same timeperiod, has plenty of slapstick scenes, and I personally like far better.

Actually since they made horrible sequels, I now root for the Wet Bandits.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:18 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

"Because of the ugly kid on the movie poster, I've never wanted to see this film. I find its reoccurring seasonal appeal perplexing."

A) That's a wild take on Macauley Culkin.

B) I would certainly imagine it would be very difficult to accurately assess Home Alone's "seasonal appeal" without having actually seen the movie in question.
posted by joelhunt at 12:01 PM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]

So just rewatched Home Alone for the first time since I was 11, probably, and the thing that sticks out to me is how much WORK the film does to justify the mistake and make it clear Catherine O'Hara is not a bad mother. There's so many half second cuts that are like "oh that's why they didn't notice the extra plane ticket" or "oh that's why he didn't call the cops" or "they did try to count multiple times!"

It's kinda adorable that the movie respected its audience that much in the first act, then to deluge the audience with the most unflinching looney-toons logic, cartoon style slapstick in the third act.
posted by midmarch snowman at 12:05 PM on December 11, 2024 [19 favorites]

A) That's a wild take on Macauley Culkin.

look kids are filthy ugly animals and they should stay off my damn lawn

yes, it's pretty wild! it's fair to say that movie poster joins Jaws and Star Wars as being fairly iconic and recognizable and until today I've never encountered the Ugly Kid take
posted by ginger.beef at 12:35 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

the thing that sticks out to me is how much WORK the film does to justify the mistake and make it clear

The only thing that bothers me is that the pizza delivery guy was made to believe a customer unloaded a machine gun on him and then apparently he didn't do anything in reaction or tell anyone about it.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:44 PM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

The only thing that bothers me is that the pizza delivery guy was made to believe a customer unloaded a machine gun on him and then apparently he didn't do anything in reaction or tell anyone about it.

If you were working a pizza shop and your delivery guy came in and started exclaiming how someone unloaded a machine gun on them, would you believe him or her?
posted by Atreides at 12:55 PM on December 11, 2024

So just rewatched Home Alone for the first time since I was 11, probably, and the thing that sticks out to me is how much WORK the film does to justify the mistake and make it clear Catherine O'Hara is not a bad mother. There's so many half second cuts that are like "oh that's why they didn't notice the extra plane ticket" or "oh that's why he didn't call the cops" or "they did try to count multiple times!"

As a parent with just one child, I can appreciate this so much more now.
posted by Atreides at 12:57 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

One thing I love about Home Alone, the first one in particular, is that so many of the minor roles are both written and acted so well. All the kids feel much more like real characters than most similar movies, even the ones with tiny parts (in case you didn't know, Fuller, the kid Kevin didn't want to sleep next to, is played by Kieran Culkin). In particular, I've always had a fondness for the grocery store clerk and her scene with Kevin checking out.

Nearly the whole movie has a reason to be there and, yes, in retrospect the absurdity of the final confrontation is probably more absurd than in my idea version of this movie but it's very restrained and watchable compared to Home Alone 2 (which is a fine movie but has some pacing issues and same-yness of the first).
posted by skynxnex at 1:25 PM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]

It turns out Home Alone 2 doesn't even exist anymore.

We just threw it down a well in 2016 and it's gone now, forever.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:37 PM on December 11, 2024 [5 favorites]

Fun Fact: John Heard (the father) and Daniel Stern (the tall robber) were in the movie C.H.U.D. together! Hopefully someone here will appreciate my B movie knowledge because my wife and daughter didn't GAF when I told them as we were watching Home Alone the other week.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:38 PM on December 11, 2024 [10 favorites]

It turns out Home Alone 2 doesn't even exist anymore.

We just threw it down a well in 2016 and it's gone now, forever.

Give the master film to George Lucas. He can replace that person with Jabba the Hut.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:42 PM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]

Hopefully someone here will appreciate my B movie knowledge because my wife and daughter didn't GAF when I told them as we were watching Home Alone the other week.

You're among friends here and that little bit of B movie trivia may someday save someone's life.*




* I mean not likely, but you never know when you'll meet a C.H.U.D. super fan with a bomb or hot bowl of soup.
posted by Atreides at 1:45 PM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]

I'm on the board of a local not for profit that does a free holiday movie program for kids every year. Last Saturday we showed Home Alone to an amphitheatre filled with about 1000 kids and let me tell you it fucking killed. The physical comedy, the sappiness, the single use of the word "shit," everything contributed to an absolutely insane atmosphere of excitement and glee. It's a perfect kids' movie.
posted by saladin at 5:32 PM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]

I’ve always been stumped by why they needed 10 large pizzas for 16 people, most of them kids. The answer can’t be leftovers, they had an early morning flight!
posted by rh at 9:37 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

Home Alone is a very simple, yet very watchable movie. Once you start it's hard to turn away from it. The setup to explain why Kevin was forgotten was well plotted, and it is (mostly) plausible. The only real plot hole is when Katherine O'Hara calls the local police and it's just a short scene with the lazy, donut eating cop. Of course, if the cops go to the house--which actually does happen later--the movie would be over, so the movie just kind of handwaves that plotline away. Like, eh, cops are lazy amirite?
posted by zardoz at 4:22 AM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

I am a 175 pound 6’2 42 year-old and my skinny ass has been known to eat one large pizza myself so it tracks for me
posted by thedaniel at 5:57 AM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

I feel like the general chaos and wealth of the McAllister family is such that if the consideration is "family comes to blows because more people wanted pepperoni than we thought" versus "order a couple of extra pizzas," they would always order the extra pizzas.

I watched Home Alone (on streaming) a few years ago, for the first time since I was a kid. I was also stunned by how many of the careless parenting complaints were addressed in the first 20 minutes. I still don't know how much of that is because I was comparing the film to my patchwork childhood memory of it or if some of those scenes might have been cut (from earlier versions I saw) so the network could start the Saved by the Bell marathon on time. (To speak of another Christmas movie edited for content and run time: Trading Places on streaming was a revelation! At least 10% more "adult" than I remembered, I think that was entirely due to only having seen the version that was censored for TV in 1999. When I watch Trading Places now, I...kind of want to go to the 80s? It looks cool there.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:48 AM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

Of course, if the cops go to the house--which actually does happen later--the movie would be over, so the movie just kind of handwaves that plotline away. Like, eh, cops are lazy amirite?

TBH, depending on the situation, this isn't very far off from how some of our local finest might respond.

I’ve always been stumped by why they needed 10 large pizzas for 16 people, most of them kids. The answer can’t be leftovers, they had an early morning flight!

There was what, at least four or so teenagers, then middle schoolers, and that's not including the parents. If each person just ate two slices, that's 32 slices. If each pizza has 8 slices, that's four pizzas. But, two slices in this scenario is highly unlikely. As an active teen, I routinely ate at least four slices. As an adult, I try to limit it to two or three, depending on the slice size. You also have to take into account making sure that everyone has an equal chance at the type of pizza they like, i.e., plenty of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, or supreme-like. In that household, you need to control the chaos by at least avoiding fights over "He got the last pepperoni!"

So yah, it checks out.
posted by Atreides at 7:55 AM on December 12, 2024

I’ve always been stumped by why they needed 10 large pizzas for 16 people, most of them kids. The answer can’t be leftovers, they had an early morning flight!

My young daughters each eat entire pizzas by themselves when they are in a growth spurt. Those are somewhat rare, but among that many kids- a few growth spurts probably going on.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:00 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

Hey, one of my other favorite YouTubers just did a piece on this as well!

Cinema Therapy is hosted by a couple friends - one is a filmmaker and the other a therapist - and they review films from a mental health perspective. Their stuff is also shorter.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:09 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]