Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Chris Columbus, 1992

Can I Stream it?

3/5

There is something different about revisiting films from your youth. Many of these revisits come around the holidays, when you can put up with that joke you've heard a hundred times. That comfortable predictability of a familiar premise. The Hughes’-penned Home Alone films certainly provide comfort. I remember being a kid and seeing this film in the theater in New York. I was 9 years old. I remember eagerly anticipating Kevin Mcallister's trap setting. I remember the movie going on and on and me sitting there thinking “when is it going to happen?”.. “Now? Now?”. And then it happened and I sat there in cathartic bliss.

Home Alone 2 builds upon the first film by of course recasting Culkin (which is absolutely critical to the franchise, the sequels after this do not exist). He’s grown a little older, but still has the innocence and charisma that he had in the prior picture. He’s the low kid on the totem pole. If he mouths back to his elder relatives, he gets put in the bed with bed-wetting cousin Fuller. The movie is very anti-authority, or at least pro-kid and pro-independence. It certainly spawned a whole generation of 90’s vicarious youth who were desperate to be put in similar circumstances. It puts a lot of faith into the kids of the world. Oddly enough, one of the antagonists is the hotel concierge played by Tim Curry. The concierge is immediately suspicious when he sees young Kevin walking confidently through the Plaza Hotel. He follows Kevin, explores the room, hoping to expose him as a little con artist or some kind of thief. But realistically, he’s not a bad guy. If it were real life he would probably have been praised for being so investigative. But the world of Home Alone isn’t real life. In real life, antagonists don’t get hit in the head with bricks from four stories and have a square imprint on their head. In real life, they have brain bleeding. But that’s the appealing element to the Home Alone movies. They are non-threatening, cartoonish, fun, nostalgic. They exist in a Hanna Barbara created universe where you can sustain serious injury only to be quite okay in the next scene. This film is good if only viewed as a time capsule. A preserved version of New York. A preserved style of 90's comedies. 

School of Rock

Richard Linklater, 2003

Can I Stream It?

4/5

After getting kicked out of his band, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is desparate for some form of income especially with his roommate's girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman) putting pressure on him to contribute rent money. When he intercepts a call from the local school trying to reach his roommate Ned (Mike White) for a substitution position, he decides to dupe the school into thinking he is Ned and takes the position himself.

If you are not a fan of Jack Black's, School of Rock is probably a no go for you. It's Jack Black at his very Jack Black-est, demanding attention from everyone in close range. Lot's of sudden jerking movements, and loudness. But it's hard to picture anyone other than Jack Black playing the part of Dewey Finn. While his ADHD behavior can grow tiring, there is an endearing quality that fits well -especially in the role of a school teacher. Instructed to follow a standard curriculum, he abandons this quite quickly for his own brand of anti-authoritarian expression. Using Rock and Roll as a platform for his own satisfaction but also playing to his strengths, he inadvertently shows the kids how to open up and express themselves in an environment that they've grown imprisoned with. Living up to the high expectations of their parents, they assume that their parents will push their own wishes on them and they will simply follow. But Dewey comes in and shakes it all up. The film could also be considered Linklater's love letter to music, very much like Almost Famous was to Cameron Crowe. The two films are similar in a way. Both push the idea of young innocents wrapped up in their love of music, to the point where it becomes an all-consuming thing inside of a traditionally strict environment. But bearing the warning that the film may not hit the mark with Black haters, perhaps there are some aspects of it that may be able to make their way into your heart if you were one before. Maybe you can come away liking Black at least a little bit more. If this film doesn't do that, nothing will.