Cinematic Throwbacks: November 1991/2001/2011

1991:

Alright, let's get into it. From basically the day I saw this movie in theaters, through probably the next year or so, I had a HUUUUUGE crush on Anna Chlumsky.

I only saw this movie once in theaters, but when it hit video the next summer I am pretty sure I rented it more than any movie ever. Had to be 4 or 5 times, and then I watched it 2 or 3 times each time. I was pretty obsessed. I even had the soundtrack. 

Now, My Girl did not last. I see it at 12, obsess over it at 13. But by the time I hit high school the movie had fallen way off my radar. One, I get too old even then to be crushing on a girl who was like 11, but also, by the time I hit high school I've switched over so much to rap music and flicks like Boyz N The Hood that a cute little coming of age comedy just gets bowled over. My tastes changed so fast.

We did get a sequel during my freshman year, and I was rather excited for it, but it just didn't click at all. And the original movie kind of just faded away. Chlumsky too kind of vanished.

30 years later the movie has gained a reputation as a major tearjerker. It's earned. I may have gotten a little watery myself on the rewatch. It's of course the movie where lovable little Macaulay Culkin gets stung to death by bees. I remember there was real outrage back then that a studio would put the star of Home Alone in a movie and then kill him. Lighten up. That's the story.

Chlumsky is 4th billed but she is clearly the star of the movie. She's incredibly charming and funny, giving what is still one of the best child performances of all time. I really believe that. It stinks that her career didn't ascend the way a Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson did. It was cool though when she re-emerged with Veep.

On the blog rewatch I was really struck more than ever by just how good Dan Aykroyd is in this as her dad. Despite all his manic comedic work, he was kind of born to play these kind of mild mannered small town dads. He did the same thing in Crossroads. 

Jamie Lee Curtis is also really great in this. Culkin is actually kind of bad, but he's likable.

It's crazy sometimes doing these blog rewatches. I probably had not watched this movie in full in 10 years (I may have marked the 20th for it), and it hasn't been a regular rewatch since the early 90s. Yet I knew every line, every music cue. I guess my obsessive rewatching imprinted the whole movie onto my brain or something.

It's a hell of a nostalgia trip. 

2001:

Monsters Inc. has a strong case for my favorite Pixar movie. It's certainly top three. It hits all the boxes of the best of Pixar. 

It has one of the most clever and original stories, where the scary monsters lurking in children's closets are actually part of a company that harnesses the screams of children as an energy source.

It has some of the studio's brightest, funnest animation, with all sorts of creative creature designs.

It has some of the best characters and voice work. Billy Crystal, who famously turned down the role of Buzz Lightyear, is a perfect fit as the manic Mike Wazowski. John Goodman similarly fits the role of Sully like a glove. (That was originally going to be Bill Murray, which I think makes this whole thing more comedic) Steve Buscemi is great as the villain. And little Boo is the cutest character maybe in the whole Pixar canon.

It's just a great movie. It's a fun adventure. It's funny. It's really emotional at times. The whole package. 

2011:

The director of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas making a kids movie? Really? 

No, really great. Martin Scorsese's charming tribute to early filmmaking is actually one of my favorite movies of his.

It takes a while to reveal its true inspiration. At first it is just a rather whimsical tale of a young orphan boy (Asa Butterfield) who lives at a Paris train station in the 1930s, and is trying to repair an automaton left by his father. But then it morphs into a bit of a mystery centered around the past of the old man (Ben Kingsley) who runs the toy shop at the train station. He turns out to be one of the first great, famous filmmakers.

Scorsese clearly is having a ball recreating early movie sets and movie shoots. All of this stuff is spectacular. The film also was one of the very best 3D movies I ever saw.

Whole cast is great. Beyond the previously mentioned ones, Chloe Moretz is charming in one of her first big roles, Sacha Baron Cohen is very good as the train station inspector always trying to nab orphans, and Michael Stuhlbarg is great as a film historian.

This film was not a box office success, which is not surprising, but it did get some Oscar nominations and won some technical ones. 

The Artist won Best Picture. That means as soon as it did it immediately went through that time honored tradition of the Best Picture winner suddenly being a terrible movie completely unworthy of any acclaim. I think that even now it would probably be ranked as one of the worst Oscar winners in recent memory. 

Whatever. Watch this movie and fail to enjoy it. If you don't, that's a you problem.

The Artist is a silent movie, but also an affectionate spoof of one, following a silent era star (Jean Dujardin, who won Best Actor) as he watches his star fade during the industry transition to talkies. As he tumbles, we also watch as an aspiring actress (the radiant Berenice Bejo, also a nominee) that he sort of discovered thrives and becomes a huge star.

It's not deep or serious (although there are serious parts) but it's one of the most end to end charming movies ever. All the production detail is flawless, it has a real earworm of a score, and there's a great dog in it too. 

George Clooney is a real estate guy in Hawaii who is working on a huge land deal at the same time his wife is in a coma.

It doesn't sound like much from my rather poor and truncated premise recap, but this is probably my favorite movie ever from Alexander Payne. Payne's movies are known for being pretty sarcastic, and this has that too, but this one has a lot of really effective heart and emotion.

Clooney got one of his Oscar nods for this, and very deservedly. He kind of delivers the whole package here. 

And this film was the big breakthrough for Shailene Woodley, who was just instantly awesome. Her not getting nominated for this is one of the great travesties of the Oscars decade. 

I don't know that this movie has really stuck around in the consciousness. Payne has many other films that are more known. There's even a Disney movie with this same name that's probably better known. 

I forgot I even owned this one on DVD. It's not one of the greats for either director or star. It was pretty much ignored for awards. 

But Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar Hoover biopic, now removed from a failed awards push and some of Eastwood's lower moments politically, is a pretty good old fashioned biopic, about a really interesting subject.

Leonardo DiCaprio, at this point still chasing that elusive Oscar, is really good as usual. The script is a little scattered but has lots of excellent sequences in it. All of the production detail is excellent. Obviously the presence of Armie Hammer in anything now gives off some serious creep vibe. And the old man makeup later applied both to Hammer and DiCaprio is simply terrible. 

This isn't at the top of anyone's filmography, but it's a pretty good film. Eastwood would certainly do worse during the 2010s. 

Never heard of this one, have you? Nobody has. It barely got released, as I recall, but I know I saw it in theaters.

It's a good flick though. Channing Tatum, in one of his few truly dramatic roles, is a young cop who has some sort of dirty secret in his past that is about to come out and ruin everything.

That cast list on the poster is really random. Tracy Morgan is second billed but actually not in it that much. Tbh his attempt at a dramatic role is the weak link of the film. He just feels so out of place. Katie Holmes is strong though, and Pacino and Liotta add their usual gravitas. Juliette Binoche goes way against type as a grizzled journalist.

Okay, now onto the non-deep dive stuff...

1991:

-The Addams Family: This was such a big movie at the time. It really kicked off a whole run of TV shows turned movies. I liked this movie at the time. Haven't seen it in a while. It gave us the MC Hammer classic "Addams Groove."

-Strictly Business: I watched this comedy a lot back in the day. I think it was my introduction to Halle Berry. 

-Cape Fear: Martin Scorsese's thriller with an iconic Robert Deniro bad guy turn. Inspired one of the all time Simpsons episodes. 

-Beauty and the Beast: Never saw this. It did get a Best Picture nomination. 

2001:

-Amelie: Really popular French import. Audrey Tautou was a big deal over here briefly. 

-Domestic Disturbance: John Travolta tries to save his family from evil step-dad Vince Vaughn. This was pretty dopey iirc. 

-The Man Who Wasn't There: A minor Coen Brothers movie.  Haven't seen it for years but recall it being solid, with an excellent Billy Bob Thornton lead. 

-The One: A dumb Jet Li action movie that I will never forget for the immortal trailer tagline of "only one can be...The One." Well...yeah. 

-Life As A House: Melodrama with a dying Kevin Kline trying to reconnect with his family. Was noteworthy at the time cause it had a significant part for Hayden Christensen, soon to be in Star Wars. 

-Spy Game: A fairly forgettable spy thriller with Brad Pitt and Robert Redford. 

-Shallow Hal: I fucking loathed this Farrelly Brothers movie with Gwyneth Paltrow as an obese woman who Jack Black thinks is skinny. 

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: The first Harry Potter flick. Wasn't on my radar in the slightest at the time. Still think all these movies occupy that space of "eh, it wasn't bad."

-The Wash: A very bad remake with Dre and Snoop. 

-Black Knight: Martin Lawrence made some really poor choices in the early 2000s. 

-Sidewalks Of New York: A harmless little romcom that got swept up in post-9/11 delays. 

-In The Bedroom: This drama got some Oscar love, and kind of re-ignited Marisa Tomei's career. Haven't seen it in years but recall it being pretty absorbing. 

-Behind Enemy Lines: When Hollywood tried.to turn Owen Wilson into an unironic action hero. 

-Texas Rangers: A really stupid teen targeted western that did absolutely nothing for the careers of James Van Der Beek, Rachael Leigh Cook, and others. 

2011:

-Jack and Jill: Ah yes, the infamous Adam Sandler bomb where he plays his own twin sister. And Al Pacino is in it. Katie Holmes too. It was indeed brutal but you are lying to yourself if you don't find the Pacino scenes fascinating. 

-Breaking Dawn Part 1: I was not a Twilight hater. But this pointlessly split up finale was fucking awful. Especially this half, which rendered the Kristen Stewart character loathsome. 

-The Muppets: It was amusing, but I think we hoped for a franchise reviving classic and we didn't get that. 

-Shame: Michael Fassbender as a sex addict. This movie was not a fun time. Great early Carey Mulligan though. 

-Sleeping Beauty: Not a fairy tale, rather one of the most revolting films of the whole decade.

Coming next month....

It's already December 😲

Turning 30 is The Last Boy Scout, one of the absolute best Bruce Willis flicks, and JFK, one of the best films of all time.

Turning 20 are Ocean's Eleven, Ali, and something called The Lord of the Rings. There will be much walking. 

And turning 10? Ghost Protocol, the best Mission Impossible movie,