Home Alone with Tamara Yajia

This week, super producers Sophie and Aristotle leave Caitlin and Jamie home alone with special guest Tamara Yajia to chat about Home Alone. 

(This episode contains spoilers)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the be dodcast, the questions asked if movies have
women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism? The patriarchy zef invest start
changing it with the beck Del casts. Hello, Hello, yeah, oh,

(00:26):
we're so excited. It's our it's our last show at
the Ruby. Yes, it is at least at this location
because they're moving downtown. Yes, so follow them that heard
of it. Hello. My name is Caitlin. My name is Jamie,
and we talk about the representation of women in movies

(00:47):
on our podcast that you're watching right now. Five. You
see our faces, so clap it up, as they say.
If you've listened to the podcast before, Oh nice. Remember
our first live show and everyone was like, where are we?
Everyone was in the room fully by mistake. They thought

(01:09):
it was a screening of Dirty Dancing, which it wasn't.
Um and um no no shame. Clap If you have
not heard the show before, did anyone come with a friend? OK? Welcome, Hi,
thanks for coming. Brave, very very brave, you say, brave
and non allied women clearly hates women haven't heard the

(01:29):
shop until tonight. And now you're here and we're going
to fix you. Okay, so just out of curiosity, today's
movie is Home Alone. We've seen it, clap. Has anyone
like me before a couple of days ago not seen
it before? Okay, I'm a dumbass, thank you? All right?

(01:51):
I mean I think we can both agree. I read
at the Jump feminist master Pie for sure. Yeah, it
has a feminist agenda, and we all know that. You
just gotta really dig down and make stuff up for
that which will be of today's show. Literally, what are
we going to talk about today? Hard hard to say,

(02:12):
but to join us in that discussion, We've got a guess,
as we always do. She's a writer. She's the host
of the Treso Talk podcast Give it up for tam
you here? Hi, Hello, welcome you. I have my beverages,
all two of them. Yes, I'm going to urinate on

(02:35):
the stage please. I like to think of the venue
as as your litter box. Really, it's nice. I was
just thinking I'm getting a cat, and I was like,
people should have litter boxes. It's way smarter. I did
something really terrible and embarrassing the other day. I peed

(02:56):
on my dog's pep pad standing up. What was the
motivation I don't know. Sometimes things like that make me
feel alive. Oh so you don't like that's possible. You
weren't like about to have an emergence that you're like, oh,
I can't get to the toilet and time Kit was

(03:17):
really trying to find the rationale. I had to walk
farther to get to the toilet, so you wanted the
pe I totally get that impulse. Being standing up is beautiful,
which I understand toxic masculinity. Every time I pee standing up,
I'm like, oh this it's empowered about Okay, why also

(03:41):
why can't Well, I guess I don't know. I just
think that there is a way in which women could
stand up. Have you ever seen like there is like
a complicated funnel that was on the market for a
bit that I was like, maybe I'll do it. I
owned one. You have one? Wa what does it get
there for camping? Oh it's too it's unnecessary, Like how long?

(04:03):
Is it? Like a to be thing? It's a funnel
with like a little like a skinny penis at style
in Yeah, alright, well we've all learned a lot so
far here. Okay, there's just like no way I'm not
going to pee in the litter box at some point,
please text me like, I will text you see what

(04:26):
clum page we get, We'll figure it out what happens. Okay,
so wants to die? Okay? Just I mean speaking of
pe home alone? Am I right? No? No one? Yeah,
he's there for a while. Does he not p the

(04:48):
whole two days he's home alone? But then the other
argument is like we should have seen him peeing, which
we shouldn't know, so you know, the peeing is implying
so tomorrow. What's your history your relationship with this film.
It's one of my favorite or it was one of
my favorite movies until I just rewatched it earlier this week,

(05:13):
and I was like, ah, when I was a kid,
I think I saw it as like a documentary because
I just realized today I've had a weird trauma about
getting burglarized when left home alone, and I didn't know
why I still have that. I believe it on the
movie like a goofy burglary or a scary one, like

(05:36):
an actual one. Yeah, And then I was like, it
was so goofy. That's what I thought when I saw
it last week. But it was scary when you were
a kid. It was scary and it's and it's still
a trauma I have of being alone and like having
people break into my apartment. I like talk about it

(05:57):
in therapy all the time, and I don't know. I
don't want to blame the movie, but like kind of
weird that it's my favorite movie and that's my biggest thing.
I mean, it just goes to show how influential film is,
which is why we need this podcast. Caitlin or what's
your history with this movie? I grew up with it
hard um whatever that means. Like I was four when

(06:19):
it came out in UM, but I think I probably
saw it for the first time when I was like
five or six, watched it steadily dozens and dozens of
times throughout my childhood, probably un till I was like
eight or nine or so, and then I was like,
I'm older than Kevin Funk this movie now, so I didn't.
I kind of stopped caring about it at some point

(06:41):
and I hadn't seen it since then, so it's been
a solid twenty plus years since I had revisited it
does hold up. I was surprised that the movie does
a lot of things to justify, like why they would
have forgotten Kevin at home, like they do try really
hard to get back to him right away. I didn't

(07:02):
remember any of that. I was like, if his family
doesn't even notice he's gone, except for that one part
where Katherine O'Hara is on the plane goes kind of
which is a cinematic moment like it will go down
in history. It's horrible that when I was watching them
forget him, I'm like, no, that makes sense. Well, there's

(07:22):
so many children there, how do you keep a million?
And they all look like yeah, within two inches of
height of the same child. And then she sent him
to the dungeon the upst the attic. I'm like, you
know what, as someone who like my parents did forget
me places like once or twice in ways that I

(07:44):
feel like we're more careless than what Katherine O'Hara did.
I don't know, but yeah, so I have. I watched
this a lot as a as a child, but not
at all as an adult. What about you, Jamie, I
didn't grow up with this movie. I don't know why.
I was like, I just I call. I was on
the film with my mom today and I was like,

(08:05):
why didn't we watch Home alone? When I was little,
She's like, it's dorky. I know. I I thought it
was a lovely romp when I watched it, But I
don't know. My mom thought it was dorky, so we didn't,
which is weird because like she has horrible taste and everything,
which anyone who listens the podcast is well aware of.
But what the movie I watched a ba jillion times

(08:27):
was The Jim Carrey Grinch, which my mom is like, now,
this is film, which, by the way, Jamie, we should
at least spend a little bit of time discussing what
you're wearing. Yeah, I have where it's a it's a
holiday episode where grin cheese. I wore a reddish color,

(08:47):
so I'm in a holiday spirit, you know, tasteful. This
is actually a traditional um winter Solstice outfit. So I'm
actually doing a really good job. I'm in white representing
God of course, headset toe, so I feel like we
really have some father son holy spirit energy on stage here.

(09:10):
You decide who's who. Yeah, I just I didn't grow
up with this movie. Uh, And now I was kind
of bummed out because when I watched it, I'm like, oh,
I wish I had Yeah, it's so fun. It is.
It's a beloved movie. Ye, it made a bazillion dollars
at the box office, was an instant smash. So thought
it was dorky. So what year did it come out? Okay,

(09:33):
so I was born in eighty three? So how old
was I? I can't do Basically, I was, okay, you're
like the perfect day to say this movie? Yeah? How
old was Kevin? Eight? Oh? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, this
is this is perfect. It's try and then I think
mccaulli Colchium is nine. Yeah, right, well represented here seven,

(09:57):
eight and nine, talk ab progressive. All right, should I
get into the recap let's recap it feminist masterpiece? Here
we go. So the McAlister House, which is somewhere in
the very wealthy suburbs of Chicago, is full of people
as they all prep for this holiday trip that they're

(10:19):
taking as a family to Paris, which good for you. Right,
they were rich. They were rich, very rich, and it
does not really go addressed how rich they are. But
when the pizza cons at the beginning of like dollars,
you're like, as an they're billionaires. I know, it's crazy.

(10:45):
So they're leaving for this trip the following morning, and
then we meet Kevin. That's Macaulay Culkin. Of course, uh,
he is whiny, he's causing trouble. He doesn't know how
to pack his suitcase. But he's not like the other kids, right,
He's precocious. But his family is like, oh, man, you're
so helpless, you can't do anything for yourself. And then

(11:07):
his mom Kate Catherine O'Hara, and his dad Peter played
by John Heard, we we meet those characters. We meet
Kevin's brother, Buzz, who has I got Buzz honestly, and
buzzes to Rantla and his creepy posters and his playboy
magazine that we find out he has later on, okay,

(11:28):
carefully alright, a former playboy there. Oh the worst fact
about me? I worked at Hooters, so I get it. Okay,
true story, but it was as a delivery driver. Then
that is a also true. Is the best fact about you?
Thank you so much. So Buzz tells Kevin about their neighbor,

(11:53):
this older man named Marley, who Buzz says is known
as the shovel Slayer and he killed his whole family
with a snow shovel. So Kevin's really scared of him.
Now the family sits down to dinner, which is hundreds
of dollars worth of pizza. I like, adjusted for inflation,
does anyone have a ballpark of how much that would be?

(12:14):
I pulled up the converter and then I was like,
I don't want to know. It's too much. Would guess,
but ten thousand American dollars. I lived in Argentina when
this came out, so for me it was ten tho
dollars because the Argentine basil is worth ship so so there.

(12:35):
So you're like, oh, these people are fucking million billionaires.
How much is a pizza costa? That's so confusing. So
the family they're having dinner and Kevin gets in a
fight with Buzz and all everything gets spilled, and his
whole family staring at him, being like you eaty, Look
what you did. His uncle really lays into him. What

(12:59):
is that line? He says, He's like, look what you did,
your little jerk? He really he hits jerks so hard
and silence. Yeah, Frank was cheap a uncle. Yeah, he
would not pay the pizza boy who was hot. He
was hot. Okay, he's probably a teenager. Not Now he's

(13:20):
like fifty years old. Now, don't persecute me. I'm so sorry. Okay.
So then there's also a cop just inside their house
and we're like, okay, this family loves cops unclear. I
don't love that. But he's like standing there and he
talks to Kevin's dad saying like, hey, just be careful.

(13:44):
There's a lot more home burglaries around the holidays. Like
I just want to make sure you have like adequate
home security, and like how rich do you have to
be for the police to show up at your house
to be like there might be crime at some point? Right?
It's like there, you live in Chicago, Like, go do something.
There are murders to solve. Yeah. So and it's Joe

(14:08):
Pesci and it's this is the reason why I picked
this movie. Honestly, head, I'm obsessed. But it's dark. Okay,
I cannot wait to un let's get into it. Oh
my god. So Kevin's dad's like, don't worry, like we're
going to Paris. We've got alarms, like everything is fine.

(14:29):
And then suddenly Joe Pesci flashes his gold tooth and
this cop seems sketchy all of a sudden, show your
show your no one asked to see his badge, and
that's not a victim blame. But it was not a
victim blame, but the whole family should have been murdering.

(14:49):
Then Kevin's mom sends Kevin upstairs and it's like quit
causing trouble you a little shit, and he's like, families suck.
I wish you'd all disappear. So then the following morning,
the family is like rushing around to head to the
airport because everyone slept in because there's a power outage.
There was like a bajillion kids. There's so many kids, right,

(15:11):
but there's a lot of kids, right, and they but
they all slept in, so there's chaos and they forget
about Kevin, who is sleeping in the upstairs dungeon, and
they accidentally leave him behind. Now Kevin wakes up and
discovers that his family is gone, and he thinks that
his wish was granted, and he's really excited about it.

(15:32):
He's jumping on the bed, he's eating junk food, he's
watching trashy movies, and meanwhile outside to burglars are casing
the house and one of them is the cop from
the beginning, Joe Pesci. From here on, his character's name

(15:56):
is Harry, and then there's also Marv that's Daniel Stern's character.
They go to break into the house because they think
no one is home, but then like Kevin sees them
lurking outside, so he turns the light on and scares
them off. Meanwhile, Kevin's mom is on the plane first class,
first class, but they keep like couching it by being like,

(16:16):
it's the other guy. He upgraded us this like mysterious uncle.
And it's also like the end of the eighties. It's
technically you're like, he got this money in a bad way, right, Oh,
for sure, you're like this reeks of like dirty eighties
Wall Street money. Definitely, Yeah, they did not earn that vacation.

(16:37):
But this is when we get the moment where Kevin's
mom is like, co god, she realizes this immediately and
then I'm like, oh, we have to get back home.
So they land in Paris there like calling the police
being like can you go check on Kevin. Nothing's really
working out. None of the neighbors are answering, and the
phone line doesn't work. That's another thing that they set up.
The phone isn't working at their house right before they leave,

(17:00):
because a decent job of cutting off all reasons they
want to see dystopian home alone. I think that's just
the movie's Skyfall. Remember how Skyfall does a home alone
thing at the end. Yeah, okay, So Kevin puts his

(17:20):
hands on his face and goes ah, and we're like, yes, yes,
this happy moment. I forgot that it was an aftershave thing.
I thought he was like, I'm scared. I'm like, damn,
marketing is so tricky. And then he goes out to
buy a toothbrush and he runs into the neighbor that

(17:41):
he's afraid of, and then he runs into the burglars
who have just robbed a nearby house, and now both
parties are suspicious of each other, and Kevin's like, when
those guys come back, I'll be ready for them. So
he knows that they're burglars somehow or something. Well, when
they almost hit them with a car, which I also

(18:02):
got right here. Yeah, who wrote this? Fucking John John Is?
So we're like, what this is? Actually like? John Hughes
is least problematic script, probably because there's no women in right.
So then Kevin pretends there's a party going on at

(18:23):
his house using a bunch of mannequins that his family
has for some reason, and a Michael and a cardboard
Michael Jordan. That was what a fun party, classes right?
I want to be invited. I would watch a David
Lynch short that was a Michael Jordan cut out in
a bunch of mannequen. So the burglars are tricked by this,

(18:48):
but eventually Harry figures out that Kevin is indeed home alone.
That's the name of the movie, and he loudly exclaims
that they will come back that night at nine pm,
and Kevin hears it. Yeah, So Kevin makes a Christmas
wish that he wants his family back, and he goes

(19:10):
into a church. He talks to his neighbor, who isn't
a scary murder after all, right, which is like, you're like,
the lesson is if you are afraid of an adult,
you should talk to them by yourself. Unclear on that, right,
But the old guy ends up being very nice. So meanwhile,
Kevin's mom has made it to Scranton shout out to Pennsylvania,

(19:33):
and she is now getting a ride in a moving
truck with a polka band that John Candy is the
clarinet player for shout out to clarinet. I wish there
have been an oboe, but there's really no place for
the polka band. Now it's a little too ready, sure,
but you know high clarinet visibility. Yes, yes, and that

(19:57):
when we do respect that, we do so. Kevin returns
home where he definitely left the doors unlocked, so the
burglars could just walk in at any time, by the way,
and then he booby traps the whole house. He's icing
the entryways. He puts tar and glue different places, little
toys that hurt when you step on them. And then

(20:20):
the burglars come back exactly at nine pm sharp, just
like they said, and they but they slip on the
ice and then there's an iron in his face. But
they're so determined to get into this house to steal what.
I don't know. I guess VCRs pizza money. Right. It's

(20:42):
like in Fast and Furious one, where like the whole
thing is liked blares. You're like, I guess that that's
a good highest for this specific span of three months.
So you know, the burglars are encountering all these obstacles,
but they finally make their way in. There's a trantula.

(21:05):
They trip a bunch over a bunch of stuff, and
they're like, I'm gonna get that kid, But then Kevin's
zip lines to his treehouse and gets away. They're chasing
after him, but then they catch him. But then Kevin's neighbor,
the nice guy who's not a murderer, comes in and
staves the day by bonking the bad guys with a shovel,
and then the cops come. They arrest the burglars, and

(21:28):
the next day is Christmas, and Kevin wakes up and
he's like, my family, are they gonna be here? And
then they're not, But then his mom shows up, but
then none of the other families there, but then they are,
and everyone's like and then we're like, okay, now I
know which ones were the siblings and which ones were
the cousins. They yes, so that's oh also yeah, no will.

(21:48):
It ends with the old man wax the burglars with
his shovel, and then he and Kevin make a silent
packed to never talk about it. He does not report
it to the police, is Kevin doesn't say a word,
and then they exchanged this look at the end, that's like,
don't tell? It was like, who does it benefit to

(22:09):
not tell anybody? Now there's burglars on the lice? But whatever?
Do you think Kevin had trauma after this? Yes, it
would have had to. I had trauma and I was
just watching it. And then there was home alone too
start Trump. What the yikes? But that's the story for
homelone one. So there you have it. Jamie, would you

(22:32):
join me backstage for a minute because I have to
tell you something. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry everybody.
I don't know why she's doing this. Caitlyn, what okay?
Now that we're safely backstage, I can tell you about
Hello Fresh. Oh my gosh, what a relief, I know,
especially because I think that Kevin McAllister could have used

(22:53):
a Hell of Fresh subscription when he was home alone
and didn't have easy access to food, and if some
one was delivering Hello Fresh to his home, they would
have found him that he was a god. It makes
you think, Caitlin, we have both used Hello Fresh. It's true.
I am such a horrible cook, but with Hello Fresh,

(23:16):
I was able to not feel that way, and I
had I had several delicious meals, so did I. I
got the vegetarian option and I cooked the meals up.
It was super easy. The recipes that they provide make
the whole process so simple and stress free and delicious
meals to show for I had burgers, I had fahitas.

(23:38):
What didn't I have? Oh my goodness? You can break
out of your dinner rut our listeners that are not
at the live show with Hello Fresh as twenty plus
seasonal chef curated recipes each week. There's something for everyone,
from family recipes to calorie smart and vegetarian like you're saying, Caitlin,
and fun menu series like Hall of Fame and craft Burgers.
Hello Fresh has more five star recipes than any other

(23:59):
meal it, so you know you're going to get something delicious. Okay,
Oh my goodness. Hello Fresh is also very flexible and
it fits your lifestyle, so you can add extra meals
to your weekly order. You can add yell me add
ons like garlic bread and cookie doughs so you can
make cookies for the holidays the dough, and then you

(24:20):
can also easily change your delivery days, food preferences and
skip a week if you need to. Okay, we have
to get back out to the show. But I think
we can both agree. Kevin McAllister needed Hello Fresh. The
story would end so differently. And you can get nine
free meals with Hello Fresh by going to Hello Fresh
dot com slash TBC nine and using code TBC nine.

(24:45):
That's Hello Fresh dot com slash TBC nine with promo
code TBC nine. Can will you join me back in
the main room? You bet? I will? Damn Hi, Hello.
We're so sorry. Usually we're like, wow, there's so much
to talk about. Um, you know, this is just a

(25:07):
light episode. This is really more of a hangout. Yeah,
we're just hanging out where we discussed. I mean, so,
I guess where we could start is with Kate McAlister. Sure, okay,
what do we know about her? She's Kevin's mom. Mom.
She ignored him right at the beginning. He had valid points.

(25:28):
He went to her bed and he said, Mom, they
won't let me do this, and she said, shut the
funk up. And he said, Mom, they treat me like
ship and she was like, get out. She shushed him
a million times. She was on a work call. Did
she work? She was a great question. Um, it is unclear.

(25:49):
She's on the phone with someone at the beginning, but
I think it's a family member. That's what I kind
of thought as well. Um, it is not made ever
explicitly clear what her job is if she does have
a job, Nor is it make clear what Kevin's dad's
job is if he has a job. Apparently there are
I don't know if they're Reddit threads or what's out there,

(26:12):
but there's like a fan theory that Kevin's mom is
the breadwinner of the family. That was not the theory
I came across. A good theory, Okay, I think the
only evidence that I found to support this was that
she she had the money in her pocketbook to pay
he's a delivery driver, and she's wearing a suit, which

(26:34):
means that she has a job. She's a business I
feel like in like costuming wise, that does kind of
like means I don't know. I feel like, especially in
the eighties and nineties, they female characters are dressed so
in an expository way of like, this is the sexy character,
this is the mom, and she was dressed like a

(26:54):
working mom because the aunt is dressed fabulously with like
hurls and like like, but she she doesn't have a job.
I felt like a business job, and a business job. Yeah. Sure.
The dad was a total schmuck too, he was Yeah,

(27:17):
I think that he was like I I think that
he may have worked, he may have had a job,
but I don't think he was on her level. And
I would bet that her family was like, are you
sure about Peter? I thought that too, right, and then
she was like, well, he's inheriting this really nice house.
I had all these rewatched it. It almost feels the

(27:39):
way my family thinks about my husband who's a musician. Oh,
like are you are you sure? And you're like, but
it's for love, and they're like, what is it? But
it allows me to run the household, right, It's exciting,
it's great. I love to dominate. I think the bad

(28:00):
that's how you exert dominance over your households. It was
just one of the guess who's that that's terrifying. I'm
gonna come on the defense of Kevin's dad hanging out. Okay, So,

(28:21):
a lot of movies, especially of this era, and especially
in this genre, if they're framing like a family unit
like this, they're subscribing to a lot of tropes, and
the tropes are usually that it's like a shrewy cartoonishly
uptight mom and then a very doofy dad. I felt

(28:42):
neither of those stereotypes were really played too in this movie.
I felt that the dad was actually like very supportive
of his wife. Yeah, and it seems that they had
an equal parenting relationship. It seems like they were both
doing a lot. Well, you know, someone's got to pay

(29:04):
for the pizza, right, But like the two of them
seem too. I mean, in the few scenes we see
them parenting and not dwelling on their failure of parenting,
it seems like it's kind of and and they have
four kids, um, and it seems like they're they're they're
splitting their responsibilities. Is it four? Is if? Is there
another one? Might be? Oh wait, because there's little Karen

(29:28):
Coulkin too, but he's one of the cousins. He's a cousin.
But there's like I think the eldest daughter is maybe
two sisters, two brothers. That was my way to let
me check. I am dB production. There are eleven kids
total in the household between the two families. But if

(29:50):
there's only four kids in the McAlister unit, there is five.
There's Jeff McAllister, Kevin's elder brother, Megan McAllister, Kevin's eldest sister,
Buzz the older brother, and then Lenny. So there's five
kids and then the Callister family. I would forget one
every time I left, Honestly, anyone who's coming down too

(30:13):
hard on Kate and Peter consider right. I mean so
like the way that they're acting towards Kevin in the
very beginning, where they're like shut up, just like do
what you're told, and dada, like they're frantic they're dealing
with there's eleven children in their house. I would have
be having a meltdown. But I think that whenever when
like they're like on the flight to their trip, the

(30:33):
chaos has died down and his mom is like I
can't not do it. Um She's like I can't help
but feel like I forgot something. And I feel like
the dad could have been at least favorite son. He
went through Like I feel like in a lot of movies,
the dad would be like, oh, you're overreacting, like just relax,

(30:54):
like everything's fine, but he's like, well, let's go through
this was it. The coffee machine was at the door,
like he was always like very supportive and like he
never like belittle her or undermined her. And yeah, I
really liked it. Good people. Yeah, I really do think
they were good. I don't know, I was very sympathetic
with them the whole time. And I also felt like

(31:16):
the opening sequence where like Kevin is being talked down
to and kind of like dumped on by his family,
it's like a little over the top, but I feel
like that's almost written to be from his perspective that
when you're a little kid, you think like I, I
was from like a big family too, and you always
feel like no one likes me. I don't get the
attention I deserved. My parents don't want to talk to

(31:36):
me because there are too many other kids around. Like
I feel like that it's just like heightening, you know that,
like Kevin is like lost in this mix of kids
and he doesn't really fit anywhere because he's not Tarantula
kid yet the kid we all aspire to me. He
was the creative if you think about it, like he
was like the you know, he was kind of a

(31:56):
child prodigy, Like who does all the like the talk
are in the feathers and I mean, yeah, he's a mastermind.
He's an engineer, a little boy in stem if you will,
he does the whole thing where there's explosives. Yeah, where
who tied him that? Buzz? Will you steal the firecrackers

(32:17):
from buzzes like porn stash area. Buzz reminds me of
Sid from Toy Store. Yeah, you're like, oh another Tally
Kid the movie that has a different character named Buzz
in it the connections. Oh wait, no, it's Buzz, Like
I don't think it was the dog because that would
just happenes. Holy sh it, I think I'm sick. Okay,

(32:44):
I think Buzz and Sid or both grow up to
be the feminists. Okay, okay, we can talk about Buzz
for a second. Buzz at eleven doesn't have the best
few of women yet. Can I tell you a fact
I've read? Yes, you know how. At one point, Kevin
pulls out a picture of Buzz's girlfriends. Yes, that's the

(33:08):
director wearing a wig because he is crazy. He's Columbus
in a whig. He didn't want to make fun of
women's looks. That he's kind of endearing. Is this movie
a gift from the heavens? That's like such a that's
a very round about sweet thing to do is like,

(33:29):
I don't want any like young girl to feel like
she's weird looking. You know what's weird looking me? Because
because Kevin sees the picture and he's like, oh, Buzzer's
girlfriend Wolf. Yeah, I don't hate it. There's I told
you guys, there's a lot of attourney. We'll be here

(33:52):
until six am. This is a sleepover. That's why we
were wearing pajamas. No, well, Buzz, you know, Buzz says
some he has his California girl posters, his his babe
posters of the era. You can tell he's a horny
young man that doesn't quite understand how to speak of
women respectfully. We get the feeling he's being raised by

(34:14):
a strong woman. She'll catch on when she has time
she has and be like, hey, let's you know, let's
have a discussion, and then she'll give him a rock
sand gay book. Right but right now, he says, is
it true that French babes don't shave their pits? And
he's grossed out by women's body hair fuzz uh. And

(34:36):
then he's like, Francis nude beaches, right, And then they're like,
it's winter he's like Tarantula's Oh my god, he's just
you know. I like to imagine the buzz Later goes
on a journey and you know, discovers some good literature
and really gets zack together. It was his friends from

(34:57):
school that we're influencing him. To me, Yeah, is the
letterman jacket all the time, And they got that Playboy
magazine for him. Well, I don't think Peter's hoarding those
unless but unless he we don't know. We don't know.
What I think is buzz Later writes a blog post
when blogs exist, so when he's like in his late twenties,
he writes a blog post. It's like letter to my

(35:19):
younger self. And then he writes about all the toxic
things he learned as a child, and he apologizes to
all the California babes. I hope that happened there. I
think that they're what we're learning is there's so few
female characters to talk about that we're just head cannoning
all the children. Well there's I think there's a little

(35:39):
bit more to talk about with Kevin's his mom, with Kate. Yeah,
of course, I forgot how much we cut back to
the family. Like I remember the Kevin thing happening on
the airplane, but I didn't quite remember, like how often
we cut back to her, like desperately trying to figure
out a way to get home. Very active, very active.

(36:03):
She's like delegating tasks, she's getting ship done. She's like
negotiating with people, whether it's like people work at the
airlines or like other customers who were like I will
give you five dollars, I'll give you all the jewelry
off my body, like take everything. I just I'm trying
to get home. So she's like doing stuff Like I

(36:24):
think she's easily a far more memorable character than the Dad,
who for sure no one remember. I mean maybe some
people remember the Dad, but like he and I think
that a lesser movie would have given all these tasks
to there, or at least some of the more active
tasks to the dad, where it's like I feel like
she is responding to like the maternal instinct, which is like,

(36:47):
you know, rooted in some truth and can sometimes be
used as a more trophy thing for a movie, but
in this movie it makes sense. The dad is supportive
of it every step of the way. But there is
that one moment where like she's at the airport and
she's like, I forgot my son at home, and he's like, well,
let's just go to Paris and see what happens. Then
you're like, yeah, One thing I found weird is when

(37:09):
they arrive at Paris, she she calls the cops back
in Chicago and she says, my son is home alone.
My son is home alone. But she doesn't say I
forgot my son at home. True, that was a red
flag that she didn't hold herself accountable for her mistake.

(37:31):
And then the cops says, oh, this woman's hyper. Yeah.
Well I thought that that was interesting too, because I'm like,
would they have acted that way if it was the
dad calling They men are called hyper a lot, so
I mean she should have said, you know, like admitted, listen,
I forgot about my son and I'm in France. That's
a bad look, but you got to say it. The

(37:53):
cops would have gone to the house, right. This is
all of a labyrinth of pustle pieces that But I
was very impressive, Like, she is very active. She is clearly,
you know, thinking smart in the moment, she's thinking strategically.
It's a very survival based I don't know I think
that my impression of this movie, or like just like

(38:15):
what I'd collected over the years, was that his parents
were like incredibly careless and stupid. But that wasn't what
I felt watching it, Like, this is just very unfortunate
for this billionaire family. It's too bad. The other thing
I found a bit surprising was that because so many movies,
especially ones that like have a young boy as the

(38:37):
lead character, the main relationship that will be focused on
in the movie would be a father son relationship, and
then this movie, it's far more focused on the mother
son relationship. Were Like that scene with him and Catherine
O'Hara at the end is so sweet, and I feel
like it's so well done by Katherine O'Hara because you

(38:59):
can see she's like, please don't remember this too much,
you know, and she loves him so much, and it's
it warmed in my heart. I have another weird factoid.
Macauley Culkin still calls her mom in real life weird.
Yeah is it Weird's not nice? It's weird. Well, I

(39:22):
don't know, it's it's something. Wow, they bonded, so if
no stue, wait you're telling me Macaulay Culkin thirty nine
years old, goes on the set of Ship's Creek just
to scream, and he says, Mom, Katherine O'Hara looks happen

(39:42):
is like what I'd like to think. This is exactly
what happened. I hope this happens all. I hope he
drops in constantly. He just calls to say mom and ing.
So that that is very I mean, he is so
little in this movie, like it's man and and like

(40:03):
so I mean it's this is not a hot take.
He's very talented. He's so good. I was getting I
saw Jojo Rabbit recently, and the kid and Jojo Rabbit
reminds me a lot of mcaulay culkin in the same
like we're like, wow, this kid's really got something kind
of way, but like he's so talented, especially because it's

(40:24):
like a kid having to like carry an entire movie.
It's no easy to see. Yeah, and like really the
only thing they had to go. He was in a
different John Hughes movie. He was an Uncle Buck in
like a pretty small role. And I guess I read
there was a If you love this movie and are
interested in the production of it, there's a really good
oral history of it that was like collected by John

(40:46):
Hughes's son that like he just talked to everyone who
made the movie, and I guess that they auditioned like
three million. It was a lot of kids, and like
John Hughes, who like I feel like I listened to
our other episodes about John Hughes movies because we don't
love him, but like, for the purposes of this movie,

(41:07):
I don't really care. Yeah, he was like, it's got
to be Macaulay Culkin and Chris Columbus was like, let's see,
let's see what these other tip tapping boys yet, and
then it still ended up being him because he was
that good. Was this his like breakout? I think, I think,
I mean it was like this was his first starring

(41:27):
like starring starring role, and then we get other classics
like the Page Mask, Stage Master and My Girl came later. Yes,
a couple of years after that, he's a start. He's
a star and he calls Cathine o'harah mom, he's a star.
I don't know. I love it. I love it. He's great. Um.

(41:49):
I want to talk a little bit about the things
that Kevin decides to do while he has no parental supervision.
At first, he's doing like normal kids stuff, like he's
jumping on the bed, he's eating junk food, stuff like that.
But then over the span of I suppose a day
or so, he comes of age. I don't know what happens,

(42:10):
but he's like, I have to go out and buy
a toothbrush and I have to make sure it's been
approved by the American Dental Association. And also I have
to go buy groceries and use a coupon while I'm
doing that. And then he does laundry, and then he
washes the dishes. He does all these domestic domestics that
we never see boys or men do in movies. Well,

(42:32):
those are only relegated to girls, and it's not made
to be a joke. And he's just like, I'm I'm
in charge of the house. This is what I do.
But then there's also this weird thing where he's like, oh,
I'm the man of the house. Now, it's ridiculous for
me to be scared. I have to protect my domain.
And okay, cut yourself, yeah, cut yourself a break. You're

(42:52):
eight years old and Joe Pesci is trying to kill you.
My dream waste kidding. He overcomes a fear of the
furnace too. He does, but he really does because the
furnace talks to him at the beginning, and then he
stops talking. He's scared. I was also scared of that
furnace when I was a kid. It's very scary. You

(43:14):
would have been scared. Yeah, I didn't even register that
is as him doing you know, traditionally feminine tasks. But
he's just like, I'm there, and he has like this
very kind of sweet allegiance to the house. He's like,
I gotta protect the house. I gonna do. It's like
this combination of like traditionally masculine and feminine trips that
are all sort of similarly. To defend his house, he

(43:37):
uses a mix of household appliances like an iron and
feathers and what are what do they do those mannequins
and feathers? Why were there mannequins in the basey my
head Cannon is that Katherine O Harri's character is the
breadwinner of the family and she's like a very successful
fashion designer. That's what I choose to believe. I like

(44:01):
to think that Peter likes mannis That's my opinion. Yeah,
he uses a mix of like household items and also
like a BB gun and a like blowtorch kind of thing. Um,
he's doing it all. There's that moment where the bags

(44:24):
break while he's walking, while he's walking with the groceries. Yeah, yeah,
and while rewatching it. That scene got me because I
have a frustration of errands and just lifting, as we
all do. But that really I related. Yeah, he knows
what it's like to the grind the grind. One thing

(44:47):
I felt was missing from the movie is there is
no cleaning up montage at the end after the burglars
have been arrested, because how there's tar, there's a glue.
Weird to believe Kevin cleaned that all up, cleaned it
all up by himself and put out milk and cookies
and put like put up the tree, did the stockings,

(45:10):
all that stuff it could, But I would have liked
to see the cleaning montage that Kevin did though. I
think that was an important thing that we missed. Old
Man Marley helped him for sure, but then at that
that increases the secret also of like let's make sure
there's no trace right there. It's so weird. One thing

(45:31):
that I mean this is so there's so little to
talk about it in the way, but Kevin has two sisters. Yes,
they shifted on him relentlessly. I liked that in this
montage of like just every kid in the house is
like Kevin's a loser, he sucks. There was, you know,
no discrimination in terms of gender, in terms of who

(45:53):
thinks Kevin sucks. Because I feel like, you know, a
lesser movie would be like, you know, would have like
female children be like no, it's but everyone's just like
fuck you, Kevin, You're You're the worst piece of ship
and he's like, wow, did just you know? So I
liked and I I felt that the girls were given

(46:15):
the superior burns. Yes, what's up with that classy burn?
She's educated surrealist burn. Yeah, I don't know what what
why that though? That that choice, I'm like, oh, she's
she read you know, three pages of a like. Um.

(46:40):
So I liked. I mean, obviously I wish that there
were more and the choice of a big brother over
a big sister, you know, that's you can kind of
make it that way you will, But I did like
that it was an equal opportunity dump on Kevin montage
at the top, I appreciated that. I want to talk

(47:02):
a little bit about other comparable movies of this era,
like late eighties into the nineties, the like children and
family movies from this time because of the popular ones
that are still remembered and beloved. Most of them are
very male driven stories. Most of them have male protagonists,

(47:25):
including I think holiday movies in generalists, well, I would
say so for sure, yes, and just all movies, but
it extends to children and family movies as well. Unfortunate
as that is, uh so, movies like Home Alone, Hook,
Teenage Mutant, Inta, Turtles, The sand Lot, The Mighty Ducks.
There's a bunch of sports movies like Space Jam, Little Giants.

(47:48):
There was Free Willie and we don't know if Willie
does Willie identify? I don't know if I gendered Willie?
Does anyone know? ORCA will cover it? But like Little Ras, Heavyweights,
a goofy movie, an extremely goofy movie. Are those cartoons

(48:13):
you haven't seen? You haven't seen a goofy movie. I
feel like you would really love it. Goofy scares me
a little bit. Really Yeah, I don't like him. He
gives me Anxietyfy you know how to skip it? I'll
watch it for you. So you know, there's all these

(48:33):
beloved movies from this era, but so many of them
are just like very male driven. Of the like ones
that are more female driven, they're kind of few and
far between. There are things like Matilda, Harriet the Spy.
Those I mean, those are the two that people normally
sit and those are like two little white girls too.

(48:53):
Family and you know, like we talked about this a
lot when it comes to like family and teen movies specifically,
where there's a giant class gap and most teen or
family movies don't work if the families are not upper
middle class at least, like, yeah, there's a huge gap
in representation. And I mean all entertainment, but like family

(49:15):
entertainment especially for sure. And then just a couple other ones.
There's you know, things like hocus Pocus or The Witches
because women be witches. Or there's like princess movies like
Beauty the Beasts, Little Mermaid, Little Princess Anastasia because women
be princesses. So you know, there's a much like narrower

(49:36):
idea of like what female characters are allowed to be
at the helm of of a female driven family children
family movie whereas like ones that star boys or men
are allowed to like you know, be swashbucklers and adventurers
and like or athletes, uh you know, all all kinds
of different stuff. And again that always goes back to
like who is behind the camera, who is working on

(49:59):
the movies, because there is not a woman to be
found in the like primary production trade for Home Alone,
which I'm sure comes as a surprise to basically no one,
but you know, it's directed by Chris Columbus, written and
produced by John Hughes, who has a socio history on
his portrayed all the female characters at all, and this
he opts for nothing, uh you know. And and so

(50:23):
something that like we try to touch on as well
is that, you know, normally, if there's a problem in
front of the cameras, because there's also a problem behind it,
because like Kevin could very easily have been a girl,
like there's nothing, which is kind of a cool thing
in the writing too, because he doesn't really strike you
as like a kid that is like curdling under toxic masculinity.

(50:46):
You know, it could very easily be a little girl
what's really kind of sucked up to It's like the
thieves at one point don't care about money anymore. Is
they're just trying to kill a kid? Right? Okay, can
we talk about Joe Pesh Now? Can you tell me
about I have a third factory. We I've already told

(51:09):
the two of you. Joe Pesci is a fucking method
actor on this movie. So he got so into the
role that he didn't talk to macauley unless it was
the camera was rolling, and he bit his fucking finger
to the bone during one of the scenes. Yeah, he

(51:31):
got that into the role that he fully chewed his flesh.
Oh my gosh, can you I leave Joe PESHI? I
thought this was raging bull his Chindler's like I can't.
It's it boggles the mind, Like I'm going to get

(51:55):
an oscar for this, Like what was he? Like? What
is the motivation? Like I feel like every time someone
goes method, which I hate, I think it's the most
annoying thing. And it's always men, And it's always men
who just are already obnoxious and want to be obnoxious
and get paid for it. Like it's just anything besides

(52:16):
some choice. Daniel tay Lewis. But like, but like the
whole documentary about like I'm Jim Carey and I want
to be annoying at being You're like, fuck you, fuck
you because with I'm like getting lightheaded thinking it makes
me yes. But it's like women, It's very hard to
find an example of a female actor of any amount

(52:39):
of fame going method because there is a huge stigma
of women being divas and women acting unprofessional when that
is method acting is being unprofessional and being hailed as
a fucking genius for it. They hate people. I hate people,
but I do think it's really funny that Joe. Well,

(53:01):
here's what kills me is that I have Joe Pesci
on a pedestal, and now the pedestal has been rocked
to the ground and Joe Pesci's on fallen. One other
thing is I used to love the idea that Joe
Pesci is a singer, but I never heard his music
until I was taking a bath before coming to this
what I had a full panic attack. He sounds like

(53:23):
it's like this, Oh, oh, I love you little Baby.
I swear yeah. The song his latest release is called
like Little Baby. Where did it come out? In Spotify?
He's a singer off a Little Baby. It's like it's

(53:44):
like my my little baby. I don't know, it's something
with the word baby. Okay, that's from right there. I
need to teach a college course on Joe Pesci dissertation. Well,
there were times in the movie where I was like
finding myself almost on the burglar's side because getting back

(54:06):
to the like extreme like wealth and upper middle classness
of this movie, I'm like, they should steal from the
rich and redistribute their wealth. So I was like, no,
this is child I I found it very disturbed. I mean,
I know that it's critical for the movie to work,
but the amount of like it almost begins to look

(54:29):
kinky for them, like how much they love being like
just physically they're destroyed, destroyed like would have killed them
a million times. They like concussions. They would have died
on the steps. I mean, Joe Pecchi has like third
degree burns on his head and hand, and he's like,

(54:51):
I'm going to steal this VCR if it kills me,
it's good. When did I already say that? When he
rubs the house before, they don't even care about robbing it.
He's looking at a collection. Yeah, it's called baby Girl.
It's baby Girl. It's called pay It. It came out,

(55:12):
Oh my god, it literally came out last week, the
world premiere. We may be the first prepared. Oh goody,
the interest very latin. What if I take off all
my clothes. I'm wearing like glitter all over my body

(55:33):
with a picture of Joe Pesci on my bush? We're
now with me. I know what to say, but every chip,
what is this? What is it going for? I don't
know if I told you, I don't. I don't like

(55:58):
him anymore. Oh my god, guys, I'm gonna start jerking off,
starting to feel horny? Are you horny? I'm kind of horny. Well, well,

(56:18):
before we get like sued for copyright infringement, what if
Joe Pesci literally sued us? That would be the best
press we've ever gotten. True, that Joe Pesci sues feminist
podcast would be a burn for us and keep it going.
What if he was backstage and I plotted this whole

(56:40):
thing and he's my dad. My name's Tomorrow Peshi. God,
that's long time. I Joe Peshi does a good job
in this movie? Does he do biting a finger to
the own baby girl job? We don't know? Should we

(57:04):
talk about Daniel Stern A little bit the other one
do you have? He's the narrator. There's the thing about him.
He's the narrator for the wonder years. Oh I'm smart,
you are thank you every year? A k A. I
read a buzz feedway before doing this. That's it about him.

(57:27):
Oh yeah, there's not much. He contributed a lot to
the Oral History, which indicated to me that he doesn't
have anything going on because because it said Joe Pesci
couldn't be reached, I know, it's not great something. I mean,
this has nothing to do with women or their portrayal.
But ei there were some things about this oral History

(57:50):
that I thought were interesting or charming. So one thing
that so this was one of Chris Columbus is I
think one of his maybe one of his first movies
that he directed. Previously written Grandmans and the Goonies, so
he had a lot of you know, considered eighties classics
under his belt. Uh, and then he goes on to
be kind of a famous children's movie director, specifically because

(58:13):
he directs the first two Harry Potter movies. Anyways, so
I guess that he and John Hughes have been trying
to work together for a while. Uh, and Chris Columbus
almost directed National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which we will probably
cover at some point because it's but then, okay, here's
it's just a quote about the time that Chris Columbus

(58:35):
met Chevy Chase and was afraid of him. So quote,
I went on to dinner with Chevy Chase. To be
completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt, but I stuck
it out and even went so far as to shoot
a few scenes with him. So basically, he says that
chevy Chase verbally abused Chris Columbus into quitting what would
have been a huge break in his career when he

(58:57):
was like, oh he's Chevy Chase, known for being a dick.
Oh yeah, yeah, I had no idea. Yeah, I guess
he's just like a vile man. Is a really bad guy.
That's I think that's why you got kicked off community too.
It's just because he was just such a horror to
be around. Is the street chevy Chase named after? I

(59:19):
wonder this often? Could that possibly be true? Is there
another chevy Chase? Does anyone remember him now? I mean
like I think we do, But like what does a
teenager know who Chevy chases? It seems impossible. I feel
like community like but no, he's on it for a while.

(59:39):
How long he's in? Like four? He's forced? Oh wow,
he got stands in the front row? Was he in
the Three Amigos? He was? Is that movie good? My
husband loves people love it and I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
I hate that movie so much. Isn't like Donald Duck

(01:00:00):
in that movie? Not to digress too much, Oh, I
don't know. You know, there's a different version of the
three Now, that's the Three Cabanerros. That's what I'm thinking
about and his various friends. Good call. I've recently decided
that I think that Donald Duck style nudity is the
funniest style. I'm attracted to him. I think that I
think that Donald. Yeah, I'm just like you go for it.

(01:00:22):
Just a crop top in like his duck penis. And
again it's gender neutral because Daisy does the same thing. Yeah.
I love no pants cartoon. Another no pants cartoon is,
of course Paddington. Paddington wears a coat, but but it's
decent enough to cover most of American cartoons. Their commando.

(01:00:44):
Speaking of Paddington, Kevin's dad is wearing a Paddington like
duffle coat throughout the movie. It is it's the wrong color,
it's tan, but it otherwise is it's it's Paddington's coat,
its different color. All for Molina couldn't play Kevin McAllister,
Oh my god, imagine with a blonde wig. Tell me

(01:01:07):
you couldn't do it? Before we devolve into this into
the ground, do you just have one actual last point
to make sure. And it's just kind of tapping back
into the discussion of family movies, especially of this era
and even to some extent today, just so much focus

(01:01:28):
on a white nuclear family unit, both parents, hetero, still together,
still married, parents with white collar jobs, upper middle class
living in suburban America, especially for like holiday movies I
focus on like Christian Christmas. I mean, I think it
just goes back to the whole like family teen movie

(01:01:48):
thing too, where it's just like so few movies even
attempt to address anybody else because it's just like the
assumption that that is first the norm, which isn't, and
second that that is like the only thing people are
interested in seeing, which it isn't. But everyone who makes
this movie is from that background, and so they you know,

(01:02:09):
the problem because those are also the people who are
privileged enough to like make movies and like have funding
to like be in charge of getting movies made and
stuff like that. I mean, like even like I lived
in like in like a blue collar family, rural you know,
like working class family. Um, and I almost never saw
myself represented in any family movies when I was growing up. Um,

(01:02:33):
and that like folks with kids, yea one thing I felt.
I remember feeling this as a kid when it came out.
I was living in Argentina, where I was born, and
we were really poor, and I remember being really mad
at Kevin for missing the vacation, right the same way.

(01:02:58):
This is a different movie, but the same way I
was mad at the Little Mermaid for not enjoying like
her sea royalty and wanting to like be sure, you know,
missing the concert because I was just like, you have
moving and we didn't have money, and I was like,
enjoy your fucking trip to Paris. Yeah that's but yeah,

(01:03:20):
yeah they don't. They don't appreciate their wealth when they
have it. But stopped playing with like popcorn or whatever
he was playing, like go like Hug your parents and
be happy. Let's get it together. Jesup, come on. I
mean it goes without saying that families of color, poor families,
working class families, uh, you know, kids with disabilities, queer kids.

(01:03:45):
I mean still, it's very, very very rare to see.
And it's also I think like worth mentioning that when
families that are not the ones that you just described
are shown, it's often portrayed as tragic or lesser and
it's not portrayed and it's and it's that sucks because
it's like when you when you grow up in a

(01:04:06):
family that's different than Kevin McAllister's family, you still have fun,
you still enjoy, you know, and it's like it's not perfect.
It's it's different and there's different setbacks that you can
portray in a movie. But it doesn't need to be
like sad Violin over. You know, a family that like
this is their life, and so it would be it
would be good to see more family movies that don't

(01:04:30):
just portray families that are not upper middle class white people.
But it's also just like portraying this a is like
this is a normal thing, and like this is like
families can be very happy. Um, when they're not upper
middle class white people living at the suburbs of Chicago,
you know for sure. Um. One thing I'll say that

(01:04:51):
I think is a positive for this movie is it's
an original story that was because I feel like we're
like in this weird age of movies where like original
stories getting funding are less and less and less. Everything
is franchise and all that ship. But this is an
original story that like Super Super paid off, where this
movie had an eighteen million dollar budget and it made

(01:05:14):
four hundred seventy six million dollars and they I didn't
realize how huge this movie was when it came out,
but it's the top grossing movie of nine it out
earned good fellows. Take that Pesci. Maybe he was right.
Pesci owned Pesci, you know, like he maybe he was
right to chew through that finger. How much did Pesci

(01:05:36):
make for Home alone? Oh, good question, bault Park. I'm
gonna say, what was the total? Eighteen million? Eighteen million? Yeah?
Did Pesci make a million? No? That's crazy, that's too
Oh there's a disagreement, gentlemen. I feel like, well, who's

(01:05:57):
the most famous movie person in this movie? At the time.
I feel like it's Joe p She because he was
in Raging Ball who came first, and like the names
that come at the beginning, I can't remember trying to build.
I feel like it's about for someone. But this is
like before Katherine O'Hara is super super super famous. I
think it is. I'm pretty sure she's mainly known for
SETV at this point. Let's see No, it just says

(01:06:20):
Joe Pashi. Okay, this is very cryptic. Joe Pesci has
earned salaries up to three million, five hundred thousand dollars
for his acting. My cousin Vinny was maybe that one. Oh,
maybe that was a big one for him. I's psychic.
People also ask whatever happened to Joe? He's in the

(01:06:44):
Irishman as we speak. Well, yeah, well, and he just
released Baby Girl last week. Honey, true waiting up? People
dropping music right now? Um, you have other movie ease?
I just have a couple things to say, sure, Um.

(01:07:05):
Now the famous scene in Home Alone when Kevin is
standing in front of the mirror, he's talking to himself.
He's like, I just took a shower. I washed all
my crevices. I used actual soap, I used as he
does he says, did I creep black that out? Because
he says crevices and I don't like children saying I agree.

(01:07:29):
But he's like talking about all the products he's using.
He's like, yeah, use soap, an adult formula shampoo, and
then a cream rinse for that just washed shine. And
the way to see him, we see him like putting
on deodorant and then putting on the aftershave and then
he does that. Ah. That scene very closely resembles the
scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman is like looking

(01:07:53):
at the mirror. He's like, and then I used an
almond scrub, and then I use a facial cleanser that
doesn't have alcohol because alcohol dize your skin out. And
then I use a blah blah blah, and and then
he like peels the mask off his face, and it's
basically identical. I'm saying that Americans like a ripped off
home alone can fully agree, thank you so much. And

(01:08:13):
then there's a very what I think is a very
direct reference to Raiders of the Lost Dark when Joe
Pesci grabs the door when Alfa Millian and the tarantulas.
But there's I'm talking about a different thing. Uh, when
Joe Pesci grabs the door knob and then has to
stick in his burning and he has to stick his
hand in the snow, and then there's the It's like

(01:08:35):
the imprint of the door knob is burned onto his
hand and the same thing happens to the Nazi in
Raiders of the Lost Dark. Thank you so much. That
was really good. Wow, I fully I have a degree
Instagram writing I I came across a theory, yes that

(01:08:55):
Kevin is dead? WHOA wait, the said from earlier? Yes, okay,
I thought you were about to say Kevin is dead.
I thought I want to hear that. Okay. So this
is good and it's actually written by feminist icon Aaron
Gloria Ryan, I'm a big fan of She wrote this
piece two years ago. Says Home Alone is so much
better if Kevin McAllister is dead. It's a hot take,

(01:09:19):
but bear with me. I'll read a bit from it.
I was compelled quote in the Dead Kevin version of
Home Alone, the reason the extended family has gathered in
the Winnetka house is that the next day they're going
to fly to Paris without Kevin so that they can
get a little piece and quiet. Leaving him home was deliberate.
No one actually thought Kevin would join them on the

(01:09:40):
trip to Paris, because he is a spirit who's tethered
to the house. Kate McAllister is the only person who
reacts to forgetting Kevin the way a normal person would
to forgetting a child. Her husband Peter, is oddly calm,
as our Aunt Leslie and Uncle Frank, who tried to
comforicate by telling her that he forgot his reading glasses.
Kevin has an aversion to both the third floor of

(01:10:02):
his house and the basement, where a menacing furnace calls
his name. It doesn't take a first year Tish student
to point out that this pair of aversions represent Kevin's
refusal to leave the physical world of his house and
ascend or descend heaven or afterlife. What It's Dante's inferno,

(01:10:22):
but home alone. It's incredible. Later, as an emboldened Kevin
attempts to leave the edge of his yard for the
first time, he is thwarted by old Man Marley, who
appears practically out of nowhere and scares Kevin back inside
where he's safe. Marley also appears where Kevin ventures past
the edge of his yard for the first time the
next day, as if to scare him back home again.

(01:10:45):
On the night the band has planned to rob Kevin's house,
Marley tries again to keep him safe, trying to teach
him old man lessons in a church. And it's old
man Marley who is finally able to fill the bandits
with his shovel after Kevin leads them through a sea
areas of hellish physical ordeals. So okay, the theory goes on.

(01:11:08):
It also says that Joe Pesci and the other guy
are immortal, but basically Kevin's a ghost. Marley is his
protector that already an angel, his angel that is trying
to get him to stay in the house where he's
saved and decide to ascend or descend. That's why they
don't tell anyone anything happened, because no one's going to

(01:11:29):
believe a ghost, so there's no point in reporting it.
But not what it was. Are you sure? Can we
be sure? I don't think it's real, but I was.
I was, like, my mouth was a gay. But this
is insane. It's amazing. I'm glad that someone thought about.
It's my favorite fan theory I've ever read. Kevin McAllister

(01:11:53):
is dead. What if everyone in the movie was dead
and they were just people dead people come. It's like
the last episode of Lost or whatever the funk happens
in that what happens that I took a class on
that in college? Shut the funk up? Can you believe
that whole semester a whole semester of some fucking loser

(01:12:16):
being like it makes sense? And then I was in
debt for a decade? Can you believe that I took
a semester of don Key xote and I just realized
that you could watch the Yale lecture for free online.
Oh no, I don't go to college. It's a scam. Okay,
I have a master's degree. Anyway, I am in so much.

(01:12:39):
Please join our patreon. Um okay, so uh does anyone
have any final thoughts? No, we had more to say
than I thought you will, be honest. I thought this
would finally be the episode where we just sat out
of here. Like it turns out, we talk a lot.
It's a feminist masterpiece. I think we have a I
think we have a few moments for a couple of

(01:13:01):
questions or comments from the audience. If anyone has anything
to contribute to this important discussion that yeah, come on down,
we can hear you in the in the mic um.
I would just like to point out that there are
many adults that failed to realize this kid is like

(01:13:21):
walking around by himself. He goes to the grocery store.
The police are like, oh, we tried, we tried knocking,
and you know, no one answered, so I guess he's fine.
It's like he's eighty, you know, he's in there. One
lady comes close, but she doesn't. She's like, are you
by yourself? It's when he goes to the supermarket the

(01:13:43):
second time he goes to a church. I have expected
him to talk to Why doesn't Marley church alone? Why
aren't you a church? Incompetence? Incompetence by all the else,
he's the most competent one. I think it only makes

(01:14:03):
sense that he's dead. I mean, and that's I mean,
that's a common theme of like children's movies, where it's
like the children are so much smarter than the adults.
And then this movie also plays into the fantasy of like, yeah,
our families suck and we just want to be home
alone forever. I'm like, oh, I haven't watched them. We're

(01:14:23):
going to cover it tomorrow. Are there any of the questions? Yeah,
I've rewatched it this morning, and um, I just thought
it was interesting how John Candy offered to like give
her a ride, and him and his poker band like
rented a bus, but um, Kate didn't think to rent
a bus. She just kept buying over. She didn't think

(01:14:46):
to like rent a car or anything until like a
man showed up and was like, no, let me help you.
That's very true. Good point. Um, all excuse because I
like Katherine O'Hara so much and the character she plays
that mom. Sorry, um, I'll excuse that a way of
just like her being so frantic over this crisis that's

(01:15:09):
happening in her family that she isn't like using her
logical brain as effectively as I would guess that she
had already bartered all her jewels. She had no nothing
or maybe nothing left on her too. I don't know,
but that is that could have that that could have
easily been an oversight to just be like, well, we

(01:15:30):
want John Candy in the most obviously, which was a delight.
His lines were all improvised. As another fact, if oh interesting,
I feel like he's playing the same character he plays
in trains, plans and automobiles. He's just like on that journey,
he's like, oh yeah, I'll give you a ride. I'm
on a bus this time van. So that scene, those
scenes with him are not very long, right, But I

(01:15:53):
read in the in the Oral History that I read
apparently they had a full twelve hours of shooting with him,
and he fully explored a character. I mean, there was
a whole Katherine o' harris says in this like Oral
History interview she was like, yeah, I just remember it's
a really long day. I think that she improvised flashing

(01:16:15):
out her character quite a bit. John Candy created this
whole narrative for the Polka Band and they were on
hard times but now they're doing better, but they're not
as successful as they once were. And it was this
whole thing. And then at the end of the day,
Chris Columbus was just like, well that was all basically unusable,
like kind of like calm down, like you know how

(01:16:38):
they just right. I'm like, but they did. It's somewhere,
maybe somewhere that footage is somewhere to get our hands
on it. I would love to see a twelve hour cut. Well,
speaking of twelve hours, that's about how long it takes
to drive from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Chicago, because I did
Google map it today. So she was in that same

(01:17:01):
way that van for twelve I mean, and it was snowing,
so maybe they had to go slower. I don't know.
They stopped for meals properly, bathroom breaks. No, there's no
peeing in this movie, No, pep. That's a great back around.
That was a call back to the p Matt to
TAM's peep pebs. Yes, we have a question in the

(01:17:23):
back most all, there's that whole discussion we're in the
movie about the cousin or the son that went to
the bed. So your your listeners are gonna be like, no,
there's peeing in this movie. You just saved us from
being added to death. Thank you, you guys forgot about
Kieren Colkins every time. For Karen Golden Peas. That's a

(01:17:45):
huge part about this. I love Twitter so much. It
makes sense. Thank you, Thank you for that. That's a
great points only one character piece. And Macaulay instead Kevin's dead,
the Collocums alive and well and calls Catherine a hair
up mom. Yeah. Any other questions are comments Yeah, well

(01:18:06):
go Homer, Yeah, we'll repeat it. So the question is,
how do you think we can encourage and support more
diversity in film give opportunities to writers, creators, directors, etcetera,
any creative minds who have like influence over story and
stuff like that. Um, I think it's like and it's
a lot of just like demanding it from people who

(01:18:27):
have power right now, where I just dumped on Twitter
because everyone you know will point out pepe things. But
the great power of of social media is you do
have like direct connection to powerful people and to let
them know how you feel. And so like there is
such a failure of powerful people right now to give opportunities.

(01:18:49):
And there's that mentorship complex that I feel like we've
discussed on the show before, where it's like mentors so
often are you know, like there's so many like rich
white guys in power, and they'll mentor people who remind
them of themselves. And it's just encouraging people who have
power right now to mentor people who are not just them,

(01:19:09):
to prioritize giving opportunities to people from backgrounds that aren't
their own, and to you know, diversify and conversations like
this too, because as we're sitting here, I'm like Ship
thinking of myself as a kid in Argentina watching this.
It's like there's a story to be told in that.
I just never thought it was anybody cared, you know,

(01:19:30):
So what we do, we care do And then I
think one of the main things that consumers can do
because money speaks very loudly in this industry and all industries,
but um, make sure you go to see movies in
theaters that are created by and star you know, diverse casts,

(01:19:50):
and and look for them too, because they're not marketed
as heavily as fucking Joker and Ship like that. Don't yeah,
bravely don't see Joker. That's the way to encourage diversity, No,
uh no, but I do think it like it is,
just like it because people from any sort of marginalized group,

(01:20:11):
their their movies and projects are not prioritized and marketed
as heavily as things from you know, the old school,
rich white guys. It's like you have to seek it
out and support it and you know, support your friends,
and it's it's a climb, but it's you know, it's
it's getting better slowly slow. Um. Thank you for all

(01:20:33):
your questions. That's a great question. Hey, does this movie
pass the backtel test? No, it does not. There are
more interactions between women than I expected there to be
because I remember none of these. But like Kate McAllister
talks to the French airline lady about trying to get

(01:20:54):
on a flight back home, but she is not named,
and they don't. The whole context is I have to
get back to my and Irene the old lady that
she offers all the jewelry to yes, and she is
named Yes, But the whole thing is still like, my please,
I must get back to my husband. And then her

(01:21:15):
husband comes up and he's like, we're boarding, get on
the flight, Irene. And then the mom talks to various
of her daughters and I think it's her sister in law,
Leslie Um. But again the whole thing is like even
though the conversations they're passing like passing on paper, versations
like they don't necessarily mention a man's name, but the

(01:21:35):
whole context is still like we have to do these
things to get back to Kevin So. And then the
mom talks to the female police officer. But again the
same thing with a context. So I don't think it passes.
It's no, it doesn't pass. I had I have to
say one more thing and then while everyone go home. Okay,
so one of the sisters, the actor who plays Megan McAlister,

(01:21:58):
she goes on to represent the United States in judo
at the Olympics three times. Good for her, I know.
I think she actually ends up doing the best. I
think she ends up doing better than Macaulay Culkin in
many ways. She's remembered for being a judo champion. I

(01:22:19):
just thought that was very impressive. Shout out to her,
shout out. We'll never do that, We'll never so far
away from being an Olympic judo Does anyone here think
they even have a shot? Does anyone do? That's why
you're not Megan mcallis um, But yeah, yeah, that does
not pass. Let's write it on our nipple scale zero

(01:22:40):
to five nipples based on its representation of women. Oh um, well,
I do appreciate, But what's the number? I know, I
always don't say the number for until Yeah. I like
to give a long prep because she's deciding wh a
whole long wrung way I'm going to say one and

(01:23:02):
a half. I think that's pretty fair. I will also
say that, and I'm not going to let the audience
influence me this time because I also do that every
time where like and I'm like, I'm sorry if women
don't apologize anymore. I think one and a half because

(01:23:23):
the one female character we get to know is while
we really only know who she is as it relates
to being a mother, which is a reductive thing. She is,
I would say, on par and maybe the second most
active character in the stories. She is driving the mission

(01:23:45):
to get home to Kevin. She is not the negligent
mother that I feel like history has like remembered her,
as she's got a lot on her plate. It appears,
even though she'd be more explicit that she may be
the breadwinner of this family. She's called stomed as the
breadwinner of the family, and she got way more screen
time than I thought that, you know, just based on

(01:24:08):
the way this movie have been described to me, So
you know, it's the classic you really only get one
female character, even though you see others. She's the only
active female character. But I liked her, and then it's like,
I feel like it's easy to you know, plug yourself
into her situation, and she's a very empathetic, active character,
which I appreciate it. But then there's only men other

(01:24:31):
than that one and a half one and a half.
It's also just an extremely as we've discussed, white movie,
an extremely upper class movie. It doesn't give a shit
about anyone who does not fit this like idyllic American
dream type of family and villainizes the people who are
trying to eat the rich. So you know, if you

(01:24:54):
have a hundred dollars for pizza, Yeah, no, it is.
It is very of its time in the way is
that it portrays families and the way that it portrays
the ideal family, and in sort of every regard. Um, sure, yes,
I'm gonna give it a nipple and a half. I'm
gonna give one to Catherine O'Hara, and then we give

(01:25:15):
half to Kevin because he's dead. Oh, I'm gonna give
my one and a half nipple to the tarantula. Tarantula's
do have zero nipples, but they have eight legs, and
that's tarantula facts. With Caitlin, I love it. Dam What

(01:25:38):
do you think I'm gonna give it two nipples because
I have two nipples. All right, that's the entire reasoning.
That's the best reasoning I've ever heard. You pee on
your floor and you have two nipples. What if we
were like this episode has been brought to you by
baby Girl by today, I think maybe we can bump

(01:26:01):
it up to two dipples, just strictly because did he
name his song baby boy? Feminist icono is prioritizing the
representation of women, that's true, but he's also infantilizing them.
So that's not what he could be thinking about a baby.
That's true. We can't understand that. It's impossible to know
what he's saying. Oh he's Scooby doing. We don't know

(01:26:25):
what he's saying. Yeah. True. I hope everyone goes home
and listen I write it. Thank you so much for
that gift, because I didn't. It was his first release
in twenty three years to right now you know, yes,

(01:26:46):
thank you, thank you for sharing that and thank you
for being give it up for tim Thank you, Thank
you guys for having me. Where can people follow you online?
Check out your stuff? Find me on my not job.
You know, I'm just kidding. Um. I have a podcast
called Ceriso Talk where me and my sister talk about

(01:27:08):
our life as kids and now, and we eat a sausage,
a different one every time, except we forget the sausage
every time. So that's just the yeah. Um, And I'm
online at Dances with Dammy's the worst fucking Twitter name ever.
But it's a classic classic based off of Dances with

(01:27:32):
Wolf Spike Kevin Costner, which I've never seen. Oh, it's
very long and quite boring. Thank you so much for
coming to the show. Give it up. Give it up
to Jake for according for us the whole raft. Give
it up to the Ruby by