Thread by @vulture

Hello! It's @joereid from @Had_Oscar_Buzz taking over the feed for #VultureMovieClub. We're celebrating the season with HOME ALONE! It's streaming on Disney+ if you're so inclined. I hope your plain cheese pizzas have been delivered and your booby traps have been set!

@joereid @Had_Oscar_Buzz The thing about HOME ALONE is that grownup critics hated it at the time, which I never knew b/c I was busy being ten. So by the time I found out that Ebert gave it 2.5 stars for being implausible, the movie had already seeped into my bones. Clever trick, Chris Columbus.

@joereid @Had_Oscar_Buzz Right up top we gotta thank "The Rescuers Down Under" for stealing composer Bruce Broughton, which meant that last-minute fill-in John Williams had to write this perfectly earwormy Christmas theme in like two seconds.

@joereid @Had_Oscar_Buzz (He got Oscar nominations for Original Score and Original Song, because John Williams doesn't NOT get Oscar nominations.) #VultureMovieClub

My favorite "Home Alone" anecdote is that Chris Columbus was originally going to direct "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," but Chevy Chase was such a giant asshole towards him that he quit, and John Hughes gave him the "Home Alone" script instead.

Shout out @SentaMosesMikan, the iconic Delia Fisher from "My So-Called Life," who right here is blowing off Wet Bandit Harry pretending to be a cop. I ranked all 11 McCallister kids earlier this week, perhaps Tracy deserved better. vulture.com/2020/12/watch-…

@SentaMosesMikan Queen Linnie nailing Kevin to the wall ~en francais~ with "les incompetents." We stan a bilingual icon. Also, can we appreciate the Christmas-light necklace here? #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan When I first watched this as a kid, the idea of ordering ten pizzas for $122.50 was the HEIGHT of luxury. I also had a verrrrrry early crush on the pizza boy, but no one was prepared to deal with that at the time. #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan Shout out to iconic cheapskate Uncle Frank, who by the way was originally supposed to be played by KELSEY GRAMMER. #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan All those kids who didn't realize Moira Rose and the mom from "Home Alone" were the same person are gonna truly flip their lids if we ever tell them that bed-wetting Fuller and Roman Roy are the same guy. #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan THE JERK (1979, Carl Reiner) #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan We have to talk about The House! The iconic Winnetka, Illinois location sold in 2012 for $1.58 million. They filmed exteriors and some interiors on site, though they also built a full-scale replica of the interior inside a high school gym/pool. #VultureMovieClub

@SentaMosesMikan This is why I ranked Heather number one. #VultureMovieClub vulture.com/2020/12/watch-…

@SentaMosesMikan At some point, someone must've decided that one of Kevin's parents was a clothing designer, b/c if you look, you'll see sewing machines/dress forms/mannequins all over the house. See also the "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" scene; here they help make the basement extra creepy.

I know Buzz's trunk is supposed to be a monument to debauchery (and, oddly, Junior Mints), but do I spy a DIARY in the upper left corner? A real lost opportunity for the film to explore the innermost hopes and fears of a teen bully. #VultureMovieClub

"Angels with Filthy Souls" is a play on the 1938 film "Angels with Dirty Faces," starring James Cagney and directed by Michael Curtiz, both of whom got Oscar nominations. (I knew I'd get Oscar talk into this thing.) #VultureMovieClub

Hey there, Wet Bandits! So originally, Harry was supposed to be played by either Robert De Niro or Jon Lovitz, before they went with Joe Pesci. And a pay dispute with Daniel Stern nearly had Daniel Roebuck playing Marv. Bullets dodged! #VultureMovieClub

You, a rube: [are impressed by special effects]

Me, a cinephile: [awed by Larry Hankin as Sergeant Balzak dropping a piece of donut on the phone receiver with pinpoint timing and accuracy]

#VultureMovieClub

Oh hey, largely unhelpful French airline employee Hope Davis! (This was only her second film appearance, after "Flatliners.") #VultureMovieClub

The facial expression that captivated a nation. Even Billy Crystal got in on the act in his Oscars monologue, the true mark of cultural impact. (Obviously it was during his "Godfather Pt. III" song parody.) #VultureMovieClub

Just a reminder to be cool, don't be like this dang NARC. #VultureMovieClub

When Roger Ebert called this movie "implausible," there's a chance he was talking about the scene where an 8-year-old kid improvises an elaborate system of ropes, pulleys, and turntables deployed with precision timing to fake a holiday party for the would-be burglars.

Revisiting the family in Paris is such a rich text. For one thing, this apartment is swanky as hell (Eiffel Tower views!). For another, the nonregulation seafoam-and-blue Christmas lights basically scream "PARIS IS NO PLACE TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS." #VultureMovieClub

Oh hey, my Little Nero's pizza boyfriend is back, this time to be terrorized by a child for no good reason. Do not treat your delivery workers this way! #VultureMovieClub

Shout out to Billie Bird and Bill Erwin as the old couple who trade their plane tickets with Kate. Bird was an old vaudeville performer who was discovered at an orphanage at age 8 (!); she played the grandma in "Sixteen Candles" and the granny cop in "Police Academy 4."

HOME ALONE is so great at showing all the weirdly banal things a kid would want to do w/o parental supervision. Jump on the bed, eat ice cream all day, stay up late to watch Johnny Carson. By far, the one that spoke to me hardest at that age was to go grocery shopping on my own.

Gonna tell my kids this was Ally Sheedy and/or Elisabeth Shue. #VultureMovieClub

You gotta wonder if Gus Polinski, Polka King of the Midwest, ever met Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago, in that great John Hughes-iverse out there. #VultureMovieClub

Catherine O'Hara is so rad in this movie, I just have to throw that in. She's not supposed to be what's funny about this movie, but she's hilarious AND the emotional center of the whole thing. A++ #VultureMovieClub

[whispers to date] That's Home Alone. #VultureMovieClub

Genuine question: did neighborhoods used to have these free-standing, non-mall-affiliated Santa huts? Do they still? Seems like a great way to conduct a sting operation of some kind. #VultureMovieClub

The church scene with Old Man Marley is so good. Grounds the movie in something human right before it goes full Looney Tunes in the final stretch. #VultureMovieClub

Same energy. #VultureMovieClub

Among Joe Pesci's dissatisfactions on the "Home Alone" set was that he couldn't curse, so he opted for the Yosemite Sam-esque mumble-fricking that Harry does whenever, say, he gets shot in the crotch with rock salt. #VultureMovieClub

Sliding into your mentions like ...

For all the elaborate, Rube Goldbergian booby traps Kevin sets for the Wet Bandits, the simplest one is easily the funniest: Harry and Marv repeatedly slipping on the icy steps. #VultureMovieClub

When he says "send feet."

And THAT'S why you make friends with accused neighborhood Shovel Slayer. #VultureMovieClub

John Candy was on set for all of 23 hours, worked for scale as a favor to John Hughes, and improvised nearly all of his dialogue, including this masterclass he and O'Hara give in the van. #VultureMovieClub

And we're crying. #VultureMovieClub

Just remember, if the emotional ending of "Home Alone" gets to you, you're in good company with both me and also George Costanza. #VultureMovieClub

"Home Alone" spent 12 weeks as the number one movie in America, eventually knocked out of the top spot in February by "Sleeping with the Enemy," and didn't exit the top 10 for good until JUNE of 1991. #VultureMovieClub

That's all, folks! I hope this was fun! Come find me at my podcast @Had_Oscar_Buzz (not named after Buzz McCallister), and come back next week for #VultureMovieClub