Big (1988)

Director: Penny Marshall

Cast: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard

Have I Seen it Before: If I had to rank the top 10 VHS tapes played in my house in the years before DVD broadened all of our cinematic horizons, I’m reasonably sure this one would make the list.

Did I Like It: It’s a charmed comedy that can play just as well when I was kid than when I was middle-aged adult. The thrill of the fantasy of waking up one morning and all of the restrictions of childhood are gone might have terrified some, but it thrilled me. I was the opposite of Peter Pan, and so any world where my life had to suddenly halt in favor of a supposedly immediate need to take out the trash, or—God forbid—a world where I could be grounded was an enticing one indeed.

Now, the thought of living a world where room and board are a foregone conclusion, where a pittance of a paycheck can suddenly become a fortune, and all the communication you need with the outside world is a walkie talkie and somebody with a corresponding handset just next door does have a certain simplicity to it.

Is that the secret to the film’s longjevity? Probably, it’s hard to discount the profound well-cast Hanks in the title role. Legend has it that Robert De Niro was set to play Josh Baskin, but backed out at the last moment. That’s a pretty great endorsement for De Niro’s sense of what ought to work and what has no right working whatsoever. While David Moscow—the young Josh—might be just a hair more believable as an outer-borough kid that will eventually become De Niro, there are few—if any—actors at that point in time who would have been better suited than Hanks to play a twelve-year-old trapped in the body of an adult.

Cat People (1982)

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast: Natassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O’Toole

Have I Seen it Before: Never. I did see the original 1942 version of the film several times after recording it off of a late night airing on Turner Classic Movies, just because that’s the kind of guy I am.

I’d love to re-watch that film again. Or any other movie after all of that.

Did I Like It: No. Good God, no.

My first inclination is to not kink shame, but I really want to throw some shade Paul Schrader’s way.

I suppose there’s something akin to effective horror found in an experience that makes me feel perpetually nauseated, but that’s only barely what this movie is about. Nearly every frame of film in which Kinski appears is meant to arouse*, but if I feel—doubly so when she shares a scene with McDowell—ill in all of those instances. It misses its intended mark so completely, I’m also not entirely fathoming why a filmmaker would aim for such a target with their film, especially in what is seemingly a mainstream entertainment. Under no circumstances do I ever want to meet or have a conversation with a person who would find that interesting, or even be less perplexed about the rationale than I am. At any rate, the forthcoming Beyond the Cabin in the Woods episode on the film will be interesting**.

Also, I’m having a significant, dare I say thorough, problem imagining any sort of fictional world where men view 1980s Annette O’Toole as some sort of presence to be barely tolerated.

No kink shame, though.

*Was John Heard supposed to be a sex symbol, even in the 80s? It feels like it might be heteronormative of me to say so, but I really don’t think that was ever the case.

**I might have been the one to recommend the movie for the show, based on Roger Ebert’s appreciation for the film. I think a little less of both Ebert and myself right now. New rule: no more sight-unseen podcast recommendations from me.