As the co-creator and producer with Christopher Lloyd Bratten of the “For The Record” series of live events held at the Barre VT bar in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, he has paid tribute to the films of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino. The series features performers re-enacting the most iconic dialogue exchanges of those filmmakers’ features, as well as singing and dancing their way through the greatest tunes of their oeuvre.

But Scheel has topped himself big-time with his current show, “John Hughes: Holiday Road,” which plays Wednesday through Sunday nights before closing Dec. 30.

The two-hour extravaganza features an amazingly talented six-person cast and a five-piece rock band bringing the best of Hughes’ scenes and songs to life from his ‘80s films through “Home Alone.” Whether you’re a fan of Hughes’ high school movies (“Pretty in Pink” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) or the “Vacation” series and “Planes Trains and Automobiles,” the interactive cabaret-style show is one of the most entertaining nights of music and comedy you’ll ever experience.

Scheel spoke with Big Hollywood recently about how the “For The Record” series – which next takes on Baz Luhrmann’s films including “Moulin Rouge” – came about, and why he thinks Hughes’ films continue to resonate with American film fans.

“I had been working in LA for a few years and my partner, who’s music director for the shows, had been looking for a project to do,” explains Scheel, who ironically grew up in the small town of Buhler, Kansas. “We started by taking complete soundtracks, knew a lot of really great singers and actors and decided to pull the best ones together and started these as concerts. We later decided to add quotable lines.”

The producing duo started with the films of Tarantino because his soundtracks actually included the most memorable lines from his films. As they refined their hybrid concept, they tried to create shows so strong that they would help define Los Angeles entertainment, creating a scene unique to the city.

Yet they also learned from a viewing of the failed “Sister Act: The Musical” that the balance of music and dialogue had to be just right if the shows were going to work.

“I was in London a year ago and went to see ‘Sister Act: The Musical,’” Scheel says. “As an audience member I was expecting to hear some of the songs that made the movie what it  was, redone in a very fun fresh way. When I got there it was an original score with none of the original songs from the movie, which was a little disappointing. Soundtracks are under-appreciated, but music helps tell these stories and in particular John Hughes helped launch a lot of British bands in the ‘80s through his movies.”

Scheel feels that Hughes’ enduring appeal lies in the fact that “we were all teenagers once,” yet Scheel was careful to make sure that the show was evenly divided between the high school era of Hughes’ work and the films set outside the academic scene.

“I’ve read a number of times that he gave teenagers a very clear, fresh, unapologetic voice, as real people with real problems and a real clear voice for that time period as well,” he says. “He had such great archetypes through the geek, rebel, princess, basket case and jock. We all identify with one of those and that’s where the universality of his material came from. I watched my dad with the ‘Vacation’ movies laughing and laughing, and kids have a classic in ‘Home Alone.’”

“There are universal truths in all his movies, I think we can all identify with different portions of his career,” he adds.

The show ends with a rousing, gospel-style romp through “Joy to the World,” which Hughes used in at least one of his many Christmas-set movies. Having built a long-running career in production management for many touring musicals, Scheel knew that sending people out with a burst of extra-spiritual uplift was a winning proposition and underscored the broad appeal of the show.

“I grew up in the church and know a ton of gospel songs, plus a number of our actors have strong ties to that music and one of our performers is married to a minister,” Scheel says. “Just like in Hughes’ movies, there are a couple of words you might want to tune out, but this is a show I can bring my church to.”

Scheel hopes to bring “John Hughes: Holiday Road” to Chicago and New York in the future, but for now, it can be seen at Barre VT bar, located at 1714 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles.

In other news, National Lampoon is still in business and somehow less relevant than “Saturday Night Live.”

But if I have their attention, if someone unworthy to even breathe the same air as The Mighty John Hughes and P.J. O’Rourke is reading this and has any kind of say in the film production side of their business, I’d like to offer a suggestion that might help with the credibility of their brand. Instead of naming your films, say, “National Lampoon’s Going the Distance”; title them this way: “Another Desperately Unfunny, Straight-to-Video Piece of Shit We’ve Called ‘Going the Distance.’”

You’ll sleep better. 

As a matter of fact, you might want to call your Twitter feed: “Another Desperately Unfunny Production from National Lampoon.” Really, this is the best you’ve got…?

Thanks for the Valentine’s Day love for Breitbart. Remember kids, the real laugh will come when he pays through the nose.

Andrew Breitbart’s motto: Truth, Justice, and the American way (except for blacks).

Dear Sirs: I am relevant and love the black peoples. — Andrew Breitbart

I will say this about your Twitter feed, though. I never thought I’d find one less funny than Eric Boehlert’s. But maybe that’s why a George Soros footstool has 3500 more followers than you.

*This is not a verified Twitter account, which means that either someone stole the National Lampoon handle and is seeking to denigrate the failing brand further or Twitter simply doesn’t consider the failing brand worth verifying.

A smart gambler would put his money on both.

But I was stuck at my desk at a newspaper in Los Angeles, and as I contemplated the moment I realized that, as a guy who defines big and tall (I’m 6 foot 3 and 300 pounds, but I carry it well! Or so I tell myself…), I was kind of like her “Uncle Buck.” So after making her feel better by writing that I’d bust some heads for her if I was in the same town, I asked her if she’d ever seen that John Candy/John Hughes comedy classic. To my amazement, she hadn’t, so I resolved to head down to Target and get her a copy.

It was while I was standing amid the video aisle that I remembered my own rough days as a 15-year-old suffering in an all-boys Catholic school in Little Rock, a small city I constantly yearned to get away from. And I remembered that while moping through a particularly tortuous unrequited love for a girl at the Catholic girls’ school a couple miles away, a different movie helped me feel better back then, like I wasn’t alone in the world.

That film was another John Hughes classic, “Pretty in Pink,” and in it the character of Duckie felt the awful pangs of love and rejection in such a direct and powerful way that I felt that Hughes r, had been secretly filming my life. I just couldn’t believe that a filmmaker could so thoroughly understand what I and other teens were going through.

I wrote Tina a note off my smartphone and asked her if she’d ever seen “Uncle Buck” or “Pretty in Pink.” She’d only “Ferris Bueller” out of all of Hughes’ iconic films, so I threw both those flicks in the basket and picked up “Sixteen Candles” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” to boot. I figured I’d save “Breakfast Club” until she was officially 17 so that my sister, her mom, wouldn’t shoot me for sending her an R-rated movie too early.

And so it was that a few days later, Tina wrote me to say that those movies meant the world to her too, now. She knew what it was like to pine for the perfect boy like in “Candles” and to worry about the big dance like in “Pretty,” to have a great guy friend she couldn’t get to the next level with like in “Wonderful.” And she thanked me for being her “Uncle Buck.”

I’ve written before about John Hughes and the impact he had on me and countless other teenagers back when he passed away in August 2009. And it blows my mind all over again to see how his movies still have an undeniable ability to impact young people’s lives for the better nearly 25 years after they were created.

There are plenty of other movies that speak to people in different ways, especially in the unique manner in which any moviegoer stumbles across a film that becomes an all-time favorite for them. For me as an adult, one such movie is Jim Carrey’s “Yes Man.” I know it’s not perfect, but then neither were the Hughes films in a formal critical sense.

But I saw “Yes Man” at a particularly low day of my life, while depressed on Christmas weekend two years ago because I wasn’t able to make it back home to see my family. On that day, I saw Carrey play a man – named Carl (a sign from God?!) – who was moping his way through life until he encountered a guru who made him say “Yes!” to all that life had to offer.

Soon Carrey was taking Korean classes and guitar lessons, jetting off to Lincoln, Nebraska, on a moment’s whim just to check out a place he’d never been. That joie de vivre, and can-do spirit perked me up well beyond my two hours in the theater, sparking me to treat myself to a four-day vacay in San Francisco where I took any opportunity that came up: eating the best seafood, drinking the best beer, taking the best tours and even driving for the first time in five years (I’m paranoid about driving ever since a serious accident I caused in 2003, and normally don’t).

As I’m writing this now after a day in which I experienced some disappointment, “Yes Man” showed up as available on my HBO On Demand. I clicked it on, and as I type thinking this essay about the impact a few movies had on my niece half a country away and two decades removed from their initial release, it is reviving my mood and renewing my spirit again.

It is that power of film – or any kind of art – to help us transcend our sadness and disappointments that makes me realize what a divine gift artists have. A movie or TV show or song that can raise our spirits or inspire us to greatness is a blessing from God.

Starring Keir Gilchrist (Showtime’s “United States of Tara”) as its unlikely central character, a depressed teenage boy named Craig, “Funny” follows the bittersweet dramedy that unfolds when Craig tries to check himself into the teen ward of a Brooklyn mental health clinic but accidentally winds up being placed on a five-day psychiatric lock-down in the facility’s adult wing.

—–

Craig’s problem is a broadly defined depression, a sense of melancholy towards the world around him that contradicts the seeming cheeriness of his supportive parents. Yet the mind is an inscrutable thing, and he feels the need to break out of an indefinable rut, so Craig makes the most of it even as he’s surrounded by longtime patients who have been locked away from the world for far longer than he can even imagine.

Along the way, Craig finds hope in two relationships: the friendship he finds with a dad in his late 30s named Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), and a tentative romance with a beautifully sad girl named Noelle (Emma Roberts). As they peel away the painful truths underlying their stays, Bobby must learn to lighten up a little, resulting in an affecting series of funny-sad life transformations that feel very real.

“Funny” finds plenty of offbeat humor in its setting and in the oddness of its supporting cast of patient characters. Yet it never hammers home its quest for laughs and never feels exploitative of the mentally ill, which is a big step up for most Hollywood movies.

Its trio of lead performances – from Gilchrist, Galifianakis and Roberts – also keep the tightrope of mood and propriety in place by finding just the right amount of sadness beneath their characters’ willingness to smile through the pain. Gilchrist is particularly brilliant casting, for his distinctly non-model looks make him a Hollywood rarity: an instantly identifiable teen whose awkwardness leaps off the screen from his first moment.

Roberts is just pretty enough to make a believable swoon-worthy girl without seeming unattainable, and she matches Gilchrist well in her ability to make a believable personality shift over the course of the film’s events. Yet it’s Galifianakis, in his first major role since “The Hangover,” who is both the film’s box-office hook and its shining star; as Bobby, he plays both dry sarcasm and the heartbreaking sadness of a man who’s afraid to lose custody of his daughter equally well.

Co-writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who have been building an impressive body of work with their prior indie films “Sugar” and “Half Nelson,” top themselves here by balancing extremely difficult tones with aplomb and evoking the spirit of Hughes’ best work throughout. The soundtrack by Scottish alternative band Broken Social Scene is a distinctive treat of its own, adding a propulsive joy to this tale of young spirits taking flight.

It’s particularly evocative of “The Breakfast Club,” not only in its mood but in the fact it shows that most teens are alright and not just the horndogs depicted everywhere from “American Pie” to “Gossip Girl.” Sex isn’t the main thing on these kids’ minds, but rather the attempt to live a life with happiness and meaning, and credit goes to Ned Vizzini’s eponymous 2006 novel for that.

“It’s Kind of a Funny Story” is both funny and sad in all the right places. It’s been out a few weeks already and this week marks your last chance to see it. Give it a shot.

folif

Just as Amy Heckerling’s charming and timeless “Clueless” (1995) set Jane Austen’s “Emma” in a modern-day California high school and populated it with Valley Girls, “Easy A” is a much less successful comedic attempt to update “The Scarlett Letter.” And we know this because the movie Won’t. Stop. Telling. Us. This. In fact, as though it were a theme, the desperate act of self-referentialism is a constant presence. Worse still, you would think most everyone was aware that the first rule of smart films about teen angst is to Never Reference John Hughes. But this is not a smart film.

Like a more intelligent but less-damaged Lindsay Lohan, Emma Stone brings her considerable screen presence and phone-sex voice to the character of Olive, an “invisible girl” at an Ojai, California high school. Though she’s still a virgin, in a moment of weakness Olive makes up a story about a weekend spent with a college boy to impress her less-virginal friend, Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka). The sex-tastic fable is unfortunately overheard by Marianne (Amanda Bynes), the leader of a group of mean-spirited, evangelical Jesus freaks who hate loose women and gays (but this is a Hollywood film, so therefore I repeat myself — MEMO TO GUTLESS LIBERAL FILMMAKERS: right here) and within days Invisible Girl becomes School Skank.

Most of Olive’s problems are self-inflicted, however. Both good-hearted and practical, for the price of a gift card, she starts to prostitute her reputation to help wayward boys boost their school rep through a sexual conquest. Though she refuses to actually do the deed with any of them, she does agree to confirm it happened. This slippery slope of skankery eventually takes on a life of its own and for whatever reason the filmmakers think they’re making some sort of Important Social Statement by having Olive revel in her infamy (though she does come to regret the lying). After a predictable montage involving new clothes, there’s a predictable slo-mo moment predictably set to a badass rock song where Olive predictably struts down the school hall to part the waters of teenage boys predictably gawking and teenage girls predictably sneering. Yeah, it’s one of those movies.

Just as predictably, there’s a one-dimensionally dull gay best friend, and he is just so damned wonderful and kind and decent and awesome you really start to kinda wish you were gay. Even worse are Olive’s parents. Though portrayed by two very good actors (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson), they never rise above glib and cutesy, and naturally they’re always wonderfully supportive of “their daughter’s choices,” even if it might mean a trip to the Free Clinic. Eventually both will confess to their own slutty backgrounds (including much experimentation in the awesomeness that is gayness), and you can be sure that the moral of those stories has nothing to do with calling social services to save poor Olive from the psychological scarring that normally follows parental over-share.

As a literature teacher married to guidance counselor Lisa Kudrow, only Thomas Haden Church is able to deliver the film’s sole moments of human connection and warmth. Though his dialogue is as irony-laden as everyone else’s, the actor seems determined to rebel against the film self-conscious shallowness and therefore walks away unscathed. Oddly, though, his students don’t look that much younger than him.

For a film so shamelessly desperate to be seen as the 2010 incarnation of John Hughes, the filmmakers might have considered taking the time to crack the Hughes’ code. The universal and timeless appeal of the great man’s film canon has nothing to do with slang, fashion, soundtrack or any other time capsule element. Though he had many talents, what sets him so far apart from those whose names we’ve already forgotten came from a desire to dig deep into the characterizations of familiar archetypes and below the cliche until their humanity was unearthed. Whether it was the nerd, jock, prom queen, football star, Cousin Eddie, or Ferris Bueller’s sister, Hughes never did to them what “Easy A” cruelly and lazily does to anyone who dares hold a religious belief. My lawnmower has more in common with John Hughes than “Easy A.”

Clichéd, dull, and more impressed with itself than George Clooney clutching an undeserved Oscar, “Easy A” is yet another cowardly Hollywood exercise in insufferable political correctness and Exhibit A in the ongoing study proving that while nihilism might be the societal goal of the Hollywood degenerate, as a theme it always makes for one forgettable movie.

UPDATE: Changed “Olivia to “Olive.”

And you’ll hang on nearly every word while watching the new Blu-ray release of “The Breakfast Club: The 25th Anniversary Edition.”

The story’s setting strips matters down to the bare essentials. Five disparate teens are forced to spend time together in a Saturday detention hall. Each represents a high school stereotype, from the no-account thug (Judd Nelson) to the rosy-cheeked princess (Molly Ringwald).

Naturally, they bicker from the start, but their conversations wear down each others’ defenses. They poke and prod each other verbally, their faces registering every direct hit.

Few directors can orchestrate a youthful cast quite like Hughes, who helped steer his actors to arguably their best screen work to date. Watching Judd Nelson’s performance as Bender with fresh eyes is to mourn that the actor’s follow-up work rarely matched the intensity – and pain – on display here.

Meanwhile the adult on the scene, played by the late Paul Gleason, feeds into every fear a teen might have about authority figures.

Some dialogue snippets are so rooted in the era they can’t help but collapse under the weight of those 25 years. Yes, I’m talking about “neo maxi zoom dweebie,” a putdown that hit its expiration date 24.5 years ago. And the final ten minutes attempts to reconcile some of the character friction in ways that still don’t make a lick of sense.

The Blu-ray extras will give fans more than they ever wanted to know about the film … and then some.

Several cast members, including Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall, reflect on the film’s shoot as well as its mercurial creator.

Some of the most profound comments come from people influenced by the Hughes canon. Consider director Michael Lehmann of “Heathers” fame – “John never really grew up. He knew that when you’re an adolescent the world is centered on what you’re going through.”

John Kapelos who played “Carl the Janitor,” seconds that emotion: “[John was] not too far apart emotionally from the teenagers.”

Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (“Juno”) explains why Hughes’s musical selections still matter.

“The songs themselves are not super cutting edge, but they’re used so well .. The timing is impeccable,” Cody says.

As complete as the Blu-ray presentation is, it’s hard not to wish Hughes himself would chime in on the film’s behalf. But even if he were still alive, the reclusive auteur would likely let his friends and colleagues speak for him – and the film itself.

If there was ever a need for a young actor to reinvent his image, it’s Cera – for the persona he’s been stuck in is so passive his characters barely seem to exist. He takes a big, bold and highly entertaining step in that direction with the new comedy “Youth in Revolt,” based on a novel by a writer named C.D. Payne that’s become a cult sensation since its publication in 1993 and has confounded filmmakers ever since.  

The reason why the novel has been so hard to adapt is two-fold: the book is a gigantic, 500-page tome written in the form of a journal composed by a fictional high-school student named Nick Twisp, and it’s packed with his randy sexual fantasies and frustrations. But screenwriter Gustin Nash and director Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl”) have solved the problem in astute fashion: cutting down the frequency of the sexual material resulting in a 90-minute confection that’s still risque enough to be rated-R without being overly offensive. “Youth in Revolt” stands up well against the classic canon of the late great John Hughes’ ’80s teen films. 

“Youth” follows the tale of Twisp as he expresses his frustrations with trying to lose his virginity. He’s incredibly awkward in normal teenage situations, yet has his own highly honed sense of taste with a particular fascination for French New Wave films and Frank Sinatra on vinyl. One summer weekend, while trapped with his zany cougar of a mom (a hilarious Jean Smart) and her bizarre loser boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis, the bearded bizarre loser from “The Hangover”) for a weekend at a dilapidated lake resort, he meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (Portian Doubleday in a terrifically sexy yet sweet film debut). 

Sheeni is not only hot, but shares Nick’s affinity for esoteric arts and a zesty way with the clever kind of dialogue that “Dawson’s Creek” put in vogue. They fall for each other instantly, which is completely baffling to Nick, but her fundamentalist Christian parents keep magically appearing whenever Nick is about to reach the promised land. When Nick’s mom decides to go back home abruptly, Nick’s afraid he’ll lose his chance at not only sex but true love (he immediately proposes that Sherri run away with him and start an artistic new life jet-setting around the world) – so Sherri tells him “Be bad. Be very very bad,” so that his mom will dump him off on his father (Steve Buscemi), who’s about to move to Sherri’s small town with his bimbo girlfriend.

That’s when Nick invents his alter ego, a French badass with a pretentious mustache named Francois. Much like the cartoon devils that once rested on the shoulders of Loony Tunes characters encouraging them to do the wrong thing, Francois becomes the voice of absolutely no reason at all – pushing Nick to vandalize, steal, blow stuff up, and ultimately raid Sheeni’s girls-school campus in his quest for both sex and love. 

“Youth in Revolt” packs all this and more into a fast-paced yet often touching 90 minutes, with a sterling cast that also includes Ray Liotta and comic legends’ Fred Willard and M. Emmett Walsh. Screenwriter Nash and director Arteta masterfully know when to loosen and tighten the reins in a scene, offsetting the dialogue with just the right touch of sincerity when it’s in danger of being too clever, and letting the occasionally outrageous scenarios leave just enough to the imagination.

Even Sheeni’s parents, who do fit the mold of an endearing caricature, are dealt with in short doses that keeps them from becoming offensive.

Cera rises to the challenge of his dual role, brilliantly balancing his sensitive-loser persona with the anarchic abandon dictated by Francois. Seeing him “blow up half of Berkeley” in one ingenious sequence is a delight that leaves viewers hoping he’ll continue to take chances, breaking out of his career shell with the same zest that Nick learns to break out of his personal rut.

Once again screenwriter/producer John Hughes delivers the Christmas goods, this time with  Christmas Vacation, a masterpiece of a family holiday comedy (and the third of four “Vacation” films) with so many iconic scenes and pieces of quotable dialogue that it would take less time for you to watch the movie than for me to try and list them here. It’s the simplest of stories: Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase), a Chicago family man whose enthusiasm forces him to overdo everything, wants to throw his kith and kin a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. But from the moment his parents and in-laws arrive all kinds of hell breaks loose including house fires, electrocuted cats, SWAT raids, and sewer gas explosions. 

What makes Christmas Vacation a must-see perennial (I’ve already watched it twice this season and the season’s not over) is that Hughes’s script expertly wrings every possible situation out of his concept, and first-time feature director Jeremiah Chechik does a beautiful job wrapping the whole production, even the more slapsticky and cruder moments, into an old-fashioned package that never loses the winning sincerity so crucial to the film’s success.  Not only is the look of the film much warmer than most comedies, but most impressively, Chechik controls the overall tone like a seasoned pro. 

Chevy Chase is absolutely brilliant as the Griswold patriarch whose selfless, well-intentioned plans never fail to completely unravel into mayhem and worse. Chase’s comedic timing is impeccable but he’s also a marvelous actor able to make us sympathize and take Clark’s side every step of the way. Even while we’re laughing at him and gleefully anticipating his reaction to the chaos, in the end we really do want Clark to pull it off.

Beverly D’Angelo returns as Ellen, Clark’s sexy, supportive put upon wife, and in keeping with the four-film “Vacation” tradition, the kids, Rusty and Audrey, are replaced, this time most ably by Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis. The supporting cast may not have a whole lot to do but with old pros like E.G. Marshall, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, William Hickey, Doris Roberts, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brian Doyle-Murray and Mae Questel (the original Betty Boop and Olive Oyl), their presence alone elevates every scene they’re in.

The scene stealer, however is Randy Quaid as Ellen’s chronically unemployed, mooching, blissfully un-self aware Cousin Eddie. Granted, Hughes scripted the lines, but Quaid’s performance is one for the ages. Every Cousin Eddie line is made forever quotable, and the way Quaid carries himself physically is just as hilarious. The film’s best scenes are the conversations between Clark and Eddie, and it’s a tribute to Chase’s genius as a comedian that when playing off Quaid he so easily slips into the role of straight man without ever losing a character beat.

My favorite scene, though, doesn’t involves full shitters, wild squirrels or rocket-sledding. Set to Ray Charles’ The Spirit of Christmas is that perfect John Hughes’ moment where the story takes a breath at precisely the right time to reset the film’s theme. Everyone’s gone, Clark’s alone and locked in the freezing attic dressed like his Aunt as he watches a black and white home movie of a Christmas from when he was a boy. The song, the images from the past, the wistful look on Chevy Chase’s face … they all fit together beautifully for that perfect moment when, well, it comes to an end.

A big hit when released, like any true classic, Christmas Vacation now broadcasts every year on television and is in its third or fourth DVD release. It’s also entered the popular culture whereas any overlit holiday house is immediately labelled a “Griswold Home.” If you catch me on the right day, I could rank Clark and family as high as number two on this list.

But not number one. Never number one. No number two could ever come close to my all-time numero uno pick.

Not that I have a log.

Read the full countdown here.

With an eye for physical comic comedy a Keaton or Chaplin could appreciate, Christopher Columbus does a fine job directing but this perennial holiday favorite and surprise box-office smash ($486 million domestic in today’s dollars) is through and through a John Hughes film. Not just in the sense that he produced and wrote the screenplay (which happens to be one of the best structured of the last two decades), but that his unique sensibility is all over it; from the perfect amount of sentiment to a genius understanding that no matter how big or small the role, a movie is always better for the presence of John Candy.

With all the tired, flat overlong comedies released every year (The Hangover being a recent exception), you have to appreciate the belly laughs Hughes crafts without ever letting the effort show. Honest-to-goodness bent over, feet-off-the-floor belly laughs. This too was Hughes’ genius. He understood that great comedies had to have something more than set-up/punchline — gross-out gag/filthy word — that they created a rolling laughter with one laugh built upon the other. This is why Home Alone is as funny the first time as the twentieth (not to mention Planes Trains and Automobiles, Vacation and Uncle Buck.)

Great comedy also comes from character, not just situation, and what delightful Wile E. Coyotes Harry and Marv (the perfectly cast Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) make to eight year-old Kevin’s (Macaulay Culkin in a piece of once-in-a-generation casting) Roadrunner. No matter how many times I watch, no matter that I know every beat of the story, by the time the tarantula lands on Marv’s face and he screams like a girl, I am convulsing on the floor.

And then there’s the heart, the great big beating John Hughes heart wrapping all the mayhem and silliness around the very simple theme of what it means to be family. Of course, young Kevin comes to learn this through his own experience, but the real kicker comes from the subplot with the old man next store (Robert Blossoms). You’re intentionally led to forget all about that plot thread until it hits with a real tenderness at the very last second before the credits roll. One of my favorite moments in the film sets this up beautifully. A simple scene with Kevin and the old man sitting in a church as a children’s choid sings O’ Holy Night in the background. Using rollerblades as a metaphor for what you lose if you hesitate in life isn’t as trite as it sounds.

But first last and always, Home Alone is a Christmas film. From the beautiful production design, to the exquisite score, to a perfect choice in songs, to It’s a Wonderful Life in French, you are enveloped in the richness of the season.

John Hughes not only understood America and the everyday people who make it great, he liked us and respected us. He was one of us, after all, and although he died just this past summer, the loss of  his remarkable talent was immediately felt ten years ago when he made the wise decision to leave Hollywood and return the to real world.

SIDE NOTE: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” which is essentially a remake of the first but this time set in Manhattan. The Bird Lady is no substitute for the Old Man, but the Mighty Rob Schneider and the hilariously smarmy Tim Curry more than compensate. In the past, the sequel’s been included in my countdown, somewhere in the 20s, but since it could get a good word here, it seemed the logical one to pull and replace after seeing “Remember the Night” last year for the first time. 

Read the full countdown here.

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But America’s abundance does not apply to movies about Thanksgiving.  Certainly some exist, but if you review a list of movies about Thanksgiving, the sad fact is that there are very few good ones.  Many are PC retellings of the original Thanksgiving story – one guess as to who the villains are (Hint:  It’s the dudes with buckles on their hats).  Others are tiresome melodramas about “quirky” families that reaffirm their bonds over plates of turkey, with “quirky” — meaning “annoying.” 

There simply is not a worthy list of Top Movies about Thanksgiving to be made, but there is a solid list of Eight Great Movies for Thanksgiving.  These are films that embody, in some way, what Thanksgiving really means.  You are free to disagree with the choices – as some Marines recently did regarding another list – but the freedom to think for yourself is but one of many things to be thankful for.  Maybe these movies don’t all feature turkey and trimmings – though a couple of them do – but you can’t go wrong with them this Thanksgiving Day:

1.   A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:  No, this is not a movie.  So sue me.  Anyone who grew up in the 70’s or 80’s remembers this classic cartoon version of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang’s turkey day.  But this is not just for kids.  One of the interesting things about Charles Schultz’s kid characters is how utterly mercenary and oblivious they can be, latching onto the crassest materialism and taking what they have completely for granted.  Their behavior is really awful – much like the behavior of many adults.  But leave it to good ole Charlie Brown and his quietly intelligent pal Linus to get them to focus on what’s important.  There is a reason that, even today, every kid my kids have a play date with has a DVD of this treasure on the shelf between the Dora the Explorer and the Robo-transmorphatron adventures.

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2.  Bolt:  You know, Disney sure comes in for a lot of grief – some of it deserved – but this animated story of a little girl and her loyal dog is fantastic on every level.  It’s a technical marvel – the visuals are stunning.  But it’s more than that.  The ending is a powerful evocation of a family learning to appreciate what is important.  Throughout, it’s sad, funny, and stirring, plus it carries a powerful message about bravery and sacrifice.  When Bolt refuses to leave his little girl as a building burns around them, all I could think of is how great it was to finally see a movie that honors courage without turning it into some sort of ironic joke.

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3.  The Wizard of Oz:  This is a Thanksgiving perennial on those non-communist Ted Turner networks.  This vivid fantasy is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and still kicks butt over just about everything that’s been released since.  You can even see its cultural impact in the Avatar trailer, where the grizzled Marine commander announces to his troops: “You’re not in Kansas anymore.”  There are flying monkeys, melting witches, dwarfs and/or midgets – plus a wonderful lesson about being thankful for what you have been given.   What more could you want?

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4.  The Shawshank Redemption:  This grim prison drama is included for one reason – the scene where the clever Tim Robbins makes a deal with the guards to do a hot, dirty job for them and ends up enjoying a bucket of cold Cokes on the roof with Morgan Freeman and their pals.  That scene provides some useful perspective about the meaning and value of material goods, enjoying the fruits of one’s labors, and the importance of freedom.

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5.  The Sound of Music:  Yeah, it’s a little on the sugary side.  And yeah, I have a beef with it because it gave my mother the bright idea to inflict the first name of one of the lederhosen-clad yodelers upon me.  But this is a true family film in every sense of the word – it both celebrates family and you can safely watch it with your family without having to worry that you’ll end up having to explain some manner of perversion to your five-year old.  The widower Baron von Trapp falls for the beautiful governess he hires to wrangle his Teutonic task force during the first two thirds of the film.  The last act focuses on their attempt to flee Austria after the Nazis decide to “invite” the Baron to take a commission in the German navy.  Christopher Plummer’s righteous anger as he tears down a swastika flag will thrill anyone with a love of freedom, and his composure as he faces down the young brownshirt is awesome.  The von Trapps do, of course, escape (though not necessarily to “Climb Every Mountain”) and in reality they ended up in America.  We can all be thankful that we are lucky enough to live in the place where the world’s oppressed want to be.

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6.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington:  We can be thankful both for a government where, despite all the corruption and cronyism, our voices will eventually be heard.  And we can be thankful for men like Jimmy Stewart, not only a great actor but a veteran who flew perilous bomber missions over Germany when he could have safely flown a desk.

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7.  Blackhawk Down:  Why list a war movie on a list of Thanksgiving films?  Because we should all be damn thankful that we have men (and women) out there like the Americans who fought it out against overwhelming odds in Mogadishu in October 1993.  The fierce loyalty those troops showed, braving incredible odds to rescue their comrades from the Somali militia hordes, should give us pause to reflect on the price of the great material and spiritual bounty our nation enjoys.  America didn’t just happen – it was earned.  Today, tens of thousands of Americans are overseas continuing to earn it this Thanksgiving.  And if you are so inclined, you might want to say “Thanks” with a donation to The Wounded Warrior Project.

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8.  Planes, Trains and Automobiles:  The best John Hughes “adult” movie, and possibly his best movie overall.  Steve Martin is the uptight businessman trapped in a hilarious odyssey of misfortunes with John Candy’s lovable slob as he desperately tries to make it home to his family for Thanksgiving.  It’s funny.  It’s really, really funny, as literally everything that can go wrong goes astonishingly wrong.  Cars catch fire, wallets are stolen, deer are resurrected and buns are mistaken for pillows.  But beneath it all is the kind of heart missing from so much of the soulless, cookie-cutter dreck that passes for comedy today.  The ending truly sums up the spirit of Thanksgiving and highlights the kind of generosity of spirit that comes naturally to most Americans.  And there is another thing to be thankful for – the joy that John Candy brought to all of us during his far too short life.

This year, I’m particularly thankful to be in the USA for Thanksgiving.  Whether you are home with your loved ones, or serving our country overseas, Happy Thanksgiving.