Hmmm...few things here: the original script for Gremlins by Chris Columbus wasn't comedic at all - it was meant to be a very dark, violent horror movie which he wrote in response to his first film having been transformed into a toothless teen comedy. He was hoping this one would be impossible to make comedic. Enter: Dante, who saw a lot of opportunity to turn the Gremlins into almost vaudevillian creatures with many set pieces made up as they filmed, depending on what they could pull off with the puppets/animatronics. Phoebe Cates' monologue about why she hates Christmas is a remnant of the original script, because both Cates and Dante really liked it. A number of things in this movie are due to the Frankenstein nature of how it came together, and less a coherent thesis from the filmmakers.
And while any take on the movie after the fact is always fair game, I'm not sure it works to say she should have not celebrated Christmas because she's not Christian. Cates' dad died explicitly *because* her family celebrated Christmas at one time. The fact that they aren't Christian isn't the reason for celebrating it or not, it just comes down to if anyone wants to or not. (My family is not, and we do.) At one time, her parents did. Now, she doesn't because of how that turned out. It's a monologue that sticks out in an awkward way, it's true, but it's also pretty unforgettable.
As for the Gremlins representing a foreign invasion, I'm also not sure that works: Gizmo is the one who takes care of Spike in the end, he's the ultimate hero of the piece, whereas Billy and his dad are largely bumbling doofuses who cause all the town's problems because they forever must be free to act on impulse and they never even fully accept their culpability in the tragedies that follow. Gizmo (as his name even implies) and the Gremlins are closer to new technology that we are unable to use with without being destructive. It requires the progenitor of the destructive elements and the original giver of the tech to step in and take it all away.
Even though Dante never does stick to a coherent, single message in the film, overall it's hard to argue that it doesn't come down hard on the side of making fun of American capitalist culture at its core. Cates and Gizmo are the two most effective and heroic figures by the end of it, and the Gremlins are entertaining but destructive forces unleashed by our own ability to care about the consequences of our capitalist need for material things (including pets) minus responsibility.
Thank you for writing this! I had a lot of feelings rewatching Gremlins and seeing the almost immediate insanely ridiculous stereotyping that I'd not understood or really paid attention to as a child. I also couldn't decide how they really wanted us to feel about the father. Is he a ridiculous failure or a man unconcerned about keeping up with the rest of his uptight suburban neighbors? One thing is clear though, he's an irresponsible parent and an inconsiderate spouse. Does Billy work at the bank to learn how to be a more effective capitalist? There are a lot of things like this in the movie and it's hard to know how many of them are intentional, or are just cultural differences from the 80s being seen unexpectedly. The low-key sexism was about as I'd anticipated. I want to rewatch Mr. Mom and see how well that one has aged. ❤️ Gizmo is still super adorable, and nothing else matters as long as Phoebe Cates is ok.
If you've never seen Mr. Mom it would probably be even weirder but I don't know if you'd be able to tolerate it without the comforting haze of nostalgia. I think I may make my 13 year old watch it with me later. I remember laughing but I also remember being really affronted on behalf of Teri Garr's character at least once. I wasn't familiar with the concept of weaponized incompetence then either. Hopefully the plot goes beyond that. I'll report back ❤️
Ok so I'm back from watching "Mr. Mom" and wow I missed A LOT what with my being in elementary school when I watched it initially. I know I've seen it at least once or twice since then though and I must have been in my always slightly wasted period (some people call this period their twenties). John Hughes wrote the screenplay! This was Michael Keaton's first lead in a film! It's set in Detroit right at the beginning of the end of the American Dream basically. While the tropes I was expecting are mostly all present, they're done with far less cringe than I had resigned myself to seeing. That's not the same as cringe-free but it's a giant percentage of the total cringe allowance that can now be used for other things. I actually think you might enjoy watching it! Martin Mull plays Garr's boss, and Christopher Plumber is Keaton's coworker who also gets laid off. (They use furloughed in the movie). They definitely attempt to make "housework" seem both incomprehensible and frightening to men yet somehow no big deal the following day. People are smoking everywhere and no adult wears a seatbelt that I could see.
There is a scene of him doing drop-off at his son's school that showed how some things never change. 💜
We were noticing the smoking thing when we watched Gremlins and Die Hard yesterday. That's probably one of the more difficult things to replicate when making movies set in the 80s and earlier. The casual lighting up of cigarettes in airplanes and hospitals and vehicles. People did just smoke like that back in the day, but it's so easy to forget now.
I remember being irritated about not being able to smoke in bars anymore, now I try to remember what I was going to bars for. Then I remembered, no dating apps initially. Being 46 is really weird because I met my husband on okcupid but I had a fair enough amount of pre-smartphone mostly adultish years.
One of my issues with Dante as a filmmaker is his lack of any coherent viewpoint. He wants to simultaneously satirize and celebrate nostalgia and small town values and avoid any consideration of a message to his films with an "ain't I a stinker?" shrug. Small Soldiers is probably his best film and his clearest anti-corporate message, but even that has a "get with the times" old man attitude and a gleeful embrace of violence that seems to directly contradict everything else it's saying.
Can I admit I didn't much like GREMLINS, because the tone was all over the map and I think I picked up subconsciously on many of the things you talked about, Noah?
OTOH, I loved GREMLINS: THE NEW BATCH, because it was what I wanted GREMLINS to be—a feature-length Looney Tune, right down to Christopher Lee hunting Gremlins with an insanely huge assault rifle and a vampire Gremlin making the Bat-Signal as he broke out a window.
Now I have to rewatch this movie. I haven’t seen it in years. I forgot that Phoebe Cates was in it.
Speaking of Christmas movies - I put a new one on my list, a little below Die Hard. Prometheus. Fateful line: “it’s Christmas and I want to open my presents.”
Hmmm...few things here: the original script for Gremlins by Chris Columbus wasn't comedic at all - it was meant to be a very dark, violent horror movie which he wrote in response to his first film having been transformed into a toothless teen comedy. He was hoping this one would be impossible to make comedic. Enter: Dante, who saw a lot of opportunity to turn the Gremlins into almost vaudevillian creatures with many set pieces made up as they filmed, depending on what they could pull off with the puppets/animatronics. Phoebe Cates' monologue about why she hates Christmas is a remnant of the original script, because both Cates and Dante really liked it. A number of things in this movie are due to the Frankenstein nature of how it came together, and less a coherent thesis from the filmmakers.
And while any take on the movie after the fact is always fair game, I'm not sure it works to say she should have not celebrated Christmas because she's not Christian. Cates' dad died explicitly *because* her family celebrated Christmas at one time. The fact that they aren't Christian isn't the reason for celebrating it or not, it just comes down to if anyone wants to or not. (My family is not, and we do.) At one time, her parents did. Now, she doesn't because of how that turned out. It's a monologue that sticks out in an awkward way, it's true, but it's also pretty unforgettable.
As for the Gremlins representing a foreign invasion, I'm also not sure that works: Gizmo is the one who takes care of Spike in the end, he's the ultimate hero of the piece, whereas Billy and his dad are largely bumbling doofuses who cause all the town's problems because they forever must be free to act on impulse and they never even fully accept their culpability in the tragedies that follow. Gizmo (as his name even implies) and the Gremlins are closer to new technology that we are unable to use with without being destructive. It requires the progenitor of the destructive elements and the original giver of the tech to step in and take it all away.
Even though Dante never does stick to a coherent, single message in the film, overall it's hard to argue that it doesn't come down hard on the side of making fun of American capitalist culture at its core. Cates and Gizmo are the two most effective and heroic figures by the end of it, and the Gremlins are entertaining but destructive forces unleashed by our own ability to care about the consequences of our capitalist need for material things (including pets) minus responsibility.
it's making fun...but it's also celebrating genocidal violence against the foreign invader. imo.
These reviews of Christmas movies are fantastic! Thank you.
Long goodbye and love actually still to go!
Haaaaate “Love Actually” so really looking forward to that one!
Thank you for writing this! I had a lot of feelings rewatching Gremlins and seeing the almost immediate insanely ridiculous stereotyping that I'd not understood or really paid attention to as a child. I also couldn't decide how they really wanted us to feel about the father. Is he a ridiculous failure or a man unconcerned about keeping up with the rest of his uptight suburban neighbors? One thing is clear though, he's an irresponsible parent and an inconsiderate spouse. Does Billy work at the bank to learn how to be a more effective capitalist? There are a lot of things like this in the movie and it's hard to know how many of them are intentional, or are just cultural differences from the 80s being seen unexpectedly. The low-key sexism was about as I'd anticipated. I want to rewatch Mr. Mom and see how well that one has aged. ❤️ Gizmo is still super adorable, and nothing else matters as long as Phoebe Cates is ok.
I don't think I ever saw Mr. Mom! there's a lot of those 80s/90s comedies I missed...
If you've never seen Mr. Mom it would probably be even weirder but I don't know if you'd be able to tolerate it without the comforting haze of nostalgia. I think I may make my 13 year old watch it with me later. I remember laughing but I also remember being really affronted on behalf of Teri Garr's character at least once. I wasn't familiar with the concept of weaponized incompetence then either. Hopefully the plot goes beyond that. I'll report back ❤️
Ok so I'm back from watching "Mr. Mom" and wow I missed A LOT what with my being in elementary school when I watched it initially. I know I've seen it at least once or twice since then though and I must have been in my always slightly wasted period (some people call this period their twenties). John Hughes wrote the screenplay! This was Michael Keaton's first lead in a film! It's set in Detroit right at the beginning of the end of the American Dream basically. While the tropes I was expecting are mostly all present, they're done with far less cringe than I had resigned myself to seeing. That's not the same as cringe-free but it's a giant percentage of the total cringe allowance that can now be used for other things. I actually think you might enjoy watching it! Martin Mull plays Garr's boss, and Christopher Plumber is Keaton's coworker who also gets laid off. (They use furloughed in the movie). They definitely attempt to make "housework" seem both incomprehensible and frightening to men yet somehow no big deal the following day. People are smoking everywhere and no adult wears a seatbelt that I could see.
There is a scene of him doing drop-off at his son's school that showed how some things never change. 💜
We were noticing the smoking thing when we watched Gremlins and Die Hard yesterday. That's probably one of the more difficult things to replicate when making movies set in the 80s and earlier. The casual lighting up of cigarettes in airplanes and hospitals and vehicles. People did just smoke like that back in the day, but it's so easy to forget now.
I remember being irritated about not being able to smoke in bars anymore, now I try to remember what I was going to bars for. Then I remembered, no dating apps initially. Being 46 is really weird because I met my husband on okcupid but I had a fair enough amount of pre-smartphone mostly adultish years.
One of my issues with Dante as a filmmaker is his lack of any coherent viewpoint. He wants to simultaneously satirize and celebrate nostalgia and small town values and avoid any consideration of a message to his films with an "ain't I a stinker?" shrug. Small Soldiers is probably his best film and his clearest anti-corporate message, but even that has a "get with the times" old man attitude and a gleeful embrace of violence that seems to directly contradict everything else it's saying.
That’s fair. I like him quite a bit, but he wants to have his critique and eat it too…a common dilemma for ppl working in mainstream film.
I can never decide if that's Joe Dante...or Steven Spielberg imposing that satirize/celebrate Americana mindset on Joe Dante.
The "Ain't I a stinker?" part is all Dante, though—he had that attitude when back he worked for Roger Corman.
Can I admit I didn't much like GREMLINS, because the tone was all over the map and I think I picked up subconsciously on many of the things you talked about, Noah?
OTOH, I loved GREMLINS: THE NEW BATCH, because it was what I wanted GREMLINS to be—a feature-length Looney Tune, right down to Christopher Lee hunting Gremlins with an insanely huge assault rifle and a vampire Gremlin making the Bat-Signal as he broke out a window.
This media criticism is god-tier. It's why I subscribed in the first place, and one of the main reasons I keep coming back.
thanks! that's very kind.
I have a ton of movie reviews in drafts; probably be publishing them as we head for the new year...
Looking forward to it!
Now I have to rewatch this movie. I haven’t seen it in years. I forgot that Phoebe Cates was in it.
Speaking of Christmas movies - I put a new one on my list, a little below Die Hard. Prometheus. Fateful line: “it’s Christmas and I want to open my presents.”