What's that you say? DIRTY DANCING is a Mom Movie?We are here to tell you that not only is it a Dad Movie, it is the DADDEST MOVIE. And if you disagree, you can go jump in a lake. With Patrick Swayze. And Jennifer Grey. Which sounds cold. But hella sexy. This movie rules and if you have kids and don't cry watching Jerry Orbach do Jerry Orbach things, I don't want to know from you. Emile Ardolino directs us back to 1963 via 1987's DIRTY DANCING.
Dads take a lot of heat, and deservedly so: Life in a patriarchy means that much of this society is a direct reflection of generations of Dads - we have FOUNDING FATHERS for chrissakes - so everything, good and bad (and let's face it, the scales are tipping the wrong way) must be laid at our feet. And yet: We will do anything for our kids. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Especially if it involves driving a bulldozer into a gun store. Arnold! Rae Dawn Chong! The kid from Who's The Boss?&n...
RIP to the magnificent Teri Garr, perhaps one of the patron (matron?) saints of Dad movies. No one was realer, funnier, or more fully and charmingly human. She and Michael Keaton make a pretty good meal out of these ingredients; it's pretty clear why the Oscar noms wait in the offing. Listen, Michael Keaton is having a moment, and deservedly so; but let's not let this year pass without memorializing the great Teri Garr. Dads, Moms, liberals, conservatives, cats, dogs - maybe the last thi...
CUE THE VIOLINS!And Happy Halloween from the Dads; enjoy our long shower with Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 slashsterpiece PSYCHO.
Elevator pitch: I'd like to take a 19th century French melodrama and update it, eliminating the graphic violence and changing the famously heartbreaking ending. Also, we should set it in a small town full of horny old ladies.Studio Executive: Ok, here's a ton of money.Only one person can land that pitch: Total Dad favorite and comic dilettante Steve Martin.Fred Schepisi directs Martin, Daryl Hannah, Shelley Winters, Fred Willard, and a right jolly cast of gentle weirdos through this Dad-candy...
Confession: at the grocery store with my family, I will often and without warning turn suddenly a full 360 degrees in either direction while exclaiming "Crazy Ivan!" Let no one say this movie doesn't have a lasting impact.Baldwin! Connery! Glenn! Neill! Curry! Vance! Skarsgard! and James Earl Jones (RIP)! Who doesn't love a submarine movie? NOT DADS, that's who! John McTiernan helms this Cold War cold water epic, 1990's THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
LEEEEEEEEET THE RIVER RUUUUUUUUUUUUN...(NGL, that songs rips)A Dad Movie? About a lady? Yeah, dummy, it's 2024. (OK fine, Harrison Ford was probably our hook at the time, but now... well, he still kicks ass in this flick) ALSO: Sigourney Weaver! Melanie Griffith! Joan MFing Cusack! Olympia MFing Dukakis! Oliver Platt! (and yeah, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey, too). This movie aged better than you probably think it did, and it's not even leath-uh.Mike Nichols directs the crap out of 1988'...
Before Vince Vaughn was America's doughy best friend and Jon Favreau was launching Iron Man and the Mandalorian (that guy loves armor, huh?), these two babyfaces shot a shoestring comedy that captures the brief moment in America when chain wallets, indoor smoking, and swing dancing were not just tolerated but were emblematic of a lifestyle that can only be called "money". Ask your dad about it; he's probably got a non-ironic fedora in the back of his closet somewhere. Vegas, baby, Vegas!...
Get busy Daddin', or get busy podcastin'.Carve your names into the eaves with the Dads as we attempt to break free from Frank Darabont's Steven King adaptation par excellence (featuring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, and the voice of Mr. Krabs), 1994's THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.
Wait, Sidney Poitier directed this?Huh.Ok, then.Pryor. Wilder. Poitier. Every Dad is born having seen this movie. It combines everything Dads know about the criminal justice system with everything Dads know about the rodeo. It's why your Dad is neither a lawyer nor a cowboy. Get your chicken costumes out because we're watching the comedy smash of 1980: STIR CRAZY.
This movie features an all-time complicated Dad (John Mahoney), and is helmed by the wunderkind (Cameron Crowe) that launched a string of Dad movies, so you can-Hang on; just give me a second?(Goes to window; opens it)"It's after 2:00 am; goodnight, Lloyd."(Closes window)Sorry. That kid is out here every night blasting his Peter Gabriel. Which is fine, but sometimes you want to hear "Family Snapshot" instead. Anyway, enjoy 1989's SAY ANYTHING.
An odd companion piece to last week's episode (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) featuring another aspect of human existence (this week: ASD, last week: trans awareness) that in 2024 we have a vastly more informed cultural relationship to than we did at the time of these movies' respective releases. AND YET, I think it's fair to say that our deepened understanding of these communities owes something (good or bad, or likely, a combo platter therein) to these films made on the cusp of the 90s. Dus...
Hannibal Lecter has been in the news recently for reasons both dumb and stupid. But Anthony Hopkins' performance is anything but - the only thing scarier than this film is the prospect of another four years of [REDACTED].Speaking of presidential trauma, Jodie Foster is equally incredible in this flick. Dads love Jodie Foster, because her movies are always real good but not so good that you can't eat popcorn during them, you know what I mean? Howard Shore and Jonathan Demme just nail their ass...
America has had a lot of Dads. The good (Michael Landon, Barack Obama), the bad (Bill Cosby, Alec Baldwin), and the confusingly discordant (RIP Bob Saget/Danny Tanner). But we submit here that America's greatest Dad is almost never pictured with an actual son or daughter, yet nonetheless appears in many films as a distant-yet-deeply-caring-dispenser-of-hard-truths-and-earned-wisdom. If that don't make Tommy Lee Jones a Dad, I don't know what does.The Dads are present for the birth of Blockbus...
Inside each of us is three Dads...(I've made this joke already, but c'mon)You've got a Guttenberg - sensitive and clueless.You've got a Danson - dashing and egomaniacal.You've got a Selleck - rugged and protective.These Dads are engaged in a relentless battle for dominance within you. When you suddenly have a baby (and I sincerely hope none of you ever receive a baby in the manner that the titular baby is delivered in this film), you will recognize these Dads as they rise and fall with your c...
GET TO THE CHOPPAH!(Dads love a good Arnold impression)The Dads turn on their thermal vision to dissect the film that launched the handshake that launched a thousand memes. Schwarzenegger. Weathers. Ventura. Van Damme (in absentia). And a bunch of vaguely problematic Dad stereotypes that somehow age like fine wine. It's John McTiernan's horror-action-war movie mashupsterpiece PREDATOR!
Listen, the Dads make no secret of our political leanings: would we would prefer this country and its institutions be run by women of color? LIKELY. Is this a topical issue at the moment? PERHAPS. Are we feeling (cautiously) hopeful right now? MAYBE. Did we want to honor this unprecedented time in American history by talking about a film wherein Black women do the near-impossible? YOU BET YOUR BUNS, JUNIOR.Up next: the best thing about 2016, Theodore Melfi's biopic of Katherine Johnson,...
Inside every one of us are two Dads, fighting for supremacy.One looks like Jack Cates.One looks like Reggie Hammond.Do I have to tell you which one to listen to?The Dads carefully dissect the not-at-all problematic and hugely influential "buddy" cop comedy from 1982 (featuring the breakout performance from Eddie Murphy), Walter Hill's 48 HOURS.
Sometimes - maybe most of the time? - we don't fully appreciate our Dads until we've had a chance to reflect on them. Their tiny brilliances, their hidden diamond facets behind their seemingly-workaday veneer...these can sometimes go unremarked upon until one day you look up and realize OH SHIT MY DAD IS THE BEST COMEDY OF THE 80S. Am I conflating Dads and MIDNIGHT RUN? Possibly. But with so many Dads to choose from (DeNiro's scruffy-but-noble Dad, Grodin's manipulative-but-noble Dad, As...
True story: My Dad purchased a bunch of tvs from an electronics store. He was informed that he would receive a discount if he signed up for their in-house credit card. So he (of course) proceeded to do so under a fake name because everyone knows that LAWS DO NOT APPLY TO DADS. When asked for his name for the card he said: "Bond. Fenimore Bond."I think he still has the card, although the store has since gone out of business.(Someone please check the statute of limitations re: fraud charg...