Parenthood The Rewatchables
Parenthood poster
Parenthood

What’s Aged the Best?

Joaquin Phoenix; Kanye West lyric; Keanu Reeves; overlapping young cast; thumb trick; helium grandmother; Phoenix and DiCaprio rivalry; Garry’s room; the boyfriend’s arc; Grazer nude-photo backstory; Cure poster; Kevin’s tense face; Harley Jane Kozak; money realism

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:29Read transcript
  • Joaquin Phoenix, then credited as Leaf, gives a performance that forecasts an Oscar winner, especially when his face breaks while asking his father if he can live with him.
  • One participant did not realize the actor was the boy from Parenthood until after Gladiator, when a sister pointed it out.
  • A Kanye West lyric from Gone about a new wife and “now you’re Jennifer Aniston” is said to borrow from the film’s line about a new wife and family.
  • Keanu Reeves in his pre-Speed, Bill and Ted phase is fun and owns the boyfriend role, compared with David Arquette taking it in the TV series.
  • The cast captures an era of overlapping young actors, with Reeves and River Phoenix making a Gus Van Sant film and Martha Plimpton dating River Phoenix; Plimpton is also praised.
  • Gil’s thumb trick still delights small children.
  • The grandmother inhaling helium is favored, as any helium scene is funny.
  • Per the research, there was a rivalry in which DiCaprio sought the Garry role, Phoenix got it, and the two competed for parts, with Phoenix measuring himself against DiCaprio.
  • Garry’s chaotic room is praised as a horror show compared with a real teenager’s room.
  • The boyfriend character as every parent’s nightmare who turns out decent is a favored concept.
  • The nude-photo discovery reportedly happened to producer Brian Grazer; developing such photos in the 1980s is joked about.
  • The Cure's Boys Don't Cry poster in Julie's room is appreciated.
  • Kevin’s tense face became a recurring reference in an early sports column, seen in a head coach during the Super Bowl and in LeBron James.
  • Harley Jane Kozak, also Helen in When Harry Met Sally, is appreciated as an actor who never quite broke through.
  • The film’s candid treatment of money, including Larry’s debts, Gil’s worries about private school, and summer-school pay funding a vacation, is more relatable than shows where money is no object.
  • The car sex-act gag is raised but deferred to Apex Mountain.