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Parenthood poster

Parenthood

year 1989decade 80sdirector Ron Howardgenre Comedygenre Drama

124 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Steve Martin Gil Buckman
Mary Steenburgen Karen Buckman
Dianne Wiest Helen Buckman Lampkin Bowman
Jason Robards Frank Buckman
Rick Moranis Nathan Huffner
Tom Hulce Larry Buckman
Martha Plimpton Julie Buckman-Lampkin Higgins
Keanu Reeves Tod Higgins
Joaquin Phoenix Garry Buckman-Lampkin (credited as Leaf Phoenix)
Harley Jane Kozak Susan Buckman
Dennis Dugan David Brodsky
Helen Shaw Grandma
Jasen Fisher Kevin Buckman

Parenthood | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Van Lathanproducer Craig Horlbeck theme F’ed Up Family February
Explore episodeClose episode

Most Rewatchable Scene

Robards’s end-zone speech into the Little League catch and dance

In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:06Read transcript
  • The opening minivan chaos, with children piling out, a small naked boy wearing a holster and a daughter throwing up, is nominated as capturing life with young kids.
  • Larry’s dinner pitch for hydroponics is nominated as the kind of sales pitch one host loves in movies.
  • The principal telling Gil and his wife that Kevin needs a special school is praised as well written, though not the most rewatchable.
  • The birthday party sequence is favored for Cowboy Gil, the boy banging his pail-covered head into the wall, the grandmother on helium, and the stripper mix-up at the lodge.
  • Helen discovering Garry’s tape, Keanu Reeves’s character explaining Garry’s masturbation, and the grandmother asking what channel it is are nominated.
  • Gil and his wife searching the garbage for a retainer, with Gil reflecting that children are perfect until they grow up to be like him, is a smaller nomination.
  • Robards’s father character seeking Gil’s advice with the no-end-zone speech leads into the Little League game; that stretch is declared a winner and favorite part of the movie.
  • The Little League dance is called perhaps the best moment of Steve Martin’s career for his physical comedy; he first taunts Clint Howard’s character, and his wife’s perspective contrasts his intensity.
  • The grandmother’s roller-coaster speech works because it is corny and the characters are dismissive before its meaning lands.
  • The closing hospital montage is called heartwarming despite a risk of corniness.
  • The first choice is Dianne Wiest reviewing the photographs Julie and her boyfriend took, balancing concern, fury and admiration, with favorite lines about the vibrator and Garry. — Van Lathan
  • Two more choices follow: Larry’s confrontation with his father, where their father favors Larry because Larry absorbed his philosophy while Gil rejected it, and the vibrator scene. — Van Lathan
  • Given the choice between the photographs and the Little League game, the second baseball game is chosen because of Robards and Martin. — Chris Ryan
  • Another participant says the second baseball game is also their choice.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Baseball scenes; boyfriend’s racing subplot; rosy final act; Kevin’s school handling; tower-shooting fantasy and bomb-threat joke; Leaf Phoenix credit; limo stunt double; Cool’s treatment; Larry’s gambling talk; Martin as a 35-year-old

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:13Read transcript
  • Moved forward: all the baseball scenes are poor, especially the Cardinals nostalgia montage, where research says the runner pulled a hamstring over twelve takes.
  • Beyond the baseball scenes, the boyfriend’s shoehorned racing career and crash, after which he walks away and gets a job, is called the worst part of the movie.
  • The last twenty minutes are too rosy; the writers needed a closer like Rivera or Bill Goldman, as with City Slickers; killing the grandmother could have supplied a funeral, though ending with a birth may be why it is rewatchable.
  • The school ambushing the parents with a therapist and effectively expelling Kevin would not happen now and seemed extreme even then; Kevin’s portrayal would spark lengthy online backlash today.
  • Kevin’s tower-shooting fantasy and a throwaway joke about a school bomb threat have aged badly, part of a 1980s motif also seen in Full Metal Jacket.
  • The Leaf Phoenix credit is joked about, with a suggestion to recut a trailer touting Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix.
  • Larry being thrown from a limo uses an obvious stunt double, though the scene is loved.
  • Cool’s treatment is mentioned again as rough.
  • Larry’s gambling dialogue lacks sports-betting fluency despite Tom Hulce’s greatness in Amadeus; late-1980s films did not know gambling language, with Pete Rose and a later 90210 gambling plotline recalled.
  • Steve Martin not looking 35 is added as a final item.

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.

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:58Read transcript
  • Keanu may be ineligible for having too many scenes; Clint Howard and the grandmother are nominees until Dennis Dugan as Gil’s boss is nominated and called the winner.
  • Dugan’s boss exercises in business clothes during work hours, talks down to Gil, and lights a cigarette as soon as he steps off the machine.
  • The research segment later says Helen Shaw’s grandmother lost the award to Dennis Dugan.

Apex Mountain

Steve Martin in 1979; Parenthood for Mary Steenburgen, tentative; A Beautiful Mind or Apollo 13 for Ron Howard as director; Happy Days free-throw scene for Ron Howard as actor; Harley Jane Kozak; the Ford convertible; Randy Newman; Amadeus for Tom Hulce; City Slickers for the screenwriters; The Bad News Bears films for Little League scenes; The World According to Garp; the Pam and Tommy Lee tape

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 01:20:19Read transcript
  • Steve Martin’s Apex was previously assigned through Father of the Bride; the real peak is 1979 with Saturday Night Live guest-hosting, The Jerk, comedy albums and arena stand-up, prompting mock objections for Shopgirl and HouseSitter.
  • Mary Steenburgen’s Apex might be this film rather than the Howard Hughes movie, and her character is linked to Randy Newman’s song.
  • Ron Howard’s directing Apex is argued as A Beautiful Mind because it won him the Oscar; Apollo 13 is offered as the alternative.
  • Apollo 13 is favored for Ron Howard’s directing Apex, described as a mainstream rather than unusual view. — Chris Ryan
  • Ron Howard’s acting Apex is the Happy Days scene where Richie misses a game-winning free throw and his father offers a candy bar.
  • Harley Jane Kozak is definitely at Apex here, as is the Ford deluxe convertible.
  • Randy Newman is a yes for the Oscar-nominated song and the era when I Love L.A. became a Lakers staple; a fan argues he had several peaks, Toy Story is attributed to Craig, and The Natural score is noted, while another host resents him for the Lakers and Dodgers.
  • Parent comedy movies are considered, with Folks! and National Lampoon films raised.
  • Tom Hulce’s Apex is Amadeus, which predates this film.
  • City Slickers is the Apex for the film’s two screenwriters.
  • For feel-good Little League scenes the answer is not Parenthood but The Bad News Bears and Breaking Training, with Hardball and Rookie of the Year also raised.
  • A fan theory imagines the Hardball coach as Keanu’s Parenthood character after moving to Chicago and picking up gambling from Larry.
  • Parenthood is called up there for funny great-grandmother characters, which are hard to pull off.
  • For car accidents caused by oral sex, The World According to Garp is declared the winner, recalling its driveway scene to horrified reactions.
  • This film is not the road-head peak; the answer is the Pam and Tommy Lee tape, with a story about ordering it by phone before the internet.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:36:34Read transcript
  • Dianne Wiest is proposed over the obvious choices of the director or the lead star because she is funny and heartbreaking in every scene despite less screen time, and she was Oscar-nominated for the role.
  • Mary Steenburgen is praised as grounded and for breaking out of a thankless wife role, without being named as a pick.
  • Ron Howard gets a vote because the film followed the Willow flop and three comedies and proved he was a real director, opening thirty years of work.
  • Steve Martin gets a vote while conceding Wiest is best in the film, because the role shows his full range from Cowboy Gil to scenes with Robards; another participant agrees he shows all five tools.
Podcast choices
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Dianne Wiest
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Ron Howard
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Steve Martin