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
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. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
Parent comedy movies are considered, with Folks! and National Lampoon films raised. — Van Lathan
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. — Bill Simmons
For car accidents caused by oral sex, The World According to Garp is declared the winner, recalling its driveway scene to horrified reactions. — Bill Simmons
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. — Van Lathan
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
Moved forward: all the baseball scenes are poor, especially the Cardinals nostalgia montage, where research says the runner pulled a hamstring over twelve takes. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
The Leaf Phoenix credit is joked about, with a suggestion to recut a trailer touting Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix. — Bill Simmons
Larry being thrown from a limo uses an obvious stunt double, though the scene is loved.
Cool’s treatment is mentioned again as rough. — Bill Simmons
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.
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. — Bill Simmons
Larry’s dinner pitch for hydroponics is nominated as the kind of sales pitch one host loves in movies. — Bill Simmons
The principal telling Gil and his wife that Kevin needs a special school is praised as well written, though not the most rewatchable. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
The closing hospital montage is called heartwarming despite a risk of corniness. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
Brought forward from internet research: NBC ordered a Parenthood series from a rough cut, per Bill Carter in The New York Times, and the 1990 show was canceled after twelve episodes. — Bill Simmons
The 1990 series cast David Arquette and a young DiCaprio in the Garry role, part of a late-1980s wave of failed movie-based shows such as Ferris Bueller, Working Girl, Uncle Buck and Dirty Dancing. — Bill Simmons
The later Parenthood series is considered good by those who watched early seasons; Friday Night Lights is an outlier because it reworked the premise. — Bill Simmons
The Ferris Bueller TV show’s joke about a poster of Matthew Broderick playing him is recalled as hacky. — Van Lathan
The adult tape Helen finds was reportedly Blonde Goddess, a 1982 film whose opening parodied Indiana Jones. — Bill Simmons
Dianne Wiest and Mary Steenburgen were reportedly best friends who worked as waitresses together at the Magic Pan before being cast as sisters-in-law; both won Oscars. — Bill Simmons
The film is set in St. Louis but was shot in Florida, with palm trees and a Publix visible. — Chris Ryan
Bill Irwin is chosen: loved in the film but his energy is dialed up too high. — Bill Simmons
Steve Martin as the father is imagined but rejected because the role needs an actor without baggage. — Bill Simmons
Agreement follows that it is too much.
A counterpoint holds everyone is meant to be too much, with the director imagined as the nightmare wedding planner insisting on celebration. — Wesley Morris
The Jerk, Roxanne, Parenthood, Bowfinger, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are considered alternatives. — Bill Simmons
The panel asks whether Annie was a good daughter after returning engaged without warning, forcing George to solve the blender fight, and failing to say goodbye in person. — Bill Simmons
One answer is that Annie is inexperienced at twenty-two rather than a bad person. — Amanda Dobbins
The opposing answer calls her a bad daughter and insists that she should find and hug both parents before leaving. — Amanda Dobbins
An alternate ending has her get back out of the car, run across all the cars, and give George a hug. — Amanda Dobbins
The proposed ending is compared with The Graduate and My Best Friend's Wedding. — Amanda Dobbins
Father-daughter movies receive an unqualified apex verdict. — Bill Simmons
San Marino receives an emphatic yes. — Bill Simmons
Dads receive a tentative but explicit probably-not verdict. — Bill Simmons
Wedding movies receive an apex case because this film builds an entire happy story around the wedding. — Amanda Dobbins
The film is credited with helping start a 1990s wave including Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Wedding Planner, and The Wedding Singer. — Amanda Dobbins
The opening direct-to-camera monologue works despite the panel's usual skepticism about narration because Steve Martin sells the writing. — Bill Simmons
The narration lets George express fears he cannot tell his family until the end. — Bill Simmons
Annie's marriage announcement is rewatchable for Steve Martin's horrified reaction to his twenty-two-year-old daughter getting engaged. — Bill Simmons
The flashback that replaces Annie with her seven-year-old self captures a parent's inability to see a child as an adult. — Bill Simmons
Diane Keaton's growing happiness during the announcement contrasts with Martin's panic and makes the family dynamic visible. — Bill Simmons
The dialogue about Paul Simon tickets and an independent communications consultant supplies specific comic detail. — Amanda Dobbins
Brian's first meeting with George works because the son-in-law is pleasant and unthreatening enough to leave the story centered on the family. — Amanda Dobbins
Cutting the wedding list is funny because its ruthless logic includes crossing off a guest who died. — Bill Simmons
