R.I.P. Catherine O'Hara

I was going to write about a movie I recently watched, but a very unfortunate thing happened as I was driving home this afternoon. I got a new update on my phone and checked when I got to a stoplight. I read that Catherine O'Hara had passed away at 71.

I was shocked. I didn't want to believe it at first. I thought that it may have been some misinformation that got wrongly released. I truly did not want this news to be true. Unfortunately it is true. Catherine O'Hara has died at 71 years old. She was too young and still had so much more work left to do. No reason for death has been made public, but the stuff I have read said that she had a brief illness. I am stunned.

O'Hara has literally been on my tv and movie screens since I was a kid. "Home Alone" was the first movie I can remember watching dozens of times. It was my favorite movie for a long, long time. "Home Alone" came out in 1990. I was 8. That was the start of my love for movies. O'Hara was the second lead, at least in my opinion, of that movie. She is the mom hell bent on getting back to her son. As a kid I sided with Kevin, as an adult and parent, O'Hara's foible and persistence to get back home hits so much harder. And again, I was 8 when I first saw that movie. She was in the next two "Home Alone" movies, which I obviously watched. But it wasn't until I was about 15 or 16 when my brother, RD, showed me the movie "Waiting For Guffman". Again, O'Hara has a memorable and major role in this movie, but this was also my first Christopher Guest movie. I began to heavily follow Guest's work after "Waiting For Guffman". This also meant that I was going to see a ton more Catherine O'Hara. Guest and O'Hara worked a bunch together after "Guffman". In "Guffman" she and Fred Willard are a hilarious couple who think they are the biggest actors in a small town in Missouri. It's a shame that both of them have now passed. After "Guffman" she did "Best In Show" with Guest. This is probably my favorite role of hers. She is so funny and gets to do her thing in this movie. I loved her limp, her backstory and the relationship she had with Eugene Levy in this movie. She is the star of this movie. She carried it, and this is a great movie with a wonderful cast. O'Hara steals the show and every time I go back and watch I find something new she does that cracks me up. In a break from Guest's work, she was in the very underrated comedy "Orange County", playing Colin Hanks' mom. She's great as the absent minded divorcee that is just trying to keep her youngest son home with her. In 2003 she returned to work with Guest in "A Mighty Wind". I mean, right next to "Best In Show", this is a powerhouse performance. She gets paired up with Levy again, but this time it is a totally different dynamic and O'Hara is more than up to the task. Her voice is also beautiful and I love when she sings in the movie. For three years she did a whole bunch of voice work before teaming up with Guest again in "For Your Consideration". I like this movie, regardless of what the critics said about it. The work she did with Guest was my favorite work of hers and she was always up for each and every job. I would be remiss if I didn't mention her work in "Beetlejuice". This is a great performance that was a joy to watch. I loved her work in a comedy/horror type movie. Her style was rad as well. And when they sang "Day-O", her mannerisms and facial acting was simply divine. She nailed it yet again in the sequel, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" She and Winona Ryder were such a great mother daughter duo in those movies. She was tremendous in her one episode of "Curb your Enthusiasm". She is the crazy Funkhouser and boy oh boy does she put on an absolute show. She is great as the "mom" in "Where the Wild Things Are".

Then, as a full fledged adult with a wife, kid and a house, I found "Schitt's Creek". I mean come on, Moira Rose is an all time character. This is one of those roles that will go down in history. The voice she used was perfect. Her performance was perfect. She was paired up with Eugene Levy again and the two of them continued to make magic. "Schitt's Creek" is a show that everyone needs to watch and O'Hara's performance is one for the ages. Since then she has continued to do voiceover stuff and, from what I have read, I have not seen either yet, she was tremendous in season two of "The Last of Us" and in the first season of "The Studio". This should show everyone how beloved and what a joy she was to work with.

Catherine O'Hara is one of a kind. She had her own comedy dynamic and she was unique. I'm still kind of in shock that she is gone. Like I said up top, I have been watching her content since I was 8 years old. That is 35 plus years now. I'm going to miss her and anything new she may have been working on. At least I have "Home Alone", her movies with Christopher Guest and "Schitt's Creek" to look back on.

Rest In Peace Catherine O'Hara. I hope you are making people laugh wherever you may be right now. I'm going to miss you. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Uncle Frank in "Home Alone" is the Worst

Yesterday we watched "Home Alone" with our kids. This has become our thing for the past couple of years around our house, and I assume many other houses with younger kids. My son ate it up last year. He loved it. He was quoting it, asking questions, and watched it a few more times, it was great. My daughter turned six in October so we decided she was ready to watch. She watches all kinds of shows with us anyway, so we figured last night was as good a time as any to show her "Home Alone". She was not as much into the movie as my son, but she still found it funny, especially when Kevin gets the Wet Bandits, and she said she liked it. I was relieved. My wife and I were pleased with the results, so we are going to watch the new one, "Home Sweet Home Alone" tonight.

What I want to talk about today is who I think the real villain of the original movie truly is. I am sure other people have had this thought, but I stumbled upon it last night, I have a platform and I want to tell everyone why I think Uncle Frank, played by Gerry Bamman, is the true bad guy in this movie. I understand he is not in as many scenes as other actors, that he only has a few lines and that he was just portraying what many people considered to be the "mean uncle", but this guy was a total dickhead. All props to Bamman for making me feel this way. I did not know who he was when I was a kid, but I disliked Uncle Frank then, and 31 years later I still dislike Uncle Frank. Bamman has been in many movies and TV shows, but after looking at his credits, "Home Alone" has to be his most memorable.

The reason this all started for me, why I think he is the villain is right at the start of the movie. When the McAllister's house is going crazy before dinner, and all the kids are making noise, when the pizza guy shows up and when they finally sit down to dinner, it is Uncle Frank who calls Kevin a jerk. In front of the entire family. As we all know, Kevin loves his cheese pizza. He is understandably upset when it is revealed that there is no more cheese pizza. Sure he acts about it like a baby, but he is eight years old. We all acted like babies when we were 8. So when Kevin decides he is going to stand up for himself, he knocks Buzz over and spills milk and soda everywhere. It is a humongous mess. During the cleanup process this is when Uncle Frank looks Kevin directly in the eyes, again in front of the whole family, and exclaims, "Look what you've done you big jerk". I was astounded. My wife said that if any of our kids' Uncle's said that to them she would ask the kids to leave the room so she could "take care of business". No one says a word to Frank. It is almost like they are afraid of him. Maybe he has some secrets about the family that no one wants to be revealed. You know, like a villain would have.

Uncle Frank only gets worse from here. When they leave in the morning he only cares about himself, and the fact that he may miss his flight to Paris. He is constantly fighting with his brother, and is always pessimistic. When they get on the plane, they make it on time by the way Frank doesn't give his brother credit or thanks the drivers of the vans, he is too excited to get his free champagne and take his seat in first class. He then goads his wife into taking the silverware from the plane. He then makes the flight attendant fill his champagne glass all the way to the top very rudely, and he doesn't thank her either. When Kevin's mom realizes that they left Kevin at home, Frank tries to make her feel better by saying he left his reading glasses at a hotel room or some shit. He is comparing his glasses to her son. What a dick. And when they get to France, and everyone has a job to try and track Kevin down, he is too busy raiding the refrigerator in the hotel and handing out snacks to everyone. I mean, it is clear he could give a shit about Kevin, or his kids or his brother and his wife or anyone but himself.

I get it that there are the Wet Bandits, and that they are criminals, but they have a job that they are doing. And they get their comeuppance. The Old Man is painted as a villain at first, but he is an okay dude. And he saves Kevin. The police are incompetent, much like real life, throughout this whole movie. The police are always a villain. Even the shop boy that chases Kevin is simply doing his job. And Kevin did steal a toothbrush. But Uncle Frank, he is just a rotten dude through and through. He only cares about himself. He only cares about what will benefit him. He only wants material things. He tries to make every situation involve himself somehow.

Uncle Frank stinks. He is the bad guy. He is the meanest person in this movie. My mind is made up and will not be changed. Uncle Frank is the jerk. Not Kevin. Uncle Frank is the true villain of "Home Alone".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Advent Calendar of Great Holiday Movies: Day 22 "Home Alone"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a great movie associated with the holiday season. Many will be awesome, some will be extra awesome. Enjoy.

Day 22: “Home Alone”

Opened Doors: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21

The final few days before Christmas can get quite hectic. Now imagine you are planning to take your whole family overseas for a fabulous holiday getaway. The normal hectic becomes an uncontrollable kind of hectic. You have to navigate through your massive suburban home, your spouse is not helping, and a few of your kids are being annoying jerks as you make sure everyone is packed and ready to go. Sounds dreadful, right? Well it becomes a whole lot worse when half way over the Atlantic Ocean you realize that one of your kids was left in your sprawling house all alone for Christmas.

Released in November of 1990, “Home Alone” came out of the gate and was instantly a holiday classic. It made a young Macaulay Culkin a star, Joe Pesci and Daniel Heard created the modern template for comedic bumbling criminals, and it made us all cry when the old man was reunited with his wife. The elaborate traps set by Kevin were ingenious and gruesome at the same time (what would really happen with those traps?) The entire Tom and Jerry nature of the back half of the film is glorious. Yet the most important thing we all learned from “Home Alone” is that a mother that forgets her child is really not that bad of mom.

Watch Catherine O’Hara’s performance as mother Kate McCallister in “Home Alone” and wonder why the excellent actress has not won an Academy Award yet. O’Hara takes a thankless role, one of a mother who leaves her young child home alone as she gallivants off to Paris, and makes the audience sympathize with her struggle to get back to her helpless child. Along the way Kate runs into many obstacles, but it is the angel like John Candy who reminds the distraught mom that kids are resilient, hell he left one in a mortuary one time so how bad could Kate’s son be? In the end Kate, alone herself, makes back by Christmas Day to be with her ingenious, and maybe psychotic, son. In the end Kevin had an adventure, learned a lesson, and Kate went from being the worst mom, moved heaven and earth, and become an adequate mom, With that a holiday classic film was brought into the pop culture.

The weekend before Christmas is one of most hectic times of the entire holiday season. The shopping malls are like a thunder dome, the airports are filled with self centered mobs, and our own homes devolve into chaos due to uncooperative spouses and children. Things tend to get forgotten. But if the thing forgotten is your genius, semi-psychopathic, child, the power of a mother’s love will always save the season. Also, a polka playing John Candy is always a welcome helper on the way back home.

RD

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. What is better than being home alone and stopping inept criminals for Christmas? Listen to Patton Oswalt destroy the terrible song “The Christmas Shoes”.

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