MA-LI-BU BAR-BIE!
It’s already the end of November, but we had a wild ride this month discussing the dream-like pastel world of Jennifer Reeder’s women-centric Knives and Skin and the 25th-anniversary fascist machismo world of Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. Then last week we made our second foray into animated fare (after ParaNorman) with Satoshi Kon‘s stunning first film, Perfect Blue. This week, in celebration of Thanksgiving and Netflix’s release of Wednesday (review), we’re visiting the Addamses in Barry Sonnenfeld‘s better-than-the-original sequel Addams Family Values (1993)!
In the film, Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) celebrate the birth of their child Pubert (Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper), while black widow serial killer Debbie Jellinsky (Joan Cusack) marries Fester Addams (Christopher Lloyd) with the intent to murder him for his inheritance. Plus, teenagers Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are sent to a summer camp for privileged young adults and butt heads with the camp counselors (Christine Baranski and Peter MacNicol)
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Episode 205: Addam Family Values (1993)
Make sure you’ve got a Ballerina Barbie instead of a Malibu Barbie because we’re going toe-to-toe with the delicate and graceful Debbie Jellinsky in Barry Sonnenfeld’s superb sequel Addams Family Values (1993)! Joining us for the discussion is Nick of the nicksaysboo YouTube reaction channel!
After we briefly discuss the first film’s production woes, we go into the many reasons how the sequel improves upon nearly every aspect of the already wonderful original film. This is, of course, mainly due to Christina Ricci’s expanded role and the introduction of a delightfully unhinged performance from Joan Cusack.
Plus: political commentary, the joys of being privileged, reading the Addams’s as a queer family unit, and what might be the best Thanksgiving play ever put on stage. Don’t trust Sarah Miller, y’all.
Cross out Addams Family Values!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re heading back into the world of Val Lewton with a deep dive into the 1942 classic Cat People!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 210 hours of additional content! This month, we’ve got episodes on the morals and ethics of True Crime, Fall’s box office smash Smile, the absolutely wild Barbarian, Anya Taylor-Joy’s culinary thriller The Menu, and an audio commentary on the sequel that’s better than the original, The Collection (2010), just in time for its 10th anniversary!
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