1988

She's Having a Baby.
Premiered February 5th, 1988.
Directed by John Hughes.
Starring Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin.
Music by Stewart Copeland.


     Ya'll are, I'm sure, familiar with the 80's teen hero John Hughes, who championed the hearts and minds of an entire adolescent generation, but I bet few of you knew that the same man made a film about the trials and tribulations of an adorable set of newlyweds. He wrote She's Having a Baby about his own experience being  young and in love and taking on more responsibility than he could have ever possibly expected (or handled) with the decision to share his life with someone. Now, I'll say it before we get started, I don't believe you need marriage to share yourself with your significant other. In fact, I disagree with the custom of marriage being practiced today entirely, but things were surprisingly traditional 26 years ago, so I'll work with what I can get.

     So the story follows Jake (Bacon) and Kristy (McGovern) Briggs, just married and crazy about each other. Jake narrates the film, and it opens on their wedding day, with his misgiving combined with some exposition over coverage of the wedding just before the ceremony's about to start. His friend Davis (Baldwin), handsome and smooth, councils him while he goes through the things he's got to consider before he decides to go through with it. He does, and the film follows the way both he and Kristy have to adapt to their new lives, rearranging their priorities and getting some reality pumped into their pre-marriage dreams.

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     The construction of the film is good. For a mid budget studio film, it's considerably more spicy then the average. Jake has these moments in various scenes where he trails off and sees this fantasy version of whats happening. It happens when he's saying his vows during the wedding (located here), and again when they've moved into the stereotypical suburb they later call home and Jake goes to cut the grass (here). With that, you get a little more familiar with how Jake thinks. It also helps to set the structure of the film apart from others. It pulls back the curtain and takes a comedic look at Jake's psyche and experience. The film is almost entirely autobiographical, so it's Hughes writing a story about himself writing a story about himself (does that make sense?). Jake, the main character, dreams of becoming a writer (so we already know he's a bit off balance, mentally). Throughout, we see him writing, but it doesn't become clear what until the very last scene, where the narration he's been presenting all along melts from non-diegetic to diegetic as we see him reading off a page, and we realize he was reading back what he was writing the whole time. That's not a structural device we see often, and it can be hard to pull off properly. I'd say Hughes did it very well.

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     This, I would say, is not a masterpiece. It's not even exceptionally good. But it has that element of This scene is perhaps the most soul crushingly sad events that has ever taken place in the world of film. If I find myself wanting to have a good cry, this is what I watch. I kid you not, while it's beautiful, it's not for the faint of heart. But still, give it a watch. It's super worth it.
Hughes charm that is undeniable. It has a fantastic script, as would be expected, and employs a playful depiction of serious subjects. While it certainly is playful, it has elements that are almost jarring in their seriousness. One such element is the second last scene. One of the major themes of the film is that Jake and Kristy are trying to get pregnant, they finally do, and when Kristy's water breaks, they rush off to the hospital with little to no issues. Everything is going normally until the baby reveals itself to be in breach position and they have to do an emergency c-section.


6/10. Not a great film, but one of my favorites. A point I've been looking to make is that sometimes, even a crappy movie can come out to be your favorite. Sometimes, you just don't want to work too hard to get the point.


Honorable mentions from this year are Rain Man (Dustin Hoffman is still amazing and Tom Cruz is still a creepy bastard), Big (even a childish Tom Hanks is kinda sexy...is that weird? I don't even care it's true), Die Hard (best Christmas movie ever), Beetlejuice (Micheal Keaton yet again stumps us with his crazy role choices), Akira (it's so good I'm gonna die), Child's Play (inspiring generations of parents with poor judgment dressing their kids up as a vengeful child's toy for Halloween), Cinema Paradiso (there's something about little Italian kids saying 'Alfredo!' over and over again that just gets me), Earth Girls are Easy (Geena Davis finds a man who is actually taller than her, which is a feat), Grave of the Fireflies (this was clearly a good year for Japanese film), Hairspray (John Waters and Debbie Harry are the dream team), The Land Before Time (cue everyone's saddest moment of their childhood), Mystic Pizza (Julia Roberts' hair. Just, wow. I give up), School Daze (a very excellent Spike Lee joint), Scrooged (Bill Murray is crazy and I love it), Tucker (one of the only Francis Ford Coppola films I actually enjoy), Vibes (all I can say is...funky?), Working Girl (much better than I was expecting) and Young Guns (just sit back and get ready to laugh, and laugh, and laugh...).


Peace,
Gang.