Kino Lorber
Uncle Buck is probably the film that the late John Candy is best remembered for, and with good reason.
The comedy boom of the late 70’s fed into by SNL, National Lampoon, and SCTV produced a huge number of talented players, but no one else could have created a character like Buck Russell.
Warm, but with an edge; slovenly, but not stupid; down on his luck, but not a loser.
Uncle Buck is perfect casting made manifest.
Candy plays the titular Uncle Buck who is called on (with great hesitation) by his brother Bob and sister-in-law Cindy to watch their three children (Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffmann, and in his breakout role, Macaulay Culkin) when Cindy’s father has a heart attack.
Buck is a classic comic slob: a heavy smoker who makes his living doing as little as possible and resisting any attempt by his long time girlfriend Chanice (Amy Madigan) to tie him down to a steady job or a marriage.
What follows is a comedic structure that goes back to Roman times: the clever, but lazy Buck learns to love the responsibility of parenthood by taking care of the children’s problems, and the uptight suburban children get shaken out of their own ennui by Buck’s freewheeling style.
There are so many iconic gags: the massive pancake; the showdown with the school principal who has an unfortunate mole; the power drill.
Writer/Director John Hughes had a long association with Candy and this is the second of three starring vehicles he directed for him. Hughes’ Midwestern style of comedy meshed perfectly with Candy’s Second City sensibility and there’s a tremendous amount of authenticity to Buck.
I’ve heard John Goodman was considered for the role, but it’s impossible to imagine anyone else finding both the hilarity and humanity in the character that he does. Buck feels like a real person, even at his most outrageous, and even throwaway bits like explaining his “five year plan” to quit smoking to Cindy are incredibly funny. We all know people like this.
The film is greatly enhanced by Macaulay Culkin and Amy Madigan in supporting roles. Culkin avoids every pitfall of 80’s child acting and delivers on quick verbal comedy routines and sight gags alike. It’s easy to see why Hughes would write Home Alone as a vehicle for him two years later. He had special comic chops for an actor so young.
Madigan brings the same kind of exasperated sweetness to the role that she does in Field of Dreams. In both films she’s playing a woman at the end of her tether who’s sick of having to be practical for both herself and the man she loves. This role could be pretty thankless, and she could come off like a buzzkill but she embues her scenes with such a real warmth that it’s impossible not to root for her and Buck to end up together.
Extras include commentaries, featurette, and trailer.
Uncle Buck is not revolutionary, but it is one of the very best films of John Hughes and John Candy’s storied comedy careers and the jokes really hold up, even to this day.
An easy recommendation to rewatch so you can appreciate this actor who was taken from us too soon.
Recommended.
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