Why Kevin Smith Paid Tribute To John Hughes In Dogma But Still Dumped On Home Alone

I like to think that every filmmaker loves movies, but few filmmakers express their love of movies quite like Kevin Smith. Thanks to the success of "Clerks," he's arguably responsible for the frequency of characters discussing, debating, or simply referencing pop culture in film and television. (One of his jokes in that film even circled back and inspired the very franchise it alluded to in the case of "Andor.") He's also constantly popping up in documentaries (not to mention his podcast with Marc Bernardin) to give his thoughts on the intersection of art and culture. Smith is unapologetic in his acknowledgement of the art that shaped him, as well as the art that he thinks ... well ... sucks.

Of course, opinions and taste can change over time, but the blessing and curse of film is that whatever is recorded and makes it to the final cut is permanently frozen in time. During a recent Q&A during a Chicago screening to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Dogma," /Film's own Ethan Anderton asked Smith about his publicly noted reverence for the late filmmaker John Hughes and how it is seemingly contradicted in "Dogma" when Serendipity (Salma Hayek) confesses that she's responsible for nine of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time ... before adding that she had nothing to do with "Home Alone," quipping, "Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of s—" (a sentiment certain /Film staff members agrees with).

As it turns out, Smith feels really bad about including that dig at Hughes' Christmas classic. "Young Kevin Smith was so opinionated," he admitted.

Despite his dislike of "Home Alone," Smith waxed poetic about his love of Hughes. "John Hughes was an adult who was one of us, man. He wasn't too far removed," he explained to the crowd. "He was in his early 30s, but he felt like the teenager felt, and he spoke our f—ing language." He noted that the films of his youth were "The Breakfast Club," "Weird Science," "Pretty in Pink," and "Sixteen Candles," and that these were the films that helped Smith "understand a world that was maybe baffling or confusing at that age." You'd be hard-pressed to find a Gen Xer who doesn't share the feeling.

Hughes did not direct "Home Alone" (that hefty residual check belongs to Chris Columbus), but he did write it, and it was a massive success. It also came at a time in Hughes' career where he was pivoting away from coming-of-age stories and starting to create more adult fare like "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." While "Home Alone" is a story featuring "Tom & Jerry" style violence-afflicted burglars, it's typically remembered as a kids movie.

"And how I perceived it back in the day was that he gave up on teenagers and just started writing for kids," Smith explained. "Because after that, it was just like, 'Curly Sue' and f—ing 'Baby's Day Out.'" He explained that as someone who felt spoken to by Hughes' work, to see him focus on such young protagonists, he "felt abandoned," and that's where the motivation for the joke came into play. Regardless of the controversial debate surrounding "Home Alone," I do think it's pretty universally accepted that "Baby's Day Out" is Hughes at his weakest.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and Smith regrets including the joke, especially now that he's on the other side of the coin. "Me, f—ing telling my favorite artist how he should conduct himself and his career," he remarked. "Now, I've paid for that many times over, with people who will come up to my face, and tell me how I'm failing them, in my current career, versus my older work, and s— like that." Personally, I still think Smith has "got it," but his storytelling approach is obviously different. Sure, they can't all be knock-it-out-of-the-park winners, but that's the truth for any filmmaker.

Everyone makes their "Baby's Day Out," but that doesn't magically mean the home runs are suddenly erased from the annals of history. Smith was incredibly self-aware in his response to Anderton/Oman's question, and if anything, further proved he's one of the true class-act filmmakers we have currently working today with his comments:

"I paid for the hubris of being like, 'John Hughes, f—ing he shouldn't have made a 'Home Alone' and s—,' except I didn't have the smashing success of a 'Home Alone' to even stand behind. Whereas Hughes could have been like, 'Yeah, you know what? I'll f—ing cry myself to sleep with all the money and s— like that.' So, yeah, it shows you the two sides of Kevin Smith, the uber fan, the uber eloquent fan, and the b—-y little fan I could be."

Smith's words actually remind me of a really touching Letterboxd review of his Hughesian coming-of-age film, "The 4:30 Movie," from filmmaker Vera Drew ("The People's Joker"), where she had nearly the same realization Smith had about Hughes regarding her relationship with Smith's work and what she has posted about it online. "No matter where you land on his art, you gotta respect that he makes vulnerable movies that only he could make," she wrote.

I think Kevin Smith would agree.