If you come of age in the ’90s, at some point in your childhood you slapped both hands to either side of your face in mock horror. Sorry, those are just facts. So popular was Macaulay Culkin’s portrayal of intrepid-and perhaps a touch psychotic-Kevin McCallister, an 8-year-old from the Chicago suburbs whose parents weren’t the best at keeping track of their outsized brood, that 30 years after Home Alone’s Nov. 16, 1990 release, his signature move is still instantly recognizable. And that’s not the only thing that keeps John Hughes’ instant classic, about an elementary school kid teaching two, largely incompetent, career criminals what happens when they don’t get their ugly, yella, no-good keisters off his property, firmly at the top of holiday movie watcher’s wish lists. The box office sensation may be short on realism and relevance in today’s uber-connected times. But it’s filled with one-liners any millennial worth their highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner can still recite today. And the laugh-out-loud moments still smack as hard as a grown man getting his face smashed in by a can of paint. Plus, quite simply, it’s a holiday tradition. “You never know how something’s going to turn out and you hope for the best, but all you can go on is the script and the people that you get to work with,” Catherine O’Hara told E! News of signing on as Kevin’s mom Kate. “And in that case, it definitely worked out.”
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