Top 10 Ron Howard Movies
8. The Paper (1994)
Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Catherine O’Hara, Jason Alexander, Marisa Tomei; the cast reads like a 1990s nostalgia act yet works without the semi-embarrassing revisiting of past glories because, lucky for us, they’re all in their prime!
It’s tough to say a word about The Paper without mentioning its ensemble because it is through the casting and their performances that the movie brings about most of its intrigue, though this is not to discredit the film itself which is an admirable representation of newspaper journalism of the time and presents moral dilemmas that are not to be sniffed at. Think The Post but a little more extravagant and 90s… with more Michael Keaton. Keaton is good.
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7. Parenthood (1989)
How Parenthood hasn’t gone down as an all-time rewatchable family classic is simply dumbfounding. The film is stacked to the brim with all of your typical family-night-in movie tropes, and it features Steve Martin and Rick Moranis at the peak of their powers! Throw in young Keanu Reeves, even younger Joaquin Phoenix, Mary Steenburgen and even a cameo from the director’s daughter Bryce Dallas Howard (aged 8 upon the film’s release), and there seems to be even more worth revisiting. It’s funny and it’s a lot more original than most films of its type. It’s smart and it’s engaging. Parenthood has a lot going for it, and revisiting Rick Moranis performances is always good, right?
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Simply put, The Grinch is a Christmas classic.
Howard went full dark fantasy and whimsical fairytale all at once for How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000, and in partnering with Jim Carrey he couldn’t have found a better partner in crime to deliver the absurd content of the original source with quite so much love (and comedic sensibility). Carrey was arguably the world’s finest comedic actor at the time, and partnering him with a director so fond of up-beat and off-kilter storytelling was a match made in heaven. More so than even Willow and Splash, How the Grinch Stole Christmas came to be a classic film for an entire generation, a defining moment in both Carrey’s and Howard’s career, a must-watch Christmas movie each and time Holiday season roles around.
