As the trailer implies, Home Sweet Home Alone’s ordeal of Yates’s Max is far from unique in the now-six-film Home Alone franchise. Indeed, he’s an unassumingly prodigious kid accidentally left behind by distracted, vacation-departed parents—notably an agitated mother (Aisling Bea)—and forced to fend off invaders from his family’s advantageously-spacious American upper-middle-class suburban abode using clever traps. Granted, the idea of said invaders being an unthreatening couple (Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney) reluctantly attempting to recover an heirloom from the house is a bit of a twist, but a perfunctory nature prominently adorns the film’s proverbial sleeve. Thankfully, the flash appearance of a cop intriguingly brandishing a McCallister name on his uniform provides a unique narrative. Check out the Home Sweet Home Alone trailer just below. Of course, extended analysis is hardly necessary to discern that the cop briefly shown in the trailer arriving at the scene of Max’s house is none other than Home Alone franchise original character Buzz McCallister, as reprised by Devin Ratray. The bulky bellicose older sibling of original accidentally-abandoned kid Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), Buzz was not only the prototypical bombastic bully brother, but tended to be the surreptitious instigator of the very family squabbles that would lead to Kevin being lost in the logistical fray before the McCallisters’ frantic family vacations. Additionally, the Home Sweet Home Alone trailer’s brief Buzz scene manages to convey some slightly intriguing exposition about the film’s setting. As we get our surprise glimpse of Ratray’s familiar face (and all of Kevin’s trauma it represents), we hear his police radio dispatch divulge something about “reports of suspicious people around 36 Lincoln Ave.” Contextually, exterior scenes of the McCallisters’ house in the first two films—notably the first, for which it was the primary setting—were shot at 671 Lincoln Ave. in Winnetka, Illinois. Thusly, it can be deduced that the new film is not only taking place in the same continuity as the first two films, but on the very same street—albeit much farther away. There doesn’t seem to be any intrinsic consequences attached to that notion, but it does further cement the idea of this film’s clear attempt to ground itself on or near the franchise’s roots. While Home Sweet Home Alone is clearly family fare, it is the product of creative personnel who don’t typically dwell in the genre, notably its director, Dan Mazer, a frequent collaborator with Sacha Baron Cohen going back to Da Ali G Show to recent offerings like Who Is America? and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Moreover, Mazer worked off a screenplay by current SNL onscreen personnel in Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. Consequently, a satirical edge might just be hidden beneath the surface of this unapologetic, trope-mimicking franchise family feature. Moreover, the film will serve as the first major starring platform for Archie Yates, whose seemingly-imminent stardom off his scene-stealing role in 2019’s Jo Jo Rabbit has been delayed by the pandemic. Home Sweet Home Alone will attempt to make viewers thirsty for more when it hits Disney+ on Friday, Nov. 12.
