Robert Downey Jr. Circa ‘95. The Daily Diversion.

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 26, 2008

The holidays are upon us and very soon you will (hopefully) be up to your ears in family and friends, some of which you like and many of which you can’t stand. Because as they say, to loath the holidays is to truly live the American dream. Or something like that. Yet even if you think your family is bad, there are always examples of families out there that are way worse — and thankfully Hollywood has been there all along to show us some of them.

This clip takes us all the way back to 1995, when one of my personal favorite holiday movies, Home for the Holidays, was made. Directed by Jodie Foster, this film centers on a 20-something woman played by Holly Hunter who is forced to return home for the holidays to the family she so often avoids. It stars Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft as her two wacky parents and Robert Downey Jr. — yes, Iron Man — as her vivaciously gay and deeply flawed brother Tommy. The whole film is a blast, but the clip above is one of its finest moments, the arrival of Tommy and his mysterious friend Leo Fish, played by Dylan McDermott.

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