Written by Anne Speilberg and Gary Ross
Directed by Penny Marshall
Starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins and Robert Loggia
Running time 1 hour and 44 minutes
MPAA Rating fantasy, kids and family, comedy

by Stacey Osbeck

When 13 year old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) fails to meet the height requirement and is turned away from a carnival ride in front of his crush, he wanders off to a coin operated Zoltar machine, an animatronic fortune teller with a pointy beard and bejeweled turban. As the wind kicks up and organ grinder music rises, drowning out the din of the fair, Josh pops a quarter in and makes a wish to be big. The next morning Josh gets the shock of his life. Overnight, he’s transformed into a full grown man (Tom Hanks). Of all the body swap films that came out in the late ‘80s Big is easily the best. Big is also the only film I’ve ever seen as a kid and then again as an adult and had two totally different movie experiences.

Directed by Gary Ross (2018)
by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

I was 22 when Ocean's Eleven came out in 2001. I didn't think much of it at first - a remake? From Steven Soderbergh? Dude you better than all that! And who cares about remakes anyway except for he-devils like Michael Bay? It was summertime when it was released, and I was about to be a senior in film school. My family and I were on an annual summer vacation in Breckenridge, Colorado, and my best friend from college, Kathy, was with us. I was having a heckuva time in regular life. Depressed, lonely, drowning in a long-term relationship I couldn't swim my way out of. At the time, my after-graduation plan was to move in with my boyfriend and go to grad school. Get married. Life settled. Game over. Marriage was a foregone conclusion on the part of my bf and his family, yet no one really consulted me about it. I didn't yet understand or know how to put into words why I was so unhappy. Having come out three years ago (almost to the day)...now I see it very clearly. But in those days, the life staring me in the face felt so not mine, like I was watching it all happen to someone else, in very dark, very slow motion. I accepted it as is because I thought that's just what you do. That's just what I get.