They know the building blocks they’re working with – the tropes and archetypes – and they’re deft at reassembling them on the hoof to keep things fresh and surprising. And they know that we, the audience, know the building blocks they’re working with, too. Consequently, and cleverly,...
away from the Park City hype, the film would still be as much of revelation for me. In a tiny screening room accompanied by only 3 other people, I found myself discovering new things in each frame, but again reacting as strongly, both in laughter and tears, as the first time around....
But it made its most important contributions in the field of family-sitcom tropes. Diff’rent Strokes had them all: The cute kid who steals focus from everyone else on the show (Gary Coleman’s Arnold); a case of “very special episode-ism”; rampant use of a catchphrase (“Whatchoo ...