Tag: #Movies

  • Showing My Kid “Cool Hand Luke”

    I’m not the best father. I have very good intentions, and I show up, and I am dependable, but outside of that, I’m floundering around here.

    One of my flounder moments of late is trying to show my kid good movies. Like really good movies, the best movies, movies that had a huge impact on storytelling, movie making; you get the deal. I am way too eager to do this, and I have to remind myself that most of the beast movies ever made aren’t appropriate for a nine-year-old.

    So, of late, I have just been showing her the start of movies or very famous scenes. Amazingly, this has worked out very well. After watching Barbie together, I thought showing her the opening “Dawn of Man” section of 2001: A Space Odyssey would be a good idea, as that part is parodied in Barbie. And I was delightfully rewarded showing it to her, because she was able to visually follow the story, understood the importance of the bone/tool, and how tools good be used for good and bad. And she especially understood what Barbie was parodying.

    After having such a rewarding experience with 2001, I decided that I would press my luck and show her one of my favorite movies, Cool Hand Luke, a film I consider a great movie and if nothing else, it’s Paul Newman’s best performance. Unfortunately, the only streaming service I could find that had the movie came with commercials. What this availed to us was two minutes for me to answer questions, which is to be expected, as I do have a very curious and inquisitive child. Mind you, we only got 1/3 of the way through the movie.

    The questions she provided me were; Where are the girls? Why does everyone smoke? Don’t they know that’s bad for them? Is there a prison for women and do they do the same thing? Do they have air conditioning? Are the guards allowed to shoot people? If the guards shoot people, do they get in trouble? Why isn’t “The Box” illegal? Are there bugs and rats in “The Box?” And my favorite – How do you play poker?

    I don’t mind her questions, that’s how you learn; you ask questions, right. What I forgot was how much of a huge jump in her experience it is to see a movie made in 1967 about people living in the South during the early 1950’s. It’s just on the very edge of her understanding. Such as, she sees the cars and the trucks, those are things she can relate to and understand. But no air conditioning? She doesn’t know a world without A/C. And then I had to explain to her what parking meters were – how you had to put change in a machine, and turn a handle, and it counted down until you had to put more change in it. That kind’a blew her mind…

    And we haven’t even got to the egg eating scene yet.

  • Covid at School

    Well, it happened. We got notice from the school that a person, who has tested positive for Covid, had been in the kid’s classroom on Friday of last week, and as such, and could have possibly come in contact with our kid, and all the students. As such, unvaccinated children, though the kid has received one shot she is not considered fully vaccinated, are to take part in remote learning. The vaccinated children are allowed to return to school, if they desire. We were also informed that being the possible exposure happened on 12/17, and it normally takes five to eight days for symptoms to appear, that means the kid would start showing signs, if infected, from 12/22 to 12/25.

    Merry Christmas!

    As such, the kid is home today. This would have been the last day of school before winter break. The kids were to have a party with pizza and watch movies. You know, like the last day of school before a vacation should be; no learning, just having fun.

    So, the kid is pretty upset. Not about possibly getting covid, but about missing her party and friends.

    The good news is that we are day two of symptoms could show up, and nothing has shown up yet. The bad news is that we are had plans to go out, and we clearly aren’t going to be doing them now. The wife and I are fully vaccinated, but still it doesn’t seem very wise for us to go hang out in public. There are a few errands that need to be run, though.

    So, this is Christmas, 2021!

  • Personal Review: “The Monkey Who Speaks” by Han Ong

    (The short story “The Monkey Who Speaks” by Han Ong, was featured in the September 13th issue of The New Yorker.)

    Sincere and gentle are difficult qualities, and also odd descriptions to use for a short story, but those were the first two words that popped into my head as soon as I finished reading “The Monkey Who Speaks,” by Han Ong. And as I sat longer thinking about it, this story also made me feel like I followed the protagonist on a journey of growth.

     “The Monkey Who Speaks” is about a home health care worker named Flavia, who is from the Philippines, and her decision to leave her agency to care only for the elder Roscoe. Flavia is actually hired by Roscoe’s daughter Veronica, and through this new arraignment, Flavia begins to earn more money, but also has the time to start going to community college. What we see is how Flavia takes care of Roscoe, his love of movies, and the trust between caregiver, patient, and family. It also covers how we move on in life, how things change, and how little events, comments, actions, linger on in our lives, reminding us of people from our past.

    This was my first time reading a story by Han Ong, and I was impressed by the work. The story never felt predictable, and unfolded in a way that was very honest to the sometimes monotony of caring for an elder individual, while also highlighting those moments of connection between people. I felt Flavia’s concern for Roscoe, while she also tried to keep the relationship professional with him and his daughter. It reminded me of how even I, especially over the pandemic, found myself thinking about clients from my former career. I would wonder how they were doing, if they survived all these changes. And just like Flavia discovered,  I also found myself realizing that all these years later, those interaction are still with me, and still make me glad that I had that time with that person.

  • Personal Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Part 1)

    This might be a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reaction in a follow up post.

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie. Even though I knew about the movie from my older brothers telling me about it, and seeing clips on TV, I didn’t see the whole movie until it was on cable; I’m sure it was a free preview as my parents didn’t get the extra movie channels. I know I saw it before Temple of Doom came out, which would means I saw it before the summer of 1984, so I was either 6 or 7. What I can remember about watching it for the first time, was the feeling of having no idea what would happen next! Just being totally sucked into that movie.

    And that has become the bar that I judge all action movies by. The older I get, the lest often it happens, but when I land  on a movie where I can’t figure it out, or I get sucked in to the point that I don’t know what will happen, I get to relive that experience of sitting on the edge of the couch wondering how Indy will stop that truck full of Nazis and get the Ark back.

    Much has been written about Raiders, but I think it is important to point out that this movie was still early in Spielberg’s career, which I feel like he still had something to prove, With the help by the great cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, there are shots using lighting, shadow, and depth that are pretty arty for an action movie. Sadly, action directors seem to have moved on to prefer spectacle, I am sure due to the success of Raiders, and have lost touch with using image, through action, to forward the story. If you can remove an action sequence from a movie, and it doesn’t change the plot, then your action scene is meaningless.

    As I watched Raiders again this weekend, which was like visiting an old friend, I put my focus on the stuntmen. All of those guys hanging off trucks, being set on fire, climbing, jumping and throwing punches. The practical effects that had a human connection. It’s an authenticity that movies struggle to have today. Don’t get me wrong. I like that planets can collide, and worlds can be dreamed up that are breathtaking in their artistry. But, if you are going to have a guy get dragged behind a truck, I want to see a stuntman do it.

  • Watching Movies

    I’m a big movie fan, and I especially love awful, really bad movies. As a huge MST3k fan, that should come as no surprise. But, I still remember the wonder, and awe of going to see “Empire Strikes Back” in a theater with my dad and brothers. When I think back on it, it was like I won the lottery with “Empire” being my first movie. It set the bar pretty high.

    I also love sharing the movies that I grew up watching with my daughter. Some movies hold up really well, and some were not as good as I thought they were. But not all 80’s movies for kids are created equal. I’m not sure my six-year old daughter is ready for a melting Nazi.

    And today, I started to wonder when I can start watching dramas with her. You know, grown up dramas where what all the adults do is talk a lot, and the movie usually ends hopeful, but also a little sad. You know, like “Ordinary People,” Chariots of Fire,” “The Verdict” “The Big Chill” “Places in the Heart” “A Room with a View” “Broadcast News” “The Accidental Tourist” and “Dead Poets Society.”  

    When I was growing up, we didn’t get cable, but we got a VCR, and rented movies. My parents would rent a movie for us boys, usually an action movie like “Jaws” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and then the parents would rent a grownup movie, like from the list above. And out of all of those movies, the first one that I remember sitting through, and not leaving after the first boring talkie ten minutes, was “The Accidental Tourist,” which when I think about it, was an odd choice for 11 year old me to sit through, and enjoy.