I miss the days when Ainsley was little and Friday night was pizza and movie night. We’d watch the latest Disney release or sentimental favorites like “Because of Winn-Dixie” or “Fly Away Home.”
Every Friday I still suggest a movie night — and we still have pizza. But now that Ainsley is older, it seems she has better things to do, like go out with friends or babysitting. Some nights she even prefers hanging out in her room alone to spending time with me and her dad!
Earlier this summer she agreed to a series of throwback movie nights during which we would re-watch our favorite Disney movies. That has yet to begin.
I have had some success finding a hook that might appeal to her and focusing on that when suggesting a film. I convinced her to watch “Field of Dreams,” because I told her it was about ghosts. It’s obviously about so much more. As expected, she loved it.
I loved watching “13 Going on 30” with her — until she looked up a picture of Mark Ruffalo, saw how he had aged over the past two decades and declared he was horrifically old. (He’s six months younger than I am.)
Another film we enjoyed this summer was “The Breakfast Club,” the 1985 coming-of-age classic directed by John Hughes with a star-studded cast (all of whom were completely unfamiliar to Ainsley). I had forgotten how accurately the movie depicts so many of those iconic high school experiences — defying authority, annoying others, being desperately annoyed, searching for your identity. The film has good music, too, which is a real plus where Ainsley is concerned. Judd Nelson didn’t hurt, either.
The R-rating means there is a fair amount of profanity in the film, but since we accidentally let Ainsley watch “Stand By Me” a couple years ago — thinking it was rated PG — we worry less now about the F-bomb count.
We followed up “The Breakfast Club” last weekend with “In the Line of Fire,” thinking she would enjoy the suspense, which she did, and how creepy John Malkovich can be. It was her first Clint Eastwood film, and she reminded us that he looked like one of the faces Bill Pullman transforms into when he is possessed by a trio of ghosts in “Casper.” (There is a string of celebrities, with Mel Gibson and Rodney Dangerfield in addition to Eastwood.)
“That’s because it was him,” I told her, and realized she completely missed the joke, not knowing who any of those actors were.
Next on the list is “Sixteen Candles,” which I think will be an easy sell after “The Breakfast Club.”
Although I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, there’s something wonderful about exposing your kid to movies that you remember watching when you were younger, especially the ones that made an impression on you.
We have discovered that you don’t always remember movies accurately — or that you pay attention to different things when you’re a parent. We watched “The Goonies” with Ainsley several years back and were surprised at some of the content, including a whole series of jokes about a statue of David and the body part he was missing.
And not all movies that we loved are going to be favorites of Ainsley’s. Sometimes the pacing isn’t right. Sometimes she doesn’t like the actors. Sometimes she simply prefers to watch or do something else.
But when her calendar is free and we find the right movie, Friday nights are magical again, just like when she was little.
— Pamela Lannom is editor of The Hinsdalean.
Readers can email her at plannom @thehinsdalean.com.
