Flicks 'n things

2018 brought a new neffy in NZ, and though I love all the Skype/Face Time/FB Messenger screen time, I'm now trying to figure out how to get back to Aotearoa soon to see him before he gets too big. They grow up so fast!

A year ago, when I saw the then-youngest neffy for the first time (he was 5), I tried to watch Hunt for the Wilderpeople to prepare me for Kiwi humor and television. It was... interesting. Parts of it were funny, parts were over the top, parts of it dragged on. In all, it's a decently heartwarming story of a foster kid who bonds with an old man while they're on the run from a social worker who (hilariously) goes all-out to find them. But it only took a few minutes into it to realize the humor is very... unique.

Upon getting to New Zealand, my bro-in-law told me that Boy was a quintessentially Kiwi funny film, so we watched it. It's a bittersweet story about an impoverished kid whose father gets out of prison and uses him to try and find loot he buried. And it's a comedy.

I think maybe Kiwi humo(u)r is just beyond my funny bone. To be fair, I've only seen a handful of NZ films -- but drama or comedy, they have all had some sort of bittersweet, underlying sad notes to them.

Then the nieces and nephews made me watch Jurassic World because they were horrified I'd never seen a Jurassic film. I really enjoyed it. Not too interested in watching the past films in the franchise, but this one was good as a stand-alone.

My eldest nephew had also recently started reading the Percy Jackson series, so we had to watch the two films. This started a rabbit hole of googling and learning about other young adult series out there that seem way cooler than the ones from my own tween years. I'll admit, the classics nerd in me loved it -- it's basically Harry Potter for the human children of Greek gods rather than wizards and Muggles. Coming-of-age stories can be hit or miss to delve into as an adult, but this one was fairly decent.

Then we got into the movies based on dystopian youth novels. We watched Divergent and then The Maze Runner. Both were interesting enough until I cheated and looked up the plots of the next books/films in the series and was so depressed it made me content to let the stories end where I left them. Divergent seemed more interesting, if done many times before: individuals are divided by roles in society, some learn the insidious secret behind the social order and revolt... The Hunger Games, The Giver, etc, etc, etc.

The Maze Runner had similar undertones but more of a Westworld vibe.

I think the dystopian trilogy fad for tweens and young readers/viewers is only popular because the kids are embarking on their own personal growth, realizing there is a strange, real world out there that they'll have to learn to navigate.  Some of them are good stories. But I think I've read or seen so many, especially lately, that these two in particular seemed really formulaic.

Plus, I'll be 40 this year. I want the happy ending fantasies to distract me from the never-ending news cycle.

My 6yo nephew still believes in Santa Claus.