Fiction Friday (120)

 

Last week was one of those where I found myself finishing a novel on a Friday, and not having a chance to pick up any of the long list of books that I want to read from the library. So I was resigned to pick up a book from my "to-be-read" pile, one that could be finished over the weekend. And that's when I found this one that I got last year and hadn't read yet. 

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

( Harper, 2011)

The start of a new year is a time for hope, a promise that things will change and the strong desire that they change for the better. For a child in Saigon in 1975, those were difficult wishes to have. Ten year old Há is aware of the war that has split her country and ravished her city, but she is hopeful. She has a papaya tree, she is smart, and though her father has been missing since before she can remember, she is confident that her family's luck will turn for the better. What she discovers is that sometimes luck is disguised as hardship...like the papaya, sometimes luck needs time to ripen.

This coming of age novel, told in verse, tells a different side of a period of American history that continues to haunt this nation. It is one of those timeless novels that will live on for generations, and it's no surprise that it won top awards. It has all the ingredients of a classic. It exposes an ugly side to America's racist culture, but also show the resilience of those who come here for a second chance, and how despite the hardships, it can still be a land of opportunity.

Surviving Eighth Grade...

I just watched the film Eighth Grade by Bo Burnham and it's definitely a movie that gives you a lot to think about. I'd heard great things about this when it came out last year, but never got around to getting out to the theater to see it...which is never easy for indie movies as they rarely play for longer than a week up here in the Valley. But I spotted the DVD at the library the other day and checked it out.

My first thoughts while watching this story about an eighth grade girl in her last week of Middle School were thank god I'm not 13 again! I could immediately identify with Kayla and her struggle to fit in. The thing is, she's an intelligent character and her struggle to fit in is wrapped up in her struggle to understand social interactions. Kids that seem to just easily "fit in" are ones who typically are not trying to understand why other people do what they do. They don't over analyze everything...but a lot of people do, and they suffer for it during the adolescent years. Watching the film from a place in life removed from that world, it was all so painfully clear and filled me with thoughts of if I only knew then what I know now...and then projecting those thoughts onto the character.

Which brings me to my next series of thoughts while watching the movie, and that was an adult, more specifically, as a parent, and a parent of a daughter. As a parent, how do we share this knowledge with our kids? How do we protect them from the pain that comes with coming of age? And of course, the answer is that we can't...but there must be a way to let our children know that they are truly special, and I think that is something that starts at a young age, something you must continue to do even as your children separate from you. The movie filled me with parental anxiety, which is probably a good thing. Something to keep me on my toes.

Having thought about this age group a ton in my writing career, a lot of the themes were things that I've thought about a lot. Perhaps the most eye-opening aspect for me was how the film showed the way social media has penetrated this coming of age process and adds an entirely new level of stress on these kids. As with everything that teens are into, social media becomes all-important and terribly serious. Teens are intense. Their passions are intense. As a result they tend to take everything very seriously. I think one of the lessons that you learn in college and beyond, is that all of these things you believed were serious, are things that adults don't really take too seriously. This movie however, is one that we should.

Lady Bird

In the world of superhero comic book blockbuster retreads, it's rare for a quiet film to be heard over all the noise. Thankfully there are still a handful of indie theaters around that make it a point to show these films. This past weekend, I got the chance to see Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird.

Christina is a teenager in post-9/11 Sacramento who is in search of something, anything, exciting to happen in her life, as most of us are at that age. Standing in her way is the downturn in the economy which has brought hard times on her family, a mother who butts heads with her, and her own inability to see all that is truly happening around her. This is one of those brilliant coming of age stories that gets everything right. It's finds humor in the heartbreaking, love in hardship, and hope where it seems all hope is lost.

But as with any film, the story is only as good as the acting, and thankfully this fantastic dialogue is delivered perfectly by the cast. Granted, I haven't seen many films this year, but even if I had, I'm certain this would've been the best one that I'd seen. With all that said, next stop is a galaxy far, far away. 

Boyhood

Rarely does a movie attempting to project the complexities of growing up get everything so right. I can think of a handful. Millions, Hope & Glory, and Where the Wild Things Are come to mind, though those films focused on narrow "coming of age" moments in a characters life. Boyhood, the new film by Richard Linklater, is unparalleled in its scope of trying to capture the way characters navigate through life. 

Filmed over the course of 12 years, with the same actors, the audience literally watches the characters growing up. In this day and age of assembly line blockbusters, it's basically unheard of that such an ambitious project would ever see the light of day, or be so amazingly wonderful. The patience of a director to stick with this kind of project is enough to be commended, but to actually achieve this kind of result is worthy of immense praise.

The thing that struck me the most was how even though this is the portrait of a boy growing up in the last decade, I could have just as easily been watching moments from my own childhood 20 years earlier, and I'm sure someone 20 years older than me would feel the same way. This is due to the film's careful focus on the feelings that surround the events. It's not trying to be a portrait of what it means to be a child in today's world, but rather chooses to examine the universal trials and tribulations that come with growing up. 

There are many dramatic moments. The main character's life is populated with shitty people, just as all of our lives are. But the movie never steers into melodrama. The expressions, and uncomfortable reactions of the character are enough to convey the emotions such events cause. I found myself remembering similar events in my life and could clearly identify with the character without too much having to be explained. And now, as an adult, I was also able to identify and sympathize with the parents as they struggled to guide their children through the difficulties of life, always doing the best they could. Both Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette do an amazing job of playing the role of parents who don't always know what's best, but never falter in their attempt to provide a good life for their children. 

Groundbreaking. Honest. Brilliant.

Into the Woods

In case you missed it, this week's episode of Louie was essentially a short film, and brilliant in so many ways. The show abandoned its usual dark humor in order to portray a powerful and unexpected coming of age story when Louie discovers his 12 year old daughter smoking pot. From there, the episode flashes back to his own youthful experiences with the drug when he was his daughter's age. 

Louie's story captured the experience in a truly accurate and moving way. I've always believed that the drift into drug use as a young teen often springs from issues that are not located on the surface. From the eyes of the youthful user, it's simply something fun to do, a way to escape the boredom that seeps in once childhood fades. It's not usually until years later that one realizes there were deep rooted issues that were taking place which you weren't consciously aware of at the time. It's a self-medicating tool that manages to work to some extent. You make new friends, some of which you probably shouldn't. You have fun, some of which involves very poor decisions. But ultimately, it cannot be the answer for whatever is bothering you inside, and those problem are not going to go away. Eventually you need to deal with them, and hopefully the cure you sought won't have caused too many new ones.

The episode took on all of these complicated aspects of the decent into drug use in an intelligent and non-judgemental way. It showed things the way they really are without reverting to horror stories. But more importantly, it explored the parenting angle that goes with it. Especially today, more and more parents are going to have to deal with their child's drug use by viewing it through a mirror of their own. Decades ago, parents weren't necessarily coming from a point of experience. After an initial blow-up, Louie's character enters a stage of deep reflection, recalling the difficult years of transitioning from childhood to adulthood and comes to understand his daughter's choice. By the end he realizes that she is going through things that he might not fully be aware of, and instead of punishing her, simply tells her that he's there for her. 

Perhaps one of the best, and most worthwhile episodes on television this year.

The Dreams We Have As Children

I've written on this blog many times before about how I'm drawn to coming of age stories, be it in novels or film or in my own writing. So when I first read about Super 8, that was the element that really drew me to the film. Sure, I love aliens and conspiracy plots and anything with a Fanning in it, but it was the prospect of seeing a good coming of age film that really peeked my interest. Having seen the film yesterday, I'm glad to say that was the aspect of the film that truly shined in my opinion.

The group of middle school kids in Super 8 are spending their summer making a zombie flick and using the experience as a way to escape a host of coming of age problems. When the friends are together, these problems seem to fade, only coming to the surface in a couple of excellent emotional scenes. In this way, it felt very genuine to me. During our adolescence, we hide amongst our friends within the joking around and the silly things we do to occupy our time. But there are moments when alone with a close friend where the problems of growing are too much to bear and come spilling out. The kids in this movie captured that as well as the kids in The Goonies and Stand By Me, two of the best to ever do it in my opinion. When so many representations of youth in film today are such obviously manufactured inventions of marketing, it's refreshing to see these characters come alive.