The gravity of the situation
The gravity of the situation
Wherein Squish prefers movies that stress her the heck out
Good morning!
It's been raining at Hill House for the last few days. Each morning I open all the curtains on the east side of the house, and rather than blinding morning light, the rooms just fill with this pale, watery gloom. (It's perfect.) School's over for the summer, and with this weather, Squish is bouncing off the walls. We're filling the time with movies, with video games, with comic books.
Squish: Let's watch a movie, Daddy.
Me: What sort of movie are you in the mood for? Do you want to laugh? Cry? Be excited?
S: I WANT A MOVIE THAT WILL REALLY STRESS ME OUT.
She'll be ten this year. She's rapidly expanding her movie-watching skills. Oh, she still loves a good animated movie — she went bonkers for The Mitchells vs. the Machines recently — but her go-to right now are movies that fill her with tension.
So I chose Gravity for her. She went into this one knowing absolutely nothing about the movie. She's familiar with the actors — she knows George Clooney as Danny Ocean; she knows Sandra Bullock as Debbie Ocean; though Ed Harris is never onscreen, she recognizes his voice as Christof from The Truman Show — and that's always a nice way to ease her into something that isn't a big, identifiable franchise.
Boy, did this movie get the job done. Twice she asked, "Is she going to die?" and when I said I would tell her if she needed to know, she nodded and said, "It's just so stressful not knowing." When the movie was over, she relaxed visibly for the first time in 90 minutes.
"How'd I do?" I asked her.
"You chose the most stressful movie of all time," Squish answered.
Oh, she has no idea.
We're leveling her up, obviously. She's willing to go almost anywhere, into any genre, provided there's as little kissing onscreen as possible. We're both just waiting to take her into whole new areas: Felicia's sweet spot is horror, so she's excited for the day when Squish is ready for something like Friday the 13th. I'm anticipating the day I can show her Jaws or Alien.
More than that, I'm anxious for vaccines for the under-12 crowd, so we can feel as certain as possible that our family is as protected as possible. C'mon, science!
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I've had such a good time alternating newsletters each week. Last week's Dark Age letter was all about expanding my cast of characters from one narrator to three, and taking a close look at each's misguided beliefs about themselves.
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Jg