Sunday, July 10, 2011

Super Summer Movie

How shall I say this without sounding strange? I love movies about boys coming of age -- like Super 8. Here's a synopsis from IMDb.com:

After witnessing a mysterious train crash, a group of friends in the summer of 1979 begin noticing strange happenings going around in their small town, and begin to investigate into the creepy phenomenon.

Some would call Super 8 a sci-fi-action-adventure movie, but to me, it was a sentimental story of lives perched on the precipitous edge of the innocence of boyhood and the fast-approaching machismo of manhood, so reminiscient of other favorite movies of mine: Breaking Away, Stand By Me, The Sandlot, October Sky.

Awkwardness around girls. Battles with fathers. The longing to fit in. Misadventures. All are common themes to these movies. So why do they appeal to me more than Girl-coming-of-age stories? I'm not really sure. Is it because there aren't as many "Girl" movies? Here are a few that come to mind: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Secret Lives of Bees.

I, too, experienced some of the feelings and events reflected in many "Girl" movies, so maybe the answer lies simply in the fact that movies like Super 8 allow me an "inside view" of the endearing, albeit goofy misadventures "the other side" experienced growing up.

In the introduction to Stand By Me, Stephen King wrote:

"In all our lives, there's a fall from innocence; a time after which we are never the same."

"Boy" movie or "Girl" movie, it is the experiencing of that moment that I love.

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