Here are some movies that will show your kids how to disagree, and stand up for a principle (and, in one instance, fail dramatically). It’s a Henry Fonda movie-thon! 12 Angry Men (NR, probably PG) Twelve men enter a jury room to determine the guilt or innocence of a teenage boy accused of murder. Initially, only one juror votes not …
Family Time Movie Theater: Healthy Realistic Relationships
Good luck finding movies that portray healthy, long term relationships. Everything is drama and dysfunction or drama and romance. These are a couple of movies that actually portray relationships in a fairly accurate and healthy way. Because they are not romcoms (i.e., romantic comedies) or filled with violence, your kid might not watch them by choice. You may have to …
Family Time Movie Theater: Internet and Social Media
You can use movie night to reveal the influence of the internet on teen’s (and all of our) lives. Here are a couple of documentaries that will raise some issues worth talking about. One is a cautionary tale about how you can be fooled and another is about how the internet and social media can be used to make a …
Family Time Movie Theater: Life Long Learning
There are several aspects of being a lifelong learner your teenager needs to consider. One aspect is the importance of being an informed and educated person, regardless of whether it is directly required by your job. Another aspect is to be prepared for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that can occur in the course of your professional life. …
Family Time Movie Theater: Teenage Boys and Dating
Finding good movie role models for teenage boys in dating relationships is not easy. There is so much emphasis on the strict adherence to guy rules (which are bad for emotionally intimate relationships), the overly romanticized characterizations of boys and girls who don’t expect much from their boyfriends. Here are some movies with better guy role models. Pretty in Pink …
Family Time Movie Theater: The Silence of Space
In honor of the Perseid meteor shower that is making it’s spectacular, yearly apperance this month, these movies have a space theme. While there are LOTS of films with this theme, the focus of this list is on (mostly) what humans (or movie characters) have accomplished through bravery, sacrifice and perseverance (because why miss an opportunity to model the nobility …
Family Time Movie Theater: Saving Grace of Character
The Saving Grace of character counteracts greed, cruelty, selfishness and theft. Here are some movies that show the power of a saving grace and some that show the devastation (both personal and social) of being a person of low character. Saving Grace The Firm (R) An idealistic law school graduate takes a lucrative job offer in a secretive …
Family Time Movie Theater-Swimming
When you are considering movies for family movie night, you might consider ones in which swimming is an important element. They can be terrorizing (Jaws), campy (Bathing Beauty with Esther Williams) or, like the ones described below, inspirational. Swimming Upstream (PG-13) Australian swimmer Tony Fingleton rose above his deeply troubled home life in order to become a national champion in …
Family Time Movie Theater: Leadership
Finding portrayals of leadership in film is a challenge unless you want a male military commander or coach as the model. Good luck finding many women portrayed in true leadership roles. Here are some examples of male and female leaders as portrayed in film and television you can watch with your kids to see good leadership in action. Chicken …
Family Time Movie Theater: Smoking cigarettes and cancer
It is surprisingly difficult to find movies that deal specifically with lung cancer. Not sure why that would be. Wonder if there is a group of large, wealthy, multinational corporations who are influencing the decisions (and funding) for movie making? Anyway, here are a couple of films that address it (kind of). Brian’s Song is such a great film that …