Rockin Steady

Last night was movie night for Rob and I.  He didn't have anything particular in mind so he let me choose.  I chose  a movie called Rock Steady.  I confess that I knew the sound track had reggae music and was about a black teen coming of age and little else, but I just had a feeling it was a good fit for us.  And it was.

Rob was thrilled because it was an "R" rated movie.  His first.  I was thrilled because in the movie, the lead character has a lot of unrealistic dreams.  Money will come easy.  He will go to Hollywood and become a famous stunt driver.  He will win a $10,000 prize at stock car racing.  Rob tends toward dreaming the grandioise.  It is easier because I think then deep down there is no expectation that one must really do something to make that happen. Yet one looks like one has goals, if you know what I mean. 

As the lead character matured and learned about key things--like showing respect even when it seems silly, making amends when he screwed up, and learning that futures could be more modestly planned and still be successful, I could see a bit of a light bulb over my son's head.

One of the things I love about being an "older" parent is that I all ready know that talking at my kids is going to get me no where.  So I look for odd ball teachable moments and media is often very helpful in this regard.  I don't talk that much about the show or the book except in roundabout ways, otherwise it still comes off as preaching and any chance for the message to filter through the teen miasma is as good as gone.  More off the cuff comments seem to work well--expressing amazement at people who stepped forward to help for instance..  Comments of "oops, that was bad timing" wehn the kid did something stupid. That is about as far as I go with it.  But I find that later, he tends to bring things up and then it is okay to delve a bit deeper. 

At any rate, it was a good movie, despite the R rating which was likely do to the fact that the boys made some poor choices on how to earn money at the very beginning of the movie. But there was no violence or nudity, although there was some strong language.  However, from policing my son's Facebook viewing, there was absolutely nothing in the movie that he hasn't seen or read on the Internet at nearly 16.