Helpful Score: 3
The Film Club documents an interesting and novel method of home schooling. The author's 17-year-old son, failing school, is allowed to quit and do nothing, provided he watches 3 movies a week of his father's chooseing. Decidedly, there is a lot to be learned from movies, but the author's attitude toward his son and his focus in the memoir fails to take advantage of the strength of his premise. The son sleeps all day, becomes involved with emotionally manipulative girls, undesirable friends, underage drinking, and drugs. The father glosses over the lessons learned and horizons broadened by film (how does a teen with no appreciation for art film go from being bored by the 400 Blows to appreciating La Dolce Vita?) and focuses instead on the relationships in his and his son's lives. The Film Club sounds like an interesting experiment, but its not one I'd risk repeating. There's no reason a love of cinema can't be instilled alongside other lessons of responsibility and accountability.
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