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Movie · Netflix · 2003

Elf

A son looking for a father. Silly, and the aim is the right aim.

Elf is a comedy about a man who finds out he has a son and would rather finish the meeting. The movie is on the son's side, and it is right to be. The gags are silly enough for a family and long enough that you should not expect a sermon. Watch it in the season, and notice that the good ending is not the sleigh. The good ending is the father at the table.

The eight

  1. Industry

    4/10

    The workshop is work. New York is a father who has replaced his house with an office.

  2. Household

    7/10

    The whole trip is an attempt to get a father to be a father, and a brother to have a brother.

  3. Piety

    4/10

    Christmas is belief, played broad, and still about a household.

  4. Courage

    5/10

    He keeps walking into rooms that humiliate him because the man might be his father.

  5. Republic

    4/10

    An office building against a family.

  6. Temperance

    5/10

    Candy and volume. The sweetness is not a sneer.

  7. Truth

    6/10

    The father is a neglectful man, not a secret hero, until he turns.

  8. Stewardship

    6/10

    What he wants handed to him is a name on a family tree.

Live historicallyIf you watch it, mention the meeting the father should have left.

Movie · Disney+ · 2007

High School Musical 2

A correction about status. Lightweight, and the correction is real.

Troy is offered the fancy life by a girl who can grant it, on the condition that he become the sort of person who leaves his friends off the stage. The songs are the studio's. The shape is an old one: a promotion that costs a loyalty. He chooses the kitchen staff and the teammates. That is the right ending, even in pastels.

Fine for a child who likes a musical. Do not sneer, and do not let the lesson stay inside the number. Say the plain version: do not trade a crew for a club.

The eight

  1. Industry

    7/10

    Summer jobs. The work is real enough to be the setting, if not the interest.

  2. Household

    5/10

    Friends as a stand-in household. Parents are light.

  3. Piety

    2/10

    None.

  4. Courage

    5/10

    He has to quit the flattering job.

  5. Republic

    5/10

    A staff and a team against a family that owns the place.

  6. Temperance

    6/10

    Status is the excess. He puts it down.

  7. Truth

    6/10

    The offer was a bribe. The film admits it.

  8. Stewardship

    5/10

    He keeps the people he started with.

Live historicallyIf a better invitation would make you drop the people who already counted on you, decline it.

Annie