Movie · Prime Video · 2014

It Follows

Temperance, taught by a curse. The teaching is a night of dread, not a life.

A serious horror film, which is rarer than a loud one. The shape of the fear is old: an act has a consequence that walks toward you at a steady pace, and you will not outrun it by being young. That is as close as this shelf's nightmares come to a truth. It is still a film that puts teenagers through sexual dread for an hour and a half, and the only remedy it believes in is to pass the harm along.

Adults who can bear it may find the walk of the thing hard to forget, which is the point. Not for the young. Not a lesson plan.

The eight

Industry
3/10
No work. Only flight.
Household
2/10
Sex is the transmission. The home cannot protect her.
Piety
2/10
The curse is the only law.
Courage
5/10
Friends stay with her when staying is how you die.
Republic
3/10
A neighborhood of empty houses. No one to tell.
Temperance
4/10
The metaphor is closer to the measure than the genre usually gets. The method undoes it.
Truth
5/10
It is plain about the bill. It is not plain about another way to live.
Stewardship
3/10
Survival is handing the thing to the next person.

Live historicallyHave the conversation about consequence in daylight, with your own mouth, before a film has it for you.

Movie · Disney+ · 2017

Descendants 2

A sequel about not performing goodness. Still a mascot itself.

Mal flees Auradon because love there requires a makeover. That instinct is fair. The film resolves it with a bigger makeover and a pirate boyfriend and a swordfight among the children of trademarks. The island's injustice — children punished for their parents — remains the only serious idea, and it remains unused except as a set.

If the first is already in the house, this adds little. Watch it only if you will actually talk about whether the 'good' place was asking for a costume. If not, skip. You will not miss a moral you did not already hear.

The eight

Industry
3/10
Image management.
Household
3/10
A romance. Parents still logos.
Piety
2/10
None.
Courage
4/10
She goes back to a harder place.
Republic
4/10
A kingdom that confuses manners with virtue.
Temperance
3/10
The makeover is the plot and the product.
Truth
5/10
She tells the truth that she was faking the princess.
Stewardship
3/10
Another coronation. Little kept.

Live historicallyDo not make a child act grateful and pretty in exchange for being allowed in.