Evolution - FILM WORMS
The underground film school for kids disguised as a watchlist.
My wife and I both cried during Fast & Furious 7. Which is probably why we treat weekday school drop-off like a high-stakes racing sequence.
I’ve learned the only way to be ten minutes early is to believe we’re already ten minutes late. So I set the kitchen clock ten minutes fast, and we operate in a permanent state of gentle panic.
Like a pit crew five mornings a week, we emerge: pants on, lunch packed, ChapStick applied, backpack stuffed with five hardcover library books, and a switchblade comb. Always the switchblade comb. We sprint to the subway and make it just as the doors hiss shut behind us.
Then comes my favorite part: the walk from the train to school. He holds my hand. We talk about gum. At the school doors, I lean down and say, “Nose me.” He gives me a quick peck on the nose, then scurries off like a small rodent.
But last week, halfway up the block, he let go of my hand and said, “This is good.” Which, translated from first-grade HR speak, means: I’ve got it from here.
I still got the nose, but it felt like when a waiter folds your napkin knowing you’re never coming back. Then he jogged off, backpack thumping like a small, overpacked horse.
It wasn’t dramatic. Just… different. One of those micro-ruptures you don’t notice until you’re left in the snow, February wind in your face, briskly reminding you that parenting is a job where the better you do, the faster they go.
But like a boomer politician, I’m not ready to retire. I’ll take the mornings slower. I’ve got time. And a second hoodie in my bag, just in case.
XLenski
This week’s class: Evolution.
Big changes, and the brave act of becoming something new. A little music, a little mutating, and an adorable cyclops.
THE SIMPSONS – EVOLUTION INTRO (2009)
Dir. David Silverman · TRT 1:25
From amoeba to Homer in 90 seconds. A speed-run through natural selection, banana peels, and beer. It’s evolution, baby.
BEN LEE – “I WISH I WAS HIM” (1995)
TRT 2:31
Jealousy, yearning, and the soft evolution of feelings you don’t have words for yet. Puberty with a guitar.
BECK – “WOW” (2016)
Dir. CANADA · TRT 4:18
The messy joy of becoming something else. Pixel horses, space pants, and Beck mid-metamorphosis but though he’s always sort of looked like a child. Growth, with good beats.
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (2010)
Dir. Dean Fleischer Camp · TRT 3:22
One shell. One googly eye. One sneaker. And a brave little exit from the comfort zone. Marcel leaves home and turns it into something soft, funny, and weirdly profound.
That’s all for this week. Class is dismissed.
P.S. Got a clip, short, or lost gem you or your kids loved? Send it my way. I’m always looking for the strange and wonderful stuff that slipped through the cracks.
xLenski
Ayyyyyee 🐛🎬
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