IM conversation between my mom

Mom: We rented Anchorman a few weeks ago - I am still traumatized - I think there is something wrong with me - I know I have a sense of humor, but for the life of me I cannot see how this movie was even made - it has now replaced a movie called Virus, but not that horrible one about the drugs in England that you, me, and Randi went to - thank god I can't remember the name anymore - at the top of the list of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Liz: oh no! (pssst....trainspotting)

Mom: That's it - oh my god –

I turned out to have an interesting mix of my parents’ film sensibilities, somehow managing to appreciate "Anchorman" and "Amalie". My dad shies away from anything too artsy or weird and my mom has an almost non-existent tolerance for lowbrow humor or action movies. Dragging my dad to see anything outside his comfort zone is probably the singularly most unpleasant task there is, so usually it is my mom who takes the high road on movie outings and rentals. It’s sort of a fair trade-off, though, because then my mom has license to totally rant about how horrible the movie is to anyone who will listen, and I think she enjoys that. For instance, my dad and brother brought took her out on mother’s day last year to see…wait for it…Van Helsing. You can bet we heard about that over Christmas.

I also inherited this stubborn streak that makes me think if I talk up a good movie in just the right way, I can convince them to see something I think is really worthwhile. The last attempt went something like:

Me: You guys should see "Triplets of Belleville." It’s really good.
Mom: What’s it about?
Me: Well it’s about this boy and his grandma, oh and it’s animated--
Mom: Oh no, I don’t tend to like animated things…
Me: But it’s actually really artsy. I mean, it’s animated, but there’s not much talking in it, and when there is it’s in French…
Parents:…
Me: [to J] Oookay. I think I’ve managed to turn them both off in one sentence.

It’s really pretty frustrating because it makes me think that maybe these movies that I love so much aren’t really universally good after all and are (gasp) subjectively good. What’s worse is that I recognized my own brand of cajoling coming right from my dad as he tried, for the entire time we were home, to get us—me, J, any of my friends that dropped by—to watch “Baby's Day Out." We demurred, but he then purchased the movie:

Dad: [holding movie] You should really watch this movie. It's very funny.
Us: Ummmm...
Dad: I mean, seriously. It's not the best film ever made or anything, but it's good for some laughs.
Us: Well, we're um, just...doing...stuff..
Dad: It's hilarious. It's like "Home Alone".

And it was then, with the "It's hilarious. It's like 'Home Alone'" statement--meant to lure us in, no less--that I had to rethink this whole subjectivity thing.