[The following article was sponsored and assigned by our Patreon subscriber Topher White (The Elder). To learn how to sponsor and assign articles to William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold for publication at Critically Acclaimed, visit our Patreon page.]
As someone who is both a film critic and a parent, I am frequently asked how I intend to indoctrinate my son, now three years old, into the world of film. Surely, my interrogators assume, I am aggressively pushing my son into the world of cinema, and I have a complex game plan as to what films to show him at an early age.
I must confess that I have no such game plan. I will, of course, expose my son to many films as time passes, and I will certainly attempt to show him some of my favorites – I am currently most eager to share “The Wizard of Oz” with him – but I also am sharply cognizant that his personal interests will guide me and not the other way around. At the end of the day, I can't force him to be a “movie person.”
However, should my son decide that he wants to be a bona fide consumer of film like his dad, then I will certainly rise to the challenge, and I will dip deep into my broad cinema-viewing experience to extract the films I feel will appeal to his interests. And, since cinema can be a learning tool, I will also perhaps select some of the following films as examples of non-kiddie films that will spark his intellect and perhaps inflame his mind. Films can lead to higher philosophical and socially conscious discussions, and perhaps the following films will do the trick.
