Monday, November 28, 2011

The Other F Word Review

The Other F Word

At some point in the movie The Other F Word, Fat Mike--punk rocking, spike-haired, dominatrix-tattooed singer of NOFX--discusses his parenting philosophy. His wife and he decided from the beginning that they were not going to change. Unlike so many parents who divide their lives to before children and after children, and who end up with an inevitable midlife crisis of identity, Fat Mike and his wife decided to pull their daughter into their own punk-rock world, he says.

The Other F Word is a great documentary that needs to be seen by everyone. Everyone! (It is currently screening in a limited number of locations, so meanwhile take a look at the trailer below.) The filmmakers interview and follow well known punk rockers (as well as honorary punk rockers, like Tony Hawk) who spent the first part of their lives rebelling against any and all authority, and now find themselves in the position of authority figures for their kids.

While the movie is about the ironic struggles of punk rocking dads, the lessons of the movie belongs to all parents. While some of our childhood authority figures were more worthy than others, all of us rebelled to some extent, and all of us faced (and still face) the conflict between our proud rebellion days and our transformation into the targets of the rebellion. While turning into a rebel made perfect sense at the time, we're now shocked when we see the next generation dismiss us as the keepers of the old world we've turned out to be, at least in their eyes.

While some of us had more involved and loving parents than others, we all hope to do better, and while this is very central to the movie, where many of the musicians grew up pretty much by themselves, and are now determined to do a better job as parents, we all hope to do our best, certain our best can be at least as good as our parents'.

And all of us--even Fat Mike--delude ourselves, thinking our identities are strong enough to withstand the onslaught of kids... Soon after he makes his identity-guarding statement, he walks away from his daughter's princess bed to the kitchen to make toast with butter on a plastic plate with a picture of skull & cross bones. While the parents tried to pull the kid into their world, the kid had other plans. Looks like they met somewhere in the middle.






13 comments:

  1. I believe that the variety of parents on earth is also the reason why we are all different from each other and our beliefs and values varies from one family to another.

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  2. I really love these kind of twists in life! These are the kind of things that makes us constantly challenge what we take as truth.

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  3. No matter what kind of dad a person is, as long as he can do his responsibility... He rocks!

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  4. I love seeing dads that are so strong with other things yet so soft when it comes to their children.

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  5. Fathers like Mike inspires me a lot. He can look so tough in the outside but he makes sure his little princess is well taken cared of.

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  6. No matter how hard a guy looks if he can do all stuff for his kids, he will surely be loved by them.

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  7. This father doesn't give a f*** how he looks when he is doing all the choirs for his child and that is something to be proud of.

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  8. Fathers who do not run away from responsibility is way better than those good looking guys who can't manage to be a dad at all.

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  9. You made me want to watch this one so bad. I hope I can see the whole film.

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  10. Fatherhood is so much better than the other F word. :)

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  11. I love fathers who look like this. Tough but sweet with their kids.

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  12. What's great about this video is that the child happens to be a girl which is double the amount of sacrifices for a father.

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