Grushenka’s Father’s Day Rambling

“You and me. But that’s fine. So long as we’ve got each other, that’s all that matters.”

Today I am going to celebrate Father’s Day by burning some bacon for the best male person ever invented.

When I was a permed and awkward adolescent girl growing up in a trailer in permafrost Northern Alberta, I believed that men people didn’t have feelings. None. Or at least, they didn’t feel their feelings like I, a brooding female person, did.

Turns out men do have feelings. Lots. They have complex inner lives. They write poems, long letters and music that communicate the cave-spelunky, deep-down feelings they have in their male-type bodies.

They brood. They quietly regret. They share their feelings in complex and entertaining ways. They don’t just smash beer bottles against trees and crash their pick up trucks when they are feeling low.

Who knew?

So today, I am grateful that I get to hang out today with the best man I have ever knowed. Here are a few blog posts that touch on my feelings (and junk) about men and family and fathers.

I’ll work on the bacon. (Also the Fallout 4 Special Edition with Pip-Boy was sold out …sorry).

Regarding Henry (1991)

* * *

Oh, poor, poor simple carpenter Harrison Ford. I do love him so. He was the great manly men of my adolescence: Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

Regarding Henry hurt. It threw things out of balance. It hurt in 1991 when I saw it in the theatres, and it hurt a few days ago. This film takes Harrison all the way down. Full-on, dribbling, puppy chasing …down.

The movie can be summarized for those pressed for time with the following infomercial copy: Want to be a better colleague, friend, spouse and parent? Tired of being careerist, workaholic and evil? Simply take a bullet in the forehead from Latino comedian John Leguizamo! In seconds, be the kindly, happy, cracker-loving person you always knew you always could be!

Grown Up Movie Star (2009)

* * *

I know there’s nothing quite like a dysfunctional family to create an all-shouting, all-screaming slice of cinéma vérité. The trouble is that all this ensuing angst isn’t very easy to watch. But you can’t stop even if you wanted to – rather like not being able to take your eyes (and ears) off of that couple fighting at the mall.

There’s a painful, heart-blenderizing authenticity in this film. The realism depicted here is often ugly and troubling. Fortunately I don’t need my art to be easy or beautiful to look at.

Near Dark (1987)

* * *

Families come in all shapes, sizes and dysfunctions. Whenever you think you might have issues in your family, watch Near Dark.

When an undead Lance Henriksen is the head of your household, then you have real problems. Written and directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark is a movie that spot-welds and duct-tapes the vampire tradition onto a modern western. More than just vampires somehow co-existing with cowboy hats, Near Dark is also, at its bleeding heart, a meditation on family.