I’ve mentioned before that we are big Netflix fans in this house, mostly because our date nights consist of curling up on the couch with a movie. Jeff makes popcorn on the stove with his secret recipe and I pile all of the blankets we own on the couch because I am always freezing. Scarlette has just gotten to the age where she can sit through a movie and so now we have family movie nights. (Although that sounds like a precious picture, it normally involves Scarlette yelling at Lucy Dog to get off of her blanket and then one of them knocking over the popcorn bowl.)
Netflix invited me to be a part of their Stream Team, which basically means that once a month I’ll be posting about what movies we’ve watched lately. I enjoy this because I like watching movies and I like giving my opinions about things.
This month in honor of The Hunger Games Catching Fire premiere (which I STILL HAVE NOT SEEN!) they sent over a list of children’s books that have been made into movies. I had no idea The Very Hungry Catepillar had been made into a movie! Or The Velveteen Rabbit. That was one of the first books I read to Scarlette in the NICU. We read The Velveteen Rabbit, The Secret Garden, and Pride and Prejudice, among other things. We were there a really long time, y’all. And also, train a child up in the way they should go by reading them Jane Austen or something.
Look at what is on Netflix, y’all! It’s the original Baby Sitter’s Club series! Not that terrible movie made with all of the hot Nickelodeon actors in the 90’s but the actual cable version of the show. True story: we did not have cable growing up and so I could only watch this when I was at a friend’s house. I vividly remember one Saturday morning in second grade that my friend Paige put her phone next to the television so that I could listen to an episode of The Baby Sitter’s Club. I was a very dedicated fangirl. I may or may not have watched some this week while I was folding laundry.
As for adult movies, we watched the documentary Bully. I could write an entire post about that movie. If you haven’t seen it, it is a must-see. It is hard to watch, y’all. I had to pause it several times because I was either furiously angry or in tears. I literally had to get up and pace around the room for a few minutes and then go back to watching it. I rarely have such a visceral reaction to a documentary.
Here’s the thing: I am lucky because I really like myself now. And that didn’t used to be the case. I used to hate myself, a dark hatred that summoned scary thoughts of sharp objects pressed to skin and do you know when that blackness overtook what was once a carefree, happy little girl? It was in junior high, during a period of time when I was tormented by a group of girls that I had once called friends. I didn’t talk about it much because shaped me in a way that shamed me, an emotion I imagine I share with anyone who has been through the type of bullying that breaks you. I count it a blessing that I didn’t stay broken, even though it took years to be put back together. So maybe I was overly invested in this movie about bullying, sure, but I think still that it’s message is powerful and raw and deserving of our time. I feel as though every bullied kid featured in that film deserves for us to sit and take in their story. Watch it, seriously.
We also watched End Of Watch which had SO MUCH LANGUAGE but was surprisingly really good. It was my husband’s pick because he likes action movies. And there is a ton of action in this movie. Our pastor always jokes that he convinces his wife to watch action movies by telling her it’s a love story because most likely there will be some sort of relationship/romance plotline in it. Like “Braveheart is TOTALLY a love story!” But I actually did enjoy all of the different relationship dynamics in this one. It’s a tearjerker though y’all. I think I even saw a glimmer of a tear in Jeff’s eye, but don’t tell him I put that on the internet.
Okay, and I watched Revenge Of The Bridesmaids. I couldn’t sleep one night and Netflix kept recommending it to me because apparently based on my movie watching history, Netflix thinks that I am a 13 year old girl (see above reference to the Baby Sitter’s Club.) Anyhow, I can’t exactly fault them because I totally watched it. It was actually pretty funny, if not predictable, and if it had anyone other than Raven Symone in it, probably would have been really good. I just feel like she’s more “Disney Channel” less “Carry A Film.” But I’m the thirty year old watching Revenge Of The Bridesmaids at one in the morning so what do I know?
What have y’all watched lately that you would recommend? And also, Catching Fire: how did you feel about it?
(This post was written in partnership with Netflix. All opinions are my own, obviously. I’m sure the nice people at Netflix were not expecting me to get all teary eyed about being bullied and then also be all “STOP IT WITH RAVEN SYMONE, ABC.”)
