review of the film club

david gilmour (his face, if not his name, would be familiar to most canadians. he's been a fixture at cbc for years and years) recently published the film club. there is a review on the back that says that it's about what happens when the author decided to homeschool his teenaged son by watching movies with him. i thought 'great! a book about unschooling!!'. but i was wrong. it isn't a book about homeschooling or unschooling or anything else like that. it's a book about a guy watching movies with his son.

what gets me about this book is the way the author looks at his son. he sees his boy the way i see mine. that kid is golden. he has flaws and shortcomings and he screws up but he is the best thing, ever. when it comes right down to it, the book is a love letter to gilmour's son. it's beautiful and it rings true.

i don't know much about movies and haven't seen most of the films mentioned in the book. the book was obviously meant for someone who has seen them or at least wants to, so i think my partner got a lot more out of it. i probably missed 1/3 of the content of the book just because i don't really care about cinema. so people who have kids and love movies would get the most out of this book. people with no kids who aren't interested in movies would simply be bored.