Watch this movie

Call it an escape from today’s violent world. So what? What’s wrong with watching an awesome feel-good movie?

I didn’t watch this year’s Oscars. It’s not that I always watched the ceremony in previous years, but sometimes I did. I love all things pop culture.

Rarely did I watch a movie that won the main award (Best Picture), I thought — wow, spot-on, it’s the best movie of the year. For example, Nomadland and Parasite were fine movies, but they didn’t touch me much.

This past weekend was different though.

Because we have four kids of different ages, picking a movie to rent or buy is never easy in my family; there are always arguments and most movies get dismissed on the basis of a trailer. Often there is an attempt to find something that satisfies everyone but my older kids (two teenage sons) end up walking out anyway. “Not watching that!”

It was like a few days ago. My oldest son was playing video games, and his younger fifteen-year-old brother was going to join us but when he heard from another room that we were checking out the trailer for Coda he never came back to the living room.

So we watched Coda, this year’s winner of Best Picture.

I didn’t have any expectations, but Oh. My. Word.

I’m lost for superlatives. They will all sound cliche.

A masterpiece.

An instant classic.