A LIST OF STEP-FAVORITES
My favorite books and movies about divorce and/or stepparents (some of them wicked, some of them good), in order of preference:
FANNY AND ALEXANDER (movie): See it. See it. See it. Best movie of all time. Best child’s vision of the world ever captured on film. And it has the evilest stepfather ever. No ambiguity here. He’s just plain evil.
DAVID COPPERFIELD (book): Read it. Read it. Read it. One of the best books of all time (okay, I can’t bring myself to say The Best, but it’s up there). Another great evil stepfather character. And it kind of addresses the concept of Moving On. In its own way.
HALF MAGIC (book): One of my favorite children’s books. And the stepfather is actually kind of nice. But it also shows how hard it is to let a stranger into your life.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (movie): One of the greatest movies about divorce, ever. It also addresses what it feels like when your parents start going out on dates. Wonderfully ambiguous and melancholy.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (movie): No stepparents, just more divorce and child-rearing, in all its terrible glory.
CINDERELLA and SNOW WHITE (the Disney movies): These movies instilled the fear in us before our parents even separated: The wicked stepmother is out there. And she has long fingernails.
I want more recommendations. I’ve heard that “Juno” has a pretty realistic stepmother character in it, but I couldn’t bring myself to go see it. That preview was way way way too quippy and cute.
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