Somewhere: Dad
My dad and I have a typical father-daughter relationship, if that even makes sense. It often feels like any problems I want to share with my parents immediately go to my mom because we are so similar: a large part of it being because we are both girls. My dad can’t provide much advice when it comes to more girl-oriented issues, which he can’t help. But something we could always bond over was movies.
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My dad and I have the same sense of humor. We make the same types of jokes and laugh at the same punchlines. When it comes to this, we just have the same taste in movies. I remember one of the first movies my dad and I saw alone together in the theater. Since my mom preferred more deep, romantic, or serious types of movies and my sister was still so young, my dad and I were the only ones left to appreciate a classic comedy. We had watched plenty of these types of movies at home when my mom was at a work dinner, but this Saturday in June was our first excursion to the velvet red chairs. We walked into the air-conditioned foyer of the mall and made our way to the AMC in the back. We were both eager to watch the movie, though I had close to no idea what it was about. We then scanned our tickets, but not without a quizzical look from the ticket clerk. The movie was rated R, but how bad could it be, right?
We entered the movie theater and sat in our seats in the very front. After a quick scan of the room, I realized that I was most definitely the youngest person there. It wasn’t until about 15 minutes into the movie that my dad and I both began to understand why. The movie was graphic: not graphic in terms of gore, but intense, grown-up sexual content. Nevertheless, I was dying laughing the entire time. My dad turned red and contemplated leaving, but we ended up having so much fun. That’s the type of dad that mine is — he’s so carefree and fun that everything we do together ends up being a wild ride.
The movie Somewhere was one of the first serious movies my dad and I were able to bond over. He said it reminded him of me: it was so interesting to me that nostalgia could work in seemingly every direction since its definition is different according to everyone. The movie is almost like a love letter to LA, our hometown, but through the lens of a father-daughter relationship. It was more real than I initially thought: after one watch I was confused why my dad saw me in the girl on screen. But as I grew older and I gained more perspective, I was able to step outside myself and see how much teen angst I held like the girl in the film. My dad did so much to try and connect with me but I often ignored his attempts. I didn’t see our relationship as abnormal since I was so focused on my relationship with my mom, but this movie felt like a mirror was put in front of us. Ever since we bonded over this, our communication has gotten better and I have tried to come to him with problems too since he is always willing to help. I always think back to the movie’s theme of the daughter being so infatuated with her father by the end since she realized how much he loved her. I realize that now too.
