Film Nerd 2.0 comes full circle with a special birthday column

The Film Nerd 2.0 columns are some of the most personal and impactful pieces of film criticism I've written. I hear from people all the time about the way they have approached sharing media with their own kids, and I can't think of a higher honor as a writer than seeing your work reflected in the way someone else approaches such an important part of their lives.

For the past few years, I've been working with those original columns in a different context, and that's led me to reflect on the reason and the way they were created. When you write this kind of personal material, you are sharing intimate parts of your life, and that's a choice you can make as the writer. My kids didn't really get to make that choice, though. They were the subjects of these articles, but they weren't participants in the sense that they had any real agency.

Toshi turns 21 later this year, and today, my younger son turns 18. They are both technically adults now, and my relationship with each of them has changed drastically over time. I can see the men they're going to be now. They're both coming into focus in different ways, and I genuinely like and respect them both. I think I've had a part in raising two kind and empathetic people who seem to want to do good in the world, whatever career paths they finally pursue.

They both have Kindles linked to my account, so they can share my media, and I recently loaded all of the Film Nerd 2.0 columns onto the Kindle as a PDF. When my youngest started reading them, we talked about his reaction a bit, and the more we talked, the more it felt like he genuinely had something to say, and not just to me. After all, if anyone has the right to call themselves Film Nerd 2.0, my sons do. Those columns are a snapshot of their shared childhood, but from the perspective of their father. When they read those columns now, they're stories about someone else, someone totally disconnected to the people they are at this point. I never really thought about how that would feel, but clearly, it's something that has been on my son's mind.

"Why aren't you using his name?" you might ask, and that's because I've always referred to him by his first name in print. He's recently made a decision, though, and he is starting to use his middle name instead. It feels like I'm kind of reintroducing him here, so I'll let him explain his decision...