Liping Pauline Kael and “The King of the World”. It wasn’t long before we were watching “The King of the World” again in the car.

“Hey Pauline, I found the movie that we wanted to view in the car, we’ll go and see it.”

I agreed and put my phone beside me and said, “Hey, where do you see that?”

She took her phone out and began browsing through the movies she’d downloaded. I sat there with Pauline and I just got to this part where she asked me what I thought of the movie.

“I really like it! Why?”

She didn’t reply to that, just looked at the screen before showing me her own movie review.

“Why is that?”

She asked the same question again and again. Then Pauline said, “The King of the World is a great movie. It’s so much more than the movies I remember. I love this movie so much!”

So I handed my phone to Pauline and said, “Look, what’s up?”

She took her phone back out and said “I have this really good review. It’s a must-view for any movie nerd.”

Pauline didn’t seem to be the type to pick up a movie review but in those moments of watching movies she couldn’t help but be happy to know she was doing a good job. You know, the kind of person you want to be.

* * *

What really made those moments in the car so special for me and for Pauline was the fact that both of us were at an age where we can make this kind of leap from watching movies to actually playing those movies. We didn’t have any children yet and we didn’t have any friends nor were we any good at playing with people. If we didn’t see a big blockbuster or a big movie we definitely didn’t get into it. When I remember those moments of her saying the things she’d said about movies to myself I’m reminded about my own time in that room watching movies. Just like the film reviews, I’d say them to Pauline and she’d look at my phone and see her review in an instant and say, “Oh yeah, that’s what I found!”

In those moments I was enjoying watching movies with my fellow movie nerds. There was no pressure. Sometimes I’d watch for