A24 wants to turn your baby into a lm bu
at the moment. He’s most fascinated by the ones that involve death and dying – big, meaty themes. Children will grapple with complicated ideas if you let them. When we were choosing these films, we weren’t just choosing ones that are sweet.”
No, your kid isn’t going to be quoting Fassbinder before they can ride a bicycle. But A24, a trendy studio that has earned a reputation as an industry tastemaker, is well-positioned to turn your kid into a rambunctious, sticky-fingered film buff. Preschoolers are guided toward some famous titles – including Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) and Disney’s “The Fox and the Hound” (1981) – but also to niche entries such as “Rainbow Dance” (1936), pioneering animator Len Lye’s striking color film, and “Microcosmos” (1996), a French documentary on tiny creatures.
These recommendations arrive after a foreword by Julian Shapiro-barnum, a 25-yearold comedian known for posing life’s big questions to little kids playing outside in New York in his popular web series, “Recess Therapy.” Existential topics are rendered simple by children wise beyond their years (“Everybody has a little bit of kindness in them that they can change into a lot of kindness,” one girl plainly states).
“I have consistently been blown away by how much kids are aware of,” Shapiro-barnum said in an interview. “They have very uncomplicated opinions about those concepts in a way that’s really powerful. I feel like adults overcomplicate things, and kids can see them in a little more of a black-and-white way.”