In Pairings, artists and creators pick the movies that complement their latest work.
Darby Saxbe, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California. Her new book Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives is available wherever you get your books!
We asked Darby to pick a few movies that pair well with Dad Brain. Here’s what she and her daughter Violet Long wrote about them.
The Squid and the Whale
My interest in studying fatherhood, which led to Dad Brain, emerged initially because of my relationship with my dad. After my parents got divorced, they negotiated joint custody, and my brothers and I shuttled back between my mom’s house and my dad’s house every week. Although there were some growing pains, my father ultimately rose to the occasion as a primary parent. Thankfully, my parents had a less toxic relationship than the parents played by Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney in Noah Baumbach’s film, who struggle with their own joint-custody arrangement.
Boyhood
Although this film centers on the development of the titular boy, played by Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke’s character also adapts and changes over the years. He is not quite ready to be a father when his kids are young, but he slowly grows into a family man, develops his own “dad brain,” and becomes a solid role model for his son.
The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson’s film is driven by the efforts of Royal, the patriarch of the family, to reconnect with his kids and his wife. But his family eventually figures out that he is faking a terminal illness and kicks him out. In the meantime, Ben Stiller’s character has overcompensated for his own untrustworthy father by becoming an anxious dad who is obsessed with preparing his sons for disaster. Wes Anderson excels at capturing oddball family dynamics, and there are a lot of eccentric “dad brains” at play here.
Finding Nemo
Fathers vary widely across the animal kingdom, but male fish are some of the best caregivers out there. True to the movie’s plot, clownfish fathers are primary parents who guard over their offspring. Finding Nemo is arguably the quintessential dad movie: a film about dads that dads can watch with their own kids.
Mamma Mia
In a chapter called “Who’s Your Daddy,” Dad Brain describes how men handle uncertainty about which children they have fathered. It describes one model, that of “partible paternity,” in which multiple males share in the fatherhood role. “Partiple paternity” is practiced within 70% of the indigineous communities in the Amazon basin, but it is rare in other societies. However, Mamma Mia is a fun fictional experiment in partiple paternity: all three lead male characters amicably decide to share the role of “one third of a dad” to Amanda Seyfried’s character.
Daddy Longlegs
A good illustration of what NOT to do as a dad, this early film by the Safdie brothers depicts fatherhood as a chaotic tightrope walk. In it, the main character, a divorced dad played by Ronald Bronstein, encounters numerous setbacks in his quest to make memories with his kids. Josh Safdie continues to explore the idea of fatherhood in his latest film, Marty Supreme, in which Marty undergoes a strong emotional and personal transformation after his baby is born.
