Slacker Movies

How troubling that children are being arrested for such things as throwing temper tantrums in schools (Bob Herbert’s column, June 9, 2007, New York Times). Does anyone else notice a strange juxtaposition between this phenomenon and the ever-more-popular movies about immature males (and sometimes females) in such hits as “You, Me and Dupree,” “Knocked Up,” “ Zoolander,” “Wedding Crashers,” My Baby’s Daddy,” Failure to Launch,” “Click,” “Loser,” and, of course, “American Pie” ? To be sure, some of these do have a moral to them, that is, men ought to grow up. Yet I doubt if the “moral” is why ticket sales are so high for these pictures. Contrast this with more arrests of children acting, well, like children, meaning immature. On the one hand we glorify juvenile behavior and help make sometimes marginally talented actors millionaires, and on the other hand, we punish youngsters for not being grown-ups. What’s the message here?