A recent conversation in my Bible study focused on how we interact with people who are different from us. I assumed we would talk about ethnic or religious differences, but the discussion focused on generational differences. All members of the group are recent college graduates and we consider how we talk about boomers and millennials, but also how they talk about us as members of Generation Z.
There are tensions in those differences, but believers from older generations have also discipled us and prayed for us. And shortly after that conversation, I was reminded again of the profound value of those relationships in the place I least expected: Adam Sandler’s new Netflix children’s movie. Lion.
Lion centers on a class pet lizard (voiced by Sandler) who suddenly discovers he only has one year to live. This realization forces him to consider what he wants to do with the time he has left, and his initial idea is to escape the classroom and explore the world. His bucket list includes catching a fly, seeing the Everglades and showing his moves to a lizard.
Leo’s escape plans are thwarted when the teacher decides he will be sent home with a different student each weekend. Soon, he finds himself less focused on flies and women and more interested in counseling the boys in his class, talking to them about social dynamics, grief, and even early puberty.
Some of this happens in the song.Lion is an entertaining musical with satirical and thoughtful songs. The animation style varies throughout the film, distinguishing flashbacks and hypotheses from the main narrative. (A member of my family was an artist on the film, but that relationship did not influence this review.) For younger viewers, the plot is easy to follow – a simpler plot than many children’s films released in recent years.
What’s also unusual is the decision not to make the main character a child or young adult. There are exceptions, especially Pixar. Above—But children’s films often allow children to see themselves in the protagonist. Children may identify with one or more of the students Leo gets to know (as can adults). But centering the movie on the elderly Leo pushes even young children to consider a new perspective: How are we spending? our Limited time? And how do we relate across generational lines in our own lives?
Leo finally makes the decision to invest in the younger generation instead of pursuing adventures. He spends time listening, comforting, and loving the students. Wouldn’t Leo be a talking lizard and Lion It is not an Adam Sandler film, we could even say that it disciples them.
In the process, Lion models not only the importance of intergenerational friendships in a historically lonely time, but also the importance of their reciprocity. Younger people must respect their elders (1 Pet. 5:5) and pay attention to their wisdom (Titus 2:4-8), but we also need space to dialogue and ask questions without fear of being judged or rejected. Both young and old need a true friendship in which each side can gently help and learn from the other, like Naomi and Ruth, Moses and Joshua, Paul and Timothy.
At one point, Leo sings to a student, Mia, a lullaby about how pathetic it is to cry. At first the scene bothered me, but Mia laughs politely, pulls out a science book, and explains that crying releases endorphins and can help you feel better. Later in the film, when Leo is moved to tears, he turns to Mia and acknowledges that she has helped him just as he helped her. “You’re right about the endorphins,” he says. “It really feels amazing.”
The writer of Ecclesiastes understood how this works long before. Lion He said: “Two are better than one, because they get a good reward for their work; If one falls, one can help the other up” (4:9-10). In friendship, we are especially able to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works, not failing to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more so, as you see.” The day is approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25).
This type of intimate advice and mutual support can be difficult across generations. But that difficulty should not discourage us. Like every generation of young people before us, Generation Z needs and wants to hear the stories of our elders. We want to be discipled by you, “accompany and participate in a thousand situations,” as David Brooks says. puts in The second mountain. We want to learn from you and maybe sometimes teach you something too.
Leo’s bond with his fifth grade class is transformative for both Lizard and the students. He gains companionship, purpose and new energy for life. And they learn to love him, ultimately giving up a long-awaited gift to rescue his friend.
At the end of the film, Leo breaks the fourth wall and tells viewers to find a “Leo,” an older mentor, of their own. “They are willing to listen,” he says. “I promise they’ll make you feel better.” So they will do it. But among Christians, we are promised something deeper and more lasting than a better state of mind: our cross-generational friendships can help us on our path as followers of Christ.
Mia Staub is the content director of Christianity today.
