My Review of the New Noah Movie

I do all my blog writing over  on the Synod Blog now.  Mostly newsy stuff but once in awhile I get to have an opinion.  This week I review the new Noah Movie. 

New Star Trek Movie is Not Really A Star Trek Movie

Star Trek:  Into Darkness uses familiar characters and story lines but it's really just another shoot people and blow up things adventure film.  It is entertaining except that I found the gratuitous violence just boring and tedious after awhile.  "Yawn...okay well...are we done cracking his skull yet?"

While I enjoyed the adventure, when I got home and thought about it I kind of felt like I had been manipulated as a Trekkie to go and see a film I probably would not have otherwise gone to see.

I understand that a movie cannot be as cerebral as the television shows and has to have more action.  But I thought the 2009 Star Trek with Chris Pine managed to make an exciting adventure film AND stay true to the star trek "feel" as well as enhancing the narrative by giving us an insight into the young Captain Kirk and what made him the captain he became. 

Into Darkness gives us no real insights other than the cliche he's a rebel who does what he thinks is right, damn the consequences.  Blah blah blah.

Take the opening scene.  The crew of the Enterprise have violated the Prime Directive.  Personally I think the whole of Star Trek is about the Prime Directive.  Can we really interact with other cultures, other people, without interfering?  What is the price of our influence?  What is the price of our refusal to get involved?  Do modern humans bring good or ill?  Or both?  For me, grappling with these questions is the real draw of Star Trek for me.

There was no such grappling in this movie.  Kirk disregards the Prime Directive because it's stupid.   We are not even supposed to question if he did the right thing; we are just supposed to feel sorry for him that such a talented and earnest young man is thwarted by stupid Federation rules.

I thought most of the dialogue was not particularly clever or insightful to the characters.  If it was a little amusing it was only because it exploits what we know of these characters from other movies and TV shows.  It is disappointing that the movie does absolutely nothing to further our understanding of them as young adults as they are forming their characters. 

Without "spoiling" it, I'll just say the main storyline is just a further exploitation and cannibalization of a familiar plot that does nothing to enhance that story either.

And my final complaint is that in trying to entertain us with the special effects of explosions and giant star-ships crashing into San Francisco, the loss of property and life that would be so devestating to real star trek era people was glossed over.  That is probably the most "un-Star Trek" part of the whole movie.

All in all I give it a "meh".

Let's End Hunger in America. AGAIN

 You need to see A Place at the Table.*  And then you need to show it at your churches.  And then we need to mobilize to convince our worthless congress to do something that has proven to solve hunger (or "food insecurity" which is the new word for it) in our country.  We've done it before, we can do it again.

Back in the 70s I was pretty into World Hunger and especially Bread for the World.  I was always organizing Offerings of Letters.  And this is the thing I didn't realize but was pointed out in this movie.   We actually pretty much solved the hunger problem in the United States.  I know to hear the Right Wing mantra of what a failure the "welfare state" was and what a waste the war of poverty was, you problably didn't realize this.  But between food stamps, WIC and school lunches, people stopped being hungry.  We still had poverty and unemployment and drugs and racism and all kinds of problems that are harder to solve.  But at least people were not hungry.  And you have eat before you can do anything else.

And then the 80s.  And Reagan who everyone thinks was such a hero.  And complaints about "big government".  And food stamps and school lunches were defunded.  And now people, children, go to bed hungry.  In this country.

And now the popular thing is to say "Let the private sector take care of it"  Let the churches feed people.  This is the thing, churches ARE feeding people.  Churches and charities are making a herculean effort.  If churches and charities could solve the problem, they would have.  People are not hungry because Christians don't care.  This is what solves hunger in America - Government programs like food stamps, WIC and school lunches (funded at more than 90 cents a meal)  That's the truth.

Yes there are more complicated and difficult issues like our Agriculture polices.  But I think we can start by making people understand what a difference we can do by funding food stamps and school lunches.  It's a start.  Let's go back to offerings of letters.  Let's sponsor more Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Jewish, whatever, Day on the Hill, where we all advocate for doing what we did before, ending hunger in America.  We did it before.  We can do it again.  Or least we can try.

* Information on public screenings of A Place at the Table here.

Growing Up with Ben Hur Theology

And here I bet you thought Ben Hur was just all about Charlton Heston's bare chest.  

My mom grew up Roman Catholic but when she divorced and married my father that was the end of that.  Then she got into Norman Vincent Peal, power of positive thinking and all that.  Which is really odd because she was not a positive person at all.  But enough about her.

I like to think of Ben Hur as her other theology.  Her answer to all adversity was to remember how he was condemned to be a galley slave and how hopeless that seemed but he escaped and when it came time for the climax of the movie, the chariot race, it was his time as a galley slave that made him strong enough to win the race.  And that's all I ever remembered about that movie.  When there was another important theme of that movie, you know, the futility of vengeance, power of forgiveness, that kind of thing. But the lessons of the galley slave is not a bad lesson to teach your kids.

So last night I was skimming through the channels and discovered a new Ben Hur on a channel I didn't even know I had, "Ovation".  They kept showing commercials for the premier next week on Easter, but they showed the whole thing last night.  It's more based on the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace.

Look!  It's Sir Robert Crawley as Pontius Pilate!

It's very good and if you get this channel, I recommend you watch it, or DVR it as there is also the return of "Call the Midwife" and "Game of Thrones" to look forward to.

I Don't Usually Use Movie Scenes in my Sermons but....

In Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett is caught in an embrace with Ashley, the whole community is outraged at her for Melanie's sake.  However when Rhett forced Scarlett to attend Melanie's party, expecting Melanie to shut the door in her face, Melanie takes firm hold of Scarlett and insists her guests welcome her.  If they will be Melanie's friend, they will be kind to Scarlett. 

This is what happens when the father runs in such an
 undignified manner to meet his returning son outside of town.  The town is outraged at the son for how he has treated his father but the father will escort the son back into town telling all that his son has returned. "Love me, Love my son!" he tells them all.

Red Tails - The Star Wars Version

My daughter was home from college this weekend.  We took in "Red Tails" tonight.  As I said on Twitter "It was um, "Lucaesque"

Such a darn shame because this is a great story and could have been a great movie.  It's the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, African American pilots during World War II. George  Apparently HBO has made a really good movie--Tuskegee Airmen.  Rent that instead of wasting your time on this one. 

Unless you actually liked the storyline and dialogue of the last Star Wars Movies.  Because this is just as bad.  My daughter says the acting is terrible but I think the problem is bad dialogue that no amount of acting talent can fix.  

SPOILER ALERT (although you can see this coming from a mile away)

This is how it ended for us.  Final big fire fight  (In typical Star Wars fashion, there are loud flashy air fights) and the big bad German pilot (complete with a scar on his face) woodenly intones "Die you foolish African".  So when one of the guys who you knew was going to die because his Italian girlfriend who can't even speak English and he can't speak Italian has agreed to marry him...finally gets shot and is dying and dying and dying and telling his buddy he's dying (in the cockpit while flying of course) I couldn't help it - I leaned over to my daughter and whispered "DIE YOU FOOLISH AFRICAN!" and we both giggled and laughed as his plane went down.  Probably not the reaction Lucas was going for.

I'm giving it a thumbs down.

It's a Wonderful Life (As Long as you are not an Old Maid)

 Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE "It's a Wonderful Life".  I watch it every year.  I know it by heart.  I just love the message of how every single person impacts their world.  As we get more and more into a culture that encourages people to just follow their dream, whatever the consequences, I like the message of learning to appreciate and love the life you are "stuck with" even if you never fulfill your dream of traveling the world.

But even when I was a kid, there was one scene that bugged me.  It's when, after discovering all the terrible things that happen in a world without George Bailey, Clarence has to break the news to George about the worst thing that happened to poor Mary.  And he can barely choke the words out..."She's....an OLD MAID" 

An OLD MAID? OH NO!  Worse than the town being ruined by Potter.  Worse than poor old Mr. Gower accidentally poisoning a child in his grief and going to prison.  Worse even than his own brother drowning because he wasn't there to save him.   Poor Mary has turned from a vibrant, happy, clever woman into a fearful, dried up old maid.  Who needs glasses now!

To be fair, perhaps it's just a way of making it clear to George, who always thought Mary could do better than him, that no, he was the one she loved and wanted.  But I see a more sinister message.

This is 1946.  Right after WW2  women dropped their children into daycare and went about the business of holding the country together without the menfolk just fine thank you very much.  Perhaps the women needed a not-so subtle message that they really did need the menfolk?

Or maybe I've just seen this movie too many times and am overthinking it.

"Easy A" - Funny, Entertaining but also a little Disturbing

 

Sneaking off the the afternoon matinee is getting to be something of a habit for me these days.  I saw a trailer for this movie and it sounded like fun.

First you have to get past not believing that Emma Stone, who plays the main character, Olive would go totally unnoticed in high school.  But she does.  Until she makes up a story about losing her virginity to explain why she didn't want to go camping with her best friend.  She is overheard in the bathroom by good girl Jesus freak Marianne who spreads the story all over school.  Suddenly Olive is noticed by everyone.

Now some people like Roger Ebert in his review, find it difficult to believe that such a story could be such a big deal in today's high school.  Well I've been to Ojai (where the story takes place) and I've been in small towns and while perhaps exaggerated, it is not totally unbelievable.

The name "Easy A" come from "The Scarlett Letter",  which Olive and her classmates are studying in English.  Olive decides to take full advantage of her new found notoriety, sews a scarlet A on her clothes and plays the part of the fallen woman to the max.

This is where it began to disturb me.  First she agrees to pretend to have sex with her gay friend who is being bullied.  Once everyone thinks he's been with her, he's accepted and popular.  Ew.  This movie came out before the rash of suicides by young gay victims of bullying but still...

Then she agrees to do the same for all the misfit and geeky boys in the school, in return for gift certificates to Pizza dives and home improvement stores.  You can tell she's clearly uncomfortable with this but doesn't know how to get out of it.

The movie purports to be about the importance of reputation but to me this is about using women for sex.  She is being used by these boys for her sexuality just as surely as if she had actually had sex wit them.  And she's being used to enhance their reputation so that they can have real sex -- that is, use other girls.

The other thing that is disturbing about this film is how utterly useless all the adults in Olive's life are.  Her English teacher expresses concern but can offer littler other than "you'll figure this out".  The guidance counselor hands her a handful of condoms and shoves her out the door.

That scene was a great illustration of how I believe we have let girls down in this culture.  Instead of teaching them independence and self-worth by who they are and what they can accomplish, we teach them their self-worth depends on their "purity" or we hand out birth control so they can continue to seek approval by using their sexuality.   The purity and the birth control people are handing young girls the same message - "Your value is in your sexuality --either save it as the only precious gift you can offer your husband or give it away but just make sure you don't get pregnant or an STD"

Even her parents, who are cool and supportive have nothing to offer her.  When Olive finally finds herself over head and confides in her mother, her mother simply says "You are smarter than me, you'll figure your way out of this"

So Olive is left alone to figure this stuff all by herself.  Is this how teenagers feel in our world?  That adults are totally useless to them?  Have we so abandoned our young people?

Oh and don't get me started about how the church lets her down.   From the snotty judgmental Marianne to a Bible that confuses her more than helps her, to two churches, there is no help for her from the church.  We can whine and moan about how Christianity is portrayed in the media or we can ask "why do people have the perception the church cannot help this girl?"  What help have we offered young people trying to find their way through this culture of sexual exploitation? 

I think this would be a good movie to take youth groups to --or rent when it comes out later -there is potential for some really good discussion. 

 

The Social Network

Lately I'm discovering the joy of (and cheapness) of sneaking away for an afternoon matinee.  My excuse is that I need to keep up with the culture by seeing what everyone else is seeing. And Facebook fan that I am, I had to see the story of how it came to be.

I did have some warning by feminist critics of the misogyny of this movie.  Women basically exist in this movie to be screwed.  Sorry for my vulgarity but that's how it needs to be said.  I understand this is about college boys and they can be single minded on this subject but I have faith in young men and believe that even they do, somewhere in there, have less superficial relationships.

Interestingly enough, I believe it is the movie's protagonist, Mark Zuckerberg, who was the least misogynist character.  This despite the fact that according to the story, the whole Facebook thing began when his girlfriend dumps him for being asshole and then he proceeds to be even more of an asshole by saying cruel things about her on his blog.

But Mark Zuckerberg  (in the movie anyway) is neither a misogynist nor an asshole.  He's a genius with no social skills.  There is speculation that he has Asperger's syndrome.  Having a son with Asperger's, I saw the familiar signs and all I could feel for the movie character you are supposed to hate was sympathy.  The more of a jerk he was, the more I felt badly for him.  We think we don't act like assholes because we are good people.  We just have learned, through non-verbal and other informal ways how NOT TO ACT like assholes.  Some people don't learn that.  We are not better than them.  We have just learned to lie better.

Even Mark's relationship and eventual betrayal of his only friend Eduardo Saverin is more complicated than it seems.  Despite Saverin's loyalty and obvious love of his friend, he was ill prepared to deal with the growth and vision of his friend's project then called "the Facebook"    He was out of his element trying to be a business manager with an already outdated textbook business model.  Mark tried to warn him "I'm afraid you are going to be left behind".  Even under the best of circumstances, you could see that this was not going to end well.  These were 20 year old BOYS with no life experience, one of whom, never really understood how to be a friend, despite his longing to have them.

A Movie All Figure Skating Fans are Looking Forward to

On February 15, 1961 a plane crashed on route to landing in Brussels, Belgium and burst into flames.  Everyone on board was killed instantly, including the entire US World Figure Skating team, consisting of 18 athletes and 16 family members, coaches, and officials on their way to the World Championships.  The loss was so devastating to the entire sport that the World Championships were canceled that year.


To commemorate the 50th anniversary of that loss and to celebrate Figure Skating, a movie RISE, will premier February 17, 2011.  Get out your tissues

Eat, Pray, Love - Part Chick Flick, part Travelogue - Low on Spirituality

 But who wouldn't want to find their balance with this guy?

Really this movie is supposed to be about spirituality?  People who saw this movie really think that?  Supposedly there is more spirituality in the book but I cannot bring myself to read that book.  The only reason I did not despise the main character is because Julia Roberts played her and I just cannot help loving Julia Roberts, no matter what kind of a person she plays.


I did my own escape today and went off to see the matinee  showing.  I can't really spring for a trip to Italy, India and Bali so I had to settle for some self-discovery with popcorn in the Ames theatre.  I kept thinking what the hell is this woman's problem?  Everybody loves her.  She keeps meeting good looking men who fall desperately in love with her, but she's not happy or "balanced".   Hey, Honey, go work in the slums of Calcutta and then maybe you'll appreciate your life a little better.  Everybody's life looks a little dull compared to traipsing around the world for a year.


I've been to Rome and India and would love to go to Bali so I enjoyed the scenery as she eats and tries to pray her way through these countries.  And I enjoy a good romance and and her final romance - Javier Bardem is pretty easy to look at so it was not a wasted afternoon for me.  


I guess if I get anything out of this it is how badly we are off in this culture if this drivel passes for spirituality.

I Guess I have to Go See "Eat Pray Love" Now

Even though there's a serial killer from General Hospital in it.  This is the problem being stuck in the small town Lutheran midwest.  I didn't know until I read on Pretty Good Lutherans that this book and now movie is what the unchurched is turning to for spiritual food nowadays.  Or maybe it's a blessing that I didn't know that.   So there is this review from Faith Forward which sees Eat Pray Love as an invitation for Christians.  

But I really like this review - How Eat, Pray, Love Turned me into a Selfish Bitch.  

I guess I'll go see it and tell you which perspective  I prefer.  I wonder if I can write off my ticket as a business expense...

Why Soap Operas are Bad For You

 I love my "stories".  I have been watching All My Children since it started and I was a teenager.  Erika and I got pregnant at the same time only she had her baby 3 months later.  I had to wait the whole nine months.

Pretty Good Lutherans is talking about "Eat Pray Love" being made into a movie and how you must be living under a rock if you don't know about it.  All I know about it is that James Franco is in it and he plays a crazy serial killer in General Hospital.  I usually watch anything with Julia Roberts but I don't think I can see this movie.  I saw a preview and while watching Franco talk to Roberts all I could think was "GET AWAY FROM HIM! HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU!"

You HAVE to see Julie and Julia

I see Father over at Madeline's Egg has beat me to reviewing Julie and Julia even though I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed that movie so much and wanted to write a review worthy of it and you know how you get so hung up on doing something well that you actually never to it?

Anyway someone has to mention there was more than the hot sexy scenes between a tall woman and short man which so impressed Father. I don't know how tall Father is, but you know....

As a someone who fancies herself a cook and grew up watching Julia Child, this movie of course was a must see. It's a wonderful portrayal of an amazing woman who was full of life and passion and confidence. She was tall and independent in an era when women were supposed to be dimminutive and dependent. And yet she was able to find that balance of independence as well as being supportive and loving and giving to her husband. Something a lot of modern women in the name of feminism seem to have a difficult time figuring out how to maintain.

Like that other girl in the movie what was her name, Julie? I have to say I was much less interested in her story, though I realize her book is the only reason we have this movie. I thought she was kind of a selfish little twit. But at least she sort of realized that at the end as well. I still can't figure out how she got famous by writing a blog about cooking. But if it bring this movie to theatres, I'm all for it.

At a time when Madison Avenue was convincing women they didn't have the time or the skill to do complicated things in the kitchen, Julia was telling women, yes you can. You can bake a cake from scratch. You can dress a chicken. You can make an aspic. (Although why you would want to, I don't know) And the storyline about Julie does show how being able to conquer these tasks in the kitchen gave a floundering young woman confidence and purpose and maybe even helped her become a better wife and human being.

This movie made me want to go home and cook something, which I think I did. I read somewhere that homecooking is now considered a "hobby". I'm just always amazed at the number of children that are fed frozen processed food when it's really NOT that time consuming to make a decent dinner out of real food. I can put some really good stuff together in a half hour. Anybody that is too busy to take a half hour to prepare healthy good food for their family needs to reevaluate their priorities. And no I don't just mean women. When my husband was alive, he did most of the everyday cooking. I was mostly in charge of special meals.

Anyway. Go see the movie. You will like it.

Turning Books into Movies

...is always fraught with peril and fans of the book are usually disappointed with the movie. (Although I thought they did a fine job with Gone with the Wind!).

So "My Sister's Keeper" was on my wish list of books to read but I didn't get to it before the movie came out. Didn't read the book, didn't read much about the movie so did not realize that apparently they changed the ending. And it seems those who read the book hated the movie because of that change. I'm actually kind of glad I didn't read the book because I loved the movie.

From what I've read, I think I have guessed the twist ending in the book but of course now I must read the book. I understand the brother's character is more developed and he was the one character that was least fleshed out in the movie. My daughter and I both were a little confused by him. The trouble is, with a movie you just cannot do justice to all the characters the way you can in a book. Some things have to be sacrificed.

Anyway I'd be interested in comments from anyone who has both read the book and seen the movie. Just don't spoil it. Even though I think I've figured it out. Now I must get the book!

My Sister’s Keeper - Review

My daughter and I went to see My Sister's Keeper when it opened Friday night. This is a very good movie. Well written story. Good acting. Bring Kleenex. I could hear the entire packed theater sniffling. I cried a lot. But it was not a sentimental Hallmark manipulated cry. I simply cried with the story, so engrossed in it I often wasn't even aware I was crying.

This movie is not what you think it is about when you read the description. The story begins with the voice of 11 year old Anna Fitzgerald describing how she had been genetically engineered to be a match for her older sister Kate, who has cancer so that she could first donate cord blood, then later white blood cells, bone marrow, and finally when our story takes place her sister needs her kidney. Anna announces she has had of enough giving away her body parts and seeks a lawyer to sue "medical emancipation" so that she has the right to decide about giving away her body parts.

But the movie is not really about the moral and ethical dilemma of such a situation. The movie is about how a family survives when one child is sick and a mother decides her only purpose in life is to keep one child alive.

There was a period of time just before my son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and was having all kinds of problems and so I know the danger and the guilt of being all consumed by the present and pressing needs of one child to the point of neglect of the other.

The deeper question the movie brings out is -just how much control do we have and should we have? Kate has no control of her life or death. Anna fights for control of her body. Their mother fights so hard for control of the situation that she nearly loses everything. Where do we draw the line about control?

This Sundays' gospel is about two different people seeking Jesus' healing. Jairus the powerful man must give up control and even wait to receive Jesus' help. The woman with the flow of blood must take control of her life to seek Jesus' healing. There is a time to take control and fight for your life and those whom you love. And there is a time to let go. The difficulty is in deciding which time is which. That is what My Sister's Keeper is about.