2010s, Article, Awards, Engaging Culture, Philosophy, Theology

Redeeming the Oscars

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Another year and another Oscars ceremony in the books. I have a love-hate relationship with the Oscars. I love film for its power to communicate ideas and transport viewers to distant worlds and times. This year, the Academy rewarded a well-crafted, insightful, and entertaining film, Parasite, with Best Picture, Best International Film, Best Original Screenplay, and gave its Director Bong Joon Ho the Best Director award. As a subtitled, South Korean film, this was a huge step in normalizing and legitimizing world cinema because it is the first time ever that a non-English speaking film has taken home the highest award of the night.

However, the Academy Awards ceremony has become known, especially by Christians, as a place of rampant liberal politics. Because of this, most Christians stay away, not just from Oscar night, but from Hollywood in general. In my opinion, this is a mistake. To look at Hollywood as if it was a place that is beyond the reach of God’s grace is to put God in a box. What would it look like for Christians to be salt and light in Hollywood?

Art Imitates Life

I take the Oscars ceremony as an opportunity to look back on a very busy year. On the world’s stage, we saw protests and violence in Hong Kong, Algeria, India, Nicaragua, and others. Both the Amazon and Australia were on fire. Brexit stretched on, while China and Iran had conflicts with the U.S. over trade and nuclear weapons respectively. Speaking of the U.S. there was obviously the circus that was the House of Representative’s impeachment of President Trump.

Film is a fascinating storytelling medium with the ability to speak to the trends of the day in unexpected ways. Consider two 2019 releases. Captain Marvel is a veiled commentary on immigration policy and Greta Gerwig transformed Little Women into a feminist manifesto instead of a timeless story of faith and family.

The liberal politicization of Hollywood has turned many Christians off to film in general. This agenda is on full display at the Oscars. For instance, Brad Pitt used his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood to comment on the Senate’s acquittal of President Trump.

Ego and the Greatest Snub

But Joaquin Phoenix one-upped everyone in the room when he equated gender-equality and racism with animal rights as he encouraged everyone towards his vegan agenda and indicted everyone for their egocentric worldview which leads to inequality. While Mr. Phoenix and I would disagree about the rights of a cow when compared to the rights of indigenous peoples, I would completely agree with his assessment of egoism.

I’m happy that today’s films elevate the voices of the marginalized. God calls his people to fight for justice for the oppressed. But the biggest snub of this year’s Oscar ceremony was not the fact that there were no female directors or that The Irishman went 0 for 10. This one is even more glaring. As I listened to the acceptance speeches, I don’t think I heard a single mention of God. No word of thanks or praise. Of course, I may have missed something, but even in the official Oscars Acceptance Speech Database (Yes, that is a real thing), the number of mentions of God has been steadily dropping over the years.

The most recent mention of God that wasn’t a vain exclamation was back in 2018. Regina King said, “God is good all the time,” in her win for If Beale Street Could Talk. In the most recent actual expression of thanks to God, Common said, ” First, I would like to thank God that lives in us all” when he accepted the award for Best Song for “Glory” from Selma in 2014.

The Absence of Light

How did things get so dark? It’s a picture of Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Do I say this with my nose held high in the air as I condemn those sinful Hollywood heathens? Of course not. We are no better. All people have sinned and bring shame on the glory of God’s image in them. In fact, much of the darkness prevalent in Hollywood is overwhelming because of the absence of the light that should emanate from the lives of believers.

Christians should be different. Does light have any fellowship with darkness? Does saltwater and freshwater come from the same spring? Of course not. But at the same time, we are not called to exit from culture and cloister ourselves away. Light should be put on a lampstand and salt should be used to preserve, transform, and flavor. Christians lose their identity in Christ and are freed to take up the cause of others. They are freed to lose their life for the cause of the gospel of Christ. This means engagement with culture.

Creators

Engagement can look many different ways for different Christians. Maybe you are called to create art that influences culture by showing God’s transformation to a watching world. Think of a movie like The Blind Side that doesn’t have any overt Gospel message but shows what a selfless, other-centric, God-glorifying life looks like. More creators need to step up to bat and more churches need to support their creative efforts.

Redeemers

Maybe you will engage with culture by finding the redeeming aspects of culture and calling attention to them. This is the affirmation that all truth is God’s truth and when the culture gets it right (even with the wrong motives or worldview) we need to be ready to cheer on the truth in those common areas of human flourishing. This comes through in a film like Spotlight that reveals corruption and evil that people inside and outside of the church should condemn. Believers need to respond to these films in positive ways to show that our faith is about more than believing some platitudes about Jesus.

Prophets

Finally, we need those who will stand in the gap and engage with culture by speaking the truth in love. Paul walked through the city of Athens and drew attention to their great religiosity, though it was misguided and twisted. He used the words of their own poets to show them a better way in Jesus Christ. I try to do this. For instance, in my recent article about 1917, I looked at the darkness of war and the way that all people reflect on their mortality in the face of danger. I also showed the light and freedom possible in a life spent in the cause of Christ. My hope is that someone may read or hear my words and would see that Jesus is infinitely better than anything else in our finite lives.

I hope you’ll think about how you can engage with the culture around you. If Christians are to be identified with Christ, we must do more of what he did. That means spending more time doing life with people the way Jesus did. Granted, this might mean being accused of the things that he was accused of, but I’m willing to endure that for some to see Jesus as I have seen him.

Maybe Hollywood is too far gone for my prayers and words to have any effect, but I worship a Savior who knew no limits to the love he would show to snatch men and women from hell and bring them back into right relationship with his Father. We have been given this same ministry of reconciliation, and if we pull out of the conversation and don’t shine our light, then we are the ones truly responsible for the darkness.

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2010s, Article, Biopic, Documentary, Family, Longform, Musical, Television, Theology, True Story

Mister Rogers and Grace in The Neighborhood

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Just after he eloquently summed up God’s perfect law with the words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) This expert on the Jewish law challenged Jesus by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Jesus responded, as he often did, by telling a story.

The story he told was surprising to everyone who heard it. It was the tale of a man who had fallen on some particularly hard times and had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. Who would be a neighbor to this poor helpless man? Perhaps a teacher of the law? No, he was far too busy and continued on his way. Maybe a Priest? No, he was worried that the man might make him unclean. But then along came a Samaritan.

Now, the Jews considered Samaritans to be half-breeds, products of the immoral intermarrying and religious blending that took place hundreds of years before during the Babylonian exile. For a Samaritan to even be mentioned in the same story as these well-respected religious professionals was shocking, but that he would be the hero was almost intolerable.

But that was Jesus’ point as he described the compassion which the Samaritan traveler had on the victim of this crime. He went out of his way to help him and bandage his wounds, he sat him on his animal and walked alongside until they came to a hospital, and even beyond that he took care of his bills and made a plan to return to ensure that he was well treated. At this point, the lawyer must have been seething at Jesus’ words, but he was trapped as Jesus asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

As the camera pans over the familiar model town, the yellow caution light flashes, and the piano notes sound, an inviting face opens the door to ask us, “Please, won’t you be my neighbor?” By performing this liturgy at the beginning of each of his 912 episodes, Mister Rogers was submitting to Jesus’ command to go and do likewise as he sought to be a neighbor to anyone who was hurting and confused. However, the invitation was also a confession that he needed a neighbor as well.

Fred Rogers did not see himself as a saint or a hero. He simply stood on his doorstep and offered the same unconditional love and grace to others that he knew he needed every day to survive. Mister Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister and he knew better than most that each breath that we take is evidence of God’s amazing grace.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor was easily the best documentary film of 2018 because Morgan Neville captured the essence of Fred Rogers’ mission to speak directly to the children of an entire generation and to help them cope with the fact that the world is a dark and scary place. He didn’t try to fool kids or entertain them. He leaned in to teach them, in a way that we are sorely lacking today, that things like death, divorce, and disaster happen and we can’t control them. But we can manage our feelings in healthy ways and talk about them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDnDs1Rz4ZQ

I think we are experiencing this Rogers renaissance because we are lacking a voice that will speak to our children, and us as adults, to provide guidance through difficult and confusing times. And Fred Rogers would not want us to idolize him in this manner. Rather, he would challenge us to take up Jesus’ command to be neighbors to one another. After all, it’s hard to hate someone you just begged in song to be your neighbor.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The new film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller, features Tom Hanks playing the iconic role of Mister Rogers. However, this is not another documentary. Instead, it places Hanks across from Matthew Rhys in the role of investigative reporter Lloyd Vogel. This character is a mixture of fiction and fact as the whole film is based on an Esquire article by journalist Tom Junod entitled, “Can You Say… Hero?” (beware of some adult language). However, it takes a good bit of liberty with the establishing storyline, creating a strained relationship between a father (Chris Cooper) and son, to build the stakes.

In the end, the film is really about this fictional Vogel family and Fred Rogers is a high profile side character who steps in and provides an open ear and an open heart. It is a very good story overall and I was moved several times through Hanks’ performance, but my major difficulty with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is that it removes any mention of Jesus or really any religious teaching. This is somewhat understandable because it is told much like one of Mister Rogers’ episodes and he avoided spiritual talk on the air.

Unfortunately, if you remove Mister Rogers’ foundation of faith, it turns his desire to care for people and heal relationships into secular humanism at its best and it gives no foundation for the beautiful mission of his life. A lack of a foundation leads people to all kinds of wild and fanciful speculations about what skeletons he hid in his closet. Whether it be the oft mentioned Navy SEAL service or sleeves of tattoos hidden under those zippered cardigan sweaters.

What Would Mister Rogers Say Today?

In the midst of a presidential inquisition and constant bickering on Capitol Hill, I wonder what sage advice Fred Rogers would have. Providentially, Tom Junod shared an email that came from his lifelong correspondence in a recent article for the Atlantic explaining his involvement with the film and his relationship with Rogers. The subject of the email was what Rogers would say to the then-current impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton.

Last week I woke up thinking how I would like to go on the air and say something like “Whoever is without sin cast the first stone” or “The Lord’s property is always to have mercy” or some other outlandish thing, and then ask for a minute of silence to think about forgiveness for those who want it. In fact if our country could dwell on forgiveness for a while I think that would be the one real positive outcome of the pain which must be pervasive in the White House and beyond. I’ve already written letters to both the Clintons and the Gores saying that often “enormous growth comes out of enormous pain.” I trust that will be so for all of us. The attitude which makes me (sometimes physically) sick is the “holier than thou” one.

As always, Mister Rogers’ words are timeless because they don’t speak to the issues but to the underlying emotions and situation deep within the human heart. His answers are profound because they sound hauntingly like the words of Jesus who would remind us that to seek God’s kingdom means to love God first and to love our neighbor (even the one we don’t really like) from the overflow and to work for their good.

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2010s, Coming Soon, Lists, Trailers

Most Anticipated Releases – July 2019

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Happy Birthday, America! Summer is in full swing and there is a whole slew of great looking films coming to theaters. With so many things going on during the summer I want to make sure you have a guide for the best movies headed your way. Granted, not all of these will match every person’s taste. Hopefully if one or two aren’t your style the others will fit you well.

Spider-Man: Far From Home – July 2

If you haven’t seen Endgame then don’t watch this. For that matter, don’t read this article. Just go buy a ticket a watch it. Help it beat Avatar and The Force Awakens.

Well, Thanos and his armies are finished and the remaining Avengers are moving on with their lives after the traumatic events of Endgame. It will be interesting to see where Marvel plans to go from here. They have our attention and all of our money so now they can really shoot for the fences and give us all the superhero movies we never even knew we wanted.

I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. He brought the wit and frenetic energy to the web-slinger that we’ve been missing for quite a while. This really feels like a new beginning for the entire MCU, because from the trailer we now know that it does come after the events of Endgame. However, Kevin Feige back in April before Endgame was released said that this would be the final movie of phase three instead of beginning phase four. Part of me thinks that was just a dodge to keep from giving away details from Endgame including the fact that Spider-Man and all of his snapped buddies come back to kick butt.

Regardless of whether it is an end or a beginning, I’m excited to see what antics this friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gets into when he and his school friends leave the five boroughs and head to Europe for a summer vacation. We know that Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) will be making an entrance and at least according to Nick Fury he’s a good guy from an alternate dimension. I hope that’s true because he’s never been a good guy in this dimension before. Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2nd.

Midsommar – July 3

We’ve always been taught to be afraid of the dark. What happens when the really scary things happen in the daylight?

Right on the heels of a fun superhero movie comes the creepiest looking movie of the year. Ari Aster made Hereditary last year and he was immediately recognized as a fresh new voice in the horror/thriller genre. Midsommar is his much-anticipated follow-up film and the trailers make it look like a suspenseful slow-burning horror film that leaves all the lights on instead of being all dark and creepy with shadows and jumpscares.

It looks like a combination of The Wicker Man (the original one from 1970s, not that horrible remake with Nicholas Cage.) with its strange pagan rituals and The Stepford Wives (the original one from the 1970s, not that horrible remake with Nicole Kidman.) with the idyllic surroundings and cheerful almost too happy people. It just makes you know that there is something darker lingering under the surface. If you haven’t seen either of those or Hereditary, I would recommend seeing them if this looks interesting to you. Midsommar will be in select theaters in time for the July 4th holiday.

The Art of Self Defense – July 12

Could this be the Lex Luthor origin story? After learning karate he unlocks his hidden passion to take down the ubermensch.

A dark comedy set in the world of karate. The film centers on Casey (Jesse Eisenberg), who is attacked at random on the street and enlists in a local dojo led by a charismatic and mysterious Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), in an effort to learn how to defend himself. What he uncovers is a sinister world of fraternity, violence and hypermasculinity and a woman (Imogen Poots) fighting for her place in it. Casey undertakes a journey, both frightening and darkly funny, that will place him squarely in the sights of his enigmatic new mentor.

Let’s face it, Jesse Eisenberg is a wimp. At least that is the persona that he has chosen with his film career. Well, this film looks like it is playing right into that sniveling weakling persona and it could be the most Jesse Eisenbergian character that Jesse Eisenberg has ever played. Feeling inadequate, he is going to try and learn how to be a man and things are going to go wrong. If you couldn’t tell, this is a dark comedy and probably has a lot to say about the kind of stereotypical machismo that we all understand. The Art of Self-Defense will fight its way into theaters on July 12th.

The Lion King – July 19

Does it count as live action if all the characters are CGI?

Everyone knows the story of the lion prince who would be king who is betrayed by his evil uncle and leaves the kingdom in the wake of his father’s traumatic death. While he is away he makes friends and tries to forget his past. But his past finds him and he must choose whether he believes in himself enough to take his rightful place as king. Sounds Shakespearean right? That’s because it’s Hamlet with Lions.

As needless as they are, most of the Disney live-action remakes have been good. None have surpassed their originals in my opinion and I think Lion King will be fighting an uphill battle to even get close. It is widely considered to be the pinnacle of Disney Animated Musicals. It doesn’t seem like this one can really miss at the box office. It is a sure success. Parents who loved the original taking their kids to see the movie that they were shown when they were babies. Hopefully, it will update and spin the story in a new way, but even if it doesn’t I think it will make heaps of money and probably get mostly favorable reviews. We’ll find out on July 19th when The Lion King marches into theaters.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – July 26

Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film according to the trailer, but 10th if you call Kill Bill two movies. Or maybe he’s not counting Death Proof. Anyway, I count ten.

Tarantino has called this his most personal film. Tarantino moved to a community called Torrance just southwest of L.A. with his mother in 1966 when he was 3 years old. Some of his earliest memories may have included discussion around the dinner table about Hollywood and hippie culture. When the movie was announced, and it was revealed that Sharon Tate would have a role, it was assumed that this would be a movie about the Manson family murders, but Tarantino has denied that saying that while many of the characters overlap, the movie is actually about the loss of innocence in the late 60s.

I’m excited to see what all the fuss is about, besides a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, and Al Pacino. Apparently, it got a six-minute long standing ovation at Cannes. That seems excessive. Have you ever clapped for an extended period of time? It hurts your hands. Tarantino is probably one of the biggest geeks about that culture which included kung-fu movies and spaghetti westerns. I’m sure that much of that respect and admiration comes through. If there is one thing that you can count on Hollywood to love, it’s itself. We’ll see what secrets Tarantino holds in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on July 26.

Do you have any thoughts on the movies I mentioned? What are you hoping to watch in July? Leave a comment below or find me on social media. I’m always ready to talk about movies.

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1990s, Anniversary, Article, Best Movie Bracket, IMDB 250, Lists, Longform, Top 3, Video Essay

1994 Best Movie Bracket

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It was a simpler time 25 years ago. A time when everyone was glued to the 24-hour news coverage of the unfolding dramas of Tanya Harding and O.J. Simpson. I was busy playing on my Super Nintendo and figuring out this new thing called the World Wide Web with the help of Yahoo! As far as movies go, I’m actually surprised at some of the stuff I saw. If you asked me then what my favorites were I would have probably said North, Street Fighter, The Mask, Angels in the Outfield, and Maverick. And I won’t apologize for that, I was eleven! Besides, I still love Maverick, it’s so much fun.

I still got to see some amazing films because our family’s favorite past-time was going to the video store on Friday night and renting an armful of movies. Did anyone else have a two VCR set up and a stack of blank VHS tapes? Has the statute of limitations run out on that type of copyright infringement? I loved being a latchkey kid. I got off school and was alone at home until my parents got home after most people had already eaten dinner. My dad would put me in charge of recording the VHS tapes, and even if he didn’t I would just watch them anyway, which meant that I got to watch a lot of movies! Still, looking back through the common top lists for the year, I do still have a couple of notable blind spots including Little Women, The Last Seduction, Cronos, Shallow Grave, Immortal Beloved, Heavenly Creatures, The Crow, Naked, In the Mouth of Madness, and Satantango.

Onto the best of the year, let me start with some honorable mentions. In another year without so many heavy hitters, many of these could have been my number one. Ed Wood is the Best Tim Burton directed Johnny Depp film that it seems like no one has ever seen. Quiz Show got four Oscar nominations, it is easily the best film that Robert Redford has ever directed. With Hoop Dreams, Steve James created one of the best documentaries of all time. The Three Colors Trilogy is a masterpiece of French cinema by Kieslowski and I don’t think nearly enough people have seen it. Lion King was the pinnacle of the great Disney animated films, everything after went downhill. And unlike some, I really love Forrest Gump which won the Best Picture Oscar for the year even though it is clearly not the best film. But enough with those losers, let’s get to my Top 3.

# 3 – Leon: The Professional

Rossatron gives a good breakdown of why Leon: The Professional is full of action that we care about.

As is my tradition, I have to narrow down my favorites to a top three, and I’m not allowed to do a three-way tie even though it is very tempting. Coming in at number 3 is Leon: The Professional. There’s been a movement to downgrade this movie because of alleged misconduct by its Director, Luc Besson. There are others who see the plot of the film which involves a complicated relationship between hitman Jean Reno and a stellar 12-year-old Natalie Portman in her first film appearance as troublesome. Some have even said that it promotes pedophilia and they condemn it.

However, I remember watching this around 1997 when I was about 15 and I fell in love with that damaged little girl. It is a performance reminiscent of the young Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. She conveys so much emotion in her face. Especially the scene at Leon’s door which is so powerful as their worlds collide for the first time. The thirst for revenge against the man that slaughtered her family is palpable and that man is played deliciously over the top by the incomparable Gary Oldman. It is far and away Besson’s best film and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

#1 – The Shawshank Redemption

WARNING! LANGUAGE! Logos Made Flesh explains why The Shawshank Redemption might just be the greatest Christian movie of all time.

The Shawshank Redemption has been seated atop the IMDB Top 250 list for the past 15 years. Despite not doing well at the box office in 1994, it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and didn’t take home a single statue. However, has received new life over the years as it is one of the most widely seen moves of all time. If you’ve never seen it, just turn on TBS or A&E this week and you’ve got about a 65% chance that it either is on currently or will be soon.

I consider it to be one of the greatest movies of all time. It is a wonderful story crafted by one of the masters, Stephen King, and directed by a powerful visionary in Frank Darabont. I’m not going to say a negative word about it. It has an amazing cast featuring the soothing narration of Morgan Freeman and so many great character actors that you should know. It is clearly and unflinchingly a prison movie but we aren’t trapped inside. Instead, along with Andy and Red, we get to experience new life and redemption that comes when you die to self and start really living.

That means that we are going to be faced with another year with a tie. If you’ve been following along, you know that when I covered 2007, we had a stand-off between what I believe are the two best films of the 2000’s right there in the same year, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Here atop the 1990’s we have Shawshank Redemption matched with another masterpiece from 1994.

#1 – Pulp Fiction

Wisecrack’s Garyx Wormuloid shares thoughts on Pulp Fiction now that Earth has been destroyed and aliens are rediscovering our culture through film artifacts.

I love that even the name of the movie is a subversion of what you are going to see. Pulp Fiction makes you think of trashy paperbacks that you read once and then toss, but Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece is known for its rewatchability. It’s profoundly violent yet somehow feel-good. It’s full of iconic scenes and characters that you can’t wait to spend time with again, and the narrative structure is so different that it takes a few views just to really grasp at what point everything happens in relation to one another. At the same time this structure takes nothing away from the telling of the story and in fact I would not want to see it chronologically. The streams all coming together perfectly the way they do is part of the magic.

I’m an actor-centric movie reviewer. This just means that I really relate to a film by the people that I see on the screen. I always have the director and his vision in the back of my mind, but I will usually judge a film on the power of its performances first. I don’t know how young Quentin Tarantino video store clerk was able to assemble this fantastic cast with just one film under his belt, but Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, Harvel Keitel, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Christopher Walken. That’s something.

Pulp Fiction sent shockwaves through cinema when it was released in 1994. It was a wakeup call and it lit a spark under an independent film market that was ready to explode. It made $213.9 million worldwide making it one of the highest-grossing independent films to ever be made. It helped Tarantino to create his own genre of dialogue-heavy scenes, non-linear narratives, violence and dark humor. This genre is now lazily called Tarantino-esque as there have been dozens of films inspired by Pulp Fiction and many others that have just ripped it off hoping to make a buck on its runaway success.

What about you? What’s your top movie of 1994? Do you hate Luc Besson and everything he makes? Do you feel like my picks are too pedestrian and would rather elevate something truly original and independent? Let me know. Comment here or on social media. I want to hear from you.

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2010s, Coming Soon, Lists, Netflix, Video

Most Anticipated Releases – June 2019

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We’re in that time of year when there is a lot of new content being thrown our way hoping to grab our attention over the Summer blockbuster season. Here are some of the new titles that will hit theaters this month that I think might be worth your time.

Black Mirror – Season 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVik34nWws
I’ve been avoiding most of the trailers because I like to walk into these immersive fables blind, but if you want a peek at what to expect from season five check it out.

I’ll start with a bit of a cheat since it isn’t a movie. Netflix is bringing back Black Mirror for a short season 5. It looks like it will only be 3 episodes so it really won’t be much longer than a feature-length movie. I have adored the twisted technological storytelling of the first four seasons, and the create your own adventure style special. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was something I’ve been waiting for Netflix or another streaming platform to do for a long while.

Season 5 looks like it’s going to continue to trend of bringing A-list talent as the information we have seen the names Anthony Mackie (Falcon from Avengers), Miley Cyrus (You know her), Topher Grace (That 70s Show and lots of other stuff), Andrew Scott (Moriarity in Sherlock), Pom Klementieff (Mantis from Avengers), and Angourie Rice (I’ve been waiting to see her in more since The Nice Guys years ago) thrown around. Season 5 drops on Netflix on June 5th.

Dark Phoenix

Big plot spoilers are visible in this trailer so watch at your own risk.

With Disney now owning 20th Century Fox that means that they own the rights to the X-Men, as well as Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, X-Force, Deadpool, and much more. Because of this transition and a quote from Fox Executive Emma Watts who said that Dark Phoenix would be the “perfect sendoff for our X-Men team,” it looks like this will be the conclusion of the X-Men: Beginnings story arc which began with X-Men: First Class in 2011 and melded with the original timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past. I think it is safe to say that we haven’t seen the end of the X-Men, but they may look very different under Marvel’s umbrella and this film will close the door that was opened in 2000 with the original classic X-Men. It still remains to be seen what will happen with the New Mutants horror spinoff that has been in the works for at least 3 years. It might just end up on Disney+.

Ever since the 90s cartoon, the X-Men have been my favorite superhero team. That’s right, even more than the Avengers. I mean my parents named me after Wolverine. (Not really, but that’s what I tell myself.) Over the years we’ve gotten some great stories and we’ve seen them weave several timelines together. Last Stand didn’t really do the Dark Phoenix storyline justice, so it will be nice to see something a little more in line with the comics. I’m tentatively excited about it if for nothing more than the return of Evan Peters’ Quicksilver. Dark Phoenix will rise in your theaters on June 7th.

I Am Mother

Feels like Moon meets 10 Cloverfield Lane meets Ex Machina.

Shortly after humanity’s extinction, in a high-tech bunker deep beneath the earth’s surface, a robot named Mother commences her protocol. Designed to repopulate the earth with humans born from test-tube embryos, Mother raises a baby girl to become an intelligent, compassionate teenager (Clara Rugaard). But the arrival of a wounded woman (Hilary Swank) at the bunker door soon casts doubt on Mother’s account of the earth’s fate and threatens the unique bond between Mother and her “daughter.”

I don’t know much about this film, outside of this official synopsis. This is Grant Sputore’s first feature-length film and it looks like it could be a good addition to the myriad of man vs. machine movies that we have seen since the origins of cinema itself. With Hillary Swank and Rose Byrne, artificial intelligence, and a dilemma over who to trust it sounds like this will be a fun ride for a stay in date night. It will drop on Netflix on June 7th.

Murder Mystery

This one isn’t going to win any awards, but maybe it’s worth a couple of laughs.

You’re probably thinking, are you serious Logan? An Adam Sandler movie? Direct to Netflix? Is this going to be another Ridiculous Six, The Do-Over, or The Week Of? With Sandler, it is always possible. He has given us some real stinkers over the years, but I still remember the good old days and I hope that maybe he is turning a corner in his career and really trying to make more quality films. I really enjoyed him in Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories. I know that he has good acting chops.

The same could really be said for Jennifer Aniston, however, I have usually enjoyed her films and I’m a fan. Add in Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans, and others in a good cast and give me a story that feels like it is pulled right from an Agatha Christie novel and I think we’ve got another good date night movie. Pop the popcorn and get ready to laugh with Murder Mystery dropping on Netflix on June 14th.

The Dead Don’t Die

Bill Murray in another Zombie movie! Sign me up.

If I asked 10 random people on the street to name 10 film directors I would bet a dollar a name that no one would mention Jim Jarmusch. He is an enigmatic and quirky individual who is extremely creative and has developed relationships all over Hollywood over the last 35 years. When I heard that he was producing a zombie movie with Adam Driver (who he directed in Paterson) I was instantly interested.

I had almost forgotten that Jarmusch is not a stranger to the horror genre. He created the vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tilda Swinton who also has a role in this. But when I saw the reclusive Bill Murray as the co-lead with Driver I was sold. The Dead Don’t Die will be hitting select theaters on June 14.

Beats

Shut up and take my money! Wait… this is on Netflix. Shut up and take my password.

We had a flurry of powerful African American led dramas last year. Beats looks like it might be bringing that game to Netflix. Anthony Anderson (Dre from the TV show Black-ish) plays a school security officer who goes looking for a truant student and finds a hurting young man who is gifted musically. He begins to support the boy and encourage him but will he push him too hard? Is he ready to put himself out there with wounds and trauma still so fresh in his mind?

This one will pull on the heart-strings and probably make you think about music, race, law enforcement, mental health, education, and who knows what else. I love living in this creative environment where it feels like much of the creative and unique storytelling is being done on these new media platforms while theaters still play a rich role as the only venue for amazing experiential blockbusters. I hope that we keep both and that they both continue to thrive and grow. I’m really looking forward to Beats and Netflix will be releasing it on June 19th.

Yesterday

What would you do if you were the only one in the world who knew the Beatles music?

Jumping to the end of the month, we see another very unique story coming from the incomparable Danny Boyle. If you don’t know his name just do a quick google search and great movies will explode all over your screen. He’s one of the most reliably great directors out there. If he puts his name on it you can be sure it is worth your time.

I just love this concept. I’m not familiar with the lead actor, Himesh Patel, but he has a beautiful voice from the trailer. Lily James and Kate McKinnon are always wins as well. It looks funny and romantic and the music is guaranteed to be fantastic unless they take Ed Sheeran’s advice and change Hey Jude to Hey Dude. That is potentially blasphemous. Yesterday will be playing in your local theater on June 28th.

What About Toy Story 4?

I intentionally left Toy Story 4 off this list because I am reverse anticipating it. I’m still upset with Pixar for not listening to me after I told them to leave well enough alone after Toy Story 3. They’ve gone too far. If Pixar can’t continue to innovate and create unique stories then they should just hang it up and not ruin the great films that they already made. I could be totally wrong and it could be amazing. I’m sure I will see it, but I have a sinking feeling that it is not going to be great.

What is your most anticipated release of June? What do you think about Netflix putting out some great original content? We cancelled our Amazon Prime and haven’t really missed it, do they have some new movies or shows you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments below or find me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and we can chat.

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Philosophy, Superhero

What Can The Avengers Teach Us About Philosophy?

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WIRED’s Peter Rubin spoke with Chris Robichaud, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, to find out about deontology, consequentialism and more.

How do Iron Man and Captain America differ as leaders? What makes the Avengers different from the Guardians of the Galaxy? And what moral philosophy does Thanos embody?

Check out Chris Robichaud’s free online class, “Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes”

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2010s, Epic, Superhero, What did you think?

Avengers: Endgame Spoiler Discussion

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Please do not come here if you haven’t seen the film. It is an epic conclusion 11 years in the making. Regardless of how much you like superhero movies, it is a huge milestone that will likely never be replicated or surpassed.

After the film yesterday I had such good discussion with random strangers about the plot and questions and awesome moments while the credits were rolling, however as soon as we stepped into the lobby we had to put it all on hold to avoid ruining the experience for others waiting in line.

So, I decided to create this post for discussion of the plot and spoilers. Did you have questions about what happened? Do you want to geek out over something? Go wild. This is a spoiler filled zone! So don’t scroll down to the comments unless you have seen the film or are otherwise okay with the story being spoiled.

2010s, Action, Animation, Awards, Best Movie Bracket, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Family, Lists, Reviews, Science Fiction, Top 3, Uncategorized

2018 Best Movie Bracket

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From my best count, there were about 266 major films released in 2018. That includes all the tentpole blockbusters and the independent festival darlings. It also includes the most prominent foreign films which received a US release and major original releases from streaming platforms. Of those 266, I have seen 111. I’ve still got about 50 for 2018 on my watchlist, but I will probably never see the vast majority of those unless I get a government grant that allows me to stop working and do nothing but watch movies all day every day.

I track and rate all of the movies I watch at Letterboxd.com. Since I usually do this list as a top 3, it is convenient that I have exactly 3 movies from 2018 that I would classify as five-star films. That number may increase because I have a rule that no film can be rated as 5 stars based upon a single viewing. The highest I can go on one viewing is 4 1/2 stars.

Honorable Mentions

It was a very good year for film. I could just list off 20 films that were easily in the running for my top film of the year, but in addition to my top three, I want to highlight a few special films that were unique or extraordinary in some way.

A Quiet Place surprised me because I didn’t expect such an immersive story from Jim from the Office. Upgrade was the best Science-Fiction action film with its locked camera Logan Marshall-Green’s face/body acting split. Mission-Impossible: Fallout was easily the most entertaining film I saw all year, I could watch it a dozen times and still be ready for another go around. 

Leave No Trace is Debra Granik’s long-awaited follow-up to Winter’s Bone (2019) and it was heartbreaking and uplifting and hopeful and brutally honest. BlackkKlansman is Spike Lee’s best since Malcolm X. It caught you laughing about systemic racism and how dumb those Klan members could be then flipped the script and left me with my mouth hanging open and tears in my eyes. Shoplifters left me wanting to be kidnapped and loved so purely whether it is technically a family or not. Finally, I’m so sad to leave First Reformed out of my top three, Paul Schrader had my rapt attention with an arresting meditation on faith’s place in the modern world.

Top Three

3. Blindspotting

The year was filled with amazing films focused on the theme of race relations. We’ve already mentioned BlackkKlansman, but there was also If Beale Street Could Talk, The Hate U Give, and Sorry to Bother You. However, the best, in my opinion, was the one that was criminally overlooked, Blindspotting.

The story is pretty simple. Collin, played masterfully by Daveed Diggs (whom you might know as Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton), must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. Despite his childhood best friend Miles (a solid introduction from newcomer and co-writer Raphael Casal) not being the best influence, Collin is loyal. That countdown clock comes under pressure when Collin witnesses a police shooting and the two men’s friendship is tested as they wrestle with their identity in their rapidly-gentrifying Oakland neighborhood.

I don’t understand why Lionsgate released this unbelievably prescient masterpiece in mid-July rather than holding it a little later for Awards season. It was electrifying while also remaining accessible. However, Blindspotting was released in the same summer as Childish Gambino’s firebrand This is America and it is a perfect companion piece. 

2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor

I wouldn’t usually even think of putting a documentary on my best films of the year, but I was so incredibly floored by Morgan Neville’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor. I grew up watching Mister Rogers every afternoon as a little kid and I even remember watching often into my teenage years. At some point, I probably kind of outgrew it and thought that he was uncool. But now looking back as an adult I see that Fred Rogers was the coolest guy in the neighborhood.

If there were one film in 2018 that I would force every person to watch it would be this. The faith, hope, and love that Fred Rogers exhibited in every show is a salve that I believe our culture needs now more than ever. Fred Rogers wasn’t seeking to entertain kids with his show and he wasn’t trying to rush them through growing up like so many try to. Instead, the yellow caution light flashes outside the building even before the familiar song begins as if to signal that it is time to slow down and learn what it means to be a human and how to live as a human with other humans. 

It didn’t fall into the trap of fawning over Mister Rogers. That’s good, because he would push back on being idolized in any way. Instead, he would call us to action, encouraging us to be better neighbors to all in hopes that this love and kindness might spread. Morgan Neville struck gold with this film and I only hope that it stays on constant rotation and that Fred Rogers is allowed to touch the hearts and minds of another generation and that my generation might be reminded of his gentle example.

1. Spider-Man Into The Spider-verse

I was not on the early bandwagon for Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse. I felt like it was too soon to do anything with Spider-Man much less introduce eight new ones. It wasn’t until I saw the sneak preview after Venom that I was even interested. I thought the animation looked great and I was intrigued by the concept and thought that it would be a good movie to take my kids to. However, about 15 minutes into the film, I knew I was watching something special. 

Let’s count the Spider-Men. First, we have Chris Pine’s stellar Peter Parker prime. He’s better than our Peter Parker and Spider-Man in every way except for the turn of events of this film. Second, we have Miles Morales, also from the home dimension of this film. Miles is played by Shameik Moore with bright-eyed energy. Then things get crazy with a whole slew of Spider-people.

Third, the road-weary veteran Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), complete with sweatpants, who is a sadder more tired version of the uber Spider-man. Fourth, Spider-Gwen, which I can easily see getting her own stand alone. Hailee Steinfeld brought some youthful confidence to the powerful girl’s role that will be seen over and over at Comic-con. Fifth, Spider-Man Noir, voiced in an amazing casting choice by Nicholas Cage. It’s seriously the best thing he’s done in years except destroying that pool table while singing the hokey pokey in Mom and Dad.

Sixth, Peni Parker, who shares a psychic connection to a radioactive spider that lives in her deceased father’s robot. I’m not making this up and she’s not even the weirdest. That award easily goes to seventh, Peter Porker (a.k.a Spider-Ham) a Looney Tunes type animated pig who actually started out as a spider but was bitten by a radioactive pig. In case you think I’m making this up, this is a comic you can actually read. Finally, eighth, featured just briefly in the post-credit scene is Oscar Isaac playing Miguel O’Hara as Spider-Man 2099. 

Somehow, all of this works and is magically told with no confusion and incredible balance and confidence. I haven’t even mentioned the supporting cast in Lily Tomlin, Katherine O’Hara, Mahershala Ali, and Liev Schriber among others. It is a truly star-studded cast and with all the right stuff.

So what do you think? Agree or disagree? Did I miss one of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below or on social media.

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Action, Comedy, Drama, Genre, Horror, Longform, Romance, Video

Is Action really a Genre?

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Watch this original trailer for Drive (2011)

If you watched the above trailer for Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) and then went into the theater expecting a balls-to-the-wall action-filled crime drama you would not be alone. Many people did exactly this and were very disappointed in Drive even though it is one of the best movies of that year and even this decade. The problem here was genre marketing.

Filmmakers, marketers, and audiences usually have a good relationship and that trust is built based upon certain expectations which have been developed over the years. That is what a genre is, a set of conventional storytelling patterns and expectations which filmmakers purposefully use and exploit to communicate within the medium of film.

This is what most of the film was actually like. Notice the difference?

I don’t think they knew how, or took the time to try, to sell a character-driven art-house neo-noir drama which has very little dialog and extensive sections of long takes broken up with scenes of intense, disturbing violence. Instead, they included nearly all of the dialogue from the film in the trailer and cut it as a standard action flick. The studio even had at least one lawsuit over this discrepancy. This is one example of the importance of genre. As the medium of film has developed, many different genres have emerged and risen to popularity as culture changes and as storytellers mold life into art.

Four Master Tools

With that in mind, you shouldn’t mistake genre for one of the four main storytelling tools. You’ll often see a list of movie genres and right at the top of the list will be action. However, Action is not a genre. You say, “Of course it is! It’s on IMDb.” It’s even on the sidebar list of categories on this site. But I think this is because the field of genre theory has not been able to formalize the popular nomenclature. When people ask, “What kind of movie is it?” They are looking for a simple definition and often the easiest definition is the primary tool that is used. This doesn’t really work though so inevitably the film just gets compared to other films.

It’s easy to call a movie an It is a tool that has been used in all films since audiences were frightened by a train rolling into the station. Action is what differentiates a motion picture from still photography.

Poster for the movie "Pulp Fiction"
© 1994 Miramax − All right reserved.

The four master tools are:

  • Action
  • Comedy
  • Drama
  • Romance

Most films will use one of these tools primarily, but that does not make it a genre. These tools are employed and blended by master storytellers to create. Consider Quentin Tarantino’s modern-classic Pulp Fiction as an example, you can see bits of all four master tools blended together in a way that defied any kind of conventional genre. That is why it was and is called cutting edge. Tarantino created something new and I think he sparked a genre of films that have lazily been called Tarantino-esque.

Using Master Tools in a Genre

So then what is a genre, you ask? As I said before, a genre is a set of conventional storytelling patterns and expectations which filmmakers purposefully use and exploit to communicate within the medium of film. The list of genres is long and it will continue to get longer as time goes on and stories continue to be told in new and exciting ways.

Let’s take another example and flesh this out. Horror is a well-established master genre and several movies like Scream and Cabin in the Woods have outlined those genre expectations and conventions while still living within the genre itself, but let’s dive even deeper down into one of its sub-genres, the zombie film.

Victor Halperin’s White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi is widely considered to be the first zombie movie and it plays heavily on the horror genre tropes. Bela Lugosi was well known for his famous turn as Dracula in 1931. The marketers used this star power and genre recognition and actually refer to Lugosi as Dracula in the trailer.

Zombies became a feature of religion, folklore, and storytelling in Haiti during the inhumane conditions of slavery. Plucked from their home and forced into terrible conditions, the slaves saw themselves as zombies; Dead inside, forced to do the will of their master. We didn’t see the first Zombie film until 1932 with the Bela Lugosi film White Zombie. It plays on the Haitian folklore much more than modern zombie stories which were solidified by the popularity of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in 1968 where the term zombies isn’t even used and his follow-up in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, where the zombies have now come to represent mindless consumerism. This is appropriate because it was the unfettered desire for consumer goods like sugar and tobacco that led to the rise of slavery in the Caribbean.

Today, zombie movies come in all different shapes and sizes and they use the four master tools to shape the story. We can take each of the tools and apply them to the genre to create very different movies. Most zombie films tend towards the action tool more heavily because of the subject matter of aggressive flesh-eating creatures. So, it’s easy to think of zombie action film like World War Z (2013).

However, you can look at the other tools and find examples where those have risen to the surface within the Zombie genre framework. If we look at drama, we have encountered another word whose definition is amorphous at best. Drama has become a junk-drawer term that catches any kind of film that doesn’t neatly fall into other genres. I don’t think the word is bad, but doesn’t every film have drama? Drama is the development of characters in a realistic setting. It involves emotion and relationships and tells a humanistic story.

With this definition, we can see that movies as varied as The Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men, and The Social Network can all be defined as drama, but that does little to help anyone get a sense of what to expect when they sit down to watch. I would postulate that these films are prison-escape, courtroom-legal, and biopic respectively.

So let’s take this tool of drama and elevate it above action in a zombie movie? Rather than blood and gore and chase scenes, you will get the emotional weight of a father losing his daughter to a disease he doesn’t fully understand. In other words, you get a movie like the overlooked Arnold Schwarzenegger film Maggie (2015).

If you really wanted to be a nit-picker you could roll the tool of romance into drama because they are very similar. However, there is enough material and difference to separate them in my opinion. So if you turn the drama in a zombie movie to the specific romantic emotion you would get a very odd juxtaposition, but it’s been done to good effect in the 2013 zombie romance Warm Bodies.

And finally, when you ramp up the comedy in a zombie movie and explore some of the absurd or humorous parts of a zombie apocalypse you get a movie like Zombieland, or better yet Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead (2004).

These are four very different films but they all share the same subject matter and storytelling conventions. The zombies may have risen in different ways and the fight against their spread might be shown more or less prominently but the heart of the story is the same. People have become mindless killing creatures and those who remain are trying to protect themselves while seeking a cure or safety.

I hope this helps you see the depth of variety that exists in the world of film. I’m working on a guide to genre that will breakdown all the major tropes that we see in film and give some names to everything from the absurdest of French new wave cinema to the most realistic of documentary.

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Uncategorized

Why So Quiet?

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I thought I’d give you a heads up about why it’s been so quiet around here lately. I started a church. Not in the sarcastic John Oliver statement way, but really. It’s a house church called Paradox. I hope you might check it out at ParadoxWilliston.org.

ParadoxChurch.png

I do plan on keeping this site alive with a post every now and then. As a matter of fact, I’m working on a rundown of all the movies from 2018 with a theme rooted in racism to see who did it well and who failed. You can still keep up with what I’m watching (albeit at a much slower rate) on Letterboxd.com.

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"Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."