United Methodist Reporter Blog

Q&A Seven Days in Utopia

David L. Cook is the author of Golf’s Sacred Journey (Zondervan, 2009), a novel inspired by his Christian faith, his love of the game and his long career as a sports psychologist. In the book, a former golf pro in Utopia, Texas—a small town about 60 miles from San Antonio—gives some much-needed guidance to a talented but troubled young player.

A movie version comes to theaters Friday with Robert Duvall and Lucas Black (reteamed after starring together in last year’s Get Low). Look for a review tomorrow at UMportal.org.

Last week, associate editor Bill Fentum talked briefly to Dr. Cook about his involvement as an executive producer and co-writer on the film.

Tell me about the process of bringing your book to the screen.

I was co-scriptwriter through this whole thing, which allowed me to help maintain the essence of the story. But we needed new characters and elements [to turn it into a movie], because there’s a lot of introspection in the book. And so the movie has a little bit different feel, maybe, but the story’s intact. People will be pleasantly surprised with a few characters. And then people who haven’t read the book and watch the movie, they’ll go read the book and find a lot of depth that they missed in the movie, because the movie moves so fast.

Did the script bring out any aspects to the story that you hadn’t thought about before?

Robert Duvall said that he liked to play redeemed characters. And the mentor in the book is a pretty solid follower of Jesus. But Duvall said, “I want to him to have overcome something.” So in the story in the movie, he’s a recovering alcoholic. And so that was a new element. Many people who have gone to a screening commented to me how much that meant to them, because they had struggled with alcohol. So I think that was, in the end, a really good deal to show the mentor had to overcome something—and then he could have a life that changes other lives.

How do you feel about the finished film?

I like it. It’s not really a golf movie, it’s a movie about life. But for those people who are golfers, I think it’s the most authentically filmed movie about the game, in terms of everything being portrayed well.... There aren’t many things finished that I do like, that I put my hands in, because I really want the best. But what I believe happened is that God’s hand was on this, and I think we have something here that will glorify God and draw people in closer to him.

Preventing domestic violence, a TV special

Did you know one in every four women experiences domestic violence in her lifetime?

Nearly 75 percent of Americans personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence, and 30 percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.

With these statistics, it’s inarguable that there are members in our congregations who are caught in the cycle of abuse and are looking and hoping for the church to act out against such violence.

The United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) is providing the resources needed to empower the victims of domestic violence and push the local church into conversation and action. Until March 1, local ABC-TV stations will be airing I Believe You: Faiths' Responses to Intimate Partner Violence, an hour-long documentary on domestic violence and how the faith community is responding.

The documentary was produced with the support of the New York Board of Rabbis, United Methodist Women, Presbyterian Women, the Evangelical Church in America, Odyssey Networks, the National Council of Churches and a consortium of Muslim organizations.

Small groups and Sunday school classes are encouraged to watch the documentary together, and GBSC’s new resource, Building the Movement through Film, explains the benefits of a public screening and provides discussion guidelines and ideas as to how churches can prevent domestic violence.

To find out when the program airs in your area, click here. (If you don't see your state or community listed, please contact your local ABC affiliate to encourage it to air the documentary.)

 

For more ideas and information about what United Methodists are doing to combat domestic violence, visit the United Methodist Women website.

 

‘Conviction’ . . . the rest of the story

See the movie Conviction (opening today in most areas), and you’ll probably walk away feeling inspired by the true story of Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank), a Massachusetts woman who struggled to prove that her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell), had been wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder.

After the appeals process stalled, she took on the case as a newly licensed attorney and (read on only if you don’t mind SPOILERS) ...

Christian fiction, from page to big screen

At age 47, Karen Kingsbury—dubbed “the Nora Roberts of the religious set” by Time magazine—has written more than 40 inspirational novels. Several of the books are bestsellers, including Like Dandelion Dust (2006), the story of a six-year-old adoption shaken by the reappearance of the child’s biological parents.

The book is now a feature film opening in theaters on Sept. 24. And surprise: This isn’t just another faith-based drama, but a solid film with an especially fine performance from Mira Sorvino as the birth mother.

In a week or so, we’ll post a review and a full version of my Q&A with Ms. Kingsbury. But for now, here are a few excerpts.

Two other writers adapted Like Dandelion Dust for film. Did they make many changes in the transition?

There has to be some poetic license in turning a 400-page novel into a 95-page script. But I feel they did a great job of capturing a mother’s love and the scriptural message of how perfect love drives out fear. I told Mira Sorvino, who plays the birth mother, there were moments when the way she portrayed Wendy covered a chapter in a few seconds. Because of that, I felt we didn’t lose much.

Waiting for ‘Superman’

I had the opportunity last night to preview Waiting for “Superman,” a remarkable documentary coming to theaters this fall. Directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), it tracks four families in search of a good education for their kids—nearly an impossible dream in many troubled school districts across the country.

The strange title is drawn from a story told on-camera by Geoffrey Canada, founder and president of the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York. Raised in the South Bronx during the 1950s and ’60s, he dreamed of Superman flying into his neighborhood to provide an easier path out of poverty; reality soon set in, and that’s the message of this film: No superhero is coming to reform U.S. public education. It’s our job.

Screenings are planned across the country before the late September release in 75 cities. We’ll have a review at that time. For more information, visit the film’s official site.

Faith and Film: Robin Hood

If you're going to the movies this weekend and plan to see the new Robin Hood film, here's a little warning: Don't expect it to be like any past version of the centuries-old legend. The Russell Crowe vehicle is actually a prequel to the story we've already seen interpreted by Hollywood with everyone from Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn to Kevin Costner.

Here, the folk hero is a veteran of the third Crusade, enlisted by an aging knight (Max von Sydow) to assume the identity of his slain son and lead the community of Nottingham. Sure, romance develops with Marion (Cate Blanchett) and Robin meets his band of Merry Men. But for now they're too busy defending England against an invasion from France to worry about robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

The jovial Friar Tuck aside, the church as an institution doesn't fare well in this script. When thieves steal grain from Nottingham and Marion asks a priest to give back some of the grain the villagers have tithed, he refuses and tells her the theft is punishment for their sins. Other characters are seen in prayer, though, and while Robin feels disenchanted with the Crusades (one speech in particular echoes director Ridley Scott's earlier Kingdom of Heaven), a few scenes suggest the hero hasn't abandoned his faith.

The film does have exciting moments, including a well-staged (if CGI-heavy) climactic battle sequence. But if it fails to turn a profit on its $200 million-plus budget, this Robin Hood could become the ultimate cinematic non-starter. Let's hope not.

Rant on faith-based films

A blog post yesterday at StuffChristiansLike.net has sparked an active discussion, full of sentiments I share as movie critic for the Reporter. Lately I've threatened to go on strike from reviewing faith-based dramas, for some of the reasons presented here. And I'm sorry to say the new release Letters to God is no different, based on the real-life story of a child's battle with cancer ... but heavily fictionalized in ways that turn the film into just another simplified, saccharine mess.

The trick is how to critique without "being instantly labeled a non-supportive heathen," as this guy calls it. But why should Christian films be held to different aesthetic standards than other works? Aren't filmmakers more likely to reach people outside the church with gentle portraits of redemption like Tender Mercies (1983), than with the recent contrivances of Facing the Giants or Fireproof?

Or are we just being unfair? You tell me.

Shift Happens

Last weekend my wife, Christy, and I made time for a date at the movies. We stood at the ticket window for a moment trying to decide what to see. I'm sure it seemed longer for the people behind us in the ticket line. In the end - no pun intended - we chose 2012.

After the movie, we threw away the popcorn bag and soft drink cups and walked to the car. Instead of thinking about special effects and theories of end times, I left talking with Christy about The United Methodist Church. Weird...I know.

There are cataclysmic shifts taking place right under our feet, and most of us are oblivious to what is happening. We can't see it. We react to the effects. We don't understand it. We try to fix blame for it, but no one did anything to cause it. Shift happens.

When social and political shifts occur, human-made monuments and infrastructures crumble. Dust they were; to dust they will return. Some of the storyline is corny and unrealistic, for sure. But let's be honest -- so is much of the ecclesial drama that is enacted to preserve the sentimental.

A pivotal question concerns power and privilege and how it conducts itself in the face of change. Will it try carefully to control the gene pool in order to ensure the survival of what is deemed by some to be the best and the brightest, or will it open its doors to the diversity and differentness of that which God created?

Throughout the action and drama lie opportunities to redeem and redefine relationships within a new landscape. It's not easy - it requires humility and courage - but this is the essential work of loving neighbor. This is intensely personal work. No one can do it for us.

For the doomsayers who announce demise, I choose hope over fear. Natalie Sleeth writes in Hymn of Promise, "In our end is our beginning," and in the beginning, God creates. God's not done with us yet.

What do you think? The next General Conference is in 2012.

Wesley -- the movie

It's been at least a year since we learned that John Jackman, a North Carolina-based independent moviemaker, was at work on a biographical film about John Wesley. Now finished, Wesley is set to premiere Nov. 14 at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Screenings outside the state will begin in January, according to the film's official site.

The Western Carolina University Reporter posted a feature about the production (and several WCU students who worked on the set). The story and photos don't hide the film's modest budget, but it's clearly a labor of love for Mr. Jackman and others.

I'll plan a review, some time in the next several weeks.

A film that won't be ignored

The Stoning of Soraya M., a brutally graphic docudrama about the public execution of a woman in Iran on charges of adultery, opened in a few U.S. theaters last Friday and goes to more cities starting July 10. I’ve seen the movie; it’s powerful, though awfully hard to stomach. And producer Stephen McEveety (The Passion of the Christ) is actively targeting Christian audiences, so even those who don’t go are bound to hear plenty about it.

My own review will run next week, when the wide release begins. For now, you might like to read Christianity Today’s feature, in which Mr. McEveety and co-star Jim Caviezel say a little about their reasons for making the film.

The One Lamb

These days I’m wary of any film described as an “inspirational story of hope and redemption,” and with good reason. Brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick followed up their 2006 hit Facing the Giants with one of last year’s sledgehammer-on-a-marshmallow drama Fireproof, and seven months later we’re still receiving promotional e-mails for the DVD. (Guess they didn’t read this.)

But that said, I should note that University United Methodist Church of Charlotte, N.C., is releasing its own effort, The One Lamb, into theaters in 31 states. Now I’ll need to see about reviewing it. . . . Wish me luck.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Most of us won't be able to see the 72-minute documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell in theaters—it's only slated for release in 11 cities nationwide between now and February. But this sounds like one to keep an eye out for when it comes to DVD. It’s about the role that thousands of women, Christian and Muslim, played in ending 14 years of civil war in Liberia.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a United Methodist and Africa’s first female head of state, saw the film at a New York festival last spring—one day after her address at General Conference.

President Sirleaf is interviewed briefly in a video on the movie’s Facebook page. And the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries has posted additional info on their site.

Debaters 2.0 - History hits the 'reset' button

Ten months ago, our own Bill Fentum did a feature piece on the story behind the film The Great Debaters (and gave the movie itself a good review, too).

I thoroughly enjoyed the film (and not just because of the dreaminess of one Mr. Washington, despite what others in the newsroom might say). It brought to light the segregation not just in our country's past, but in our denomination's past, too (Wiley College is Methodist-related). The first inter-racial debate for the Wiley College debate team -- and the first in the history of the South -- was hosted by another Methodist-related college, Oklahoma City University.

This weekend, OCU hosts a series of events dubbed "The Great Debaters 2.0," partnering once again with Wiley College. According to the news release from OCU, the events aim to remind "students and the public not only about the debate itself, but also about lessons learned since the racial tensions of the 1930s."

Full information after the jump... Check out some more of the connections -- for example, the current UMC bishop in Oklahoma is the son of a former Wiley College president.

Critic-proof?

The 73rd e-mail of the month from FireproofTheMovie.com arrived this morning—just to thank me for helping to make their faith-based drama “the No. 4 overall movie in America [$6.8 million in box-office receipts] this past weekend.” They must have missed my review.

Looks like my reaction isn’t shared by most in the world of religion press, if you judge by postings at sites like PluggedInOnline and ChristianAnswers.net, or ChristianityToday.

Even secular reviewers have been kinder than I expected, though the reader feedback the Boston Globe’s Michael Hardy is getting may tell you why. I may send him my condolences.

Get ready for a 'Fire' sale

Two months ago I went to an advance screening of Fireproof—the latest effort from Facing the Giants creators Alex and Stephen Kendrick—and knew straight away I was in for trouble. Publicists were there, ready to survey the audience after the show.

Their top questions: How do you rate Fireproof as entertainment? Also, how do you rate it as an evangelism tool?

I’ll confess, I watched the whole 115 minutes, then slipped out through a side exit to avoid the survey. In a few more days, my review will be posted on this site and you'll all know where I stand. Or can you already guess?

No doubt a lot of people will ignore the critics, and respond only to the movie’s message of hope for struggling marriages. If they do, sponsors are ready with a tie-in novelization, devotionals, T-shirts, couples’ study guides and even a “911 Marriage Helpline.” And are they ever getting help from at least one denominational news service.

I’m sure the film will have its fans, and the Kendrick brothers will be back in a year or two with another big-screen sermon.

But how many more souls might they reach if the approach smelled a little less like plain, old-fashioned merchandising?

Don’t shoot. I’m just asking.

Wesley biopic

Last week I posted that at least one movie featuring a portrayal of evangelist Billy Graham is slated for release in mid-October. If I’d only known, I certainly would have added that a big-screen biography of Methodism founder John Wesley will be out even earlier, on Oct. 1.

United Methodist News Service has a behind-the-scenes feature. And while it took a little searching, I’ve found the film’s official site, with a wealth of photos and news updates.

Graham on film

I’ve been reading for a while now about an upcoming movie on Billy Graham’s early life—directed by ’70s teen star Robby Benson, of all people. But I hadn’t wondered whether Mr. Graham figures at all in W, Oliver Stone’s sure-to-be-both-hated-and-loved Bush biopic. That is, until I came across film blogger and Christianity Today critic Peter Chattaway’s post from yesterday.

It only makes sense to speculate about this. President Bush has always cited a 1985 talk with Mr. Graham as part of the reason he stopped abusing alcohol in his early forties. But it looks as though Mr. Stone—never one to be tied to historical accuracy—may be playing fast and loose with the Mr. Graham’s part in the story. Big surprise, huh?

Whatever the case, get ready for a media blitz when both films open in mid-October.

Apocalypse Then

Last week wasn't an easy one for doomsayers.

On June 12 the House of Yahweh sect in West Texas botched it third prediction in as many years that the world was coming to an end.

Then moviegoers stayed away in droves from The Happening's vision of humanity wiped out by an airborne toxin. But to show that end-times scenarios haven't always flopped at the box office, Beliefnet.com's Paul Asay posts his picks for the Top 10 Apocalyptic Movies. The list looks back at films from the last 50 years—highlighting, Mr. Asay says, "the end of the world as we've seen it, Hollywood style."

Double-edged Sword

I’ve been anticipating the release of Constantine’s Sword, a documentary by Oren Jacoby based on James Carroll’s book of the same name, ever since it was brought to my attention by my coworker Bill. The tagline, “No War is Holy,” immediately caught my attention. Here is a statement worth paying attention to, dangerous as it is to do so . . . and perhaps it always has been.

I got the chance to see it this weekend, and I came away with mixed feelings. James Carroll is clearly a man of great conviction, a former Roman Catholic priest turned writer, who has closely followed the gestures (and non-gestures) of the Catholic Church both forward and backward in time.

Caspian countdown

If Amy’s May 9 blog left you wondering who on the Reporter staff has battled nightmares since GC ended, I’ll confess that I’m the one with that particular form of PGSD.

The good news is, I’ve just returned from a three-day weekend that did wonders for my nerves. I’m now determined to take better care of myself, and to catch up with friends and family who hardly saw or heard from me last month.

I also hope to review a few movies this summer, but won’t need to cover this Friday’s release of Walden Media’s Prince Caspian. . . . Ken traveled to New York early this month on a press junket for the Narnia sequel, and his perceptive take on the film, and the characters’ maturing faith will appear on UMPortal later in the week.

For the moment, let me direct you to Mark Moring’s Christianity Today feature on Phil Anschutz, the reclusive Christian billionaire behind Walden. Mr. Moring didn’t nab an interview with Mr. Anschutz -- no one’s done that, he says, in more than 30 years. But as such profiles go, it’s full of information I’d never read before.

Lars and the Real Girl

It seemed an unlikely choice. Christianity Today cited Lars and the Real Girl as one of the best films of 2007, and my colleagues here at UMR all heartily recommended it. So now I’m recommending the movie to you. It came out on DVD yesterday.

The story: Lars Lindstrom is a lonely, painfully shy young man who’s been wounded by life. When friends and family reach out to him, he always backs away.

So you can imagine how excited his family is when he tell tells them he’s met a young woman online. But then it turns out that his girlfriend, Bianca, is a giant inflatable doll. She’s very religious, and she’s confined to a wheelchair, as Lars explains. And he is most devoted to her.

On paper, the plot of Lars and the Real Girl sounds wacky and cynically postmodern. In truth, this tender story resonates with a genuine and humane message.

Everyone in his small town – Lars’ family, friends, co-workers and fellow church members – thinks he’s nuts. But his family's physician is more circumspect.

Maybe Lars has created Bianca for a reason, she says. She’s a widow herself and knows that loss leads to a long road to recovery.

Maybe all we can do, she says, is go along with it, and see what Lars has to tell us, through Bianca.

Church members gather, knowing Lars will bring Bianca to worship on Sunday.
Predictably, some are ready to commit him to a mental institution. But aside from his devotion to Bianca, Lars is fully functional and independent; there’s no reason to send him away.

“What would Jesus do?” the pastor asks the congregants, and there’s no irony in that question. So it’s agreed. Everyone will embrace Bianca. Lars loves her, so they’ll love her too.

Soon, family members are helping bathe and dress Bianca. Church members enlist her as a volunteer at the local hospital. Soon she’s a busy member of the community. And finally, Lars and his friends and family are able to attend to the wounds that Lars had been nursing alone for years – the death of his mother, the emotional absence of his father.

It’s said that some truths can only be expressed through fiction. The truth of Lars’ pain, in the end, was only accessible through a fake human named Bianca. Through this inhuman object, with the help of others, Lars finds his own humanity.

Viewers who can suspend disbelief will discover, as Lars family and friends do, that Bianca is in fact a “real” girl, the only girl who can bind Lars’ wounds and finally put them to rest.

It's a wonderful story about community and kindness. Put it in the Netflix queue.

Gresham talks Caspian

Christianity Today’s Mark Moring has posted an excellent interview this morning with Douglas Gresham, in advance of the May 16 release of Disney’s Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Mr. Gresham, the stepson of Christian apologist and Narnia author C.S. Lewis, serves as a co-producer of the new film, as he did when The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came to the screen 2005.

I’ll just direct you to the interview without much comment. But be sure to read the last few graphs for a brief but poignant account of Mr. Gresham’s maturation in faith, which came later in his life than you might expect.

When life imitates art

A moment of self-disclosure: I love dark-humor movies. I've been a Coen Brothers fan for years.

My husband says our biggest point of difference is the kind of movies we like to watch: He likes it when lots of people you don't know very well die quickly in loud explosions, while I prefer to see someone I've come to care deeply about die a slow and exquisitely painful death.

That's his take, anyway.

My son, God bless him, has inherited my taste in dark, yet witty movies. So it's no surprise that he and I end up spouting lines from The Hudsucker Proxy or No Country for Old Men.

Apparently, we're not alone. (See the No. 1 movie phrase from 2007 after the jump)

Purgatory, salvation, hitmen

The trailer for In Bruges failed to connect with me on a level that was almost profound. On a superficial level, all the elements of something I’d enjoy were there: It’s a crime story, Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson are in it, and the whole thing is shot through with liberal doses of dry, sarcastic British humor and moments of surreality courtesy Hieronymus Bosch. Normally, with that kind of recipe, you could just title the movie This is for Ken Lowery and call it a day. But that trailer . . . I could see the jokes following the beat while completely failing to hit the notes.

I saw it anyway, mostly because the offer was made and the reviews were glowing. It’s two hours long, and that first hour is just like that trailer: missed connections and jokes that were never quite as funny as they wanted to be. But somewhere around the halfway mark, all the jokes about Bruges (“it’s in Belgium,” we are often reminded) as Purgatory and the angsting by first-time hit man Ray (Colin Farrell) kaleidoscope into deeper questions that, amazingly, retain the movie’s serio-comic tone.

Namely: Can someone ever do something that moves him or her beyond salvation and forgiveness? Are inflexible moral codes made weaker or stronger by their rigid nature? Those kinds of questions may provoke broad, knee-jerk responses in faith communities, but wickets get much stickier on a case-by-case basis, when the crimes committed are real and profound . . .

See the movie and ask those questions yourself. My full review will appear in the March 14^th edition of the Reporter, or you can read it online.

No country for dark movies

From the Catholic News Agency:

Commenting on the latest Oscars awards, the Vatican daily L’ Osservatore Romano said in an opinion column that the most awarded movies portray the image of a hopeless America.

[…]

The author of the column asks if this is not a “sign of the times.” “Maybe,” Vallini wrote.

“Since there were films capable of expressing different emotions in the running, with brave openness, like Juno, directed by Jason Reitman, which tales the story of a teenager who decided to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, or ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’, from Julian Schnabel, a secular hymn to life despite grave disabilities.”

God at the Oscars

And he's wearing such a nice tux...

Movie blogger Jim Emerson, on acceptance speeches:

No incarnation of the Creator of All Things is registered as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and nowhere on the Academy ballots is there a category for Best Vessel Through Whom God's Blessings Might Flow. (There remains some question, however, about whether Jesus Christ personally chooses the Grammy winners.) Winning an Oscar does not make you a special agent of God's will or the divine favorite over your fellow nominees -- or, for that matter, over the lepers in your category who must suffer the enduring shame of not even being nominated. (Didn't Jesus say that the un-nominated would inherit the earth?) Do not demean the concept of the Almighty by implying that either you, or the members of the Academy who voted for you, are somehow helping to implement God's Mysterious Plan so that you all can bring about the End Times. Even if it's true, don't. It's just bad form.

Funny, though some of the folks in his comments are less thrilled with Mr. Emerson’s glib tone. I’m reminded of professional athletes who thank God for the game-winning touchdown or three-pointer. Once upon a time, I used to roll my eyes at what I considered faux humility: The desire to appear pious specifically to build your profile. I know, I know. I am far too young to be so cynical. But since my coming around to joining the UMC, I’m considerably softer on public displays of belief. They can’t all be show boaters.

Depending on who you ask, the Academy either doesn’t give Oscar winners enough time to give their thanks, or gives them far too much of it. I used to be in the latter camp, but as I say, my heart is softened. I’m less inclined to get weepy over a bona fide superstar giving out his or her thanks, but the relative unknowns enjoying their first victory? The ones who may never have the chance again? Let them say whatever they want. And there ain’t nothing wrong with thanking God, just so long as it’s an acknowledgment of blessings and not, as Mr. Emerson says, a belief that God wanted you to win that award. That’s a bit much.

Power of Forgiveness

I’ve just been reading a few online posts about The Power of Forgiveness, a 78-minute documentary that looks to be worth checking out.

Directed by Martin Doblmeier -- whose 2003 film on Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a run in theaters -- Forgiveness was issued on DVD today. PBS plans to screen a slightly condensed version next month.

In an interview with Christianity Today’s Sam O'Neal, Mr. Doblmeier says he was inspired by a 2004 health-science conference on the therapeutic benefits of forgiveness, for people doing the forgiving. But his film broadens the scope, looking at forgiveness as a path to spiritual growth and a better world.

“Sure, it may be able to reduce your blood pressure and your heart rate; that's what science looks at; it's good for you, so do it,” Mr. Doblmeier says in the interview. “But I think the faith traditions, which have a sense of social responsibility, see forgiveness as a way to transform the culture.”

Read more, and put Forgiveness on your “to see” list.

Christian film fans' 2007 picks

Less than two weeks ahead of Oscar night (assuming the Writer's Guild strike is resolved by then), ChristianityTodayMovies.com has just announced its 2007 Readers' Choice Awards.

The results prove Christian moviegoers are nothing if not an eclectic bunch.

Celebrating a nominee

Oscar nominations were announced in L.A. this morning. And I'm embarrassed to say I have a little catching up to do before I can offer a full overview. It's nice to see two films I loved in the running for Best Picture -- Atonement and Juno. But I've yet to see Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood.

One nod did my heart good, though. Veteran star Hal Holbrook is up for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in Into the Wild. At 83, he's the oldest player ever nominated in the category -- and I'd give him the edge to win.

On screen, Mr. Holbrook is a retired Army officer who befriends Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch). He has several compelling moments, not least his plea for the young wanderer to call his parents and end years of bitter estrangement. "When you forgive, you love," he says, "and God’s light shines on you."

His plea falls on deaf ears, though. And when Mr. Holbrook's character realizes his words aren't enough to keep the young man from making a foolish mistake, the poignancy is heartbreaking. If you missed Into the Wild in theaters, look for it on DVD in early March.

A little-known fact, except for those who have followed the Reporter for years: Mr. Holbrook is a member of McLemoresville United Methodist Church in McLemoresville, Tenn., his wife Dixie Carter's home town. Read a 1999 story by Memphis Conference communicator Cathy Farmer, about the couple's Christmas visit to a UM-affiliated assisted-living center in Milan, Tenn.

Giving birth to a trend

Fox Searchlight's Juno is sparking pretty serious talk these days, for a comedy.

First, it looks to be a favorite in this winter's awards season. And because it deals with teen pregnancy, there's been debate about whether it takes a side in the abortion issue.

I'm not so sure it does.

When Juno (Ellen Page) decides to seek adoptive parents for her child, her motivation isn't clear. Is she simply turned off by the mood in an abortion clinic's waiting room? Or does a classmate's protest outside the clinic give her second thoughts? It's hard to say.

But such questions aside, some folks think the movie reflects a pro-life trend in the entertainment industry.

First came last spring's indie hit Waitress, about a pregnant woman who abandons an abusive marriage but keeps her baby. In the R-rated summer comedy Knocked Up, a single TV producer carries her child to term and builds a relationship with the father, a guy she'd only just met.

Then Christian filmmakers brought us Bella and Noelle. Unmarried women in both movies choose not to abort, persuaded respectively by a male restaurant chef and a Catholic priest. The men are struggling with guilt; the chef killed a girl in a traffic accident, and before seminary, the priest had a girlfriend who got an abortion at his urging.

From a less-than-'Great' press trip

I ditched the whole Golden Compass brouhaha last week -- after filing my review -- and boarded a plane for the first Hollywood press junket I've attended in over a year.

The film being promoted, thank heaven, won't stir up any controversy.

And it may open your eyes, as it did mine, to the rich history of one of our United Methodist-affiliated colleges.

It's The Great Debaters, starring and directed by Denzel Washington.

The title pretty much says it all: This is the story of debate team from historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, that faced off against Ivy League teams in the 1930s. Losing only one match in 15 years, they peaked with a national championship win in 1935.

A new 'Compass' wrinkle

OK, this is getting weird. . . .

The next time you see TV or print ads for The Golden Compass, look for these critical blurbs: "lavish, well-acted and fast-paced" . . . "hardly a dull moment" . . . intelligent and well-crafted entertainment."

Who would you guess supplied those raves? Ebert & Roeper? Nope, it's the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Or rather, their director of film and broadcasting, Harry Forbes, and staffer John Mulderig.

That's right. After calls from the New York-based Catholic League to boycott the film, the church's official reviewing office gives it a thumbs up.

The writers don't deny author Philip Pullman's atheism, or the story's "anti-clerical subtext." But they echo what we've heard from other sources:

Pullman a theologian?

I've discovered another Christian voice in the fight over The Golden Compass: Donna Freitas, assistant professor of religion at United Methodist-related Boston University.

She's Catholic, and the co-author of Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials (Jossey Bass).

Publishers Weekly says the just-released book analyzes scenes from the trilogy, trying to show that it isn't out to promote atheism, so much as a pantheistic view of religion.

Of course, that isn't what Mr. Pullman himself claims in interviews.

"But anyone familiar with even a little theology can see God lurking throughout this wonderful, imaginative adventure," Dr. Freitas says on her Beliefnet blog. "And anyone with a Christian background will find that [the] trilogy is rather sparkling with good Christian virtues like the big three -- faith, hope, and love -- not to mention lessons about justice, temperance, prudence, and courage."

Mr. Pullman's most vocal critic, the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, isn't mincing words in his reaction:

'Compass' director cries foul

A little update to last week's post about New Line Cinema's The Golden Compass:

Atlantic Monthly's December issue carries "How Hollywood Saved God," an article by journalist Hanna Rosin. She covers the film's five-year production history -- from the time studio heads bought the rights to Philip Pullman's novel, to their plans for a Dec. 7 release.

Her assessment, more or less: Writer-director Chris Weitz's shooting script erases the book's atheistic bite. All the better, she says, to ensure New Line won't lose its $180 million investment by driving away potential viewers.

Mr. Weitz feels abused.

Anti-Narnia coming

New Line Cinema's fantasy epic The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, doesn't hit theaters for three more weeks. But the New York-based Catholic League is already urging Christians to boycott the film.

Why? Because it's based on a literary trilogy some critics call "atheism for kids."

And they're not lying, according to Snopes.com.

Author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, Snopes says, "follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God."

Mr. Pullman, an avowed atheist, wrote the books to give young readers an alternative to C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, which he describes as "propaganda in the cause of the religion [Lewis] believed in."

But His Dark Materials sounds a lot like propaganda, itself.

Consumer alert?

Amy Forbus alerted me yesterday to a documentary showing in very limited release, this holiday season: What Would Jesus Buy?

Produced by Morgan Spurlock -- the guy behind the 2004 indie hit, Supersize Me -- WWJB spotlights anti-consumerism leader Bill Talen, aka Reverend Billy. For years, Mr. Talen has preached through his Church of Stop Shopping Now, urging people to boycott corporate giants like Disney, WalMart, Starbucks, Nike and Victoria's Secret.

When we do spend our hard-earned cash, RevBilly.com tells us, we should make sure it's supporting local economies at "independent shops where you know the person behind the counter, or at least you like them enough to share a story."

WWJB follows a cross-country trip Rev. Billy and his Gospel Choir took before Christmas 2005, culminating in their arrest at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. The movie's faced an uphill battle getting released, director Rob VanAlkemade told Reuters, after "major distributors backed away because WalMart sells half of their DVDs."

So if you want to catch it, check the list of U.S. theaters (all 25 of them!) posted at www.wwjbmovie.com.

Enough to make you scream

Two movies opened in wide release last weekend, and it's hard to imagine a pair with less in common.

First there's Dan in Real Life, a comedy-drama starring Steve Carell as a widower raising three daughters. Rated PG-13 for "some innuendo," it drew rave reviews from both secular and religious press. The box-office gross, though, was a nice but unspectacular $12 million.

So where were America's moviegoers? Well, a lot of them were busy seeing Saw IV, rated R for "grisly, bloody violence and torture throughout." Ticket sales: $32 million.

I've never been asked to watch or review a Saw flick, thank goodness. Others aren't so lucky, like PluggedInOnline's Paul Asay. And they all have my sympathy.

What's most unsettling is the notion that Jigsaw, the psycho at the heart of all this on-screen mayhem, sees himself as an angel of sorts. He doesn't put his victims through hellish nightmares simply to get his jolllies; he really hopes they'll learn to appreciate their lives a little more -- if they survive. How nice of him!

Lest you believe no viewer of faith would embrace even a part of that concept, check out this feedback excerpt at ChristianAnswers.net:

Rare view of Creation . . . at a theater near you

Nearly 18 years ago this fall, I sat in a darkened theater, wowed by the documentary For All Mankind. Folks who lived during NASA's Apollo missions in the 1960s and '70s watched plenty of blurred satellite images beamed from the moon. But unknown to most of us, astronauts had also captured hours of vivid, 16-millimeter color footage. And filmmaker Al Reinert turned 90 minutes of it into a big-screen gem.

If you didn't catch that film in '89, you'll be glad to hear that another space doc is premiering in theaters this month. In the Shadow of the Moon opens in my town next week, and Brandon Fibbs' review at ChristianityToday.com has me eager to see it.

An 'Ultimate Gift' rejected?

Last fall, 20th Century Fox launched a new division to market Christian-based entertainment. What kind of product we could expect was made clear at www.foxfaithmovies.com: "To be part of Fox Faith, a movie has to have overt Christian content or be derived from the work of a Christian author."

The Ultimate Gift, released to theaters last spring, fits that criteria. It's based on Jim Stovall's popular novel about a playboy who matures both emotionally and spiritually, thanks to a school-of-hard-knocks crash course planned by his grandfather.

But the film didn't connect with a wide audience, grossing only about $3.4 million in box-office receipts across the country. And producer Rick Eldridge, promoting the DVD release in an interview with Scripps Howard News Service columnist Terry Mattingly, thinks he knows why.

Redeeming show business?

Just when I'd started to fear that gross-out comedies, slasher thrillers and soulless action flicks really are all we'll see on the big screen in decades ahead, two of my recent story assignments bring a ray of hope.

First, I wrote an advance piece on the third annual Christian Filmmakers Academy and Independent Christian Film Festival, coming up this October in San Antonio, Texas. More than 120 short films shot by artists around the world will be shown at the fest, each intended to reflect a "sound biblical worldview." The screenings follow a three-day series of workshops for budding Christian directors, billed by sponsor Vision Forum Ministries as "a technical bootcamp for aspiring culture changers."

On a more modest level, the Young People's Ministries division of the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship recently hosted the InSight Film Festival, an online contest spotlighting videos made by UM youth across the country. One of the winning entries -- a Claymation short from 14-year-old Jacob Ewald -- is especially worth a look.

Then comes Christianity Today's profile of Burn, a North Carolina-based film school where media-savvy young people "are taught to stretch their imaginations in every respect . . . as long as they remain within the vast borders of God's Word," according to founder Jason Mitchell.

"Just imagine!" Mr. Mitchell says. "One thousand of our most brilliant, hard-core Christian youth being trained and sent out to fight the culture war every year -- an army of creators, or 'weapons of mass creation' as I like to call them."

Who knows how many of these young auteurs will get the chance to live up to those words. Professional filmmaking is a tough field to break into, as I learned for myself years ago. But it's worth keeping an eye on them. . . .

Don't believe everything you see

Resurrecting the Champ, a film opening in theaters this Friday, is "based on a true story, that was based on a lie." Or, at least, that's the line they're using in advertisements.

Josh Hartnett plays Erik Kernan, a fledgling sportswriter who learns to be better journalist, and a more honest father to his 6-year-old son. Erik is a fictionalized version of Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer -- and after the movie's been out for a while, I'm sure we'll see articles comparing the script to other accounts.

Through the years, I've always believed it's a good idea to read those articles before telling friends I've just seen 'a great true story.'

For instance, Rescue Dawn, an acclaimed recent release about a 1966 escape from a POW camp in Laos, depicts one man as a coward who nearly sabotages the breakout. But Gene DeBruin, the guy in question, isn't a fictional character. He's a real-life POW listed as "missing in action" for the last 44 years. And no published account or testimonial has portrayed him as anything but a hero who stayed behind to care for an ailing fellow prisoner.

His family and others, angered by filmmaker Werner Herzog's screenplay, have a lot to say about it at www.rescuedawnthetruth.com. I haven't seen the movie yet myself, but certainly plan to bear this in mind when I do.

When have you learned that Hollywood's version of the truth didn't match anyone else's?

Don't let Sicko have the last word

My Aug. 3 review of Michael Moore's Sicko generated a letter from an M.D., who called to my attention two holes in the film's idyllic depiction of health care outside the U.S.

I should have talked, the doctor said, to British citizens who wait six months to a year for MRIs, or who get no treatment at all because they’re over 70. Or to Canadians who travel across our border for help in the U.S., rather than wait a year for tests.

There's no reason to shrug off either of those claims. And anyone writing a news feature on the topic – rather than a movie review – would be remiss not to explore all sides. The anti-Moore site, MooreWatch.com (yes, the same one mentioned in the film), looks like a good place to start.

Since health-care reform is shaping up to be a key issue in the 2008 election, now's no time to walk away from the discussion. The United Methodist Social Principles call health care "a basic human right," and affirm "the role of governments in ensuring that each individual has access to those elements necessary to good health." (Paragraph 162T)

But what’s the best path to a compassionate system that leaves no one out? Any ideas?

Gone to the dogs?

Disney's Underdog, opening in theaters this Friday, looks harmless enough. An animated canine hero cheered by baby boomers in the 1960s now flies over our heads for real, or as close to it as CGI effects can muster.

The PG rating promises the same "rude humor" that plagues nearly every family flick these days. But what else is new, right?

Well, maybe this. . . .

The movie's posters and ads are headed by the tag line, "One nation, under dog." A press release goes even further: "Underdog is the story of how a nation found a savior in the least likely of forms: a humble, lovable beagle. . . ."

I had a hard enough time last year when Superman Returns (a movie I otherwise enjoyed), took its own Christ analogy a bit far; a wounded Clark Kent falls from the sky in a crucifixion pose, then disappears from his hospital bed after everyone assumes he's died.

Nothing against our four-legged best friends, but aren't we using words of faith a little loosely these days?