Recently in Movies Category

I love movies. I can see as many as 6 in one week I the theater.

I often like movies others don't. (Knight's Tale anyone?)

But some how I am out of step with everyone on this.

Last week I saw the movie Pan's Labyrinth.

It is receiving rave reviews (96% of the 131 reviews at RottenTomatos.com are positive). It is receiving award nominations (Golden Globe, SAG, and Oscar). I have even received e-mail from friends telling me to go.

I heard an interview with the writer/director Guillermo Del Toro. I loved everything he said. "adult fairytale." "importance of disobedience." "importance of stories and fantasy." "for a movie to be about all time it must be about a specific time."

The movie itself is beautiful. The magical creatures and worlds are amazing. Wonderful, amazing and scary. (The faun puts the Chronicles of Narnia to shame) Not a candy coated fairytale, but what a child's imagination is really like.

With all this being said, I found the movie horrifying. It was anything but hopeful and it was brutal beyond recognition. There were four times in which I had to cover my eyes because the violence was so extreme and real.

And maybe that was the problem. I have a feeling I am going to see Smoking Aces in the next few weeks and won't even flinch. The violence will be so cartoonist it won't be believable.

But Pan's Labyrinth might be a fairytale, but the violence is real. Way to real for my taste.

I went to see the documentary American Hardcore (a fine enough film) about the harDCore punk scene in the US from 1979-84. (Ironically enough the term "hardcore" was coined by Vancouver based DOA). This was very different scene from the mid 70's in England. It used much of the same musical vocabulary, some of the same visual look, and disenchantment (with Reagan, not the Queen), but there was as much different as there was the same.

Obviously, this is not a movie about me or my people. I am about 5 years to young and grew up in Wyoming. I was exposed to more of this music than your average Wyomingite, and some of the music I liked (and still listen to from time to time), but it was not me.

One character the movie introduced me to was HR. HR was (is?) the lead singer of the band Bad Brains, which is a band I know, but only from their music.

The band was a bit of anomaly for the scene. First, they were black. The movie has photos and home movie footage from all the major hardcore scenes in the US. The only blacks you see are the guys in Bad Brains. Second, they were very talented musicians. Not all the hardcore bands were untalented musically. Most knew more than just three cords. Bad Brains were something special.

Inside of this anomaly of a band was HR, an anomaly himself. The music of this time wasn't just loud and fast. Much of it was written with purpose, mostly political. There were a number of bright, thoughtful folks, but HR was something special.

It is obvious in just the few clips of him in the movie that he has a great deal going on in his head. The thing I found most amazing was that while serving as a mentor to many young bands in DC he had them read the Napoleon Hill classic Think and Grow Rich. This is a book I dig out about once a year to read.

The goal of having these 15 year old punks read such a tome? To get them to understand that they are in control of their own lives. With a positive mental attitude they could create what they wanted.

Not something you would expect to find in the middle of very loud, short, violent music.

HR.

Interesting man.

Musically talented.

Very bright.

Could be doing anything.

For 5 years played some of the best hardcore punk in the country.

Someone I would have liked to have bumped into.

I guess that is one the reasons I strive to have such a mixed group of people in my life.

I want to be challenged and made uncomfortable by different points of views.

I come away changed or with a reaffirmed sense of self.

A pray of thanksgiving for HR, all those who walk their own path, and the many chances I get to learn from them.

Like it. Hate it. Stand in line for it. Boycott it.

It's just a movie. It's just a story.

If you like the church, you might have problems with. If you have problems with the church, you might like it.

It's not going to change anyone's mine. It's just a story.

What I am amazed with is the coverage. Think of all the time and effort that has been spent by the studio, the church, and the media talking about it. I know of at least 4 books which have been published. There is going to be a documentary on NBC tonight produced by the American Bishops Conference.

What would happened if we spent the same about of time, energy, and money sharing something like...oh I don't know...the beautiful social justice teaching of the church, the belief in a ever loving god, or the personal healing that comes with forgiving others.

It is not going to change your life. It is not going to give you new insight into the world around you.

It is simply a well written, well acted, professionally made move. The script is tight. The performances are great. The director (Spike Lee) is able to comment on the world with out beating you over the head with his agenda.

Maybe I am slow, but I couldn't see what was coming around the next corner. It was also plausible. Sometimes these stories are built to cleaver. This is not.

There is only one scene in the whole movie I didn't believe. Without spoiling anything in the movie, the 4 wouldn't have been in the black car.

Inside Man R, for language and some violent images

I was doing some very important research this morning on the Scooby's All-Start Laff-a-Lympics*, a wonderful Hanna-Barbara cartoon from my childhood, when I came found this.

Anyone who is a IMDb.com or HB cartoons needs too see this:

The Internet Hanna-Barbera Fashion Database: Your online source for jokes about gorillas in derby hats!

*link includes full cast list and links to pictures of all characters

Short Review: Wait until it is on DVD.

Long Review: The good and bad of documentary is the fact is it is not actors. Good, because we get true story of daily life, not contrived. Bad, because the director is not working with people who are trained to be in front of the camera. Werner Herzog, the director, is know to re-shoot interviews to better telling of the story. Sometimes this works because the subject, a non natural storyteller, does a better job. Sometimes it seems poorly acted. A number of the interviews in this movie seem to be doing bad, overacted addition tapes. One guy, an actor, keeps looking wistfully into the ocean each time he makes a (overly) dramatic pause.

The footage of Tredwell in the bush is compelling. It is amazing to see the way the bears save him (not his contention that he is saving the bears). It is a man, alone, fighting the demons in his mind, out loud. When the movie concentrates on Tredwell it is wonderful.

When it is filling in the back story, half the time it simply feels like filler.

March of the Penguins is a must see movie (especially if you can arrange for a three and a six year old to sit behind you).

I can't wait for the DVD to see how they were able to film in temperatures below -50F (not taking the 100 mph wind into effect).

Here is the trailer for the most anticipated film of the year (at least for me).

Grizzly Man (right click to download; click to load in a new window)

Yesterday I saw the movie Paper Clips. Going into the movie, I knew basic premises. The movie beings with a voice over reading a letter sent to the students at Whitwell Middle School (Go Tigers!) in Whitwell, TN. From the third sentence of the letter until the end of the movie I cried.

The movie is a document about a project the middle school students in Whitwell took part in. Whitwell is a small (abandon) coalmine town in TN. The population is 1600. Almost everyone is white protestant. There are 6 non-whites in the middle school. No Jews. No Catholics. The principal was concerned that her students were not being exposed to diversity issues. She sent the assistant principal to a conference to see if there was a project the school could do to address this concern. He came home thinking doing a study of the Holocaust would a good topic. They could study a culture they knew nothing about as well as study evil in the world and how to respond to it.

The Holocaust Project was born. It was an extra curricular activity. The students didn't have to take part, but instead joined. The first year the teachers didn't know much more than the student. They read as much as they could and shared their knew knowledge with the students.

One day in the second year of the project one of the students asked, in response to hearing 6 millions Jews were killed, "How many is 6 million. I have never seen 6 million of anything." The teacher responded, "Well, I don't know. I haven't seen 6 million either." He told the class if they could come up with something to collect, they could try and get 6 million of them to see.

After doing a little research, the students found the paper clip. The paper clip was invented in Norway. During the WWII Norwegians wore paper clips on their collars as a sign of protest against the Nazis and in support of the plight of the Jews. The rest of the movie is about the school journey to collect 6 million paper clips. Along the way they meet holocaust survivors and change many peoples lives in big and small ways. The movie is worth seeing. It shows so powerfully how we have so much more in common with our common man than we choose to realize on a daily basis. I know I am going to drive down to see the monument the built this summer.

On the drive home I found myself meditating on this message of how much we truly are one people and that we are responsible for each other. As the thoughts rolled around in my head I was able to finally crystallize something that has been weighing on my soul.

Over the last few weeks my heart has really ached in the selection of the new Pope. The ache has nothing to do with the passing of John Paul (which was sad) or over the selection of Benedict. I have come to realize that I have nothing thoughtful to say about the former pontiff or the selection of the new one. [Anything I say about Benedict is nothing more than parroting something I have heard someone say. The only thing I can say definitively is he looks good in white.] I am so far away for all of that. The pain I have felt has come from all the discussion about who has passed and who is to come next. There have been so many divisive conversations about beliefs and what MUST happen next.

In no way to I want to minimize the role of the Pope. The pontific of John Paul showed how powerfully the position can be used for good in the church and in the world. I also don't want to minimize the theological discussion over the state of the church and how the new pontiff needs to respond to that. It is import to ask big questions about our belief system and how that is lived out in the world.

More than once in the last month have I been caught up in these conversations. With great energy on my part I might add. But for what good?

I recently heard an interview with a religious scholar who has studied and written on all the major religions of the world. When asked about her own beliefs she said something like, "The merit of any religion can be judged on it practical application of compassion in the world." I like that a lot.

My soul is heavy because took a group of middle school kids with 26 million paper clips to point out that right now there is real suffering in the world. People are sick and dieing and disenfranchised and hungry and lonely. Not just people in the world, but people in my community. My faith life in some many ways has become an intellectual exercise, not a life style.

It brings me back to what my friend Jerry said while leading a retreat in December: It is easy to do what Jesus would do when you are not where Jesus would be.

[One of my best friends gives me grief when I make statements like this. Mostly comparing me to the comic book guy on The Simpsons. So be it.]

The best consistent storytelling in the US happens weekly on PRI’s This American Life (TAL). For the uninitiated TAL is an hour-long show about the stories of the daily lives of American’s. Sometimes they have fiction, but for the most part it is radio documentary. Each week they pick a theme and do a number of stories around the theme. Every week I laugh, or cry. Often times I do both.

It is a wonderful show because the stories that are told are so great because they contain truth about the lives we live. It is not they tell the truth about what happened. That is impossible because every person who tells a story has a point of view. (Don‘t believe me? Have a number of people from your family try and tell the same story. You can’t get to people who had a conversation with each other to recount the same story.)

The fact that documentary doesn’t tell the facts, as they happen, isn’t important. What is import (as with any story) is the truth that is in the story, the part of the story that resonates with us. I might not be able to relate to a shepherd in twelfth century Spain, but I do know what it is like to seek my own place in this world. That is the truth that resonates with me. One of the reasons that documentary (like TAM) works so well is because the stories that are being drawn upon are so rea,. There is real art in pulling that truth out of the mess of daily life to tell a good story. Sometimes it is easier to tell a story of fiction from a far off time because the teller is able to create all the piece. The art of documentary (film or radio) is the ability to cut away all the excess to find the story and the truth.

I just saw an amazing movie. It is called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. It would be easy to say it is the story about a flock of parrots that live in the wild in San Francisco. It would be simple to say it is a story about a man who takes care of these birds. But it is really neither of these things. The story line is of the relationship between Mark and the 45 birds, but that is not the truth of the story.

I wish I could say what the truth of the story was, but there is so much truth running around inside the movie. It is a movie I am going to need to see a few more times to digest it all. At one moment you think Mark is “St. Francis of Telegraph Hill”. The next you are thinking he completely nuts. A moment later you think he is both.

There is this beautiful story of how he came to San Francisco from Seattle to become a musician. After giving up his dream of music, while looking for what he needs to be doing next, this relationship with the birds just finds him. Some how his calling just finds him. Something he would never dream for himself. Something he now can’t image living without.

At the same time there is so much truth about relationship. Mark comes to the point where he starts to see the relationships the birds have with each other. The relationships he is talking about could be human, not the animals he is talking about. If I would have seen this movie years ago I would have dismissed him as a wacky animal person who has lost grip with reality. Now, that is not the case.

It is amazing how the story of this gentle giant and 45 birds can be so simple, but so full of life. It isn’t a multi million dollar action film (or multi-million dollar Sideways), but instead the study of one life of passions.

It is truth. It is gospel. It is the story of us.