Junk Drawer Spirituality

Star Trek: a Review

Last night I saw Star Trek.  I'm not sure that I would call myself a "Trekky," but I did grow up watching Star Trek with my family.  Started out watching the original series with Captain Kirk, and when the "Next Generation" came out with Jean-Luke Picard and the rest of the Enterprise crew, we ended up watching that one pretty religiously too.

And yes, I've also seen all the movies (I think).  I don't go to Star Trek conventions or wear Vulcan ears in the shower, but I do like the show.  And I was pretty excited to see this Star Trek movie because I'd heard alot of good things about it AND, it was written and directed by JJ Abrams, the creator of "Lost" (my current favorite TV show).

So, here's my review. . .

Gran Torino

I just saw the movie "Gran Torino" last night.  Generally speaking, I liked the movie.  Who better to play a tough, crotchety old man than Clint Eastwood, right?  Gran Torino is about an elderly white man who sticks out like a sore thumb in a neighborhood that is growing increasingly racially diverse.  He's bitter about the change and takes that bitterness out on anybody and everybody with very imaginitivly articulated slights and racial slurs.  His prized possession is his mint condition muscle car (a Gran Torino) that sits in his driveway only to draw the criminal attention of neighborhood gangs.  Through an unusual twist of fate, Eastwood's character develops a bond with his Asian neighbors, an experience that profoundly impacts both the neighbors and Eastwood's own temperament.

There are two really important themes in Gran Torino. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

On Friday, I finally saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."  I thought it was a good film, even though I've read many critics who did not like it.  It was a bit long, but it didn't feel long to me.  It's the story of a man born in 1918 with some kind of defect that made him look old, even as a baby.  As he got older, his mind aged but his body got younger.  So as a baby, he was a wrinkly prune-looking thing with arthritus in all of his joints.  And as a pre-teen, he was bald and limited to a wheel-chair, looking like a man in his 80s.  But as he got older, his hair became less white, his skin smoothed, and he became younger and younger while everyone else around him got older and older.  Eventually, Benjamin lives out the last few years of his life as a senial toddler.

There were alot of interesting themes in this movie that I'm still chewing on.  There's the theme of rejection and isolation, as Benjamin must learn to cope with his deformation as a child, but ironically there's a point in the movie when we begin to feel envious of him as he becomes the strapping Brad Pitt at age 60.  There's the theme of time . . . how quickly life seems to whiz by and the despair of missed opportunities.  And the dominant theme is about death and aging.  It's about finding life's meaning in the love we share with others despite the sometimes undignified manner in which we age and die.  I read a review by Roger Ebert, who really didn't like the movie because he couldn't relate to Benjamin; the idea that a person would age backwards was too weird.  For me, this was the very thing I liked about the movie.  Despite the fact Benjamin spends his whole life aging backwards and getting younger and younger, the lesson he learns about the purpose of life was the same as his friends and family who were passng him going the other direction.  And in that way, Benjamin, despite all appearances, was just like us.    

The Trials of Ted Haggard

I remember the first news story that appeared on the Denver local news when I was still living in Colorado.  Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Senior Pastor of New Life Fellowship in Colorado Springs, a church of 15,000 members, advisor to President Bush, and spokesperson for conservative Evangelical Christians all over America, was accused of having sex with a male prostitute.  I watched him deny it.  Then, over the next few days I watched him backpedal.  It was like watching a car accident.  He gradually admitted to more and more, and by that Sunday, Haggard resigned from his church, and had been removed from every position of influence that he held.  It had become clear that Haggard had in fact engaged in extra-marital homosexual encounters with another man as well as drug use and other offenses.

I watched in amazement as the whole thing unraveled.  I remember feeling angry.  Funny story . . .

Slumdog Millionaire

I just saw "Slumdog Millionaire" this evening, and it was a fantastic movie.  It's about a boy who grew up in the harsh slums of India who finds himself on a "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" style gameshow with a chance to win a whole lot of money.  It's a story about the struggles of poverty, family, Romance, and it's a Horatio Alger tale as the protagonist, by a twist of fate, is able to use the breadth of his life experience, the horrors from his past and the struggles, to bring an end to hopelessness.  One of the best movies of 2008 by far.

Art and Evangelicalism

I just read a very interesting review of the recently released, Christian produced, movie Fireproof.  I have not seen the film, but I know a few Christian friends who have, both of whom highly recommended the film to me.  As most Christians and non-Christians alike, I'm always extraordinarily skeptical of something that is supposed to be entertaining that has "Christian" as a qualifying adjective . . . like "Christian music," "Christian skate parks," "Christian novels."  I've seen a few Christian movies and I've been sorely disappointed by every experience.  I went to see the movie Joshua a few years ago and it was absolutely aweful.  It carried about the same creative clout as an episode of 7th Heaven and it was so cheesy and predictable I felt sorry for the poor theater workers who had to actually show this lame excuse for a film.

So back to Fireproof. . .

Donnie Darko

A few weeks ago I watched a movie called Donnie Darko.  It was made in 2001 but it has gained a sort  of cult following since it's limited release.  For about a month, I'd heard the movie name mentioned a time or two, which peaked my interest.  Then I saw it on my list of free "on-demand" movies through Comcast, so I watched it with a friend.

Donnie Darko is an Insanely weird movie.  I don't know if I can describe it except that it is a sort of fantasy/sci fi/ psychological thriller involving a schizophrenic High School student and a figment of his imagination named Frank who's dressed as a creepy 6 foot bunny rabbit.  Or at least, that's what you think is happening through about 95% of the movie.

This is one of those movies you either love or hate.  It's also one of those movies that you will think about and think about and continue to think about for weeks.  I googled the movie and started reading movie theories and discussions from fans of Donnie Darko who were online debating the movie's meaning and intricate symbolism.  This is one of those movies that captures your attention.  It is definitely a weird flick, but I I strangely kind of liked it, and I don't know why.  

The 21st Century Abolition Movement

Apparently there is a new documentary coming out in the next few months.  It is a collaborative project that includes a film and I think a concert including number of musical artists, some actors and actresses, academics such as Cornell West, etc.  But it's a documentary shining a spotlight on the current problem of worldwide human trafficing and slavery.  I just watched the trailer and it's gripping.  Don't know if it's another "We are the world . . . we are the children" project or something more substantial yet, but I like the fact people are talking about this. 

Love the last line of the trailer from Cornell West: "NEVER FORGET, JUSTICE IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PUBLIC."  Here's the trailer. 

The Dark Knight

This past weekend, I went to see the latest Batman movie, "The Dark Knight."  I know lots of people are talking about it and reviewing it, and I'm in agreement with most everyone that it was really, really cool.  it was about 2 and a half hours, so be prepared for that.  And the movie is incredibly intense.  If "Batman Begins" was the first departure from the sugar puff, kiddie-style Batman movies, "The Dark Knight" brings that trend to a whole new stratosphere.  It's intense and downright scary at time (I know I jumped out of my seat more than once).  It was visually stunning, and Heath Ledger's potrayal of The Joker was beyond creepy. 

When Jack Nicholson played The Joker almost 20 years ago, he was crazy and mean, but also alittle funny and oafish, which disarmed the audience a bit. . . he was still sort of a cartoon.  He'd hit Batman in the stomach, but then he'd wimper because it hurt his hand.  Heath Ledger's Joker was completely sadistic, totally unpredictable, and he felt very real.  There was no cartonnishness about Ledger's Joker at all.  What made him scariest was that he wasn't crazy.  He was portrayed to be very cunning and intelligent, and he simply enjoyed hurting people.  And that's about the most frightening and purest form of evil that I can imagine, where there's no motivation except to inflict pain on people.  It's not about revenge or greed.  It's just about the pleasure of hurting others.  And Ledger's performance brilliantly made you believe it.          

Kung Fu Panda

Last night, I saw Kung Fu Panda.  It's the latest Dreamworks animated movie, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot.  I'd heard it was pretty good.  And it was!  I really enjoyed it.  Jack Black plays the main character (a panda bear who wants to be a Kung Fu master), and I think I like him a whole lot more as a voice-over for animation than I do in real life.  He's sort of a cartoon in real life anyway, so his panda character was just hilarious.  It was also a good story, the animation was incredible, and it made me laugh, so all around it was a good experience. 

The Greatest Silence

I had DVR-ed an HBO documentary serveral weeks ago, and I just got around to watching it tonight.  To be honest, I had kinda been putting it off because I knew it would be a hard film to watch.  I also knew it would be important to watch.  It's called "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo."  In the last 10 years, staggering numbers of women living in the Congo, 100s of 1000s, have been raped.  It's a war-torn country, and Congolese militias systematically use rape and genital mutilation as a weapon against these women.  Makes you wonder how men (or anyone) can do such things.  100s of 1000s of women have had their lives  destroyed, they've suffered physical damage, and social ostracism as a result of these brutal acts.  I have nothing profound to say.  It just makes me sad.   

A Good Movie and a Bad One

I saw two movies in the theater this weekend.  One was really good.  one was really bad.  The first one was Ironman.  Ironman is a movie about this billionaire weapons manufacturer  who thought he was building his weapns to protect America, only to find out his weapons were being used by the enemy as well.  he movie is about this very wealthy and very intelligent and charismatic engineer getting out of that mess with this new suit he develops to help people and undo some of the mistakes he's made.  I've never read the comic books, so I had no prior history with Ironman, but I loved the movie.  unlike other comicbook moviews, this one has some really great actors, and Robert Downy jr. is awesome in this role as the lead.  It's funny, interesting, the pace of the movie is good, the CG was awesoms, and the story didn't get so bogged down with subplots that you didn't really know what was happening as many of this genre of film tends to do.  Well worth the price of admission.

The second movie I saw was Baby Mama.  I really like Tina Fey and everything she's done up to this point on SNL, "Mean Girls," and "30 Rock."  This movie absolutely sucked.  It's about a single 37 year-old business woman who wants to have a baby but can't.  So she hires a surrogate mother in Amy Pohler to do it, who is of course a white trash walking stereotype.  The plot and characters were unbelievable, the jokes weren't funny, the story was boring, and the conclusion was about as predictable as could be.  I couldn't wait for this one to end.   

The Painted Veil

I just watched a movie the other day called "The Painted Veil."  I'd never heard of it before, but I DVR-ed it for some reason.  Turned out to be a pretty good movie.  It's about this British husband and wife played by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, set in the 1920s.  They're British, but they end up living in China where he's working as a microbiologist.  It's a long movie, and it starts out kinda slow, but I really liked it.  There aren't many films anymore where you get to see not only sin, but also redemption and forgiveness but this one had it.