little miss sunshine: funny and smart, smart and funny

'little miss sunshine' is, i suppose, what they call 'this year's sleeper hit' - a beautifully observed comedy in the truest sense - something about what real life is really like. i won't say much about the plot, other than it's a very dysfunctional family (or maybe it just seems that way - i've only encountered a couple of families that seemed functional) on a road trip. as is usually the case in this kind of film, the journey is the destination, but the joys and sorrows of this journey manage to take in a critique of the american dream, father-son relationships, ambition, teenage angst, the sexualisation of almost everything in our society, and ultimately the truth that it is in broken moments when we are both most human, and possibly most lovable.

it's also profoundly funny.

but it's that last point that stays with me - when we are most broken, we are perhaps most able to be ourselves. at the same time, when we it seems like we have lost everything we held most dear, that's when we can make an exuberant gift of our usually hidden abilities to take risks. if this sounds ambiguous, it's because i'm trying not to give away too much of the film...so go see it and let me know what you think.

where has wim wenders' mojo gone?

saw 'don't come knocking' last night - new film by wim wenders and sam shepherd - great pedigree, great photography and music, great territory - lonely man wandering through the american west - that both wenders and shepherd have worn well before.

so it was sad to see that, as with many other older directors, the late vintage wenders only made me want to return to his earlier films - at least two of which - 'paris, texas', and 'wings of desire' - can be legitimately called masterpieces. both of them deal with the sense of being 'outside' the mainstream, of not being able to 'fit in', making serious mistakes, and trying to atone because of them.

'don't come knocking' just doesn't convince. wenders, like woody allen, and, i fear, martin scorsese, appears to have got caught in a rut of doing only things that he has done better before...by this token, you could make a case that steven spielberg is one of the riskiest directors working in the mainstream today - consistently challenging himself to do something new. if only someone could persuade woody allen to slow down and make fewer films, or wim wenders to make a non-narrative film in ireland, or scorsese to forget catholicism and gangsters for a while...

the wicker man: may god have mercy on our souls

the remake of the 1973 horror classic 'the wicker man' opened today without a press screening - never a good sign.

i went to see it in the vague hope that neil la bute would show some of the serious flair present in his earlier, heavier films such as 'in the company of men'.

sadly, this horror film is one of the funniest i've ever seen. so much effort and attention has been paid to the set design that they forgot the best parts of the script - the religious questions, the sinister way otherwise innocuous things appear, the sheer terror has been replaced by nicolas cage in a bear suit and ellen burstyn - my favourite actress - playing the role that underlines the theory that it's the exception that proves the rule.

the question i'm left with is to wonder if the religious aspects of the film were removed because it is assumed that today's audiences don't want to engage with them. and i don't think anyone who thinks seriously about these things would agree with that.

a scanner darkly

philip k dick was a tragic figure who made art out of his pain

richard linklater is a film maker who manages to straddle both the mainstream ('school of rock') and indie ('before sunrise') scenes

keanu reeves is an actor who rarely succeeds on his own, but when he's in the right context, he does things that no one else can

'a scanner darkly' is a superb film about the divided self, the fearsome power of drug misuse, the encroachments of the state, the uses and abuses of personal freedom, and the life of the mind

it's the first film i've seen this year that i immediately wanted to see again

dvd catastrophe

hey folks

my dvd player has stopped working - anyone know how to fix it?

it's a really cool sony player, and worked fine til i went to greenbelt - now every time i put a disc in it says 'cannot play this disc'...anyone know why?

first person to solve the problem gets a free dvd from my collection.

back from greenbelt

hey folks

sorry i've been off-line for a few days - decided for the first time not to take my computer to greenbelt - turned out just right as it was the busiest festival i've ever had.

so, highlights:

michael franti's near-spontaneous combustion as he enacted everything i could possibly wish for a euphoric last night on mainstage

dancing in the organic beer tent

re-connecting with beautiful friends - mr steve lawson & mr alastair mcintosh, mr kester brewin as three stand-outs

feeling at home again

great to see so many of you there

the spirit grows

greenbelt: films of the year

a heads up for anyone heading to greenbelt this weekend - i'm doing a film review of the year seminar. here's my brief thoughts on the themes that have surfaced in the films of past year, along with a draft list of the films that i've appreciated the most since last august bank holiday. love to hear your thoughts.

THEMES
angst-ridden artists as the keynote of our time
commitment in relationship matters
post-9/11 cinema
the rudest film ever made
god works for disney
peter jackson has too much power
50 cent's movies are worth the price of his name
make peace with your own death
the usual waste of time popcorn
smart popcorn
god is at the edges


FILMS
grizzly man
brokeback mountain
junebug
40 year old virgin
an inconvenient truth
the constant gardener
the three burials of melquiades estrada
a history of violence
good night, and good luck
syriana
munich
cache
the new world
paradise now
crash
superman returns
little miss sunshine
thumbsucker
walk the line
the beat that my heart skipped
pavee lackeen the traveller girl



for what it's worth, my three favourite films of the past year are
junebug
little miss sunshine
the new world

what is blogging for?

so, i've been at this blogging malarkey for a couple of weeks now and i'm enjoying it. it's kinda nice that some of you out there are happy to connect with this blog.

i am intrigued by one thing, though - last week i wrote a post about the president of iran and his veiled threats against the u.s. one of you good people has responded to this post. the next day, i wrote a short of review of the new will ferrell movie. TEN posts in response!

perhaps there is a lesson in the fact that the score is currently ferrell 10, ahmadenijad 1, but i just wanted to say that i'm eager to see traffic on the political stuff as well as the comedy!

easy rider at last

just saw 'easy rider' for the first time - yeah, i know that makes me look ridiculous, but there's a lot of films out there that i wanted to watch first. to be honest, i found it boring and pretentious, with a few nice landscape vistas thrown in to make it a not entirely unpleasant experience.

having said that, this isn't what some people called 'amerika' in 1969, and it's easy to see how 'rider's impact depended on it's cultural context...rebellion and freedom seen as two sides of a coin etc etc etc. though once you think about the fact that the legacy of the 'freedoms' of the 70s turned out to be ronald reagan's presidency, and the groundwork that it laid for today's administration, perhaps 'easy rider' represented both the beginning and the end of a movement.

world trade center: not an oliver stone film

just saw world trade center at the cinerama dome - amazing cinema in hollywood that i'd always wanted to visit. this movie is perhaps not the ideal film to be seeing in a place known for its cinematic spectacle, but i was glad to see it nonetheless. was particularly intrigued by the fact that it was made by oliver stone, and wondered what this most political of film-makers would do with it.

what he did: memorialise.

this film is a powerful tribute to the courage shown by many people on 9/11; but deeper than that, it seeks to represent the horror of what happened in the twin towers. for the most part, it is not a political film.

people like me found it difficult to truly engage with the tragedy for at least two reasons - the immediacy of the visuals on tv, and the lack of images of human beings suffering (as with hurricane or tsunami footage) made the event seem almost mechanical; but most damaging of all was the fact that the response of the bush administration forced us to devote our resources to the attempt at restraining further violence rather than lamenting what had happened.

so it is a good thing that a film has been made that seeks to do little more than respect the victims.

lament is important, but it is a lost art.

will ferrell is having a laugh. but i'm not.

when a movie's end credits are funnier than the film itself, and when the best scene was missed because you were asleep when it happened, then i guess the film must be 'talladega nights: the ballad of ricky bobby' - a very well shot comedy which forgets that script and plot are not incidental to humour. will ferrell's a smart guy - but not smart enough to realise when a joke has gone on too long: for frankly, this was one of the most boring films i've seen in a long time. to russty, michelle, jared and gina, all i can say is 'forgive me for asking you to see this with me'. hope we'll do better next time.

(and if you want to be reminded of ferrell's ability to really make you laugh, try and get hold of the comilation dvd of his saturday night live stuff. no one does lipton like ferrell)

doug pagitt is next to godliness

he is the michelangelo of the emerging church

there is no man so erudite, so thoughtful, so wise, so tall, and so able to make nanotechnology sound interesting as he.

i highly recommend that you all turn your prayer mats toward minnesota if you want your intercessions to work in future.

or at least you could check the man himself out at www.dougpagitt.com

human hospitality

at the soliton sessions in ventura this week several thoughts collided as i found myself sharing the presence of doug pagitt, shane claiborne, si johnston, ched myers, kester brewin, greg russinger and the bridge communities - all worth a bit of a google if you've time to read up on these marvellous people (and if you want an object lesson in hospitality you should go and stay with my amazing friends jared and regina williams):

bonhoeffer - if you're in love with your vision of community, your community will fail. if you're prepared instead to love people, then you might just succeed at building community.

hospitality is more than having friends over for dinner - it is an attitude of mind and heart - a demeanour of generosity toward everyone and everything. that's too important to miss, so i'll say it again: hospitality is more than having friends over for dinner - it is an attitude of mind and heart - a demeanour of generosity toward everyone and everything.

also - what would the world look like if we based politics on hospitality? if we saw foreign policy as an opportunity for nations to show each other generosity?

roy peterson is the film guy who will make you happy

check this out

www.roypetersen.co.uk

www.bubbleup.tv

cool director, cares about movies and art and spirituality and used to work for pat robertson...so he needs your emotional support...

lady in the water - is she waving or drowning?

ok - you can read my full review of shyamalan's lady in the water in the next issue of 'third way' magazine www.thirdway.org.uk

but for now...here's some thoughts

shyamalan believes in magic, and he wants us to as well

he makes films about magic

each of them has made me feel like i'm experiencing something bigger than myself - like the way i felt when i went to the movies as a kid

he's into the Big Themes...death/life, love/spirituality, god, forgiveness, healing...

i like him.

BUT...lady in the water felt to me like an attempt at saying everything he thinks in one place.

it does suggest wonderful things about community life, about vocational purpose, about fear, and about how we all need each other

but it's such a convoluted narrative, and the characters so arch and unrealistic that i spent too much time thinking about what was wrong with the film than about what it might teach me.

having said this, several people i know and respect have been alarmed by my response...they seem to love it, they seem to see themselves in it, they seem to see hope and life, and even god.

that's enough reason for me to at least see it again.

but for now, the lady is neither waving nor drowning, she's just treading water.

lady in the water

i'm in l.a. which allows, among other things, the opportunity to see friends and movies. on my way this afternoon to see shyamalan's 'lady in the water', about which i'm hearing awful things...have loved all of his previous films - sixth sense, unbreakable, signs, and the village - but apparently lady in the water might break his winning streak.

he is, however, one of the few contemporary film makers who believes in the power of movies to inspire magic in the audience. i'll let you know later if lady in the water is waving or drowning.

Shatner Secrets

http://lettertoamerica.podbus.com/Movies/Shatner_Secrets.mov

you can't go wrong with bill, one of the mystical mentors of this blog.

travelling

if you're about in southern california at the end of next week, we'd love to see you at soliton. if not, then why not become the first person to add a comment to this nascent blog, written in a jet-lagged state in the hope that some life will come of it.

travelling

PLOUGHSHARES ACTIVISTS ACQUITTED

this is slightly old news but some of you may not have heard it yet - the 5 ploughshares activists on trial in dublin charged with criminal damage to a US warplane have been acquitted. read their story on www.warontrial.com