- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Coaching Changes
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
TulaneLSU's 2024 movie review thread: A Real Pain
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm
A Real Pain
The greatest of all American writers, Norman Maclean, once wrote, “ We can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.” This Anselmian thought gets to the heart of this surprisingly touching and piercing short film that is in the running for 2024’s TulaneLSU Movie Awards in the dramatic division.
Those who love or have loved someone who has been pulled away or under by the current of depression or drink or drug or depravity or desultoriness will feel a real pain inA Real Pain. These people often have great charisma and a gift to connect with others. They “light up the room.” They pull you into their warm embraces.
Because you know them so well, you can see through their masks and see their pain. You reach out to help them. You try to slap sense into them. They want your love but only at a distance. And then, for whatever reason we simply cannot understand, they push you away.
Daniel Radcliffe steals the show, giving the best performance of his career, surpassing Swiss Army Man. Radcliffe’s blithesome and buoyant mask, which hides interior torment and anguish, calls to mind that of Del Griffith in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Meanwhile Jesse Eisenberg has not been this perfectly awkward and conflicted since his masterful performance in The Social Network. There is real chemistry between the two and the director makes it the focus, to the edification of the viewer.
While we get to go on a tour of Poland, which is initially hilarious, what sticks with the viewer is not the stories of the concentration camps. It is the relationship between these two, who like so many of us, do not know how to communicate with each other. We are beings in need of community and communion, yet something, call it Sin, as the Church Fathers and Mothers do, or the Shadow, as did Jung or cognitive dissonance or existential guilt as the psychologists say, separates us.
A Real Pain leaves us with much reflection, but ultimately, sadness reigns. Such is the life and relationships without God who binds all together. We are on this enlightened journey together, given so much knowledge and information. And the one thing, the One, who can make it all come together is nowhere in the picture. The chasm, the separation that we all experience needs a bridge. God through Christ Jesus is that bridge, and for those who believe, nothing shall be able to separate us from Christ’s love. Those who live with the pain of a lost loved one take heart in this faith. 8/10
Gladiator II
Man can be motivated by the good and the bad. It seems most choose the easier of the two realms of motivation. Gladiator II pits the forces of those who are inspired by the hope of an idea versus those who are driven simply by revenge. From the distance of an audience two thousand years after the alleged incident, it is easy to say we too would choose the former rather than the latter. Sorrowfully, the reality is that most people and civilizations choose in the moment of hurt, loss, and pain to follow the darkness of revenge.
Tonight, as I waved AMC’s fan event Gladiator II foam hands, which smelled of the toxic chemicals at a Chinese factory producing cheap Christmas decorations for pagan Americans, I was harangued by several younger audience members who mocked my thumbs up call for forgiveness for all. Forgiveness, after all, is the Christian duty and prerogative, the act that unites us to the Christ who forgave those who attacked and crucified him.
And still, even those who act as though they are motivated by the good fail to bow at the feet of the one who taught us to forgive over and over. Paul says we are to forgive “one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” But Rome cannot stand because even those who fight for the idea of a Rome are, in the end, still motivated by demented notions of justice, which lack the forgiveness of Christ. Christianity did not bring down Rome, as some historians have argued. Christianity ultimately allowed Western civilization and Rome to flourish.
Gladiator II’s storyline is so reflective of the original that one could allege laziness on Ridley Scott’s part. There are numerous flashbacks to the original movie, but more than that, this story is so predicated on the original that it becomes predictable within the first thirty seconds. I had some hope that Maximus might reappear in a vision, not the Maximus of old but Maximus the Hut, to add something new and unexpected. But it was not to be. One of the few original scenes, that of a Colosseum filled like a tank at Sea World, though with great white sharks, is so preposterous even its novelty does not forgive its inclusion.
Viewers who enjoy huge scale fight scenes, as those in Braveheart and those who appreciate random quotes from The Aeneid[/b] and [i]Meditations will rave. And if you are to see it, like all movies, it should be seen on the silver screen. But for me, though I was entertained, I was not encouraged or moved to emotion or inspired. 6/10
Piece by Piece
When you are just 50 years old and you decide that your life story is worthy of a full length film, it is wise to seek out investors. It is unwise, as we saw with Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, to bankroll your dream only because no one else thought your dream was a good enough idea in which to invest. So it is with the trite and mopeish Piece by Piece.
While I may not have known who Pharrell Williams was before the film began, after watching it, I still do not know who he really is. Yes, we get the basic background story from his school days to his ascent within the corrupt and corrupting music industry. But, perhaps due to his being the executive producer, we never get a critical view into his person. Instead, we get conflicting platitudinous, prosaic vignettes. For example, when he is still in school, listing and wayward, confused, he approaches his uncle, a pastor and self-appointed “bishop.” His uncle tells him, “Trust God.” And it appears that is the turning point.
Later, after he has achieved success, but cannot maintain it, and turns to executives who he portrays as using him, he again finds himself lost. This time, his inspiration comes from the agnostic, nearly Pelagian words of Carl Sagan, summed as “only you can save yourself.” So from whom exactly does Pharrell seek inspiration, guidance, and ultimately salvation?
Williams fails to find himself while telling this story. He fails to be critical of himself. He fails to make his life interesting through story. The challenges he reveals, the only real hardships he faced amount to the death of his grandmother and writing a few songs that failed. Surely he has more to say than this.
Augustine was only in his early 40s when he wrote his autobiography, Confessions. His is the greatest autobiography ever written because he has something to say and he is honest. Williams has nothing to say and what he does give us is neatly packaged and formulaic. It would not make for a good 30 minute made-for-TV biography. It certainly flops as a 90 minute film. 3/10
The greatest of all American writers, Norman Maclean, once wrote, “ We can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.” This Anselmian thought gets to the heart of this surprisingly touching and piercing short film that is in the running for 2024’s TulaneLSU Movie Awards in the dramatic division.
Those who love or have loved someone who has been pulled away or under by the current of depression or drink or drug or depravity or desultoriness will feel a real pain inA Real Pain. These people often have great charisma and a gift to connect with others. They “light up the room.” They pull you into their warm embraces.
Because you know them so well, you can see through their masks and see their pain. You reach out to help them. You try to slap sense into them. They want your love but only at a distance. And then, for whatever reason we simply cannot understand, they push you away.
Daniel Radcliffe steals the show, giving the best performance of his career, surpassing Swiss Army Man. Radcliffe’s blithesome and buoyant mask, which hides interior torment and anguish, calls to mind that of Del Griffith in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Meanwhile Jesse Eisenberg has not been this perfectly awkward and conflicted since his masterful performance in The Social Network. There is real chemistry between the two and the director makes it the focus, to the edification of the viewer.
While we get to go on a tour of Poland, which is initially hilarious, what sticks with the viewer is not the stories of the concentration camps. It is the relationship between these two, who like so many of us, do not know how to communicate with each other. We are beings in need of community and communion, yet something, call it Sin, as the Church Fathers and Mothers do, or the Shadow, as did Jung or cognitive dissonance or existential guilt as the psychologists say, separates us.
A Real Pain leaves us with much reflection, but ultimately, sadness reigns. Such is the life and relationships without God who binds all together. We are on this enlightened journey together, given so much knowledge and information. And the one thing, the One, who can make it all come together is nowhere in the picture. The chasm, the separation that we all experience needs a bridge. God through Christ Jesus is that bridge, and for those who believe, nothing shall be able to separate us from Christ’s love. Those who live with the pain of a lost loved one take heart in this faith. 8/10
Gladiator II
Man can be motivated by the good and the bad. It seems most choose the easier of the two realms of motivation. Gladiator II pits the forces of those who are inspired by the hope of an idea versus those who are driven simply by revenge. From the distance of an audience two thousand years after the alleged incident, it is easy to say we too would choose the former rather than the latter. Sorrowfully, the reality is that most people and civilizations choose in the moment of hurt, loss, and pain to follow the darkness of revenge.
Tonight, as I waved AMC’s fan event Gladiator II foam hands, which smelled of the toxic chemicals at a Chinese factory producing cheap Christmas decorations for pagan Americans, I was harangued by several younger audience members who mocked my thumbs up call for forgiveness for all. Forgiveness, after all, is the Christian duty and prerogative, the act that unites us to the Christ who forgave those who attacked and crucified him.
And still, even those who act as though they are motivated by the good fail to bow at the feet of the one who taught us to forgive over and over. Paul says we are to forgive “one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” But Rome cannot stand because even those who fight for the idea of a Rome are, in the end, still motivated by demented notions of justice, which lack the forgiveness of Christ. Christianity did not bring down Rome, as some historians have argued. Christianity ultimately allowed Western civilization and Rome to flourish.
Gladiator II’s storyline is so reflective of the original that one could allege laziness on Ridley Scott’s part. There are numerous flashbacks to the original movie, but more than that, this story is so predicated on the original that it becomes predictable within the first thirty seconds. I had some hope that Maximus might reappear in a vision, not the Maximus of old but Maximus the Hut, to add something new and unexpected. But it was not to be. One of the few original scenes, that of a Colosseum filled like a tank at Sea World, though with great white sharks, is so preposterous even its novelty does not forgive its inclusion.
Viewers who enjoy huge scale fight scenes, as those in Braveheart and those who appreciate random quotes from The Aeneid[/b] and [i]Meditations will rave. And if you are to see it, like all movies, it should be seen on the silver screen. But for me, though I was entertained, I was not encouraged or moved to emotion or inspired. 6/10
Piece by Piece
When you are just 50 years old and you decide that your life story is worthy of a full length film, it is wise to seek out investors. It is unwise, as we saw with Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, to bankroll your dream only because no one else thought your dream was a good enough idea in which to invest. So it is with the trite and mopeish Piece by Piece.
While I may not have known who Pharrell Williams was before the film began, after watching it, I still do not know who he really is. Yes, we get the basic background story from his school days to his ascent within the corrupt and corrupting music industry. But, perhaps due to his being the executive producer, we never get a critical view into his person. Instead, we get conflicting platitudinous, prosaic vignettes. For example, when he is still in school, listing and wayward, confused, he approaches his uncle, a pastor and self-appointed “bishop.” His uncle tells him, “Trust God.” And it appears that is the turning point.
Later, after he has achieved success, but cannot maintain it, and turns to executives who he portrays as using him, he again finds himself lost. This time, his inspiration comes from the agnostic, nearly Pelagian words of Carl Sagan, summed as “only you can save yourself.” So from whom exactly does Pharrell seek inspiration, guidance, and ultimately salvation?
Williams fails to find himself while telling this story. He fails to be critical of himself. He fails to make his life interesting through story. The challenges he reveals, the only real hardships he faced amount to the death of his grandmother and writing a few songs that failed. Surely he has more to say than this.
Augustine was only in his early 40s when he wrote his autobiography, Confessions. His is the greatest autobiography ever written because he has something to say and he is honest. Williams has nothing to say and what he does give us is neatly packaged and formulaic. It would not make for a good 30 minute made-for-TV biography. It certainly flops as a 90 minute film. 3/10
This post was edited on 12/4/24 at 3:28 pm
17
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
Transformers One
The Christian life is aimed at reconciliation, a story of enemies becoming friends. Behind Transformers One is the story of how friends become enemies. And the story, unlike Michael Bay’s and Steven Caple’s contributions to the Transformers canon, is engaging, thoughtful, and compelling. It is a real blowback to the original story and characters of the 1980s cartoon. I could certainly live without Bumblebee’s sophomoric and unfunny repeated use of profanity. That the packed theater audience thought it was funny speaks volumes at the level of language intelligence in today’s America.
The film’s backbone is a story of two, divergent ways. One way is consumed with anger and the desire for revenge. This is the way that always leads to ruin and destruction. The other way is meek and forgiving, and ultimately, sacrificial. This second way leads to life.
Optimus Prime, one of many Christ figures in Western literature and film, becomes who he is through sacrifice. Reflecting Christ Jesus, Optimus sacrifices who he was and is, not to become someone. He sacrifices, like Christ, because he loves his friends. Through a perfect and pure sacrificial love, we are redeemed. And then we know with full certainty that there is nothing, not the powers of Megatron or Skyscreamer, no power in the sky above or the crystalline, energy depleted Cybertron below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The way of nature? Of getting what is coming to you or your enemy? Of reaping what you think are the just rewards in a zero sum game? Or the way of grace? The way that follows the sacrificial lead of Christ Jesus, who was perfect and pure, and at the right time, died for us all, so that we might live.
Best movie of 2024 so far? Surprising, but yes. 9/10
Daddio
When people complain about Hollywood producing nothing new or interesting anymore, they base their opinion primarily on that for which Hollywood advertises: big budget sequels, kiddie comic book stories, and previously licensed items turned into film. What they are missing are the many great small films like Daddio that hit the theaters but for a week or two, quietly running in mostly empty theaters without even the benefit of a standee or a trailer that gets play a few months earlier. When I say that I have seen thirty movies in theaters already this summer, they act surprised, acting as though there have only been five or ten movies released yet.
Daddio is a masterpiece that will largely go unnoticed. Perhaps in four years someone on The Arts Board will accidentally come across this film while wasting his time scrolling through a streaming service’s recommendation system. And he will be treated with that rare occasion of discovering the diamond in the rough of streaming junk. There is good reason Mother, Uncle, and I do not have a TV, and that is because television and streaming shows weaken and destroy the brain, discouraging discourse, connection, writing, and thought. Instead, a return to the theater, three or four times weekly, followed by a round table discussion after each film, is the only form of motion picture and screen entertainment I can commend.
What is real and what is not real is the heart of the matter in Daddio. Metaphysics has rarely been discussed so elegantly and persuasively on film as it has in Sean Penn’s crowning career performance. The details, sordid secrets all of us hide from even our closest loved ones, get us to what matters most: loving relationship, true koinonia, an elusive and scarce experience in our digitized world, that is real and is that for which we desperately crave and need.
The irony in this piece de resistance is that the vehicle through which society and community have been destroyed, the self-isolating car, serves as the threshing floor for true versus false, real and unreal. There is no other setting. And we are not so much trapped as we are invited to share this holy space where real confession and honest reflection and loving acceptance grow from the rich soils of vulnerability like one of Grandfather’s summer tomatoes.
So easy it is to avoid these opportunities, hiding in the bright colors of the world’s new isolating device, the cellular phone. But when the two are juxtaposed, the real, in-person words of voice and the cold 0s and 1s of a text message, there is no mistaking which we need and that for which we were created. Every time texts appear, I could not wait to return to the riveting conversation and masterful performances by Dakota Johnson and Penn. 9/10
A Quiet Place: Day One
There are not very many movies about pizza. Sure, pizza shows up in a lot of movies, but those with pizza themes are just a handful. I think of Do the Right Thing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mystic Pizza as the very few where pizza is pushed from the background to centerstage. You can now add A Quiet Place: Day One to that cohort. What perfect timing too, with TulaneLSU's Top 100 pizzas in America in 2024 released just this week!
We start with the protagonist, angry and bitter at life, who wants to remain so. Her equanimous nurse dupes her into a journey, but only by promising her that they will get some pizza in New York. We are then transported to Chinatown, not exactly a promising spot for pizza. Sure, you could walk a few blocks and get a slice at Scarr’s, #66 in America. But chances are she’d have to wait in at least a 30 minute line for a slice. To get to Nolita’s big three, Rubirosa (#11), Prince Street Pizza (#87), or Lombardi’s (unranked) would require a good mile jaunt. South she could try to navigate the maze that is under the Brooklyn Bridge to get some Keste’ (#36), but something tells me she is not a Neapolitan lover.
If she were really desperate for good pizza, why would she agree to a trip to Chinatown? That is but one of several gaping plot holes, perhaps the worst of which is the aliens’ selective hearing. At times a simple breath is enough to capture their attention. At other times, loud footsteps and gagging with a mouthful of water are not enough. At least in the first two movies, the aliens were consistent in the noises to which they responded.
Instead, she has to get to Patsy’s (#48) “in Harlem.” We will excuse her imprecise nomenclature, as no one refers to the original Patsy’s as being in Harlem. It is referred to as East Harlem or Spanish Harlem, and we will give her credit for deciding on the best and the original Patsy’s, because it is far better than all the others, including the three she would have walked past to get to the 2nd Avenue location.
It is not that far a trek, just three miles if you make no detours, a walk I have made several times. And it is this part of the trek that makes up the bulk of the film. Whereas the journeys in the first two Quiet Places were filled with tension, loving relationships, and the unknown, the prequel fails to surprise, startle, or stick sentimentally. We were promised Patsy’s. We are stuck with a 99 cent slice. 4/10
P.S. The movie's standee is arguably the greatest standee in cinema history. The first time I walked past one, I almost walked down the subway stairs out of habit, so realistic were they.
The Christian life is aimed at reconciliation, a story of enemies becoming friends. Behind Transformers One is the story of how friends become enemies. And the story, unlike Michael Bay’s and Steven Caple’s contributions to the Transformers canon, is engaging, thoughtful, and compelling. It is a real blowback to the original story and characters of the 1980s cartoon. I could certainly live without Bumblebee’s sophomoric and unfunny repeated use of profanity. That the packed theater audience thought it was funny speaks volumes at the level of language intelligence in today’s America.
The film’s backbone is a story of two, divergent ways. One way is consumed with anger and the desire for revenge. This is the way that always leads to ruin and destruction. The other way is meek and forgiving, and ultimately, sacrificial. This second way leads to life.
Optimus Prime, one of many Christ figures in Western literature and film, becomes who he is through sacrifice. Reflecting Christ Jesus, Optimus sacrifices who he was and is, not to become someone. He sacrifices, like Christ, because he loves his friends. Through a perfect and pure sacrificial love, we are redeemed. And then we know with full certainty that there is nothing, not the powers of Megatron or Skyscreamer, no power in the sky above or the crystalline, energy depleted Cybertron below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The way of nature? Of getting what is coming to you or your enemy? Of reaping what you think are the just rewards in a zero sum game? Or the way of grace? The way that follows the sacrificial lead of Christ Jesus, who was perfect and pure, and at the right time, died for us all, so that we might live.
Best movie of 2024 so far? Surprising, but yes. 9/10
Daddio
When people complain about Hollywood producing nothing new or interesting anymore, they base their opinion primarily on that for which Hollywood advertises: big budget sequels, kiddie comic book stories, and previously licensed items turned into film. What they are missing are the many great small films like Daddio that hit the theaters but for a week or two, quietly running in mostly empty theaters without even the benefit of a standee or a trailer that gets play a few months earlier. When I say that I have seen thirty movies in theaters already this summer, they act surprised, acting as though there have only been five or ten movies released yet.
Daddio is a masterpiece that will largely go unnoticed. Perhaps in four years someone on The Arts Board will accidentally come across this film while wasting his time scrolling through a streaming service’s recommendation system. And he will be treated with that rare occasion of discovering the diamond in the rough of streaming junk. There is good reason Mother, Uncle, and I do not have a TV, and that is because television and streaming shows weaken and destroy the brain, discouraging discourse, connection, writing, and thought. Instead, a return to the theater, three or four times weekly, followed by a round table discussion after each film, is the only form of motion picture and screen entertainment I can commend.
What is real and what is not real is the heart of the matter in Daddio. Metaphysics has rarely been discussed so elegantly and persuasively on film as it has in Sean Penn’s crowning career performance. The details, sordid secrets all of us hide from even our closest loved ones, get us to what matters most: loving relationship, true koinonia, an elusive and scarce experience in our digitized world, that is real and is that for which we desperately crave and need.
The irony in this piece de resistance is that the vehicle through which society and community have been destroyed, the self-isolating car, serves as the threshing floor for true versus false, real and unreal. There is no other setting. And we are not so much trapped as we are invited to share this holy space where real confession and honest reflection and loving acceptance grow from the rich soils of vulnerability like one of Grandfather’s summer tomatoes.
So easy it is to avoid these opportunities, hiding in the bright colors of the world’s new isolating device, the cellular phone. But when the two are juxtaposed, the real, in-person words of voice and the cold 0s and 1s of a text message, there is no mistaking which we need and that for which we were created. Every time texts appear, I could not wait to return to the riveting conversation and masterful performances by Dakota Johnson and Penn. 9/10
A Quiet Place: Day One
There are not very many movies about pizza. Sure, pizza shows up in a lot of movies, but those with pizza themes are just a handful. I think of Do the Right Thing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mystic Pizza as the very few where pizza is pushed from the background to centerstage. You can now add A Quiet Place: Day One to that cohort. What perfect timing too, with TulaneLSU's Top 100 pizzas in America in 2024 released just this week!
We start with the protagonist, angry and bitter at life, who wants to remain so. Her equanimous nurse dupes her into a journey, but only by promising her that they will get some pizza in New York. We are then transported to Chinatown, not exactly a promising spot for pizza. Sure, you could walk a few blocks and get a slice at Scarr’s, #66 in America. But chances are she’d have to wait in at least a 30 minute line for a slice. To get to Nolita’s big three, Rubirosa (#11), Prince Street Pizza (#87), or Lombardi’s (unranked) would require a good mile jaunt. South she could try to navigate the maze that is under the Brooklyn Bridge to get some Keste’ (#36), but something tells me she is not a Neapolitan lover.
If she were really desperate for good pizza, why would she agree to a trip to Chinatown? That is but one of several gaping plot holes, perhaps the worst of which is the aliens’ selective hearing. At times a simple breath is enough to capture their attention. At other times, loud footsteps and gagging with a mouthful of water are not enough. At least in the first two movies, the aliens were consistent in the noises to which they responded.
Instead, she has to get to Patsy’s (#48) “in Harlem.” We will excuse her imprecise nomenclature, as no one refers to the original Patsy’s as being in Harlem. It is referred to as East Harlem or Spanish Harlem, and we will give her credit for deciding on the best and the original Patsy’s, because it is far better than all the others, including the three she would have walked past to get to the 2nd Avenue location.
It is not that far a trek, just three miles if you make no detours, a walk I have made several times. And it is this part of the trek that makes up the bulk of the film. Whereas the journeys in the first two Quiet Places were filled with tension, loving relationships, and the unknown, the prequel fails to surprise, startle, or stick sentimentally. We were promised Patsy’s. We are stuck with a 99 cent slice. 4/10
P.S. The movie's standee is arguably the greatest standee in cinema history. The first time I walked past one, I almost walked down the subway stairs out of habit, so realistic were they.
This post was edited on 10/3/24 at 5:36 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
Megalopolis
When a tempest brews in the Gulf, I am drawn to tending the garden. Yesterday, after Mother feared the westward warnings of the NHC, she sent me out like an apostle to the family beach home east of Destin. Alone at the house, I found myself immersed in a patch of loden ravel. Years ago, Mother had the not-so-bright idea to plant several nursery cups worth of Asiatic jasmine to cover a small corner of the yard.
If you have ever dealt with this plant, you know that it spreads its tentacles in every direction becoming as intractable as a strand of 25,000 bunched up imported Italian twinkle lights. Mother fired her yard service last year after she found out they were skipping weeks we were not there even though she paid for those weeks. The end result was a full day of work for me yesterday.
All that work was reason enough to go to a movie and Megalopolis seemed like an interesting way to spend a couple of hours. It stars the usually excellent Adam Driver. It is set in New York. And the acclaimed 85 year old Francis Ford Coppola was back in the driver’s seat for what probably will be the last time.
It should be the last time at least. After an intriguing beginning, where we are introduced to time pausing and a mysterious substance called megalon, the story goes off the rails. Though not as confused as the plot, the acting is shaky. Shia probably gives the best performance, but it is anything but award winning. Driver is predestined to fail with a character whose mind is so bicameral, stuck in both hope and delusion, that we wonder, Does he have schizophrenia? Aubrey Plaza is, as always, stuck in her obnoxious sarcastic pose. She should not be given another role in Hollywood. Jon Voigt is incoherent. Dustin Hoffman, well, if he was not such a familiar face, I would not have noticed he was in the film. I could not tell you what his role was.
An accomplished cast, a legendary director, and a large budget seem like a winning combination. However, we get a moralizing attempt at a Roman tragedy that makes the moralizing in right Christian movies seem discrete. We also get a disjointed tangled mess of a plot that makes a snarled plot of Asiatic jasmine appear organized. There is a very valid reason that Lionsgate made Coppola belly up the entirety of this mess’s advertising budget. 2/10
The Substance
In the beginning of the world, God saw that the first man, Adam, was alone, so God took a rib from Adam and then closed up the wound with flesh. And then God made a woman, Eve, from the rib. In a twisted, upside way, Apollyon wanders through The Substance, stirring the frailty of a singular woman, luring her with the shiny hook of fleeting beauty and acceptance from others, leading her to degrade herself. This degradation causes her to give birth from her own self to a new self, born in a sin so destructive that osteoarthritic knees unable to bend are just the beginning. The wages of such sin is death, gruesome, bloody, and worse among all else, alone and forgotten.
While we could deliberate on the cost of vanity and superficial appearances and celebrity, as that is certainly an obvious theme in the film, I think there is a more intriguing theme: that of humanity’s inalienable ability to find fault in and hate the other, even when the other is the self.
Kafka, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche all write at length about humanity’s self hatred.But no one was better and more insightful than Kierkegaard who writes in The Sickness Unto Death that we are all in a state of despair when we live outside of the spiritual realm. For Kierkegaard, there are three realms: the pleasurable, the moral, and the religious. Most live in the first realm, where our passions and appetites direct our decisions. It is also where animals live. The second realm is the moral – this is when we do good because law tells us to do so. The third is the religious, where we live in freedom in the love of God. Those who live in the first two realms, apart from God, suffer from despair, which leads to self hatred.
Elisabeth Sparkle, Demi Moore’s character, is directed by the appetites of the most base realm and suffers from a despair that is common in our world. Rather than turn to God, who gives the love and acceptance she so desperately seeks, she turns to bilious serum to give her new life. However, the new life suffers from the same passions and hits the same stumbling block as her former self. This new life, which is new only on the surface, despairs because it sees acceptance and desire from others who suffer from despair as the telos of humanity. But as we all know, and as the great catechism teaches, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” If only Elisabeth, whose name means “God’s promise” fell to her knees in humility, then she would see that the sparkle in her life is not a function of age and appearance but of God’s choosing her as God’s own child, who sparkles like a star in the sky, loved wholly and truly by her Father in heaven.
You will need nudity glasses to watch this film, so be sure to either bring them or cover your eyes during the gratuitous nudity scenes. Moore, who looks at the end surprisingly like Dan Akroyd in Nothing But Trouble gives the best performance of her average career. One wonders if the film is her own biopic. Overall, it is a fascinating study on despair and worthy of your time. 7/10
Venom: Last Dance
The great Oxford historian, the greatest of the 20th century, Arnold Toynbee wrote in his A Study of History that a civilization’s decline begins the moment the civilization loses its religious inspiration.
The rise of the comic book film industry over the last 15 years coinciding with the rapid decrease in traditional church attendance makes me wonder if these comic book films are a symptom of the West’s decline.
Venom is an absurd tale that tries to be humorous, but I did not laugh once. The alien’s voice is so computer manipulated that I might have understood but one in three words it said. Gorilla sized traps Tom Hardy gives us the typical range of which he is capable, which is as wide as his chicken legs.
The one redeeming aspect of this movie is its closing that focuses indirectly on Jesus’s teaching “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” But even that beautiful thought does not save yet another failed comic book film. 3/10
When a tempest brews in the Gulf, I am drawn to tending the garden. Yesterday, after Mother feared the westward warnings of the NHC, she sent me out like an apostle to the family beach home east of Destin. Alone at the house, I found myself immersed in a patch of loden ravel. Years ago, Mother had the not-so-bright idea to plant several nursery cups worth of Asiatic jasmine to cover a small corner of the yard.
If you have ever dealt with this plant, you know that it spreads its tentacles in every direction becoming as intractable as a strand of 25,000 bunched up imported Italian twinkle lights. Mother fired her yard service last year after she found out they were skipping weeks we were not there even though she paid for those weeks. The end result was a full day of work for me yesterday.
All that work was reason enough to go to a movie and Megalopolis seemed like an interesting way to spend a couple of hours. It stars the usually excellent Adam Driver. It is set in New York. And the acclaimed 85 year old Francis Ford Coppola was back in the driver’s seat for what probably will be the last time.
It should be the last time at least. After an intriguing beginning, where we are introduced to time pausing and a mysterious substance called megalon, the story goes off the rails. Though not as confused as the plot, the acting is shaky. Shia probably gives the best performance, but it is anything but award winning. Driver is predestined to fail with a character whose mind is so bicameral, stuck in both hope and delusion, that we wonder, Does he have schizophrenia? Aubrey Plaza is, as always, stuck in her obnoxious sarcastic pose. She should not be given another role in Hollywood. Jon Voigt is incoherent. Dustin Hoffman, well, if he was not such a familiar face, I would not have noticed he was in the film. I could not tell you what his role was.
An accomplished cast, a legendary director, and a large budget seem like a winning combination. However, we get a moralizing attempt at a Roman tragedy that makes the moralizing in right Christian movies seem discrete. We also get a disjointed tangled mess of a plot that makes a snarled plot of Asiatic jasmine appear organized. There is a very valid reason that Lionsgate made Coppola belly up the entirety of this mess’s advertising budget. 2/10
The Substance
In the beginning of the world, God saw that the first man, Adam, was alone, so God took a rib from Adam and then closed up the wound with flesh. And then God made a woman, Eve, from the rib. In a twisted, upside way, Apollyon wanders through The Substance, stirring the frailty of a singular woman, luring her with the shiny hook of fleeting beauty and acceptance from others, leading her to degrade herself. This degradation causes her to give birth from her own self to a new self, born in a sin so destructive that osteoarthritic knees unable to bend are just the beginning. The wages of such sin is death, gruesome, bloody, and worse among all else, alone and forgotten.
While we could deliberate on the cost of vanity and superficial appearances and celebrity, as that is certainly an obvious theme in the film, I think there is a more intriguing theme: that of humanity’s inalienable ability to find fault in and hate the other, even when the other is the self.
Kafka, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche all write at length about humanity’s self hatred.But no one was better and more insightful than Kierkegaard who writes in The Sickness Unto Death that we are all in a state of despair when we live outside of the spiritual realm. For Kierkegaard, there are three realms: the pleasurable, the moral, and the religious. Most live in the first realm, where our passions and appetites direct our decisions. It is also where animals live. The second realm is the moral – this is when we do good because law tells us to do so. The third is the religious, where we live in freedom in the love of God. Those who live in the first two realms, apart from God, suffer from despair, which leads to self hatred.
Elisabeth Sparkle, Demi Moore’s character, is directed by the appetites of the most base realm and suffers from a despair that is common in our world. Rather than turn to God, who gives the love and acceptance she so desperately seeks, she turns to bilious serum to give her new life. However, the new life suffers from the same passions and hits the same stumbling block as her former self. This new life, which is new only on the surface, despairs because it sees acceptance and desire from others who suffer from despair as the telos of humanity. But as we all know, and as the great catechism teaches, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” If only Elisabeth, whose name means “God’s promise” fell to her knees in humility, then she would see that the sparkle in her life is not a function of age and appearance but of God’s choosing her as God’s own child, who sparkles like a star in the sky, loved wholly and truly by her Father in heaven.
You will need nudity glasses to watch this film, so be sure to either bring them or cover your eyes during the gratuitous nudity scenes. Moore, who looks at the end surprisingly like Dan Akroyd in Nothing But Trouble gives the best performance of her average career. One wonders if the film is her own biopic. Overall, it is a fascinating study on despair and worthy of your time. 7/10
Venom: Last Dance
The great Oxford historian, the greatest of the 20th century, Arnold Toynbee wrote in his A Study of History that a civilization’s decline begins the moment the civilization loses its religious inspiration.
The rise of the comic book film industry over the last 15 years coinciding with the rapid decrease in traditional church attendance makes me wonder if these comic book films are a symptom of the West’s decline.
Venom is an absurd tale that tries to be humorous, but I did not laugh once. The alien’s voice is so computer manipulated that I might have understood but one in three words it said. Gorilla sized traps Tom Hardy gives us the typical range of which he is capable, which is as wide as his chicken legs.
The one redeeming aspect of this movie is its closing that focuses indirectly on Jesus’s teaching “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” But even that beautiful thought does not save yet another failed comic book film. 3/10
This post was edited on 11/5/24 at 5:38 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
Saturday Night
Grandmother enjoys puzzles, and even though this film is about a puzzle, I do not think she would like it. We start with a big pile of bricks. The bricks are nice and orderly, but then an accident befalls them, and they become scattered and disorganized, a mess on the floor. It is the job of one man to put them back together.
If you have ever done any brickwork using real bricks, old and weather bricks like the ones you might find on the sidewalks of New Orleans, from the brickyards of Alexius, Demourelle, Kent, and St Joe, you know it is not always easy making a unified whole. Edges are worn, depths are varied, and the result is a puzzle, furrowed and cragged, yet beautiful.
Ultimately, the goal of Saturday Night’s director is to paint Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL, as the ideal stonemason. Only he, in the director’s eye, has the vision and passion, the hutzpah, to bring an unusual and disparate troupe of comedians together. He is the potter and his clay is dirty and messy. But he forms a beautiful piece that reflects what New York is – a vibrant and kinetic symphony of unexpecteds.
The trouble with this hagiography of Lorne Michaels is that it largely ignores the sin on the set. When not ignoring it, the sin is glorified as comical and even, at times, noble. The tragedy is the bricks were not just scuffed – they were cracked and in need of a visit to the Potter’s House.
Saturday Night, a film about a comedy show, is not funny nor particularly well made. Throughout this plod, the audience laughed just once, at a crude sex joke that would make the old OT proud. It almost feels like a swan song to network television – a cinematic attempt to tell future generations, “We used to be a big deal!” Nightly news, late night television and SNL are in rapid decline. I know zero people under the age of 40 who watch SNL today. The burned out 60 and 70 year olds who enjoyed being rebellious and surrendering their morals to the sex-drug-profanity laced early days of SNL may indeed enjoy this. But it is doubtful anyone still in the first half of their lives will. For them, it is a puzzle anyone ever bothered to watch this litter. 3/10
Monster Summer
Teenagers today are, like the elderly a generation ago, the forgotten generation. There is little art made in the present for them. While I do not want this review to be a dirge to a former time, one thing that has not escaped me during my 94th trip to the motion picture theater this year is the lack of movies made for teenagers, especially males. On the one hand, there are the jejune comic book movies, like the Deadpoll movie that Mother and I left after it berated us for 15 minutes, that are abhorrent, filled with vileness that fills the viewer with sordes, targeted at twenty-something poltroons. On the other hand, there are the cartoon movies, many of which are good, aimed at children.
Monster Summer is a zephyr for teens, not because it is particularly good but because it walks that interval. Will teens put away their phones and 30 second videos to soak in an imaginative story for them? I hope so.
This horror film is a refreshing reprieve from the tendency of contemporary horror movies to drift into the demonic, like Never Let Go, 3/10, or the lurid, like the utterly predictable Speak No Evil 2/10. Finally, Hollywood gives us a movie about teenage friends who go on an adventure. There are not enough adventures on the silver screen and I will have Uncle petition his friends in Hollywood to make more neighborhood adventure movies.
Mel Gibson, who succumbed to the snares of alcohol in 2006 and nearly had both his personal and professional lives destroyed, gives us his best performance since Signs. Lest we fail to recognize 17 year old Mason Thames, who is a rising star that I expect will become a household name in the next five years. Kevin James and Lorraine Bracco are both remarkably bad, and neither role serves a purpose in the film.
There is enough in the film to keep you on the edge of your seat. But there is also not enough Mephistophelean material to scar viewers. The twist is not as serpentine as you may expect and the film does not close all ends, but it is still a decent Halloween journey reminiscent of 1987's Monster Squad. 6/10
This post was edited on 10/25/24 at 5:45 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
The Apprentice
In the 500s AD legend has it that Theophilus of Adana signed a contract with the Devil. Theo bartered his own body and soul while the Devil made him a bishop. The story is the first of its kind in Western literature in which a deal with the Devil is made. The Apprentice fits in this Faustian mold.
This engaging and well told story about Donald Trump is told in three chapters. The first and best is set, like Saturday Night, which I saw just last week, in the mid to late 1970s New York. The Trump here is the sympathetic figure: pure, abused, seeking, lonely. His lack of a loving father leads him in a search for acceptance, validation, and ultimately love. One wonders how true to history this person is and how he might have become so much more if a man of virtue, and not manipulative nihilism. Trump’s dream to build grandeur from decay, to make great again what was once great, is on full display in his obsession with The Commodore Hotel. His dreams are big and they seem to be good.
The second chapter reveals an apprentice with his master, Faustian deal done, working in tandem to wreck and conquer. The Commodore’s transformation into the Grand Hyatt, which I had the displeasure of visiting once when our cousins were out of town and The Plaza was booked, and the completion of Trump Tower, whose pizza in the basement is among the worst in New York, symbolize that which the two are capable through unsavory backdoor deals. The final chapter, symbolized by the Taj Majal, is that of the apprentice surpassing, and ultimately rejecting his master. His vanity, greed, lust, and narcissism make his mentor’s appear mild. Both of the final chapters are good and interesting, but less so than the first, largely because the final two chapters were already accessible to the public through the media.
Over the next half century, Trump will probably be the most analyzed person in American history. This film gives an interesting and insightful glimpse into his relationship with Roy Cohn and his start in both the inner circles of finance and politics of New York, which sprung him to national fame and either hatred or love. Those who despise Trump will probably find much to fault with this film. Those who love and deify Trump, likewise, will also probably hate this film. But those who love film will likely enjoy it. Be warned – you will need nudity glasses to wear for several scenes in this film. 7/10
In the 500s AD legend has it that Theophilus of Adana signed a contract with the Devil. Theo bartered his own body and soul while the Devil made him a bishop. The story is the first of its kind in Western literature in which a deal with the Devil is made. The Apprentice fits in this Faustian mold.
This engaging and well told story about Donald Trump is told in three chapters. The first and best is set, like Saturday Night, which I saw just last week, in the mid to late 1970s New York. The Trump here is the sympathetic figure: pure, abused, seeking, lonely. His lack of a loving father leads him in a search for acceptance, validation, and ultimately love. One wonders how true to history this person is and how he might have become so much more if a man of virtue, and not manipulative nihilism. Trump’s dream to build grandeur from decay, to make great again what was once great, is on full display in his obsession with The Commodore Hotel. His dreams are big and they seem to be good.
The second chapter reveals an apprentice with his master, Faustian deal done, working in tandem to wreck and conquer. The Commodore’s transformation into the Grand Hyatt, which I had the displeasure of visiting once when our cousins were out of town and The Plaza was booked, and the completion of Trump Tower, whose pizza in the basement is among the worst in New York, symbolize that which the two are capable through unsavory backdoor deals. The final chapter, symbolized by the Taj Majal, is that of the apprentice surpassing, and ultimately rejecting his master. His vanity, greed, lust, and narcissism make his mentor’s appear mild. Both of the final chapters are good and interesting, but less so than the first, largely because the final two chapters were already accessible to the public through the media.
Over the next half century, Trump will probably be the most analyzed person in American history. This film gives an interesting and insightful glimpse into his relationship with Roy Cohn and his start in both the inner circles of finance and politics of New York, which sprung him to national fame and either hatred or love. Those who despise Trump will probably find much to fault with this film. Those who love and deify Trump, likewise, will also probably hate this film. But those who love film will likely enjoy it. Be warned – you will need nudity glasses to wear for several scenes in this film. 7/10
This post was edited on 11/1/24 at 6:38 am
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
The Wild Robot
It has been over a month since I saw this film. And while I enjoyed the film, I cannot remember too much about it. It touches on the themes of adoption, love, working with your enemy, and breaking the rules to do the good. But sadly, the film has no staying power. The seed it plants has no vigor, or maybe the soil was lacking. Either way, it is a good movie, but not a great one. 6/10
Here
Disney World’s Wheel of Progress is a fine attraction that gives visitors an air conditioned, seated reprieve in the middle of a hot day. At 15 minutes it is just long enough to get a power nap. But it does not make for a good movie.
Somewhere somehow the three people most responsible for Forrest Gump’s theatrical success decided to hold a one week reunion and make a bad movie in the process. I had high hopes for it when the trailer first released. Sadly, it is a disappointment, arguably the biggest disappointment of the year.
Lame, unmoving, uncaring, and silly, Here tries to be sappy, but does not even meet the threshold of sappy. It is just a boring and unintelligent story with less emotion than The Wheel of Progress. 2/10
Conclave
Each of us wears a mask to conceal who we really are. Some hide their poverty, even though Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” and spend money they do not have to impress others. Some hide sexual sins, be they looking at pornography, fornicating without abandon, or lusting after people outside marriage, perhaps by reading one of Larry Leo's posts about a girl inviting men to view her as an object. Others hide their feelings and imperfections in chemicals, be they alcohol, illicit drugs, or a buffet line. The most depraved of us is a seasoned marathon athlete in the race away from his true self.
Conclave is seemingly and superficially about the conclave of cardinals that meets to elect the bishop of Rome. And in this facet, the film is fascinating. I do not know the details of how the writer and director were privy to the details of the Sacred College of Cardinals, or if they were, or if the details of the movie are imaginative. Regardless, the film masterfully presents what may or may not transpire behind the closed doors as the Sacred College sorts through the politic, personality, philosophy, and theology of flawed individuals to elect one who will become infallible. Ralph Fiennes gives the performance of a lifetime, one that catapults him to the front of the list for the 2024 TulaneLSU Award for Best Actor. Courageous, broken, unyielding, timid, gullible, and unflinching his work captures the enigma that is each person, impossible to capture with superlatives or a list of foibles.
Yes, it is a movie about the conventicle, the conclave, of bishops. But if we dig just a little deeper, if we actively participate and actively think about the movie more than just a few minutes after watching, as we should with any media we allow to enter our minds, we find the conclave is ourselves. Each of us is a lockbox, a safe, filled with secrets, horrible sins, that we spend so much energy hiding behind a lock. Our locks become vaults and continue to grow until they are armed fortresses. You are the conclave. I am the conclave. We are all conclaves.
The supremacy of the church in Rome, at least for Roman Catholics, is founded on that beautiful passage in St. Matthew, where Jesus says to Peter, the first bishop of Rome, “On this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” That you behind the word give is the dative singular of the Koine. It is not a term said to all of the disciples, as some Protestants might interpret. It is a direct statement to Peter and Peter alone. And his descendants who take up the burden of that heavy seat are likewise given the temporal key.
We know that Jesus is the holder of the key to our true selves. The conclave is our heart, and Jesus can unlock it so that we need never again to feel shame, never again to hide. Jesus loves us and accepts us while we were still sinners, in the words of Paul. God did not wait until we became good for God to love us. God loved us first while we lived in the depths of our sin. God sent Jesus at the right time, before we repented, before we bowed at the throne, while we were still sinners. God unlocked the conclave.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 8/10
This post was edited on 11/8/24 at 7:47 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
Red One
Some question if Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It obviously is not because its theme is not Christmas related. And even though Red One has Santa, the North Pole, elves, and reindeer, it too is decidedly not a Christmas movie.
I had the misfortune this evening of sitting next to an obese family that was stuffing their mouths with dine-in chicken wings, fouling my air space with horrific odors. While the Dolby theater at Disney Springs is lovely, it only takes one Disney family smacking on chicken to ruin the experience.
Anyway, there really is nothing worthwhile to say about Red One. Like many movies that try to capitalize on Christmas it has nothing to offer other than for those who enjoy horror films. There really is not acting, no discernible plot, and no message. It was not as bad as the Wolverine movie this summer, but it comes close. The gratuitous violence and unnecessary profanity and multiple uses of God’s name in vain only further sully a bad time on the silver screen. Perhaps the Christmas pageant movie out right now will be our one redeeming Christmas movie this year. 2/10
Heretic
For a short while after Hurricane Katrina, I lived in a town called Princeton, where I also attended school, where Grandfather attended long ago. It was there that I had a class taught by the philosopher Peter Singer. Singer has written many controversial things, and at the time, was a minor academic celebrity for his work on animal ethics. The fact that in class I successfully showed his ethic of vegetarianism rather than veganism stood on shaky soil rather than make him antagonistic against me led to an invitation to Prospect House, the faculty dining room on campus.
Dining over the Garden Room’s most delectable squash dish, rather than its famed crab cakes – Peter refuses to eat crabs or any other organism that has a central nervous system and I respected his belief by not ordering them – he asked me why I believed in the triune God of Christianity. I responded, “Because God is truth, light, love, and has guided us to this question.” We spoke on epistemology the rest of the meal and he could not for the life of him understand how any of us could believe in a God, much less a God who commands us to love the most wretched and wicked in society, to forgive those who hurt us, and ultimately to live a life of sacrifice. For Peter, the purpose of life is simply utilitarian – to utilize our gifts to lessen suffering and increase happiness for all creatures, although he would not agree that they are creatures and would call them beings.
Some have called Singer a heretic because he has put on the world a different way of looking at God’s creation. But his conclusions are not that distant from the ethical calls of Christ. For some reason, I was thinking about our conversations while watching Heretic tonight.
Heretic begins as a promising inspection of belief and unbelief. We are introduced to two perverted female Mormon missionaries who are fascinated by sex. Their faith in a god that is as close to the Christian God as a LV handbag sold by a Nigerian immigrant in Times Square as one found in the flagship store on Fifth Avenue. That reminds me – were just in NY this week and watched as the Christmas storefront decorations were being hoisted to the building’s sides. This year look for LV signature luggage in black, white and gray as the Christmas theme.
They are challenged by a man whose religious knowledge extends as deep as a religious studies major at a marginal university. With a rather pedantic and shallow technique, he grotesquely challenges them. Do they believe what they see? Is what they see real? What is the true religion in which he desires they place their face?
Ultimately,his answer is an unsatisfactory one and sloppily presented. He is a literalist who sees religion, as the Romans did – as a mechanism of control. He sees religio in its most literal meaning – that which binds us.
It is an addlepated presentation of doubt and skepticism. Whereas the naive faithful might feign offense, those who really should be offended are the disbelievers, for Hugh Grant’s character is a mockery of atheism and agnosticism. His illusory arguments lack the blade of truth. He may be able to stab through the carotid, but truth remains whole. The writers try to employ the Divine Comedy’s structure, but the moment the girls leave his satanic altar room, the movie falls to pieces as does the satanic man’s philosophy. 5/10
Some question if Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It obviously is not because its theme is not Christmas related. And even though Red One has Santa, the North Pole, elves, and reindeer, it too is decidedly not a Christmas movie.
I had the misfortune this evening of sitting next to an obese family that was stuffing their mouths with dine-in chicken wings, fouling my air space with horrific odors. While the Dolby theater at Disney Springs is lovely, it only takes one Disney family smacking on chicken to ruin the experience.
Anyway, there really is nothing worthwhile to say about Red One. Like many movies that try to capitalize on Christmas it has nothing to offer other than for those who enjoy horror films. There really is not acting, no discernible plot, and no message. It was not as bad as the Wolverine movie this summer, but it comes close. The gratuitous violence and unnecessary profanity and multiple uses of God’s name in vain only further sully a bad time on the silver screen. Perhaps the Christmas pageant movie out right now will be our one redeeming Christmas movie this year. 2/10
Heretic
For a short while after Hurricane Katrina, I lived in a town called Princeton, where I also attended school, where Grandfather attended long ago. It was there that I had a class taught by the philosopher Peter Singer. Singer has written many controversial things, and at the time, was a minor academic celebrity for his work on animal ethics. The fact that in class I successfully showed his ethic of vegetarianism rather than veganism stood on shaky soil rather than make him antagonistic against me led to an invitation to Prospect House, the faculty dining room on campus.
Dining over the Garden Room’s most delectable squash dish, rather than its famed crab cakes – Peter refuses to eat crabs or any other organism that has a central nervous system and I respected his belief by not ordering them – he asked me why I believed in the triune God of Christianity. I responded, “Because God is truth, light, love, and has guided us to this question.” We spoke on epistemology the rest of the meal and he could not for the life of him understand how any of us could believe in a God, much less a God who commands us to love the most wretched and wicked in society, to forgive those who hurt us, and ultimately to live a life of sacrifice. For Peter, the purpose of life is simply utilitarian – to utilize our gifts to lessen suffering and increase happiness for all creatures, although he would not agree that they are creatures and would call them beings.
Some have called Singer a heretic because he has put on the world a different way of looking at God’s creation. But his conclusions are not that distant from the ethical calls of Christ. For some reason, I was thinking about our conversations while watching Heretic tonight.
Heretic begins as a promising inspection of belief and unbelief. We are introduced to two perverted female Mormon missionaries who are fascinated by sex. Their faith in a god that is as close to the Christian God as a LV handbag sold by a Nigerian immigrant in Times Square as one found in the flagship store on Fifth Avenue. That reminds me – were just in NY this week and watched as the Christmas storefront decorations were being hoisted to the building’s sides. This year look for LV signature luggage in black, white and gray as the Christmas theme.
They are challenged by a man whose religious knowledge extends as deep as a religious studies major at a marginal university. With a rather pedantic and shallow technique, he grotesquely challenges them. Do they believe what they see? Is what they see real? What is the true religion in which he desires they place their face?
Ultimately,his answer is an unsatisfactory one and sloppily presented. He is a literalist who sees religion, as the Romans did – as a mechanism of control. He sees religio in its most literal meaning – that which binds us.
It is an addlepated presentation of doubt and skepticism. Whereas the naive faithful might feign offense, those who really should be offended are the disbelievers, for Hugh Grant’s character is a mockery of atheism and agnosticism. His illusory arguments lack the blade of truth. He may be able to stab through the carotid, but truth remains whole. The writers try to employ the Divine Comedy’s structure, but the moment the girls leave his satanic altar room, the movie falls to pieces as does the satanic man’s philosophy. 5/10
This post was edited on 11/21/24 at 10:24 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
reserved
This post was edited on 6/27/24 at 6:05 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:00 pm to TulaneLSU
reserved
This post was edited on 6/27/24 at 6:05 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:09 pm to TulaneLSU
quote:
reserved
Riveting review
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:14 pm to TulaneLSU
I only read about 5% of your posts, but I'm excited to see the rest of your posts.
Posted on 6/27/24 at 6:58 pm to TulaneLSU
TulaneLSU, how do you feel about Zee’s pizzeria? I believe it is much better than Pizza Delicious. I was severely disappointed with Pizza Delicious actually, it made me feel ill!
ETA: Wow friend, I just clicked over on your pizza post and see you may soon be doing a 2024 GNO pizza list! Awesome. Take this as a vote for Zee’s!
ETA: Wow friend, I just clicked over on your pizza post and see you may soon be doing a 2024 GNO pizza list! Awesome. Take this as a vote for Zee’s!
This post was edited on 6/27/24 at 7:27 pm
Posted on 6/27/24 at 7:02 pm to TulaneLSU
Do any of the crowds compare to the Bieber never say never crowd as far as audience participation?
Posted on 6/27/24 at 7:05 pm to _Hurricane_
Friend,
How is mother?
Sincerely,
Random Internet Poster
How is mother?
Sincerely,
Random Internet Poster
Posted on 6/27/24 at 7:13 pm to TulaneLSU
quote:
TulaneLSU
Posted on 6/27/24 at 7:16 pm to TulaneLSU
I'd like to know what you think about the Acolyte series.
Posted on 6/27/24 at 7:28 pm to TulaneLSU
Movies are a Godless indulgence
Posted on 6/27/24 at 8:54 pm to TulaneLSU
I'm just curious, do you ever sleep?
And if so, what are your Top 10 mattresses?
And if so, what are your Top 10 mattresses?
Posted on 6/27/24 at 9:10 pm to moontigr
Quiet Place: Day One is a drama about pizza? I'm confused
Posted on 6/27/24 at 9:11 pm to TulaneLSU
Your reviews are better received when people don’t think you’re a dick.
People think you are a dick.
Stop being a dick.
People think you are a dick.
Stop being a dick.
Page 1 of 4
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News