15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)
A Christian film that explores not only the beauty but the pitfalls of charismatic movements
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ReasonForOurHope
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Sunday Best: Oscars 2023 Tonight (and Last Chance for Oscar Game)
Tonight are the Oscars.
This used to be my yearly Super Bowl. And while the bloom is off the rose, I still watch every year.
The Academy was wise to nominate the two highest-grossing films of the year: Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. But I still think this will be a very low-rated Oscars. I think it will be up from last year. People will be interested in if there is another outrageous incident like the Smith/Rock assault.
But, as has been the case for the past few years, most people haven't seen most of the movies nominated. I've seen a good number of them, but not all. As John Nolte pointed out as of last week, the independed Christian film Jesus Revolution has already grossed more than 4 of the Best Picture nominees combined.
The only movie in my Top 5 that made it onto the nominee list is Top Gun, which really doesn't have a chance of winning. This movie also was locked out of most of the major awards, which once again shows how the nomination is more of a token.
The hopeful highlight for me tonight is if Key Hu Kwan wins an Oscar tonight. I loved him as a child actor and I am so happy for his comeback. Not only would be a heartfelt, feel-good story, but it would be well-deserved. His performance was one of the best of the year and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves.
This is also the last chance to enter the Oscar Game. Just fill out the chart below. The winner will get bragging rights and a mention on this blog. And just to keep everything above board, I am publishing my votes for tonight as well.
Here are my choices so far:
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Film Review: Creed III
Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Mature
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable
A hero is only as good as his villain.
This is a standard writing principle that helps explain why Creed III is the best of the Creed movies.
The film focuses on Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), reaching the pinnacle of the sporting world. He is a champion who ends his career on a high note, he has a talented and loving wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and a wonderful young daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). They live in luxury while Adonis uses his days to continue to shape the sport and train the next generation of champions. But then his old friend Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) comes back into his life. As teens, Adonis helped Damian train as a boxer, until Damian was sentenced to prison. But now, Damian has just been released after two decades, where he had no contacted from Adonis. Cagey and anxious, Damian begs Adonis to help him get a shot a the title. Adonis is apprehensive because of Damian's age and inexperience, but he knows how much he owes him from their time as youths. This sets the two men on a course that eventually puts them at odds with each other in the ring.
What makes this movie work even better than the previous Creed movies is that this antagonist really matters. The previous two villains were almost blank slates, flat obstacles to overcome. But Damian is different. As you learn why Damian goes to jail and how Adonis reacted, you cannot help but pity Damian as Adonis does. But all the pain and rage comes out in disturbing ways and you are torn by the conflict that Adonis feels: what do you do when someone you love and someone you owe starts crossing a line? One of the great things that the first two Rocky movies did was that Apollo Creed had a rich character development so that you understood who he was and why he did the things he did. Even when you rooted for Rocky, you didn't hate Apollo. Damian has the edge of Clubber Lang, but the character depth of Apollo.
I cannot say enough good things about Majors. Jordan already brings a ton of charisma to the screen, so it takes some doing to outshine him, but Majors does. Everything he does on screen draws you in so that you can't take your eyes off of him. He has this practiced smile that seems sweet, but feels forced. He is always moving and looking around like someone with PTSD. His physicality is phenomenal, reminding me of a young Mike Tyson. And when Damian's mask does fall, you still can't help but understand him. That is because Majors infuses him with so much humanity. That isn't to take anything away from Jordan. This movie shows how success can make you soft and how he rediscovers his inner strength. Jordan doesn't try to out muscle Majors. Instead, he shows all the layers of a man who has settled into domestic life. Damian keeps accusing Adonis of going soft. But there is something mature about a man who grows into a husband and father that Damian misses. It reminds me of how some Star Wars fans think that Han Solo became lesser from Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi because he becomes more domesticated. But I always saw that as Han growing instead of lessening as a character.
The other performances are good. Thompson is probably at the best I've seen her here. She has no cynicism and plays the part of the supporting wife without feeling like she is simply echoing her husbands feelings. Davis-Kent is incredibly cute and her scenes with Jordan are heart-warming. The rest of the supporting cast doesn't have much to do, but they also don't use that time to match up to these performances. That is one of the few things that stops this movie from bumping up a level. IF they had taken time to really develop the side characters and if the actors there gave better performances, this movie could be one of the all-time greats. Conspicuously missing is Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, who is only briefly mentioned. And while his absence is felt, it does not deter too greatly from the story.
This also Jordan's debut as a director, which bodes well for him. The movie is slick and shot well, keeping the plot moving at a tight pace. I especially like the way he filmed the fight scenes. The boxing matches have a completely different flavor than anything in the Rocky/Creed franchise thus far. And that is good thing. He uses some very creative and interesting visual flourishes to make the final match between Adonis and Damian something that is more personal than it is a spectacle.
I especially like the themes that this movie deals. Adonis abandoned his best friend for his new life. He has to deal with that guilt while at the same time understanding that he was just a kid at the time. The movie dives deeply into the questions of guilt, forgiveness, envy, and friendship. And one of the things I liked about it too was that it left a number of its questions unanswered. Is Adonis a sell out? While he is a noble family man, has he forgotten his roots and his community? You as the audience get to answer that. It is a question that we as Christians ask ourselves all the time as we encounter success. And the movie understands the power of repentance and forgiveness.
This is also an intensely masculine film. Adonis and Damian are powerhouses of manly energy. And while the movie does show the flaws of this stoic lifestyle, as Adonis has trouble talking about his feelings to his wife. But ultimately it acknowledges that there are certain ways that men deal with their problems, which is why Adonis has to get back into the ring. Neither man is feminized, but both come barreling at each other, full steam ahead.
The could easily end the Creed movies here and it go out on a high-note. But something tells me with the success of this film, we will see Adonis in the ring once again.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Film Flash: Creed III
15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)
Best Creed movie yet, focusing on manhood and responsibility. Jonathan Majors shines as the antagonist.
Monday, March 6, 2023
New Evangelizers Post: Preparation for Prayer
I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.
As mentioned last week, one of the three pillars of Lent is prayer.
Like most of you, I am in continual need to grow in my prayer life. And far be it from me to give advice to those who are my spiritual betters. But one thing I have noticed is that many people say that they “try” to pray but that they do not get anything out of the experience.
On of the reasons for this is that we need to prepare for prayer.
To be sure, prayer can be spontaneous and sometimes brief. In class, if a student asks a deep question, I quickly pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. When and ambulance passes by, my wife and I pray a “Hail Mary” for the safety of all involved.
But in addition to this, we must make sure to set aside time for deep, personal prayer. We know who and what we love by the way we give our time. Time is life. Every minute of free time you give is a piece of your life that you can never get back. So with that in mind we must give our life, our time to God in prayer.
It is not merely quantity of time that is important, but quality. 5 minutes of very good prayer can be more important than 3 hours of distracted prayer. However, we shouldn’t disregard the time spent in distracted prayer as wasted. He wrote, “I have a notion that what seem our worst prayers may really be, in God’s eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling and contend with the greatest disinclination. For these, perhaps being nearly all will, come from a deeper level than feeling.” (CS Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer) The commitment we make to prayer is itself a kind of victory. As Fr. Mike Schmidt pointed out recently in a Lenten homily, consistency beats intensity every time. Part of building a good prayer life is building a consistent prayer life, even when the feelings are not there.
Once we have established that consistency, we are called to delve deeper. And while there are many ways to do this, I would like to focus on the preparation for prayer.
Prayer is encountering God. When you encounter other people, don’t you prepare yourself? You dress nicely or make sure your hair is combed and your teeth brushed. To be sure, we are less formal with the people around us. But if we are to give our attention to a person we love, we have to remove the distractions. Aren’t we perturbed when someone is watching the TV when we are trying to talk about our day?
The first thing is to find a space for prayer. We may not be able to find the perfect oasis, but we must do what we can where we are.
The next thing we need to do is remember that we are human, so we pray also with our bodies. We are in the flesh and we must use this to our advantage.
Prayer ultimately is making yourself present to the Presence of God. But we cannot be present to God if we are not present in the moment. Often we are thinking about things in the past or are distracted about our plans for later. We must be mindful of the present moment. How do we do this?
Here is where we can use the body to help. What I am about to share is something I received from a prayer book I used over 25 years ago. I have tried to find it again, but I cannot remember the title in order to give the author the proper credit for the below meditation. But the exercises used to prepare a person for prayer have helped me greatly. This is only one method of prayer preparation. Use for you what is most effective.
When entering your prayer space, find a comfortable position to sit, but not a position so comfortable as to cause drowsiness. Once in that position, close your eyes and be aware of your body and how it is comfortable.
Then begin to breathe slowly: in through the nose and out through the mouth. We breathe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If we ever stopped we would die. But we barely notice. Now, notice the air rush down your nostrils. Feel the expanse in the chest and abdomen. Then feel the release of the muscles and the warm air rise up and out through the mouth. After a few moments, pray this prayer, “God, you are closer to me than my own breath. With every breath I breathe, make me more aware of your presence.”
Next, listen to the sounds around you. The world does not go away when we close our eyes. We are bombarded by sounds all the time, but we filter most out. But take time to hear all the sounds and be aware of their reality. After a few moments, pray this prayer, “God, you are more real than the sounds that I hear. With every sound I hear, make me more aware of your reality.”
Finally, be aware of the feeling of the clothes on your skin. We are encased in clothing most of the day, but we barely notice. Feel the texture of the fabric on your skin. Feel where it is loose or constrictive. Feel out it touches your body. After a few moments, prayer this prayer, “God, you are nearer to me than the clothes on my back. With every sensation I feel, make me more aware of your loving embrace.”
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Sunday Best: Top 10 Best Picture Oscar Winners
The Oscars are supposed to be pinacel of the film industry: the best of the best.
As I've written before, the Academy Awards have slowly slid into irrelevancy with their terrible taste in films that turn off most audiences. But that wasn't always the case.
Below are what I believe are the 10 Best Movies to ever win the Best Picture Oscar.
10. Forrest Gump (1995)
I think that this movie has been reduced in people's minds because of the caricature of the main character. But Robert Zemekis does an impressive feat along with Tom Hanks in creating a unique cinematic voice that is superbly acted, visually stunning, and always memorable.
9. Rocky (1977)
This is a raw movie. The sequels make people forget how rough and tumble this film was. Rocky's world is mean and dark. The whole point of the movie is to ask whether this man can stand up and be a man against the best in the world. The brilliance of this film is that in understands that the real prize is not the belt, but the fact that Rocky learns his own value.
8. Titanic (1998)
Because it was so popular, people sometimes write this film off as populist tripe. But director James Cameron achieves an incredibly epic story with a strong emotional center. There is a reason that this story struck such an emotional chord and Cameron was able to use all of his skills as a visual storyteller to make a film that pierced the heart.
7. West Side Story (1962)
This could easily be written off as a relic of its day with its stylized dialogue and color palate. In fact, that appears to be what Spielberg attempted to do in his remake. But that is a mistake, because there is magic in the way this movie is made. The opening prologue casts a spell on you that does not let go. You are pulled into a world that is our own but not. The bright colors and big, bombastic score promise love and adventure, which makes the tragedy all the more powerful.
6. The Sound of Music (1966)
This is a nearly perfect film. The casting is superb, the shots are gorgeous, and director Robert Wise created something truly iconic. There is a reason that this movie makes it to number one on so many people's favorite movies. It is a timeless film for the ages that beautifully captures the magic of love, faith, and music.
5. The Godfather (1973)
I first saw this movie as a child and I hated it. I wasn't ready for it. A friend of mine saw this later in life and said, "It reminded me of so many movies, probably because so many movies were influenced by it." The older I have gotten the more I've come to love this movie. Every shot, every sound is perfectly done with stellar performances that are both intriguing in their charisma and repellent in their evil.
4. Casablanca (1944)
Like The Sound of Music, this film is timeless. It is the story of a man who slowly finds his soul again. He was an empty shell living in purgatory. He has a chance to damn himself with selfishness, but that final scene is one of the greatest, manliest moments in movie history, where Rick sacrifices his own happiness for the greater good. And it has one of the best final lines of any film.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004)
CS Lewis said of Tolkien's story that the tale was "good beyond hope." That is how I felt about this film. People complain about the length of the ending, but when put into context of the entire epic, you need that time for closure. The entire second half is absolutely riveting. What Peter Jackson was able to do, which is incredibly rare nowadays, is take an amazing adventure epic and imbue it with a sense a reality, most particularly in the emotional life of the characters. I am still boggled that Sean Astin did not win an Oscar for his performance as Samwise.
2. Braveheart (1996)
Perhaps I saw this movie at just the right time as I was becoming a man, but this film is an epic masterpiece. It has all of the hallmarks of a war epic, but Mel Gibson films it in a way that feels timeless and as legendary as the main character. So many war films after this copied his style, from Saving Private Ryan to Gladiator and you can even see echoes of it in Avengers: Endgame. But the movie is ingrained in me that if I listen to the last 10 minutes of the score I can recite all of the lines word-for-word until the end.
1. Schindler's List (1994)
I will write more about this at a later date, but there is no other film that could take this position. This is a movie that can break your heart and change your life. I don't know why as a 15-year-old, this film touched my soul. There are only two movies that completely transported me. What I mean by that is I completely lost track of who and where I was because I was taken up by the experience. The first was Return of the Jedi when I was a child. But Schindler's List did that to me when I was almost a man. It is the perfect blend of artistry and history. It is Spielberg using all of skills to show both the absolute horror of humanity and its heavenly virtue in a way that shows us who we are and (more importantly) who we could be.
Honorable Mentions:
Friday, March 3, 2023
Film Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp - Quantumania
Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Acceptable
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable
Ant-Man and the Wasp - Quantumania is meant to launch the MCU into Phase 5. How good of a kick-off is it?
It's not bad.
I got to see this movie a little later and there were some people savaging it in their reviews, so I went in expecting the worst. But what I found was a pleasant to middling Marvel film.
Quantumania takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is riding high on celebrity. His girlfriend Hope/The Wasp (Evangeline Lily) is not only still doing the superhero thing but has taken over her father's company and doing great things with it. The one sticking point is that Scott's daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) gets involved in social action and keeps getting in trouble with the law. Scott decides to have a sit down diner with them and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his wife who they rescued from the Quantum Realm, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer). However, things fall apart when Cassie shows them a device she built that sends a signal to the Quantum Realm, which leads to all of them being abducted to that tiny dimension. There, they encounter strange creatures and a vicious dictator Kang, the Conqueror (Jonathon Majors). The group, though separated must find a way to get home without letting Kang escape the Quantum realm.
The best of the film is Rudd himself. The man is so affable and charming that you can't help but feel good will towards him. He also knows how to expertly play the comedy and the drama. He effortlessly moves from silly, broad jokes to the serious and terrified father trying to protect his child. And while Douglass doesn't have as much to do in this film, his chemistry with Pfeiffer makes their relationship believable. Lily does a fine job, but the script can't seem to find an important part for her to play. Newton is a decent addition, but she doesn't really stand out. Partly this is due to the fact that Cassie lacks the things that make Scott so interesting. She also has the annoying, lecturing tone that the young often have towards their parents. To be fair, there is some growth here. But when it is up to Cassie to inspire a rebellion in the Quantum Realm, I didn't quite buy it.
The other great part of the movie is Majors. His Kang is fantastic. He believably goes from genial to deadly. Majors has charisma that flows out from the screen. What makes his villain so interesting is the sense of sadness and weariness he brings to the part. Kang has killed countless worlds for what he believes is the greater good. But the moral toll that has taken on him has filled him with a fatigue. This is an interesting take on the villain, who, like Thanos, sees himself as the hero who has to take on the debt of doing evil. And yet, Majors infuses him with a great deal of humanity.
What keeps this story from really taking off is that it really forgets that it is an Ant-Man movie. What makes an Ant-Man movie unique is the fantastic sense of scale that makes us look a the world in a new way. My favorite moment from any in this series is when he shrinks for the first time and even a bathroom can seem wild, dangerous and wonderous. In the second film, it was funny to watch Scott use a truck like a little scooter. But in Quantumania, that sense of scale is mostly gone. Yes, they are in microverse, and yes there are times when he shrinks and grows. But often the scale is not there. There is one scene where Scott and another enlarged character run towards each other and hug. However, there is so little to give the scene scale that I didn't realize that they weren't normal-sized. When you don't have that, you miss most of the magic.
The Quantum Realm itself does not seem like anything cohesive. It feels like a hodge-podge of fantastical creatures and landscapes. But there is nothing to differentiate it from other alien locals we've seen in Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor movies. Because of that, it feels almost generic.
The story and plot points are fine, but it doesn't feel like the characters have as much to do or as much to grow.
I should make a not about the character MODOK, who is long-standing villain in the Marvel comics. Because of his unusual appearance, the filmmakers decided to use him completely as a punchline. This would have worked better if the humor landed. Instead, it feels out of place, especially when next to the grave and humorless Kang. Though I admit his final scenes had me laughing a bit, MODOK mostly failed in execution.
There were some decent themes about responsibilities of family and how they conflict with duty along with some other moral issues that Catholics might want to explore. But these themes never get fully developed in the story.
SPOILER FOR THE END OF THE MOVIE BELOW. SKIP IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS.
At least towards the end, it feels like one or more characters is going to make a harrowing, life-altering decision. But any price that is paid is almost immediately fixed. For that reason, it felt like the stakes were weightless. It reminds me a line from Spirited, "You're sacrifice would be meaningless if there was no consequence."
END SPOILERS
As I wrote, this movie has been getting hit very hard, but it is not a bad film. It is a fun, enjoyable outing, though it misses a chance and doing great things.
Hopefully if there is another Ant-Man and the Wasp movie, it will rise to the occasion.
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