by Dean | Oct 30, 2016 | General
Rachel Scott was the first person—and the first Christian—killed by the pathological murderers at Columbine High in Colorado in 1999. In the new film I’m Not Ashamed (2016), there is supposed to be some fictionalizing of Rachel’s story, but how much fictionalizing I don’t know. This in itself does not render the picture a failure, which in my view it is, though a very interesting failure—and, in fact, a film other critics have been unsurprisingly wrong about. One accused it of having “perfunctory” images, which is mostly a canard. What is true is that the cinematography here is crude, although in the daytime scenes it gets better.
Rachel (Masey McLain) is the daughter of a born-again mother, divorced. Through the influence of a relative she, too, becomes a Christian, keeping old friends (as best she can) and making new, devout ones. She starts a wobbly love relationship, however, with a nonbelieving kid to whom she doesn’t reveal she is a Christian. Meanwhile, the two evildoers, Harris and Klebold, conspire about their future killings.
Scott is a future martyr, but what the film explores is what it means to be a religious young person in a secular environment, the struggle of a Christian youth to discover an identity and a proper, or faithful, way of life. This is something I’m Not Ashamed does well. And it is forced to show us that this secular environment can be unjust and dangerous. The moviemakers have every right to blame Darwinian theory for the killing of Christians and others at Columbine, whether it’s intellectually defensible or not. They surely see it (Darwinian theory, not evolutionary theory, to the extent it is a theory) as anti-biblical and false. This particular element, though, is not as interesting as the movie itself.
Again, an interesting failure—riveting in several ways, lame in many others. I’m glad I saw it. The acting of Miss McLain, by the way, is not lame. As Rachel she does terrifically effective and modulated work.
Directed by Brian Baugh.
by Dean | Oct 26, 2016 | General
Cover of The Long, Long Trailer
What pains and stresses are associated with making a long trailer your home!
The problem with The Long, Long Trailer (1953), the Vincente Minnelli movie centering on those pains and stresses, is that it is a comedy that stops being comedic. The last third of it contains no laughs at all, but only some mild suspense which seems to belong to another movie.
Comic difficulties the characters face are often the result of the dopiness of the husband, Nicky (Desi Arnaz), and the wife, Tacy (Lucille Ball), and not so much the trailer itself. This makes for some rather cheap humor, for all its decent sight gags. And it should be pointed out that Trailer is a romantic comedy; and, yes, the romance is there, but certain aspects of the liaison (between Nicky and Tacy) are unconvincing. A good example of this is Tacy’s temporary silent treatment of Nicky. Yuck!
by Dean | Oct 25, 2016 | General
Cover of All the King’s Men (Special Edition)
All the King’s Men, the 2006 remake, is as stupid as it is tired, as overblown as it is unnecessary. This despite the fine, authentic production design and the “Christian worldview” applauded on Ted Behr’s Movieguide website. Also, I disesteem much of the acting. James Gandolfini is all sleazy balderdash. Kate Winslet and Patricia Clarkson are uninteresting. Sean Penn, however, may be mannered now and then as Willie Stark, but for the most part his performance is solid and lived-in.
Re Vanity Fair (2004), I couldn’t get through William Makepeace Thackeray’s great novel, but I am utterly certain that what Mira Nair and Focus Features put on film in the early Aughts is greatly detached from it. Something meaningful becomes something ultimately pointless. It’s gorgeous, though; many, I’m sure, have found it quite watchable.
by Dean | Oct 23, 2016 | General
If you haven’t read Martin Ford‘s nonfiction book, Rise of the Robots (2015), you should, notwithstanding some of the language is too technical for me. The subtitle reads: “Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future,” so, yes, it’s a book about vocations that might be swallowed up by automation. If we’re dumb—be sure to read Chapter 8—they will be. Everything in moderation.
Rise of the Robots (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by Dean | Oct 20, 2016 | General
Cover of T-Men
T-men, in T-Men (1947), are agents of the U.S. Treasury Department’s law enforcement division. Early on, the movie more or less informs us that these taxpayer-supported agents do not make that much money (lest moviegoers then were understandably worried about massive federal spending) and, anyway, the story begins with a murder! Treasury has its work cut out for it.
What happens is that an informer is killed by counterfeiters, and off go two likable-looking T-men (Dennis O’Keefe and Alfred Ryder) to infiltrate the band of culprits.
This is recommendable film noir, better than most pics at presenting the unusual nature of crime investigation. Granted, the characters are ciphers, but this was perennially the case in old crime movies, and at least the drama in T-Men is rough-and-tumble fun. What’s more, there are two alluring femme fatales, played by Mary Meade and Vivien Austen (shamefully uncredited; she plays Genevieve).
Directed by Anthony Mann.
by Dean | Oct 18, 2016 | General
The third season of Jane the Virgin, on the CW, has begun, with the married Jane retaining her virginity because hubby Michael has been shot and is in critical condition!
Trauma and pathos are intertwined with mildly comic flashbacks of Jane and Michael developing their mutual crush, and all of this is conventional. The unconventional stuff is on the periphery, as when Michael’s would-be killer turns out to be Sin Rostro—and what sin there is in this woman!—masquerading as a police officer. And not just any police officer, but Michael’s partner Susanna! Is this show crazy, or what?
At least it isn’t just crazy—and it isn’t tiresome yet either. Gina Rodriguez was brilliant in last night’s episode, as versatile as ever. And now that she’s playing two roles (sort of merging into one), Yael Grobglas is more of a grabber than she ever has been.
