Doubt

The film "Doubt" will have you thinking, talking , and debating. I have not experienced such good acting as we got from Meryl Streep (Sister Aloysius), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Father Flynn), Amy Adams (Sister James), and Viola Davis (the boy's mother) last night. The setting was perfect. The East Bronx of 1964 was filmed to a "T." St. Nicholas (actually St. Aloysius of Shanley's youth) was complete with unturned around altar. One anachronism was the use of the Taize chant version of "Ubi Charitas Ibi Est" at the end. I also wonder if there should not have been a lectern on the espistle side.

Mark Moring interviews John Patrick Shanley in Christianity Today. Lauren A.E. Schuker interviews Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Wall Street Journal.

Two initial comments. Fr. Flynn did not seem all that "charismatic" to me. The Principal I remember from my Catholic school was a bit more human than Shanley would like us to believe that type was.

Are the Suburbs the Archetype of All That is Wrong in America

Lee Siegel dissects the American cultural elite's hatred of thee suburbs in today's Wall Street Journal: "Why Does Hollywood Hate the Suburbs? America's long artistic tradition of claiming spiritual death by station wagon." I have long believed that the suburbs are a bad place to raise children. My dislike of the suburbs was confirmed by my eleven year exile in Washington's suburbs.

Still if my enemy hates them, perhaps I should think twice. My favorite sentence is this gem that Siegel ends the piece with: "But, then, Hollywood is the most illusion-soaked, soul-hardened and materialistic suburb in the world."

James Bond Flix: Immoral Trash or High Camp?

The Times of London has a marvey timeline of James Bond. Great fun!

Are the movies simply high camp or immoral trash?

Some members would vote for the latter. That casts aspersions on their parents' probity. Personally I am ambivalent: it is hard to take these babes and gadgets formula films seriously. Maybe I am just a big hypocrite.

Now, when is the next one out?

Brideshead Revisited: Forget the Movie!

Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is one of those overwhelming novels that has a point but does not hit you over the head with it. We are indeed sinners and yet God's grace can pierce our armor and cature our falty will.

It is a powerful novel and the language is beautiful. The BBC's miniseris adaptation of it for "the telley" drew widespread praise. Two of my favorite reviewers condemned the new movie version.

Barbara Nicolosi makes it sound like the San Francisco version of the book:

"How dare they.

"No, I mean really, how DARE they?! Imagine if someone did a new adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and it ended up savagely racist? That's what they've done here. A profoundly Catholic novel, in this'adaptation', Brideshead Revisited is viciously anti-Catholic. They turned a movie about God and the soul, into a lurid love triangle between a homosexual, his sister and a hapless hunk. It's lame. It's bad."


Steven D. Greydanus writes a long and thoughtful review (originally for the National Catholic Register.) He ends his analysis: "Waugh wrote that Brideshead 'deals with what is theologically termed "the operation of Grace", that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by which God continually calls souls to Himself.' Grace may not be totally missing from the film version — the ending isn’t wholly betrayed — but however real it may be for the characters, there’s no sense that it feels real to the filmmakers, or the audience. It’s as if Waugh’s story has been filtered through the spiritual blindness of young Charles. The movie sees, but it doesn’t understand."

Do See "Charlie Wilson's War!"

Texas Politics generates bigger than life characters and the Charlie Wilson of this film is believably outrageous. John Fund tells us in the Wall Street Journal that "I met Charlie Wilson in his heyday in the 1980s. He was an operator and a carousing libertine. But he was honest about it, promising constituents that, if he were caught in a scandal, 'I won't blame booze and I won't suddenly find Jesus.'" The movie, in Fund's words, tells how "one ornery congressman and a few friends helped change the world." (This does not require a subscription.)



Tom Hanks played the part perfectly, much to my surprise. He has come a long way as an actor. Despite knowing Julia Roberts was in the movie, I didn't recognize her until the credits at moviesend–That's because I was so captivated by the movie and her part in it (she played it perfectly.)

Did I like it? You bet! I would love to know what some of my circle think of it: both those with security clearances and those without, those who lived through it and those who read about it in the history books.

The moral of the movie? Again in Fund's words: "Good things can happen when principle trumps partisanship."

Be forewarned: boozing, wenching, cussing, violence and a well earned "R" rating.


If you want to view the trailer click through.

Elmer Gantry

Wilfred M. McClay thinks director Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" (the 1960 movie) was better than Sinclair Lewsis' original book.

What do you think?

You May Love Lewis, But the Golden Compass Is No Narnia.

The first clue was that Nicole Kidman is in the movie version. The second is that Phillip Pullman, the author of the book thinks Tolkien is "infantile." Here is what I learned from ZENIT, "The film 'The Golden Compass' isn't simply about using fairy-tale magic to tell a good story, it corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien to undermine children's faith in God and the Church, says Catholic author Pete Vere.

"In this interview with ZENIT, Vere and Sandra Miesel discuss the movie adaptation of the fantasy novels written by Philip Pullman. The film, staring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, will be released in the United States in early December."

Please read the whole interview.

A tip of the hat to Paula Wierman a Catholic homeschooler in Wichita.

The Film "Once": See it

Amy Welborn has mostly praise for "Once," a new film that you may have a hard time finding in the movie houses. Once is "[r]emarkable because it is about the ability of art to impact us, to change our lives, to reveal what is true about our lives - the real truth, which is all about calling us to be the best people we can be."

Barbara Nicolosi, chair of Act One, screenwriter, and movie critic writes, "Hey! I finally saw a good movie this year! And it's sad that I'm kind of in shock because it is such an odd feeling these days to see a really good movie. But the sadder thing is that most of you who read this blog won't get the chance to see this rare good movie, because it has a teeny weeny little distribution, meaning it will play in NYC and L.A. and that's probably it. So, keep an eye out for the DVD. It will be worth a rental.

Once is one of those dramas in which not a lot happens exteriorly, but something huge happens in the soul of the main character. This makes the project, in my book, a very good dramatic film. I really enjoyed it in a way that I rarely enjoy movies anymore because it had such solid craft. My only criticisms came down to matters of taste. It has remarkable creative control, and a profound humanity at its core that has you leave the theater wanting to be kind, and wanting to commit yourself to whatever creative passion you have.

Once is less of a traditional narrative and more of a kind of rock opera...although the music in the film isn't rock as much as poetic pop crooning. But still, with the movie completely built around the sound track, the movie manages to pack in more of a story - and a profound one - than 90% of the movies that are out there right now." Read on....

Amy Welborn's "[s]hort synopsis: a street performer in Dublin, who repairs vacuum cleaners to make money, meets up with a Czech emigre, who turns out to have some musical ability herself. There are surprises along the way, which I will not reveal, but by the end of the 83 minutes, you have seen a change in the soul of the main character and even a subtle re-commitment, a firming up of resolve, on the part of the emigre, and it is all for the good."