Blue Like Jazz ***1/2

Short Take: An indie faith-based comedy drama about a devout young man experiencing a crisis of faith, who puts his Christianity in the closet, while he attends a prestigious college.

Reel Take: A few weeks back I heard a piece on NPR about a new niche in the film industry, faith-based films [in a Christian sense of course] and the expected financial impact from it. October Baby is a recent example of this growing market. What I didn’t anticipate was independent film crossover into that market. Blue Like Jazz is independent film (a la film festival circuit) but for a Christian audience. I confess, I watched Blue Like Jazzmore out of obligation than any kind of interest. If I hadn’t been reviewing it, I’d likely have passed on it regardless of an emerging film scene.

While it is custom-made for young Christian discussion groups, I was very pleasantly surprised, and most who see it will be as well. Interestingly, certain types of God-fearing Christians may have more of issue with it than the rest of us. The film isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, and well … some folks just won’t like that.

Don (Marshall Allman) is a nerdy, squeaky clean nineteen year old bible thumper in Texas who getting ready to go to a local Christian college. His mother is a rather whiny woman, very reliant on her son and her church. His somewhat estranged father, is an academic who falls on the other end of the religious spectrum, lives in an airstream, and loves jazz. When Don discovers that his mother’s involvement in the church includes having an affair with the married youth minister, he suffers a crisis of faith and takes up his father’s offer to attend Reed College in Portland, Oregon instead.

The first thing Don sees when he gets to campus is two bumper stickers. One reads ‘Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers’ and the other ‘I found Jesus. He’s drunk in my backseat.’ Eager to flee the hypocrisy of his old world, he meets an array of characters and very quickly heeds the advice stash his Christianity in the closet.

He embraces activities he once considered shameful. He drinks, takes part in political protests, hangs out with a lesbian and an anti-religion character who parades as the Pope. At first the discoveries he makes by looking beyond his old beliefs are wonderful – a thoughtful world, people making a difference and creating positive change. As things progress, Don sees the cracks in his new life as well. Moreover he realizes that many who leave their faith behind, have been betrayed and hurt. Ultimately he must learn to reconcile his faith with his new world and free thinking attitude.

Blue Like Jazzis not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is remarkable as a faith-based film on a few levels. It is every bit an independent film, made by people who are seemingly filmmakers first, messengers second. The script, based on a memoir by Donald Miller is really quite good. While the film is perfect for a Christian discussion group, it is perfectly palatable for anyone who has ever had any kind of crisis of faith or questioned the hypocrisies that occur in every religion. It’s Christian in the truly good sense of the word, not in the bastardized, right-wing version of what Jesus wouldn’t do.

In the end, it’s the most enjoyable faith-based film I’ve ever seen (not that the bar has been set too high). If this is an example of what’s going to come from this emerging market, it certainly won’t hurt.

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexuality, drug and alcohol content, and some language.

Review by Michelle Keenan

 

The Cabin in the Woods ****

Short Take: Creative homage to just about every modern horror film trend you can think of is just a little too clever for its own good but it’s still a treat for most fans of the genre,

Reel Take: The history of The Cabin in the Woods bears repeating. Made almost 3 years ago, the film sat on the shelf because the company that financed it went into bankruptcy. After lying around as financial collateral for an eventual settlement, it was picked up by Lionsgate who decided to hold it back until after the release of Hunger Games. This proved to be a smart move as it not only prevented the film from competing against a box office juggernaut but it allowed a similarity to the plot of Gameshelp sell it to a larger audience.

The movie’s tagline is as follows. “Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again.” The plot from Josh Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) deliberately covers very familiar ground but with several clever and highly original twists. The principal twist is that every move of the protagonists is being watched by technicians in a secret underground laboratory and the choices the friends make will determine their fate.

This central conceit allows Whedon and Goddard to throw in references from every modern horror film since the original Friday the 13th(1980) and this makes the movie a treasure trove for fans of the genre. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of modern horror films. It’s relentlessly clever and while I can appreciate the satirical approach that W & G are employing, I didn’t enjoy the film.

The standard horror film archetypes are well cast. The good girl (Kristen Connoly), the bad girl (Anna Hutchison), the young stud (Chris Hemsworth), the sensitive, brainy young man (Jesse Williams), and the perpetually stoned comic relief (Fran Krantz) are all brought to life with a lot more acting than one usually finds in a film of this type. We actually care for them and so when “bad things happen” then we really feel bad for them. At least I did.

The real delight for oldsters like me is seeing the always reliable Richard Jenkins along with Bradley Whitford thoroughly enjoying themselves as two of the technicians who are manipulating the goings on from the underground lab and then betting on the outcome. There’s even a special appearance from Sigourney Weaver at the end to tell us what it all means. Since she does then I won’t.

The Cabin in the Woods deserves praise for doing something different with the horror genre. However it is one of those rare horror films that rates higher with critics than it does with audiences. Those outside the fan base who are tempted to see it because of the reviews or the cast might enjoy it, but they should check out the rating first.

Rated R for bloody horror violence, gore, language, drug use, and nudity/sexuality.

Review by Chip Kaufmann

 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ****

Short Take: A fisheries expert gets a lesson in life, love and politics when he is tasked with making a sheikh’s dream come true by bringing the sport of fly fishing to the desert.

Reel Take:When it’s time to spawn, salmon perform the challenging feat of swimming upstream to do procreate. When mild mannered British fisheries expert Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) receives a proposal from investment consultant, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, (Emily Blunt) on behalf of a sheikh (Amr Waked) to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen, he finds the idea ludicrous and politely declines. However, when the Prime Minster’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) gets wind of the idea, she seizes the opportunity for a good will story, makes it a matter of state, and there is no turning back. The result is an upstream journey to make the impossible possible.

Fred is the central figure and the narrative voice. At the start of the story our hero is mired in a complacent marriage. Harriet is in a burgeoning relationship with a young soldier. He is entirely against the project and they bicker a lot (rom com foreplay of course). Harriet is the investment consultant for the sheikh Mohammed. When she takes Fred to meet the sheikh at his Scottish estate (where he developed his penchant for fly fishing), things begin to shift. As they bond over the love of fly fishing, Fred is charmed by the sheikh and won over by his faith in life and his belief in the impossible. As the threesome work together friendships are foreged and it seems nothing will get in the way of making the sheik’s dream come true. That is nothing except maybe civil unrest, terrorism and a war.

There is an underbelly to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and while it is played out for the most part in political sattire, it is ever present and serves as a sad but true political commentary. It’s an odd but fitting tone (considering what our characters are trying to accomplish), It’s a tone that I didn’t initially think they pulled off, but as I’ve had time to digest the film, it has become less of an intrusion and more a part of the landscape of the film.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is directed by Lasse Halstrom (My Life as a Dog) and adapted from Paul Torday’s acclaimed novel by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire). Not having any knowledge of the novel prior to this film (it is now on my ‘books to read’ list), I don’t know who to credit with the balance of clever dialogue, comedic timing and social sattire.

There is a little messiness with the inclusion of several subplots. Some work, some don’t, but the over all result is a thoughtful story whose three main characters are utterly charming, in spite of a political backdrop that is anything but. My impression is that the Hallstrom/Beaufoy team did a good job distilling what is probably a funny but very layered story to the big screen – a task many filmmakers could not have accomplished nearly so well.

Ewan McGregor gives one of us his best performances in years (see another one of his top performances in my DVD pick for the month). Emily Blunt is perfect as Harriet, and she and McGregor play well off of one another. Amr Waked is lovely as the philosophical, fly fishing sheikh. But the scene stealer in this film is Kristin Scott Thomas. She plays the brash, over zealous press secretary with wicked abandon and is a horrid hoot to watch. At press time Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was playing at the Fine Arts Theatre. See it while you can. It’s a delightlful diversion for a couple of hours, especially during the post-award, pre-summer drought at the cinema.

Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexual content and language.

Review by Michelle Keenan

 

Wrath of the Titans ***1/2

Short Take: Sequel to the remake of Clash of the Titans is a better film than its predecessor with fine genre performances from a bevy of Britain’s top character actors but the last half hour drags.

Reel Take: It only took about 15 minutes for me to realize that Wrath of the Titans was one of those sequels that is superior to the film that spawned it and in turn is much closer in spirit to Ray Harryhausen’s 1981 original than the remake. In fact it more closely resembles Jason & the Argonauts (1963) which was a much better film than the original Clash.

The movie takes place several years after Perseus (Sam Worthington) has defeated the Kraken and gone off to be a fisherman and raise a family. Internal strife between Zeus (Liam Neeson) and his brothers Ares (Edgar Ramirez) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) results in a war between the Gods with Zeus being held prisoner in the Underworld. Ares and Hades plan to siphon off Zeus’ life force in order to free the Titan Cronos (their father) which will mean the end of the world.

Why would they want to bring about the end of the world? Well it seems that people have stopped praying to the Gods and they are dying anyway so, fickle humanity, take that! Attempting to put up a last line of defense which is the equivalent of a suicide mission are the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and her soldiers.

At first Perseus wants nothing to do with any of it until his son Helius is threatened and then he reluctantly joins forces with another demigod Agenor (Toby Kebell). Along with Andromeda they set out to free Zeus from the prison of Tartarus. In order to get in they are aided by Poseidon (Danny Huston) who dies in the process and by Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) who designed the prison.

Along the way they battle a two headed fire breathing monster and a pair of Cyclopes. Once inside they have to defeat the Minotaur and get through the Labyrinth without the help of Hephaestus who must stay behind. Then the real trouble starts when Perseus must do battle with Ares and Hades in order to reach Zeus. Of course they manage to reach him in the nick of time but not before Cronos is freed and is about to bring oblivion to the world.

Up until this point I was prepared to give the film 4 stars but the last half hour of the film descends into the sort of large scale battle sequence so beloved of today’s fantasy filmmakers where multiple CGI “synthespians’ can be featured and then get dispatched. In this case Cronos, a giant elemental force, does the dispatching and he is the only titular figure in the film so the movie should really be called Wrath of the TITAN. So much for truth in advertising.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy violence and action.

Review by Chip Kaufmann