Dramatic Insights News

Study Notes, Feb. 7, 2008

2008-02-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

Greg's Study: Genesis 19:18-38

Lot begs off from the big trek to the hills and convinces the messengers that neighboring Zoar would be good enough. So the messengers make the concession, and end up sparing the whole town of Zoar just because of Lot’s laziness (editorial asides mine). Along the way, Lot’s wife looks back toward Sodom as it’s getting pummeled by sulfur and gets turned into the proverbial pillar of salt. Oddly, Lot doesn’t feel “safe” in Zoar, and ends up moving to the hills anyway. There, in the safety of complete isolation and free of the corrupting influences of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot gets both of his daughters pregnant. The excuse? The girls were worried about their biological clocks ticking, and in absence of readily available non-familial seed got Dad drunk so they could father children. No surprisingly, the incestuously bastard children they bore became the bitterest of Israel’s enemies.

On the one hand, Lot manages to save an entire town by begging with the messengers for his own safety. On the other hand, he just left behind two entire city-states that were laid waste. I can see why Lot wouldn’t be Public Friend Number One in Zoar. But given that he’s felt safe enough in Sodom, it does strike me as odd that he felt the need to vacate Zoar and opt instead for a mountain cave.
The girls’ excuse for sleeping with Lot seems pretty weak. Zoar obviously wasn’t that far away; and what with the decrease of available women in the region due to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (which had apparently had very little call for their services), it seems reasonable that men enough were within a couple days’ walk of the cave. I mean, nothing is too far from anywhere in Palestine – all of which is a much smaller area than Western Washington. So what the girls did is really far nastier than it sounds. (Frankly, it also sounds like the kind of story any sexually abusive father would make up: “It wasn’t my fault! They got me drunk!”)
The story also sounds like the kind of thing a gradeschooler would make up about his enemies: “You’re nothing but bastards. Your mothers slept with their fathers. Nyah!”
What’s REALLY odd, though, is that the girls apparently didn’t learn anything from watching their home town get nuked. If it were me, I’d have thought, “Let’s see… What happened the last time I witnessed something sexually depraved? Oh, that’s right! God wiped ‘em all out. Guess I’ll pass on sleeping with Dad.” In this regard, the story does ring true about actual human failure to learn from others’ mistakes.

Jenn's Study: Take a Closer Look (for Women), “Stir in a Little Thanks”
Foundation Scripture: Philippians 4:6-8

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (The Message)

Lydia lived in Philippi—leading home church

Philippi also place of earthquake that could have resulted in prison break, but Paul and Silas and the others stayed.

Paul grateful for Philippian church while imprisoned I Rome—“easy” to write joyful and encouraging letter, despite his predicament.

Paul instructs us to stop worrying and leave our worries with God. But he also adds that such prayers be couched in thankfulness, regardless of circumstances. His letter exemplifies such thankfulness, despite the circumstances which normally lead to great anxiety.

His message to the Philippians is to replace the time spent worrying with time spent in prayer and earnest worship—and to pour them out with eucharista—expressions of gratitude toward God for all His mercies.

“God delights in being your burden-bearer.”

Peace comes when I stop worrying and pray with worship and thanksgiving over what God has done and is doing in my life. What is worthy of worship in my life? What are the pure, lovely, beautiful, noble things I can think of to replace my basely human thoughts and worries?

We can always find something to be thankful for, no matter what may be the burden of our wants, or the special subject of our petitions… The greatest sufferer that lives in this world of redeeming love, and who has the offer of heaven before him, has cause of gratitude.

Albert Barnes, Notes from the Bible

In general, I think it is fairly easy for me to be thankful for the easy and obvious things, like my marriage, Greg, my family (including in-laws), Grynne and Bearrett. In some ways I am thankful for my illness, because it has led to so many things—connections with people, tempering our lives to a less frenetic pace, not taking so many things for granted. But I think that my expressions of gratitude toward God are emotionally stifled much like my other emotions that I’ve recently acknowledged as being kept in check and not expressed.

I think I generally began intentionally suppressing my emotions when Deet died. While I did express the immediate grief for a few weeks, I stopped when I thought it appropriate. However, since then I have been generally less emotional (Greg’s observation) and perhaps emotionally stunted. Greg has made the comparison of the three-legged stool—spiritual, physical, and emotional—and hinted that it can’t stand the way things are now. I guess in some ways I resent that when he talks about it, I feel like he’s blaming me for the missing and/or broken legs of the stool. I will tell him that.

I think for me, though, I need to focus more on letting my emotions surface. And perhaps watching the Deet movie would kick things off. I don’t know that I’ll ever be emotionally “ready” to see it, but it may spark some other emotions that I think may be lurking inside, much like an emotional abscess that needs to be lanced and drained.

Spiritual Disciplines Reborn

2008-01-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

Through the first several years of our marriage, we were pretty rigorous -- as teachers should be -- about our own spiritual development. We prayed together regularly, fellowshipped weekly with a local body of believers, participated in small group studies, and made a point of working our way through the Bible once each year together through daily readings.

When the chapter of our life called Health Issues began nearly five years ago now, we were just wrapping up our third time through the Bible. For our fourth tour of duty, we decided to do something different: copy out the scriptures by hand. Not long into this effort, the very idea of "normal life" got derailed, and every sense of predictability along with it.

Many of you have no doubt noticed how "flaky" we became, how unable we were to follow through on the simplest of commitments, how once-vital friendships came to seem as mere afterthoughts.

Relationships and such weren't the only things that suffered. For better than four years, we have also failed to maintain any kind of regular spiritual disciplines. It's all been about surviving, and about keeping Jenn in the workplace.

Well, that's changed. Our new routine is to spend a focused time in Scripture and reflection three times a week, barring interference from health emergencies. Jenn is working her way through Scripture with the help of Take a Closer Look for Women, and I've picked up my transcription of Scripture where I left off four years ago -- a third of the way through Genesis.

We're going to start sharing our studies and reflections here. Through them, I think, you'll get a better picture of where we're at and what we're dealing with.

And you'll get much more frequent updates than once every eight months!

The Latest on the Health Front

2008-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Okay... So, what's happened since last Easter? Well, yes -- there was an iron deficiency there, and we got that treated with an eight-week series of iron infusions. But as the summer wore on, it became apparent that Jenn's lack of energy (and her increasing propensity to fall asleep at the drop of a chart) was not going to be solved by stable iron levels. By the end of August, it was plain that she needed a sleep study -- but because of simultaneously-worsening failure of her intestinal tract, and the need to, shall we say, clean that up so Jenn could stay in the workplace, the sleep study didn't happen until December.

By that time, Jenn was on temporary medical leave from her job at the hospital because of an inability to stay awake through an eight-hour shift. Her hours had been reduced to 32/wk. by the middle of July, but four days a week were still just too much.

And then we found out, through the sleep study, that Jenn had been suffering from chronic sleep deprivation due to a vaguely understood underlying sleep disorder whose symptoms are similar to narcolepsy. The upshot? Even with some symptom alleviation with a treatment of ritalin, Jenn would not be going back to work on any kind of regular basis.

In the middle of all of this, just after Christmas, Jenn also came down with an infection to her Portacath, which had to be surgically pulled -- and then came another bout of sepsis. So Jenn spent New Year's Eve in the hospital this year. Whoopee! And she's still on antibiotics to treat unrelated infections (and an abscess) around her J-tube site, which also had to be replaced... All while nursing Greg through some unknown intestinal virus a week ago. Still in the offing? A surgery to place the new Portacath so Jenn can get the temporary PICC line in her arm pulled...

As of today, all of Jenn's paperwork is in for recognition as a long-term disabled employee of The Regional Hospital. The disability insurance we carry through the hospital provides a 60% salary benefit, which should just about keep our medical insurance costs covered for the foreseeable future.

So Jenn expects to merely volunteer a few hours a week at the hospital now that her medical leave is exhausted; long term, those out-of-the-home volunteer hours will probably decrease. Her primary job will now be Past the Popcorn, which has continued to go strong through all of this. (Greg will be shifting more of his focus to the job with Hollywood Jesus.)

New Kitties

2007-04-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome Grynne (r) and Bearrett (l) to our household -- two foof-tabby sisters adopted from a cat-rescue service in Kirkland. They're eight months old, and are loaded with energy, affection, and fuzz!

Health Update

2007-04-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we managed to stay out of Virginia Mason for over three months! But just as Christmas was "spoiled" for us by a trip to VM, so also was Easter. Jenn was in for Good Friday to get a blood transfusion.

Blood transfusion -- on Good Friday. How appropriate, eh?

We were there for less than 24 hours, though, a new record. Jenn's experiencing what appears to be a chronic iron deficiency due to absorption issues in her not-so-active gut. So the docs will be starting her on monthly iron infusions, which should hopefully ease the need for period blood boosts. You may recall that Jenn needed blood back December, too.

At any rate, we're home again -- and just a little immobile: both from the aftereffects of extreme anemia, and the aches of iron infusion. Happy Easter!

Greg & Jenn on the Radio

2007-04-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Starting the first of the year, the "Living Christian" show at KCIS has featured a monthly entertainment segment, live in-studio with show host Michelle Mendoza. For 15-20 minutes, we get to chat about new and upcoming releases, all from the "Past the Popcorn" perspective. Michelle and her producers are a big fan of the website.

Starting this month, "Living Christian" moves to the AM drive-time slot, from 7 to 9:30 AM. We're on the shoe the final Friday of the month. Tune in and have a listen! Check the website for the daily schedule.

Spring Book Sale

2007-03-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the launch of our new online bookstore, we're offering a 10% discount on all books purchased at HJ Books through the end of May. Just browse around, and enter coupon code LAUNCH at checkout for the discount on your entire order.

If you've been waiting to pick up any of our books or scripts, now's the time!

Hollywood Jesus Once Again

2007-03-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

On February 16, we officially rejoined the staff of HollywoodJesus.com as consulting editors. In this part-time paid position, we have assumed editorial oversight under the direction of webmaster David Bruce (as usual). HJ's transition to new website technology last May proved to be a difficult one, and there were, unfortunately, some casualties along the way.

In early February we got a call from the website's owners checking our availability to return to the site -- and we agreed, on the condition that we would be editing only, and not writing for the site. Past the Popcorn will continue to be published as usual, and our PTP staff will remain separate (though we all hail from HJ originally).

While Greg works to get HJ's technical and workflow issues resolved, Jenn is stepping up by taking over the lion's share of PTP's editorial flow.

We're excited to be doing the kind of writing we want to do at PTP, and also excited about helping to get HJ past some difficult bumps.

Reviews, Articles, and Conferences

2007-03-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

In addition to the complete lineup of reviews, interviews, and commentary we've been regularly running at Past the Popcorn, here's a rundown on other things that Greg's been up to lately:

The HollywoodJesus.com Lord of the Rings coverage republished (Feb. 1).
Guest editorial at theonering.net about the proposed Hobbit movie (Feb. 5).
"Ethics, Hollywood, and the Church: Who Cares?" at thinkchristian.net (Feb. 16).
"On Movies, Morality, and Film Ratings" in Christian News Northwest (Oregon regional, March issue, print only); reprinted online at PTP this month.
One Ring Celebration, Burbank, March 10-11. Three papers presented: "The Scouring of the Shire: What We (and Jackson) Missed in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit: More Than Just a Fuzzy Children's Tale," and "Why We Should Care About The Children of Hurin." The talk on "The Scouring of the Shire" was a reworking of the lecture Greg delivered at Notre Dame in November of 2005. Outlines of his talks on The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin are available online in PDF format.
Northwest Christian Education Conference, March 23-24. Two workshops presented: "Bibliodrama: Improvising Bible-based Scripts" and "The Eyes Have It: Blogging and Forum Administration." Greg will also be moderating a panel entitled "Hollywood and Spirituality," which will also feature Jenn as well as PTP writers Kathy Bledsoe and Mike Smith.

A Few of Her Favorite Things

2007-02-11T21:17:00.000-08:00

Andante, aka Deet, Dante, Deet-Meaux, Meauxie-Butt, Skinny-Butt, Skinny-Butt Purple-Necked Burnt-Butt Meaux, Fuzz-ball.

After a very short but debilitating struggle with lymphoma, Deet passed away in Jenn's lap at the Vet's office at 10:15, Sunday morning, February 4th. The effects of malnutrition and dehydration had left Deet very weak and lethargic during her last few days at home; but she enjoyed a full week of her favorite sunshine in the week before her death. During our visit with the veterinarian, Deet was friendly, inquisitive, affectionate, and comfortable. Given our worst nightmare, we couldn't have asked for better circumstances under which our beautiful daughter and friend to pass.

Deet was cremated, and we have placed some of her ashes with hyancinths planted with The Princess and The Dane, two noble fir seedlings we brought back from Scotland. She will finally be able to enjoy the outdoors as she never could while alive, and always be with her friends, the trees and the birds. She will always be treasured in our hearts.

Deet was a symptom of joy. It's an illness we don't expect to get over. More symptoms will follow, and the memory of the blessing that she was will be part of all of them.

Whew! Okay, Here's Where We're At

2007-02-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

We got through December. What a whirlwind that was, as we described in our Christmas e-card, below.

Jenn's new feeding port is working well, and her health is stable. She's back at work full time, and came out of the year-ending ordeal with a handful of vacation days remaining. We thank you all for your ongoing thoughts and prayers.

Please do visit Jenn's new blog. She's migrated from Blogger to Wordpress, the publishing system we use for Past the Popcorn, and I must say she's done a great job of making her site a very usable resource for her friends, fans, and fellow gastroparesis sufferers. Drop in and comment!

If you haven't visited Past the Popcorn yet, either, do that too! We're very proud of the site, and cover almost every new release, plus a bunch of things that will probably never play in your neighborhood theatre.

Our Latest Book

2007-02-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

We're a little late getting the word out, but here it is! On December 15, Hollywood Jesus Books published the 2005-2006 edition of Hollywood Jesus Reviews, a collection of 100 movie reviews from the website HollywoodJesus.com, for which we wrote until May of 2006.

This volume is roughly 50 pages longer than the previous edition, and features the work of 28 different writers. The introduction in this edition has been provided by Melinda Ledman.

In conjunction with the new release, we've also opened a new online store. Check it out!

Christmas E-card 2006

2006-12-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

It was a close thing, but we made it home for Christmas! The six weeks prior have been a non-stop whirlwind of visits to the doctors and short hospital stays—three PICC lines, two ports, one sepsis, and a partridge in a pear tree! Oh, plus three days without power, two nights in a hotel, one car break-in, and a blood transfusion for good measure. But on the eve of Christmas eve, we are home again, though we will miss the majority of family celebrations this year. Jenn is recovering nicely from her latest surgery, and will be back on TPN tonight for her holiday dinners. God is good, and for a few nights, at least, we will be at peace. We go into 2007 with the hope that the latest port will last a good long time!

We lived a lot this year, spending a week rafting the Grand Canyon, plus short visits to the coast, Leavenworth, and our favorite spot on the Waptus River. We published three books, played with one of our church's worship teams for several months, and launched our own movie review website (see below). We have no complaints.

We send our love to you all, our apologies and regrets to those we will not be with this holiday, and bright hopes for the future.

Past the Popcorn Launches

2006-10-31T06:14:00.000-08:00

Our new film review site launched last Friday. Here's a blurb from our official press release:

Does God care about filmmakers? Christian film critic Greg Wright thinks so. But he also thinks that the Church tends to be more concerned about how films affect families than it is about the people who make movies. To help address the problem, Wright and his wife Jenn, both long-time editors with Hollywood Jesus, have partnered with Gospelcom.net to launch a new website devoted to analysis of films—and to listening to “the artists who make the films.”

Case is point is the new film Conversations with God. While the theology of the film (and the series of books on which it is based) clearly reflects an unorthodox, new-age universalist spirituality, Wright’s review addresses the film as art, not primarily as polemic. The new website, “Past the Popcorn,” also features a lengthy interview with Conversations author Neale Donald Walsch, a talk during which Wright makes no bones about his personal beliefs while still listening closely to what Walsch and film director Stephen Simon have to say, finding common metaphysical ground where possible along the way.

“The idea behind Past the Popcorn,” says Wright, “is that there’s more to popular entertainment than meets the eye. So first, we’re after a serious, educational examination of filmmaking technique, of looking at how filmmakers go about saying what they do; and second, we’re interested in understanding film as communication—specific ideas being presented by real people with real passions and real souls.” The effect, Wright believes, can be a renewed interest in vital discussions about art. “Seriously,” Jenn Wright continues, “why should the Church be listened to—why should the Gospel get a legitimate hearing—if all we want to do is talk? We need to listen, too. Communication is a two-way street.”

On the listening end of the score, Past the Popcorn’s debut offerings today also include a review of the documentary Deliver Us from Evil, and an interview with the film’s director, former CNN staffer Amy Berg. The movie is an unflinching critique of clergy sexual abuse and pedophilia, and the Church’s failure to deal with such sinful (and criminal) behavior proactively. The film may not offer solutions that the Church finds workable or theologically sound, but prophetic voices often reform from the outside—if they are heard.

Recent Reviews

2006-10-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

The Queen
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: If you’re looking for a Disney theme park ride, rent Dead Man’s Chest again; but if you’re looking for a thoughtful and brilliantly written, performed, and directed commentary on why we find Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightly so fascinating—and what the cost of that fascination can be—then this is the movie for you.

Flags of Our Fathers
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: It just so happens that the jackass writing this review is very sympathetic to what Eastwood’s film has to say, particular given my indoctrination at the hands of The Outsider. Right away, Flags’ script affirms that heroes and villains are “not what we think they are,” and Eastwood unfolds the action in such a way that we see the sense in that statement.

Barry Pepper
Greg interviews at Hollywood Jesus: You realize that in releasing a film like that, being part of a film like that, you have to answer to a lot of questions, and there’s a lot veterans that want to talk about it. It releases a lot of dialogue for people—emotions, maybe even closure for a lot of veterans. So you realize, wow, I’m a part of something a lot bigger than just playing soldier.

Marie Antoinette
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Waste is not Coppola’s point. Instead, she illustrates that Marie Antoinette’s lifestyle was as natural to her—and no more excessive—than a sheep’s luxuriant meal of wildflowers, or a bumblebee’s wallow in a blossom’s pollen. Do we criticize a lamb for being a lamb, or a bee for being a bee?

Infamous
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Good intentions and partial successes don’t add up to a satisfying whole. The film’s own fascination with celebrity disqualifies it from any meaningful commentary on the way in which Capote both publicly and privately traded on name recognition and glamour.

Man of the Year
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Levinson’s misstep, if one can call it that, is in taking his politics so seriously. He desperately wants to question the Red-State / Blue-State talking-head cable-news nonsense that has gripped the country. And, in my humble opinion, he’s right to. He’s just not comfortable, apparently, in turning loose Williams to make the point through comedy.

The Last King of Scotland
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: As Garrigan, McAvoy shines as brightly as Whitaker. In fact, it’s hard to find anything resembling a run-of-the-mill performance in this film. What we do find, however, aside from Whitaker’s Amin, are characters who are either difficult to take seriously or who function purely as symbols.

My Country, My Country
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: My Country, My Country is a refreshing and compelling throwback to old-fashioned documentary filmmaking, an approach in which the filmmaker documents but does not (for the most part) participate, and whose filmed and edited sequences provide all the commentary, irony, and insight we need to interpret events.

Facing the Giants
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: While I’m very open-minded about independent films that typically open on the arthouse circuit, I’m pretty badly biased against independent films made by Christians, for Christian audiences. I expect pure cheese, and that’s usually what I find. But dollar for production dollar, Facing the Giants is frankly an astounding success.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Jenn reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Seeing and hearing about the events that didn’t make the nightly news (and therefore didn’t make the high school history textbooks) offered a better, and perhaps even more balanced, representation of the time than anything I ever learned in school or in my straight-laced home.

Latest Details on Jenn's Health

2006-09-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Jenn has just completed a detailed rundown on what's been going on with her health the last few months. It's now up on her personal blog.

The Reader's Digest version is that, on top of total stomach failure, it now looks like her intestines have also failed, but in exactly the opposite respect of her stomach. Her tummy won't let anything through; her guts won't keep anything in. Her symptoms are now being diagnosed as part of an autonomic system failure, a condition which really has no course of treatment.

For symptom alleviation, and nutrition maintenance, she's back on IV feeding through a PICC line, which introduces high risk of infection all over again, and is taking Tincture of Iodine to try to control chronic, spasmodic diarrhea. Just this weekend, she's trying to restart tube feeding again, after having been off for almost three months.

Jenn also blogged about her detailed impressions of the Grand Canyon trip.

But life goes on; and as Jenn mentions to close her health update, God keeps blessing us, and when all is said and done, we've got it good.

Recent Reviews

2006-09-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

All the King's Men
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Two impulses, Zaillian reveals to us, allow us to reach the wrong conclusions about our suspicions. One tells us not to get involved; it's the lazy one that tells us, "I'd rather sit here and watch." Sure, we suspect that something is not right; but figuring that out and correcting it is someone else's job. Think of Darfur. Think of New Orleans, for God's sake. Think of a certain September day five years ago. The second impulse is the one that tells us the truth cannot be known. But Zaillian doesn’t let us off the hook. More than one of characters is wise to the fact that "The only way to not know is not wanting to know."
And comments at Looking Closer: We only know Willie Stark to the extent that Jack Burden knows him—which isn’t very far. Ultimately, this is only problematic to the extent that one is uncomfortable with ambiguity; and clearly, Zaillian is more uncomfortable with that than I am, or, say, Clint Eastwood would be. Just as clearly, Zaillian thinks his audience will be just as uncomfortable, unnecessarily punctuating his film's conclusion with exclamation-point flashbacks, as if to say, "Slick Willie Stark’s legacy must not be left to interpretation." But Zaillian's narrative structure precludes the kind of neat moralization that he nonetheless superimposes. Neither saints nor the degenerate are best painted from ambiguous pigments of our imaginations.

Flyboys
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Now, even if one buys into this film's romanticized vision of war and the history of war, the fact is that Flyboys never really gets around to telling the story it purports to. What it does get around to is an awful lot of repetitive air battles and sketchy, perfunctory character development; and when the inevitable (and predictable) dueling finally takes place, it’s hard not to scream, "What took you so long?" But even then, the central conflict never carries much moral weight. Do these young men really believe in much of anything besides mere survival?

This Film is Not Yet Rated
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: As Dick's documentary (sometimes graphically) shows, independent and gay-themed films are rated more harshly than their studio and straight-themed counterparts, based on scene-for-scene comparisons. Second is the veil of secrecy behind which the MPAA "protects" its ratings board members from scrutiny—a veil which Dick's film rips to shreds. Third is the obvious (and covert) influence that the studios wield over the process.

Gridiron Gang
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Part of the really good news of Gridiron Gang—which I fully expected to be a pigskin full of cliches given the obvious pandering opportunities with the MTV/BET and NFL audiences—is that the football games are all played in broad daylight. The better part of the good news is that Gridiron Gang actually works, in spite of the presence of "The Rock." In fact, I can actually respect the fact that Mr. Rock bills himself on this film using his real name, Dwayne Johnson. Johnson believes in this material, and connects with it deeply himself.
And comments at Looking Closer: What Gridiron Gang really does right is avoid sports-movie and gang-movie clichés. It does not overemphasize winning and flashy play. It doesn't glamorize gangbanging, and death comes not in Peckinpah-esque slo-mo but in instants of sudden violence. The football games are mercifully and realistically staged in broad daylight, ending the streak of night-time cinematic pigskin preposterousness begun by The Last Boy Scout. What’s best, the payoff of the movie is the same as the payoff in the real-life story: the transformation of lives, not the winning of games.

Everyone's Hero
Jenn reviews at Looking Closer: Basically, it's a good animated feature. Definitely entertaining enough for the adults whose children will truly enjoy the pratfalls of Lefty Maginnis, the maniacal ravings of Mr. Cross, the Cubs' general manager, and the earnest, pure-hearted loyalty of a Depression-era boy whose honest, hard-working father’s reputation—not just his job—is at stake. With all the sports-centered films currently playing in which losers become winners, Everyone's Hero will keep America's kids in the game.

The Protector
Greg reviews at Looking Closer: The film offers little in the way of character development; action sequences are strung together with seemingly minimal concern for narrative flow; dubbed dialogue rarely matches up to the movements of actors' mouths, even when their lips actually form English words; individual shots within individual scenes suggest the work of seven or eight different production designers. Heck, The Protector plays like a low-budget, third-world homage to Tarantino-Rodriguez collaborative paeans to pulp cinema. It's a pastiche of cult-film references, from Lee and Chan to Mad Max, from the World Wrestling Federation to the World Wildlife Federation, from Crouching Tiger to Two Brothers. Huh. But none of that really matters.

Factotum
Greg reviews at Looking Closer: Frankly, if one has a taste for seamy slice-of-life irony, it's hard not to watch this movie and appreciate life from Chinaski's point of view. Sure, he's lazy. Sure, he's a prick. Sure, he's hardly the model of discipline that writers tend to emulate. Sure, he hasn't a clue about how rewarding relationships can actually be, even when the sex goes south. But those things really aren't his priorities. Living is, and living in a way that's strictly on his terms. And face it, isn't that really the case with most of us? Aren't we all really just selfish bastards after one manner or the other? The symptoms, for most of us, are just more fashionable than they are for Chinaski.

Crossover
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Wow. Doesn't the plot just sound like Something New? Much in the same way as Tokyo Drift, yes. Where Drift had its footwork totally down, though, Crossover misses on nearly every cylinder. Drift was eyepopping, if a body-shopworn retread. Crossover is just mindboggling nonsense, the cinematic equivalent of three seconds in everyone else's key.
And comments at Looking Closer: Noah’s planning to ride his UCLA scholarship all the way to med school, while Tech slaves away to polish off his GED. It’s a long row to hoe, since he has real trouble adding $125 and $35 in his head. But why bother describing anything else about the plot? Because this is the real problem with Tech. He just can't figure anything out. Not long after, Tech bemoans the fact that he has no idea how he'll manage to finance two plane tickets to LA—despite the fact that he holds down a regular job, has just paid off his mom's outstanding light bill, and is standing there with over a thousand dollars in his pocket. Do they just grow 'em stupid in Detroit? No, they don't. They just grow 'em stupid in Crossover.

Idlewild
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Like a seedy, trashy (or earthy) version of one of Jesus' parables, Idlewild documents how two friends become survivors, discover their own true identities apart from each other, find their circles intersecting less and less, and establish wildly succesful independent careers. It's like watching a pair of quarrelsome quibblers work out their differences in some artsy-fartsy (and cathartically pseudo-violent) therapy session.
And comments at Looking Closer: To be perfectly honest, Idlewild plays like an S. E. Hinton novel reworked for urban black youths. Hinton's novels likewise traded on hoary literary clichés, and they pretty much depended on wide-eyed teens gobbling up mythic archetypes as if they were Wonka-esque originalities. Heck, even the Grand Old Man of American cinematic art-housism, Francis Ford Coppola, dabbled in Hinton adaptions with The Outsiders and Rumblefish. But there are differences. First, Barber is no Coppola.

"Past the Popcorn" Announced

2006-09-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

From our official press release:

The former number two man at pop-culture review site HollywoodJesus.com has established a new partnership with Gospelcom.net. As Senior Editor for Hollywood Jesus, Greg Wright developed event-movie coverage that helped the site become part of a major shift in Hollywood studio relations with Christian media. With new partners coming on board to assist site founder David Bruce with a relaunch this summer, Wright took the opportunity to investigate new journalistic opportunities. Last week, Wright signed a partnership agreement with Gospelcom to develop a new website devoted to Christian film criticism. Aiming for a November launch, "Past the Popcorn" will offer critical essays, interviews, and editorials examining the roles that directors, producers, and screenwriters play in shaping cinematic entertainment.

The complete text of the press release can be found HERE. Greg just got back from attending the annual Gospelcom conference in Chicago, where he spoke on blogging and internet forum moderation.

We Did It!!!

2006-08-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

And being there was itself not the biggest obstacle! Our doctors, naturally, were most concerned about the risk of injury and exposure to infection—uncontrolled, unsanitary conditions, contaminants in the water, lack of ordinary conveniences like showers and toilets.

And then there were the feeding issues—TPN for the PICC line, and cans of liquid nutrition for tube feeding, plus problems of electrolyte replacement and hydration.

But thanks to some good luck with weather, a great boat crew, helpful raftmates, and oodles of past experience, all that turned out to be rather inconsequential.

The real ordeal was just getting there, and getting the various hospitals, home healthcare agencies, medical suppliers, and the outfitter all on the same page. Clearly, adventure travel with PICC lines and feeding tubes is just not a run-of-the-mill thing.

But we owe big chunks of gratitude to Sandy Harmer at Western River, our guides Steve and Johnathan, Joy and Jamie at Coram, and Doctors Patterson, Thirlby, and Hohmann at Virgina Mason.

Whew!

But what a trip...

Recent Reviews

2006-08-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Accepted
Greg reviews: First-time director Pink just gives us a passably-made yawner that finds as many excuses as possible to field the acronym SHIT—as if that’s the absolute pinnacle of sophomoric humor. Personally, I’d have been thrilled if Hannibal Lecter had come along and chased down not only Dean Van Horne but every one of these nitwits—Bartleby Gaines included. The problem is that Accepted is designed as a John Cusack vehicle—only Cusack is now too old to play the central role, and the spirit of the film is locked into a certain 1980’s John Hughes mentality.

The Descent
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Neil Marshall tells a grisly and claustrophobic tale of survival. Occasionally, Marshall’s low budget gets the better of this film, but by and large The Descent works remarkably well—both as a horror film, and as pure entertainment. But one thing is for sure. This movie will not be everyone’s cup of tea. For some, the spelunking itself will be too intense. For others, the violence will be too graphic or distasteful. For those who can get past the darkness and bleak ferocity of the story, however, there’s a powerful message lurking under the surface.
And comments at Looking Closer: The Descent transcends the conventions of both the adventure-gone-awry and the horror flick. In fact the film this most reminds me of—in terms of inventiveness, symbolism, and thematic content—is Apocalypse Now! The third act of The Descent borrows directly from Coppola’s visual and thematic toolkit. Like Coppola, Marshall juxtaposes symbols of primitive survival—animal skulls instead of Coppola’s stone faces—with increasingly savage and impassive human visages, primarily those of Juno and Sarah, the story’s central characters. They must become primeval in order to defeat the primeval.

Barnyard
Greg reviews at Hollywood Jesus: Audiences may respond to the central message of the film: that selfless sacrifice is noble and worthy. “A strong man stands up for himself,” Ben tells Otis, “but a stronger man stands up for others.” And that’s certainly true. But why not take that concept a step further? Why stop at drawing the boundary at the barnyard fence? Borders always provide the definition of who’s on the inside and who’s on the outside. And while it is indeed noble to stand up for your family, your team, or your country—those on the inside— who’s standing up for those on the outside?
And comments at Looking Closer: To be fair, Barnyard even makes some nice points about adoption and other social concerns. But if you missed the distracting incongruity of my synopsis, you can’t fail but note it when you see the movie: Ben and Otis are cows. Cows. Not bulls. They’re cows. With udders. Otis stands udder to udder with Ben and calls him “father.” This makes my head spin. Is there something wrong with me??

Click
Greg reviews: Buried underneath the Adam Sandler formula, the Man-Learns-A-Lesson-About-Life formula also struggles for credibility. The struggle is worthy, if not terribly convincing. Newman does learn that his family’s opinion is more important than his boss’s. He does learn that time is fleeting, and it’s better to enjoy what you’ve got before it all passes you by. He does learn that the mistakes you make with your children can have devastating downstream effects. But Click seems like nothing more than an over-extended gag-reel metaphor for family-man Sandler’s struggle to pay proper attention to both Home and Work. Click also seems to demonstrate that Adam Sandler the Producer has yet to strike the right balance.

Grand Canyon Rafting, Here We Come!

2006-07-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Back to the Future: PICC Lines Once More

2006-07-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Back in June, Jenn started developing problems tolerating her tube feeding. In an effort to stem the tide of, well, loose bowels, she started easing back her feeding rate. When the rate got ridiculously low, and we began to be worried about Jenn getting dehydrated, Jenn's gut doctor ordered a stool test—and we found out that Jenn had contracted c. difficil, a notoriously problematic bacteriological infection that coats the bowels with a mucous membrane, which prevents the colon from absorbing liquids and nutrients.

Naturally, this was pretty bad news. So on July 13, we checked in to Virgina Mason once more, and Jenn was again fitted out with a PICC line for IV nutrition—just ten days prior to heading for the Grand Canyon! Then on Wednesday, we were back in the ER worried about low-grade temperatures and minor chills. They ran some tests and sent us home.

Her latest blood cultures show that she's free of blood infections, and she's still taking antibiotics for the c. dif. But the infectious diseases doc has ordered another round of blood cultures this afternoon. There's still a chance that a positive result could come back before we board the raft..

The adventure continues.

Our Latest Foray in Publishing

2006-07-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

We just wrapped work on an editing-for-hire project to be released by our new imprint, One-Off Books. It's a training manual for handling of hazardous materials spills in the healthcare environment. Alan B. Jones is the author of HazMat Emergency Response Manual for Washington State Hospitals, which will be released August 15. Mike Perry, our publishing friend at Inkling Books, referred Mr. Jones to us.

Working with Mr. Jones was a dream.

Going Freelance

2006-07-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

Back in January of this year, we interviewed for a paid editorial job with Hollywood Jesus. The website was in the process of being redesigned, and a relaunch was in the works—and an infusion of cash was allowing the possibility of getting paid to do what we'd long been doing for free.

Things did not work out for us, however, and during the run-up to the release of The Da Vinci Code, the site's owners hired Rick Bonn as the new Managing Editor for Hollywood Jesus. When we wrapped our commitments on Code, we resigned our editorial responsibilities and handed the reins over to Rick.

More recently, Jenn and I have officially gone freelance. Our local colleague Jeffrey Overstreet invited us to contribute to Looking Closer, and we jumped at the opportunity. (Greg will also continue to contribute to HJ from time to time.)

Also in the works: Gospelcom.net has invited us to design an entirely new movie review website. Look for an official announcement soon, and a fall launch.

Dramatic Insights News

Study Notes, Feb. 7, 2008

Spiritual Disciplines Reborn

The Latest on the Health Front

New Kitties

Health Update

More Articles and Conferences

Greg & Jenn on the Radio

Spring Book Sale

Hollywood Jesus Once Again

Reviews, Articles, and Conferences

A Few of Her Favorite Things

Whew! Okay, Here's Where We're At

Our Latest Book

Christmas E-card 2006

Past the Popcorn Launches

Recent Reviews

Latest Details on Jenn's Health

Recent Reviews

"Past the Popcorn" Announced

We Did It!!!

Recent Reviews

Grand Canyon Rafting, Here We Come!

Back to the Future: PICC Lines Once More

Our Latest Foray in Publishing

Going Freelance