Many thanks to Expressive Mom and Miriam Slozberg for interviewing me about the three questions I get asked most often: Why do most movies about children have one or both parents dead or otherwise out of the picture? What do I do when they say, “everyone else at school got to see it?” And what do I do when my child/teen wants to watch the same movie over and over (and over and over)? Check out the interview for my answers.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists: Movie of the Week — Their Finest
Posted on March 23, 2017 at 8:00 am
I am really enjoying being a part of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ panel for their new Movie of the Week feature. This week’s pick is the touching and entertaining “Their Finest,” about filmmakers in WWII England, starring Bill Nighy, Gemma Arterton, and Sam Claflin.
Each week, AWFJ will pick a movie of particular interest to women, either people of the people behind the camera or the story itself. Be sure to check out each week’s selection.
I didn’t like Logan much. But I am very much in the minority among critics and audience members and I have really enjoyed reading the thoughts from people who were able to see more in the film than I was. Wesley Baines has a lot of insight on the spiritual qualities in the film in his essay on Beliefnet, “Finding God, Redemption, and Purpose in “Logan.”
This is the point where much of Christian art fails. Too much of the time, it tends to zoom in on the aftermath of a life touched by God, and even then, only on the stories that continue to go well after this point. The abusive father gets saved and is re-accepted by his family. Or the promiscuous guy gives up his sex life for God. Everything’s okay. Everything continues upward.
But these aren’t truthful stories, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find God there. No—God is most present in those stories which start at the bottom, and sometimes return there over and over. Look at the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament. Really—go look at their story as a whole with open eyes, and you’ll see a natural patterns of ups and downs, of falling away from God and drawing back to Him, of rock-bottom death to beautiful life.
That’s actually a pretty good description of Logan. This is a world of negatives. This is a world that allows room for heroism, and depicts it as the beautiful rarity that it is.
