Posted on October 1, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Christian Bale and Sir Ben Kingsley star in “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” the story of Moses and the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. It opens this December.
Posted on September 30, 2014 at 11:06 am
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| Profanity: | Some mild language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking and partying |
| Violence/ Scariness: | None |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | September 26, 2014 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00MI506MC |
In his last film, a documentary called “Beware of Christians,” Bakke told the story of his journey with four friends, all from devout Christian families, as they traveled through ten European cities to expand their understanding of what it means to be a person of faith. That experience clearly informs this fictional story of four college fraternity brothers. When one of them discovers that his scholarship has run out with one more tuition payment still due, he persuades his friends to establish a fake Christian charity so they can keep the money. Each of them has a different perspective. Sam (Alex Russell, soon to be seen in Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken”), is the slick, dimpled operator who thinks this is just the ticket to smooth his path to law school. Pierce (Miles Fisher) is the selfish rich kid who does not want his father to know he is in debt. Baker (Max Adler of “Glee” and “Switched at Birth”) is the party animal who is up for whatever’s going on. And Tyler (Sinqua Walls of “The Secret Life of an American Teenager”) is a nice guy who goes along because they promise he will not have to speak in front of a group and they promise that some of the money will actually go to charity.
Sam is a charismatic speaker and the audience wants to believe. Not only do they raise money quickly for their fake charity (cutely dubbed “Get Wells Soon”), but they attract the attention of a promoter named Ken (Christopher McDonald), who wants to book them on a nationwide tour for Christian audiences. Also on the tour are a singer named Gabriel (“Happy Endings'” Zachary Knighton, with just the right touch of oily smugness) and the tour manager (and Gabriel’s girlfriend) Callie (Johanna Braddy). The guys have to up their game to appear to be more authentic. They don’t just use highlighters and post-its to mark Bible passages, they baptize their Bibles in swimming pool water to give them that thoroughly-thumbed look. In one of the movie’s highlights, Sam explains to the others how to use certain words and poses (like “The Shawshank”) to communicate piety and get more money from believers, and even how to swear just enough but not too much. Can they immerse themselves in the world of faith — and the evidence of true need — without being affected by it, especially with the example of at least one believer who demonstrates true grace?
Bakke and his co-screenwriter Michael B. Allen bring a lot of specificity to these scenes, and a sensitivity that shows he is laughing with the Christians (especially when it comes to Christian entertainment), not at them. They understand that their open-hearted generosity can be unthinking but is almost always kindly meant. And they understand that being a believer does not inoculate anyone from human failings, especially pride. They also understand that true faith requires the full engagement of the spirit. And they respect their characters and the audience enough to make it clear that the answers we value most are never easy.
Parents should know that this film has some drinking and partying and some criminal and unethical behavior.
Family discussion: Which character best fits your idea of what it is to have faith? What should Ken have done when he found out what the boys were doing? What will Sam do next?
If you like this, try: “Beware of Christians” and films like “Elmer Gantry,” “Jesus Camp,” “Marjoe,” “Blue Like Jazz,” and “Leap of Faith”
Posted on August 21, 2014 at 3:59 pm
This year has already seen a remarkable and perhaps unprecedented number of Christian and Biblically-based films, from big-budget epics like “Noah” and “Son of God” to small faith-oriented films like “God’s Not Dead.” There is an excellent summary of four Christian independent films of 2014 on Indie Outlook from the perspective of a church-going film critic.
In just the last several months, an assortment of independent filmmakers have achieved the success that forever eluded Fox Faith. Numerous grassroots productions have screened in theaters located not in big cities but small towns and suburbs (many of them found in the South). These films don’t have big budgets, big names and are usually not screened for critics. And yet, they have struck a chord with American audiences, proving that there is a hunger for pictures that cater to a spiritually convicted crowd routinely ignored by Hollywood. The target audience is, again, evangelical Christians, only this time, they’re turning out in droves.
Posted on June 9, 2014 at 1:00 pm
I am delighted to have five copies of the new faith-based film “Midrange” to give away. If you’d like to enter, send an email to moviemom@moviemom.com with “Midrange” in the subject line and tell me your favorite athlete. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only.) I’ll pick the winners at random on June 16.
Everyone deserves a second shot in the inspiring drama Midrange, available tomorrow, June 10, on DVD and Digital Platforms from Cinedigm. Jason Fields wrote and stars in this touching film that follows a superstar athlete’s journey to finding faith and accepting God into his life. The film, centered on the power of belief and the importance of second chances, has garnered the support of multiple former and current professional athletes with a strong Christian background including Corey Maggette, Allan Houston, Anthony Tolliver, Kelenna Azubuike, Jerome Williams, Austin Daye, Roger Powell Jr., Greivis Vasquez, Romel Beck, Wayne Simien and Andre Brown.
Fields plays Damon Sharp, a college basketball player destined for the pros. With his college career at an end, Damon returns to his hometown to find his brother Darrin (Sean Douglas, “Days Of Our Lives”) consumed with drugs and alcohol and his mother (Susan Grace, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan) depressed and helpless. Seeking a better life for his family and himself, Damon is forced to decide between saving his brother and following his dream . As Damon reexamines his choices, and his relationship with his brother, he turns to faith to find a new understanding of perseverance, loyalty and love. The film addresses a secular struggle of balancing faith, family and career, and ultimately the critical choices that define a man’s character and reveal what’s most important in life. Here’s an exclusive clip.
Posted on May 5, 2014 at 12:20 pm
I am delighted to have five copies of the outstanding PBS series The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama
Prize-winning author of 15 books and Emmy Award-winner Simon Schama brings to life Jewish history and experience in a new five-part documentary series follows Schama as he travels from Russia and the Ukraine to Egypt, Israel and Spain, exploring the imprint that Jewish culture has made on the world and the drama of suffering, resilience and rebirth that has gone with it.
The series is, at the same time, a personal journey for Schama, who has been immersed in Jewish history since his postwar childhood; a meditation on its dramatic trajectory; and a macro-history of a people whose mark on the world has been out of all proportion to its modest numbers.
“If you were to remove from our collective history,” said Schama, “the contribution Jews have made to human culture, our world would be almost unrecognizable. There would be no monotheism, no written Bible, and our sense of modernity would be completely different. So the history of the Jews is everyone’s history too and what I hope people will take away from the series is that sense of connection: a weave of cultural strands over the millennia, some brilliant, some dark, but resolving into a fabric of thrilling, sometimes tragic, often exalted creativity.”
The series draws on primary sources that include the Elephantine papyri, a collection of 5th-century BC manuscripts illuminating the life of a town of Jewish soldiers and their families in ancient Egypt; the astonishing trove of documents – the Cairo Geniza – recording the world of the medieval Jews of the Mediterranean and Near East; the records of disputations between Christians and Jews in Spain; correspondence between the leader of the Arab revolt during World War I, Emir Feisal, and the leader of the Zionist movement, Chaim Weizmann.
Schama talks about the turning points of the drama with living witnesses like Aviva Rahamim, who, as a 14-year-old, walked across the Sudanese desert to try and reach Israel; Yakub Odeh, the Palestinian whose village was destroyed in the war of 1948; and Levana Shamir, whose family members were imprisoned in Egypt at the same time. He debates the meaning of new archaeological discoveries of the Biblical period with Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University; the Dead Sea Scrolls with their chief curator Pnina Shor; the character of the Talmud with Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic; the photographic record of Israel’s history with Micha Bar Am; German cultural treasures from Enlightenment Germany and the music of Felix Mendelssohn with the critic Norman Lebrecht.
The series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC in fall 2013, was acclaimed in the British press as “an astonishing achievement, a TV landmark, idiosyncratic, accessible but always authoritative.” It includes new archaeological research that is transforming our understanding of the earliest world of the Jews, and highlights evidence from the visual arts — synagogue mosaics, spectacularly illustrated Bibles, the brilliantly colorful decoration of synagogues (contrary to impressions of a monochrome religion), as well as the glorious music that carried Jewish traditions through the centuries.
Whether he’s amid the stones of 11th-century Judea, the exuberantly decorated cemeteries of Ukrainian hasidic rabbis, the parlors of Moses Mendelssohn’s Berlin or the streets of immigrant New York, Schama brings together memory and actuality, past and present, sorrows and celebrations, vindications and challenges and makes felt the beating pulse of an epic of endurance that has been like no other – a story that belongs to everyone.
To enter the contest, send an email to moviemom@moviemom.com with “Story of the Jews” in the subject line and tell me your favorite Jewish author, performer, musician, or holiday. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only.) I will pick a winner at random on May 14. Good luck and mazel tov!
