Well, it’s a Coen Brothers production, and that generally means it will be different. I went along to this with heart in mouth because we had recommended it as a high school chaplaincy fund-raiser. Many of the people I was with were senior genteel church folk, and, since booking the theatre, intelligence was coming inContinue reading “Burn after Reading: Review”
Tag Archives: cinema
The Visitor – more movie dipping
They told me I should see this one. So I did. The Visitor certainly evoked memories from not so distant times when folk from my church and I sat through tribunals, negotiaited immigration interviews and confronted officialdom on behalf of “illegal immigrants,” otherwise deemed by the international community to be legitimate refugees entitled to protection underContinue reading “The Visitor – more movie dipping”
Movie Dipping
How could two films be so different yet so similar? I saw them randomly and almost back to back (give or take a week or two). Both drama/comedies, both dealing with the paradoxical art and escapism of cinema, both unconsciously aware that the “acting out” before the camera mirrored the real life dramas of theContinue reading “Movie Dipping”
Blood Diamond: are diamonds the new fur?
This is an unusual movie to reflect on – half action/drama and half documentary. Critics looking at the Hollywood Indiana Jones style action slam the movie for its slow pace and length. Those looking for documentation of the dehumanising illicit diamond trade in post colonial Africa lament the simplification and trivialisation of a complex humanitarianContinue reading “Blood Diamond: are diamonds the new fur?”
Pirouetting Penguin Packs Powerful Punch
The message of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Ugly Duckling has moved beyond the worthy goal of promoting self-esteem for who you are to serving a more universal ecological awareness campaign. Right now, the swan in the making has transmogrified into an anthropomorphised tap-dancing penguin called Mumbles. Frankly, my expectations were not high as we tookContinue reading “Pirouetting Penguin Packs Powerful Punch”
Movie Critique: Babel
Babel is a drama that winds together a collage of several families seemingly far removed from each other but linked by one inevitably tragic incident. The main players are as far removed as Morocco, Tokyo and Mexico. Yet the communication difficulties explored under the direction of Alejandro González Iñárritu have less to do with languageContinue reading “Movie Critique: Babel”
Jindabyne the movie
Take a short story from the USA and convert it to Aussie cinema and something like Jindabyne appears. Raymond Carver’s So Much Water So Close To Home underwent some changes to become Ray Lawrence’s dramatic depiction of a community’s response to the thoughtless and apathetic actions of four fishing mates who discover a corpse inContinue reading “Jindabyne the movie”
Kairos and chronos – finding the door to Narnia
A certain large cat, witch and article of household furniture continue to hold their own at the box office. The jury is still out on whether C.S. Lewis intended The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an allegory or even analogy of the Christian kerygma. Be that as it may, I find some compellingContinue reading “Kairos and chronos – finding the door to Narnia”
Contact
Back after some time away to ruminate on our next screening for “Meeting God at the Movies.” I had wanted something from the Science Fiction genre that was meatier than the horror flicks like “Alien”, “Predator” or “Independence Day.” “Close Encounters…” had been my choice but I recently came across “Contact” – has a bitContinue reading “Contact”
The Mission
That’s the movie, the second, being researched this Sunday. One might say it’s an obvious one for the project – an overtly religious theme! Superficially so, but there are also a few sub themes. It will be interesting to review the feedback given the criteria for expressing the experience of the film. Ultimately, I suspect,Continue reading “The Mission”
Wondering Pilgrim 