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Click the image to view all of the photos.

I had the privilege of checking out The Works twice this past week and I will head down again, for likely the last time, tonight.

This festival is free, and it is outside, both of which, on these balmy summer days, are good things!

My personal favorite exhibit was GRAPHEX - a gallery of award winning graphic design from accross Canada (though mostly Montreal?). It was really inspiring to have a look through that, and I thought I should mention it because it is tucked away on the second floor of Enterprise Square (the old Bay building where you find the Art Gallery of Alberta for the time being. In the same building, on the main floor, you have some modern visual work, sculpture and furniture reflecting “the West” which is also really interesting. I like the “sled lounger” and the end table made of sawed-off branches.

I happened to go on the day of the “no mobile phones” exhibit. The idea was they had an elaborate bungee system setup and would do an impromptu installation by hanging mobile phones donated by patrons for a 24 hour period. It was cool to see this visual representation of many people giving up their “lifeline” for a day. Especially when a phone would randomly ring! The only downer is that I heard they got a paltry 25 phones or so handed in. Perhaps that is a more powerful statement than a fuller exhibit ever could have been.

Finally, if you, make SURE you say hello to Body Creatives Giselle Denis and Dara Loewen. They both have art booths up for you to enjoy and would love for you to say hello. They’d love it even more if you bought a piece of art

Anyways, I will post some photos I took soon. Even better if you go in person.

Visit the Works website at http://www.theworks.ab.ca/festivalfolder/festival/festival.html

Before I start this review (my first review in a while), I should give a caveat or two. First of all, I am not a Narnia movie fanboy. Although I did like the first one, I think it is simply a “good” movie and it fell short of my expectations for the series. I do love the books, and am a huge CS Lewis fan. The movie was good, but it didn’t stand up that well to repeat viewings, and it wasn’t a “wow” kind of movie. It is also my belief that the Narnia books get better as time goes on though, so I was able to stay fairly excited in hopes for this second offering.

The second caveat is that I have seen an inordinate amount of Hollywood blockbusters lately. Ironically (?) all with my church. First U23D, then Iron Man, then Indiana Jones. Caspian was the only one out of those four that I did not go to with a group from my church. Yes, the Christian allegory is the one we didn’t rally together to see. Well, the older folks did, but I’m not quite there yet. Out of all four movies I’ve seen in the last couple of months, Caspian has been my favorite. Yes, even beating out Iron Man, which I enjoyed way more than I thought I would. So, all that being said, let me tell you why Prince Caspian has got my number one blockbuster pick so far, and why it has restored my sense of wonder and faith in the franchise. (more…)

Suffer the Children

You want to get angry at tele-vangelists? No, I mean really really angry?

This expose on the Word of Faith movement is enough to get your millstones ready and fashion your whips. I have much more to say of a serious nature, but for now - take a look at the website and find a copy.

protein excipient interactions

Seen it? Let me know what you think.

I posted about The Kindling’s Muse podcast recently, and it has been excellent lately. Subscribe yourself to hear about some great films, a discussion of Christianity and fantasy, and an in depth interview with Douglas Gresham, the adopted son of CS Lewis.

One rabbit trail this led me to (albeit in a roundabout way) is this site - faith & film critics circle .

intestinal worms

It is a web network of Christian film reviewers - all of them of a vein perhaps not in the tradition paradigm of a “Christian film reviewer” (see Jeffery Overstreet article posted previously).

The site is sure to provide a gateway to some excellent reads, and excellent films.

This week’s issue of Vue Weekly features an article by Ted Kerr - a friend of mine who I seem to bump into around town every few months or so. One such meeting was at Urban Bridge Church’s showing of Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher. Ted was in attendence that night, as a representative from HIV Edmonton, who we had invited out for the night.

6 months later, Ted has reflected on that night from his perspective in the Vue Weekly column, “Queermonton”.

I’d love to hear some thoughts on his words - and the night in general if you were there.

Here is an excerpt from the intro to Ted’s article, followed by the link to the full article.

Last winter my friend Lynn and I represented HIV Edmonton at a screening of what we now know to be an irresponsible and homophobic film—Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher, directed by David Sabatino. Unfortunately, no one at HIV Edmonton had seen the film prior to agreeing to be involved in the director-attended screening and group discussion. We have subsequently learned to never do that again. The film is about Loonie Frisbee, a gifted young preacher and closeted gay man who was continually let down by his community leaders and who died of complicaations related to AIDS in 1993.

Within the first 20 minutes of the so-called documentary it was obvious what we were watching was neither journalism nor art but propaganda. Lynn and I watched the film with rapidly beating hearts and clenched fists, both of us hoping that everyone else was also realizing how lacking in rigor and potentially damaging the film was.
As the lights rose, we waited for the first comment from the audience. Our hearts sunk as the hip-looking middle-aged woman started the group discussion with a “thank-you” to the director.

Read the full article here

I had been told I should see this movie. I had actually wanted to see it before I was ever told though - stumbling upon it on the Walden Media website one day while I searched for details of the Narnia movie series.

I need to confess that I have never read the book. I wasn’t much of a reader as a child, and I haven’t went back to play catch up with the many great books I should have read then (excepting some by CS Lewis and Madeline L’Engle). But if the book is half as good as the movie, I should be picking it up shortly.

If you’ve read any reviews of this movie at all, you will have heard about the blatant mis-marketing of this film. Walden has an unfortunate unholy alliance with Disney for distribution (okay, perhaps not all that bad). My guess is that Disney controls (as they certainly finance) much of the marketing of each film. Thus, hot on the heels of Narnia’s world-blockbuster status, they decided to market this as a piece from the same pie. And while there are fantasy bits interspersed throughout Terabithia, they are only bits, and not even true fantasy at that. That being said, this movie IS about childhood imagination and the search for beauty in the face of grim reality. And that perhaps encapsulates all good fantasy anyways. Just don’t expect Lord of the Rings or Narnia - as Disney bets their bank that you will - and you will not be dissappointed.

If the story is not about wizards and elves, then what? Bridge to Terabithia is (and here’s the spoiler) one of the most beautiful stories of death and dying I have ever heard. (more…)

There is a documentary in the San Francisco International Film Festival telling the story of a Pastor who was sure he had a divine appointment from God - to make a Biblical Sci-fi Epic. Sound interesting? Read the capsule review from the San Jose Mercury News below …

`Audience of One’

Richard Gazowsky is pastor of the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco, and the voice Gazowsky hears one day is God’s, telling him to write and direct an epic biblical film. He calls it “Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph” and describes his Christian sci-fi spectacle as “`Star Wars’ meets `The Ten Commandments.’” The result is proof that hubris is not confined to Hollywood, and that incompetence knows no religion. Michael Jacobs’ entertaining documentary is full of jaw-dropping moments, not least of all Gazowsky pressuring his congregation to fund his folly through the collection plate. He transports a large crew of amateurs (many of them members of his family) to shoot on location in Italy, and when things go wrong, he waits for God - and some Jesus-loving Germans, who have promised $100 million - to provide. (6:30 p.m. May 3, Kabuki; 12:45 p.m. May 7, Kabuki.)

Read more reviews from the festival on the San Jose Mercury News website

I am always pleased when I watch a movie and get more than I expected.

I have mentioned this before, but perhaps that is due to low expectations in the first place. In this case, it was more like no expectations. I certainly knew this was not going to be a movie about gardening, but beyond that, all I know was that this was some sort of spy thriller. The movie I watched does not really fit that genre.

Do not think James Bond, or even Bourne Identity. You’ll be way off.

I should have thought instead of the debut film from director Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”. Yes, the film about Brazilian druglords and dirt-poor slum gangs that kept me up at night. Surely, that director is not into James Bond action.

Nope.

What I got instead was a picture of international corruption, all cradled in the arms of Africa. The story is rooted in political thriller, yes, but it takes us right into the heart of Kenya, into a poor city-within-a-city, throbbing with over 700 000 people with no plumbing or electricity, and into remote villages and ancient tribes. It is here that a pharmacuetical company from the UK has decided to test its’ new drug - a cure for TB. It is here because lives will certainly be lost, and lives are cheaper here. Lives are quieter here. No one will know that the road to this drug’s success was paved with the bodies of dozens of Africans. And no one will care.

That is what grabbed me about this movie - if you can’t already tell. Sure, I thought Raiph Fiennes did a great job as the lead - a tormented man not knowing what his wife does in secret, until her brutal death leads him to find out. He is a man betrayed by friends, work and even country - a man totally alone except through the fellowship he finds in his wife’s sufferings before him. In her death he finds a deep pool of love - out of which he finds he can drink so deeply that his own life no longer matters to him. But that would be giving away the ending, wouldn’t it?

Rachel Weisz, as his wife Tessa Quayle also does a great job. I am still trying to find out if she was pregnant. Some pretty revealing body shots (yes, nudity - not much but be prepared) conflict with a thin Weisz in the special features. A body double? Latex? My wife - who would know - swore she was really pregnant. Anyways, beyond that little miracle, she portrays a passionate activist well - someone driven and in the end consumed by the endless sea of needs found in a place like Africa.

But those and other performances aside, it is Africa herself who stars in The Constant Gardener. To me, it is Africa who is the most beautiful, complex and conflicted character of them all.

The situation with the TB drugs is this; a large drug company has developed a cure for TB - and TB is on the rise. In a matter of years an epidemic will hit the earth and this company will be left holding the bags of gold. All good, except for the drugs rough edges and unfortunate side effects. A re-write of the drug would delay profits and give other companies the edge to develop competing products before launch. The easier way out would simply be to rig the tests. And so, the drug is tested in Africa - the “dark continent” - a place out of sight and out of mind for so many on earth. And the way it is done is heinous. Those getting free HIV tests are also tested for TB - for FREE! What generosity! Only, it reveals them as well as candidates for the drug testing. These same patients sign their rights away in order to receive medical treatment. You agree to the testing basically - or get no medical treatment from the clinic at all. Not much of a choice - if they even understand the choice they are making. Just sign here please.

We are told a fair ways in the movie that over 60 have died so far. Their bodies are buried in a remote place - their existence is wiped out. Dead men tell no tales. Especially when they cannot be found.

It is this horror - and the desparation in Africa in general - that consumes both Tessa (Weisz) and her husband Justin (Raiph Fiennes). And both of them come to believe it is worth it.

As this whole system is explained to Justin, he is told, “this is how the world f**ks Africa”. Something in that line broke my heart. It is still grabbing at me from inside this morning.

The story of The Constant Gardener, based on a book by John Le Carrè is fictional, but plausible, I believe. There are most certainly horrors in Africa. There, in the cradle of civilization, there is great evil at work every day. And there, I believe, as people of God - as followers of Christ - we need to be focussed. We need to be concerned.

I don’t know much beyond that at this point, but I do believe the deaths of the protagonists in this movie are heroic deaths, and that their actions in respons to the hurting in Africa are Christian actions.

All of this and I haven’t even talked about the craft of this film.

It was actually shot in Kenya - right in the places where it says it was shot. The people milling about the actors are real people - most of their words unscripted. This is almost half feature, half documentary in the way it is shot. And then there is the camera work. I loved the look of this film - quick, edgy and raw. Great angles, the camera some times fighting for focus as you find yourself struggling to see - “what is going on - get out of the way, I want to see!”. That is what the director wants, I would guess. Anyone who saw City of God will already know him as a master behind the camera.

And so, if you haven’t guessed, I like it. For that rare mingling of challenge and entertainment - without eroding either element - I highly recommend The Constant Gardener.

OK - I received this article today and thought I would post it in full. I sincerely hope this isn’t a ploy by the producer to get people to see The Nativity Story, but I don’t think it is. I do agree with a lot of what he has to say, and having seen the film, I have no trouble endorsing it (see review below).

Here is the article I received in full …

Monday, December 4, 2006

Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians go
and see The Nativity Story in large numbers

That’s the view of its producer, Marty Bowen

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

Poster for The Nativity Story

HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) — Marty Bowen, producer of The Nativity Story which came in fourth in the weekend box office in the United States, is concerned that Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians now go and see the movie in large numbers.

Despite many good reviews, New Line’s The Nativity Story, the story of Christ’s birth, only took in $8 million in the United States from 3,183 locations to come in fourth, while, for the third week in a row,
the No. 1 and No. 2 films remain Warners’ Happy Feet and Sony’s Casino Royale, respectively. Buena Vista’s Déjà Vu also remained unchanged from its third place finish last week, netting an additional $11 million.

In an interview with ANS, Marty Bowen said he was disappointed with the fact that the movie only came in fourth.

“I thought it was incredibly disheartening for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which is you hear this common lament from moviegoers that America feels like Hollywood has lost touch with what
they want to see. People feel like there is too much violence in movies and too much disrespect towards the family.

“Now finally a Hollywood studio has stepped up and put their money where their mouth is and has committed to making and releasing a movie, not on a couple of screens but rather on a very big very large fashion - more than three-thousand screens around the country — and giving the audience what they say they want and yet that sense of urgency in that audience isn’t there to go and see it.

“What is disappointing is you hear people talk about how we can make movies better but if you don’t go see them when they are presented to you, Hollywood’s never going to do it again. And that’s what is
frustrating to me because I changed careers to make movies that would inspire people and if there’s not a business for it, and I can’t find a studio to make the movies that I want to make, then that’s
disappointing.”

Bowen, who was formerly an agent, went on to say, “Hollywood hasn’t made a Biblical film like this for decades. The Passion Of The Christ was one man’s journey and he [Mel Gibson] did a phenomenal job.

“I think what happens in a movie like this is that people say, ‘I’ll get to see the movie when I get around to it.’ What they don’t understand is that this is a business. These theater owners have a lot of demand for their screens and if a movie does not perform well on December 1st, despite the fact that it is the reason for this holiday season — it’s the Christmas story — it might not make it to December 25th, and that angers me.

“It just really saddens me that a movie that’s about the birth of Jesus may not be in theaters when that celebration of that birth takes place. And that’s really disappointing.

“People don’t seem to realize that when a studio commits tens of millions of dollars to make a movie they expect an audience to go see it; and if they don’t see it soon they’ll never be around to see it later.

When asked if he had a message to American Christians, he replied, “There needs to be a sense that, if what you want is to see films that are about faith and family and you want to light a fire under your
neighbors to be inspired to live the life that you feel like is fulfilling to you, then you need to support films that have a similar message. If you don’t then you need to be ok with the idea that next year at the box office there’s going to be a movie about some guy cutting people’s throats around a Christmas tree.

“That’s the nature of the beast. It’s a sad commentary to me that when we considered the possibility of naming this movie Silent Night we couldn’t do that because that sounded like a horror film. That’s
awful. So that’s why I put it [The Nativity Story] out there. You can’t wait to see this movie because you’re giving the wrong message to Hollywood.”

Bowen concluded by saying, “It’s not an effective argument, in my opinion, to wait around until Hollywood makes the decision for themselves and then, what they make is something you find morally
reprehensible, and then you protest. To me that’s negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement has always been more effective.

If a movie speaks to what you want movies to be about than you need to support it or you need to shut up.”

So, what are you waiting for? Go and see The Nativity Story before it is too late!

Source:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06120018.htm

Nothing can kill an experience like high expectations.

Luckily, I didn’t have any going into The Nativity Story.

The fanfare for this movie has been small to say the least (at least here in Edmonton). In fact, it’s run downtown has already switched over to matinee showings only, sharing a screen with Borat. At least both have something to do with another culture.

As I walked into the movie theatre with my mom (the only one I knew who really wanted to see this movie and who offered to take me as a gift), we had our choice of seats. We were the only ones there. I sat and got really sad. Here I was sitting to hear the Christmas Story, just a week away from the celebration, and no one else was here to hear that story. The mall was full. Full of people getting last minute gifts for people they don’t know that much about with money they don’t really have. But my theatre was not full. There was no rush or lineup to hear the story of the Christ-child. It was the last Saturday before Christmas Eve - shouldn’t there be more people here than this?

More did come, but I remained one of the few under 50. And as the lights dimmed on us 20 or so spectators, we were about to be told a wonderful story.

As I said earlier, my expectations were low. Bible movies can be hit and miss - and more often miss. I had thought this film was just a cheap attempt by New Line to cash in on the Passion of the Christ. Certainly the marketing beginning months and months ago led me to believe that.

But, as the movie unfolded before me, I have to say I fell in love with it.

Here was a Bible story told with dignity, grit and integrity. A Bible story that is not often told in all its’ facets - explored for all to ponder.

Though there were some moments that gave away the budget of the picture (not a large one, I guess), the overall aesthetic was beautiful. The people were largely arabic or at least could pull it off well enough for me. The sets were authentic and the lanscapes actually made me see beauty in dry, barren wilderness and desert. No small feat.

The real strength of this movie is in the screenplay, however (it certainly isn’t in the angel special effects, which are really a non-event). The story is full of nuances and shades to each character. Mary is not simply a happy-go-lucky participant in God’s master plan. She is conflicted and scared. She does not even want to marry Joseph at first, which makes her seem to us as the young teenage girl she really was. I do think she could have had stronger reactions to the news - especially at the appearing of the angel - but how do you portray something like that. You will bear a child as a virgin. How do you swallow that!?

Joseph in the movie is a man of great integrity - and we learn just why he would have had to be. He lives his life for honor, and then he has to give that all up - or have Mary stoned in the streets for adultery. He really lays down his life for her - and they are both indeed ostricised from the community. It doesn’t go on long though, because they are sent away by the Roman cencus. As Mary and Joseph travel together - barely even friends but forced to bond by their circumstances, we get some powerful glimpses into Joseph’s heart. He is forced to choose between feeding himself and feeding the donkey that will carry Mary on to Bethlehem. He chooses the donkey. He asks God for a sign that he is doing the right thing walking such a hard road. He gets none. Upon entering Jerusalem, his is reminded by a stranger the wonder of seeing your own face in the eyes of your newborn baby. He will never have that moment, as he is not the real father. And finally, running from house to house all Joseph can find for his family is a cave stashed with animals. It is here that his wife must give birth. In a final indignity, he can provide her nothing better.

While all this is going on, we are given other stories to keep our interest as well. The Wise Men are very well done - and provide some light comic relief throughout. I loved seeing how they watched the starts. The instruments of the astrologer were very cool to see. It reminded me just how much these three were not from a Jewish background - and yet even they could interpret the signs that were plain to see for those who would only look.

The signs were also plain enough for Herod - one of the movie’s most interesting characters. Herod is pure evil here - but not strong evil. He is a trapped coward - forced to sever all those he may have loved in order to keep control. He threatens his sons’ life at one point, reminding him that he would only be the fourth family member murdered should his perceived loyalty fail. Herod is intense - and his palace also provides one of the more magnificent set pieces, eclipsing Jerusalem’s massive sprawl in the background.

The Nativity Story is just that - the story of Christ coming to earth in the lowliest way imaginable. We often tell of the miracle of the Virgin Birth, but this film made me realize the even greater miracle may have been that there was a birth at all. The road to Bethlehem was a difficult long road and I would guess many did not survive it - never mind those bearing a child. The parents were exhausted both physically and emotionally. And even after the child was finally born, they had to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s sword. And they did.

Miracle upon miracle make up this Nativity Story - and I think it is a story we all need to be reminded of - to really experience afresh - every holiday season.

That is why I think I have found a new favorite Christmas movie for the family.

Response to this movie has not been all that great - but I beg you go and see it! See it as a worship experience, meeting again the Christ-child who has changed our world and our hearts so much this past 2000 years.

Watch it with those eyes of faith and I don’t think you will be dissapointed.

There are probably some seniors at the multiplex who would love the company.

I remember seeing the ad for this movie shortly after Napoleon Dynamite came out and linking to two right away in my mind. Low budget sensibility, distinct look and feel and quirky, all too real characters. Well, I was quite wrong. After finally watching this movie last night, over a year later, I can say it is quite its’ own thing, and shares almost nothing with the zany Napoleon Dynamite. It is barely a comedy at all, though I did laugh - likely more often then I was supposed to.

I’ve never seen a movie just like Me and You and Everyone We Know, and maybe that is one reason I think I liked it. I have to say, this fresh from the couch, the jury is still out on this one.

This movie is the brainchild or Miranda July, and I would say it gives us a fairly wide-open peek into her soul. A movie written, directed by and acted by one person is likely to be intensely personal. This was. I wonder how much Miranda July is like the main character - if I would be able to tell them apart in real life? I suppose that just means she did a great job acting.

So, why is the jury out on this one? Well, I would have to say this movie was as much like a piece of modern art as it was an actual movie. And that is appropriate, as the main character is making film art through the course of the movie, again reflecting July back at herself. One of the things that marks modern art for me is that if often struggles to NOT have an overarching theme or message - or point. Or direction. To tell a basic story is to sell out. It thinks, therefore it is. And that is good enough. July even pokes fun at that fact in the movie, as an installation artist is simply stealing items from the gallery building and placing them in his space, calling it high art. No one will question him of course, because you don’t question art, right?

Well, if that were the case, I would just end my review now.

Before I write off Me and You as one of the many indie pics I get up from with nothing but a, “huh, well that was that”, I do have to say Miranda July was getting at something here. The seeming disparate pieces do create some complete puzzle in the end, but it is we who have to put them together, not the director.

Here is how I solved the puzzle. Of course, I don’t presume to be right.

Looking back, I see characters and situations seemingly unrelated, but with some beautiful and interesting themes pinning them all together. First of all, contrast of childhood and adulthood, and secondly, the hope for something extraordinary.

The adults want the magic of youth back. They want to be able to see the world the way a child does - with wonder and simplicity. And the children want to be adults - or they are forced there without wanting to come along. We see children in some very uncomfortable adult situations, and I am not sure if it is supposed to shock or entertain, but it disgusted me. Children doing things children shouldn’t do, like talking dirty to middle aged men, or spending time doing the same on internet chat rooms. Children robbed of their innocence in some way. And then we see the adults around them making childish mistakes and childish decisions. The recently divorced (or seperated) father of two forgets to pick his son up - leaving a 6 year old to walk home in the ghetto. He also laments at one point that if he and his children were to switch places, they would tell he and his former wife to go to their rooms until they could stop fighting. And finally, the oldest character in the movie, and old man who Miranda’s character chuaffuers for a living, is the most childlike and innocent one of the bunch - in a good way.

Another theme, and this is the main one to me, is the hope and longing for something more. The search for the extraordinary. Miranda’s character lives out fantasies of perfect moments through her filmed art. The movie opens on her narration of a photograph - a narration of a perfect love that she has not found. The father of two introduces himself to us by lighting his own hand on fire in front of his two boys. He later comments that in doing so, “he was trying to save his life, but it didn’t work”. He had lost the ability to feel - to experience something extraordinary. Lighting his hand on fire becomes a cry for help - like he is reminding himself that he has feelings - if only physical ones. He is still alive! He later comments that he wants something magical to happen to him - he is ready for it. His coworker at the shoe store is having innapropriate sexual fantasies - and toying with those fantasies - with teenage girls. When he is finally presented the opportunity to live them out - much like Kevin Spacey’s character in American Beauty - he recoils in horror and disgust. Literally lying terrified beneath his window sil. The director of the art gallery lives a dry existence, seemingly too critical of everything to enjoy anything. We find that she has been one side of an internet sex chat exchange - again living a fantasy life - wanting something special - something to sweep her off her feet. We also meet a neighbor girl, about 10 years old, who acts like a 35 year old woman, storing appliances and bath towels in a hope chest. They are her dowry, she tells a friend, for when she gets married and will give them to her husband and daughter. She too is dreaming of escape.

To me, this is a story of escape to something better - but not a story of escapism. There is something in the way this movie is shot - the insights it has on life’s smallest moments, that makes it beautiful and full of hope. These people are hoping - and hope is pulling them through.

Miranda July has a great talent for blowing up life’s little moments and filling them with meaning. Again, to go back to American Beauty, I think of the scene with the bag blowing in the wind - dancing a lonely and beautiful dance. July has that same eye on the world - the wonder-full eye of a child. When the hand is aflame, it is shot in slow motion and superimposed with July’s own words, making an absurd scene take on new meaning.

My favorite scene involved a goldfish left on the roof of a car. The characters step out of their normal lives for just a moment to intervene in the life of this tiny pet - to try and save it. And again, a moment so small in reality becomes so large and beautiful the way it is shot in this film.

For these moments, I would have to say I liked this movie. I still feel it lacks cohesion, but each bead on the necklace is beautiful enough that even if the chain itself is broken, there is much to be enjoyed. I say this with a caution and a warning that while there is no nudity there is explicit sexual content in language and implication. Some of it involving minors, which made me really uneasy watching. But beyond those moments of discomfort (which do, incidentally, tie in to the story Miranda July is weaving), there is something special here. Something to remind us that in the midst of the mundane there is hope. We do not need to look for something magical to come to us (as it will likely only burn us anyways) as much as we need to look for the magic that is already in our own lives, and enjoy it. Live it. Hope for more of it.

So, I guess maybe I liked it?

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson
Director: Christopher Nolan

To sum up how I felt about the prestige, I would have to focus on just that - a feeling. I was impressed, but not moved. And perhaps that is OK.

I have to admit, I most often search out movies with meaning - movies that are going to challenge me in some way or tell me a story that may just change my heart, my mind, my life. Perhaps that goal is too ambitious for The Prestige. If I look at it that way, it has failed.

Now, it is not that the movie does not evoke any feeling at all - it’s just that the feeling it does evoke is not a positive one. As my friend Tim lamented leaving the theatre, “I definitely don’t feel good”. I left The Prestige with this sort of bitter taste in my mind - this lurking darkness wrapping itself around me and trying to cover up any of the good I did find in the film. I just didn’t feel good.

There are some movies that do that to you. I remember feeling very dark in The Matrix - and very, very dark in Interview with the Vampire. That was probably just the guilt from sneaking in. But to look more specifically at Nolan’s movies - and Bale’s - perhaps I should have expected the feeling here. Memento, another twisting masterwork of filmmaking by Nolan, left my heart darkened as well. I saw someone betrayed and was all but uplifted. The Machinist, starring Christian Bale, was one of the darkest movies I have ever seen. To the extent that I wanted to shut it off. I would have had I not known there was some light at the end of the tunnel - a turn - a prestige if you will. And the twist in that movie did make it all worth it, because it justified the darkness and absurdity I was forced to sit through en route. But The Prestige gives us no such justification.

It is simply a dark tale of obession, revenge, murder, repeat.

Now, perhaps we could say it is a morality tale on the dangers of vengeful obsession - how such an obsession will tear a man apart from the inside out. Nobody wins in this one, and even the one who walks away physically has lost half his soul to get there - and more. There is no winner in a game of revenge.

And perhaps, if that is the moral of The Prestige, it is OK to feel dark. Revenge and obsession are dark things. They are destructive things. Sometimes the world just sucks.

Sometimes the world just sucks, but if you can take our minds off of the darkness with a neat trick - if only for a moment - well that, my friend, is magic.

The movie does accomplish this. It is more than a movie about magic. As has been said by others, it is a magic trick in and of itself, following the sequence of The Pledge, The Turn and ultimately The Prestige. It distracts us with sleight of hand, sets us up to look in every direction but the right one, and then pulls its’ trick.

I won’t spoil the suprise, but I was impressed.

There is a soft spot in my heart for a movie that can pull of that turn well - and this one certainly does it. For that reason alone, I would have to recommend The Prestige. But I wish I had more reasons.

I wish there was a character that learned something from all of the plotting and obession - one single character that didn’t give in to the darkness. But they all do, either through death or a live committed to the dark. No one learns, and changes, his ways it seems. Then ends justify the means. If the trick is great enough, it’s all worth it.

I won’t argue that we are not in a dark world, searching for a little old-fashioned magic. But perhaps my biggest complaint with The Prestige lies in the difference between magic and miracle. One is a cheap trick that impresses without changing you or touching your heart. One is a true event, both impressing and changing all who witness it forever.

The Prestige is very good magic - nothing more and nothing less.