Waitress

After the last two dozen of mediocre movies we watched that wouldn't have been worth wasting any web space or time on, (if you're out for something more than entertainment and happen to need something that grabs you by the... well, whichever place a movie's supposed to grab ya), it was good to finally enjoy the privilege of watching another "winner," which in my opinion, "Waitress" definitely was.

I like movies that teach you something about life, even if the plot isn't all as intricate as the "Matrix," and one of the things you can - if you're attentive - already grasp from the first twenty minutes of this film is a fact that seems to elude some folks for most, if not all of their lives:

The fact that we're not all the same. People are different. You may have certain goals and ambitions in life, you may want to be successful, rich or famous, but don't try to squeeze everybody into that same frame of mind of yours. Because there are different types of personalities around, and one person may have the need to dominate, another may have the need to succeed, or be secure, or to just be left alone, while yet others simply have the need to be loved for who they truly are.

And then there's another clue about that weird little thing called life: not only are people different from each other, but the person you are today may also be a totally different person than the one you might be tomorrow, or next year, or definitely in twenty years from now.
Some people change the moment they marry and become the monster they wouldn't have dared to show before, and others change the minute they have a baby and realize that something's been at work here that busts all previous confines and mindsets and schisms.

The master of the game may have drilled the Gospel of conformity into all of us for a century, getting most of us perhaps to accept that we're nothing more than mammals, and no matter how well your species may have mutated over the past 50 billion years, that's what you'll always be.

But every now and then something happens that dares to defy all that - excuse my French - bullshit and reveals that certain spark that makes the difference between us humans and our four-legged friends, even if some will refuse to see it until their deaths. It's the kind of "something" that happens while watching a movie like "Waitress" and even blows a magical breath of life into an otherwise totally idiotic ditty about baking pies, all of which (the "something," the "magic" and all that goes with it), only perceptible to those who actually walk through life with their spiritual senses activated.

Well, you may not be getting all this same stuff out of watching this movie, but that's because we're different. And if you're into people - I mean other people apart from the doubtlessly most important person to you: yourself - then you're going to enjoy this one.
I suppose it will always take a woman to make a movie like that. Perhaps because women don't restrict their thinking or knowing to that rational process men use the thing between their ears for - and as a man I'm allowed to say that.

"Waitress" is definitely not one for our pious brothers and sisters who insist that love can only be found within the sacred boundaries of marriage. But if it's reality you're after, you'll probably get a better taste of it with this pie than from a bucket full of evening news... The reality of being human to the core, that is so utterly different from the advanced ape-man mentality we're usually told to take on.

Call us decadent, call us shameless, sinful, and blame it all on that odious Creator who obviously didn't know what He was doing, but Who loves us humans to pieces anyway, and maybe - just maybe one day so will you.

My Life In Ruins: Coping with Co-travelers on the bus of life

One of the deceptive factors about the theory of evolution is that people in this day and age think that no matter what they do, how many of their brain cells they drown in alcohol or drugs, thanks to the process of evolution, they're automatically bound to get smarter all the time.
When nothing - I mean, absolutely n.o.t.h.i.n.g. - could be further from the truth.

As a result we have a bunch of wise guys sitting along with us on the bus of life that aren't always exactly easy to love.

While this movie won't exactly knock your socks off, it does give a few clues, or even if nothing but some glimpse of hope, that it's not entirely impossible.

So, if you have a hard time coping with the devastating gap between what the world (and folks in it) ought to be like (according to your personal standards and ideas) and the way it actually is, this story might cheer you up a little.

The Answer Man: The Truth about Prophets

Not every movie we watched over the past month or more has been worthy of their own post on my favorite movie list.
There were two more outstanding ones for brilliant performances and nice plots: "Phoebe in Wonderland," featuring a stunning Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning's younger sis), and "The Soloist," none of them really bearing a unique message that I look for in movies, at least not any other than "The Man of La Mancha" did 50 years ago.

So, I was happy for the privilege to watch another "winner" last night: "The Answer Man."
While not altogether free from cliches & been-theres, the movie definitely has its own, new and unique message in spilling the beans about what a prophet actually is. Folks who are familiar with my considerably crazy ideas know that I believe God capable of communicating with us even via things like comedies. And in this case, He tells us how easy it is to be a prophet: You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be a sinless saint, you don't even have to go to church. God is so desperate for folks who'll listen to what He's got to say these days, He'll communicate with anyone under the sole condition that they're interested.

And I'm speaking from experience.

God may have a lot of "fans" in the 21st century, and a whole bunch of acquaintances who come to visit Him in mass gatherings on Sundays, plus, of course, a lot of folks who are too scared stiff of Him to skip their daily prayers, but not a lot of friends who care to listen to what He's got to say.

So, occasionally, he'll even make do with a rotten sinner like me or you or Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels), the hero of this story, for whom his questions to God (which he promptly found answered upon writing them down) spell both luck and misery at the same time, since the results turn into a best seller and make him famous as someone or something he knows best of all he's not.

Throw in a little romance and a cute kid, and you get a fabulous twist on "Moses goes to Hollywood." - Or rather, to Philadelphia, which made for a nice break from the endless Big Apple backdrops of late.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner

A story of honor and courage from a culture as alien and foreign to most of us as the two aforementioned virtues in our society, in which the only virtue required is to be an obedient cog in the machine, and battles are fought with sophisticated weaponry that allow you to murder your enemy without even having to face him...

As foreign as a tale from another world, except for such stories as these, brought to us by some story teller who happens to have found enough listening ears to make himself heard.

A story of a world that once was, and what has become of it, leaving us with the only hope that God will fulfill His Promises to us that someday it will even be a better world than it ever was...

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven

Although perhaps not your average multi-million dollar production of cinematographic exuberance and extravaganza, since it's a TV production, and probably produced with a fraction of some piece of trash like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," or many similar recent Hollywood outgrowths, this film has probably more to say than perhaps the last dozen of "big" movies I've seen, put together.

It gives you a tiny glimpse of the fact that seems to totally elude most of us super smart, "evolved" and developed 21st century people, namely how little it is we really know, even about our own lives and the people who have touched it, and, thus, perhaps a little preview of the Eternity of surprises waiting for each of us at the end of our road.

May your surprises be as pleasant as those of "Eddie Maintenance."

"...And the world is full of stories.

But all the stories are one."

"Not Easily Broken" - The Definite Winner of 3 "Marriage Crisis" Features

Comparing "Not Easily Broken" with the "white" version of a similar, "Marriage gone bad finds redemption" we watched recently, "Fireproof," the former is definitely the winner in that it feels infinitely more like the real thing. Although "Fireproof" definitely has some lessons in it, and would urge us all to be the nice, good and clean white Christian that is portrayed as the hero of that plot, it wouldn't have much to offer to anyone who doesn't already attend the pews on Sunday mornings...

In fact, people out in the real world with real problems, and often graver ones than being attracted to internet porn or the usual materialism, superficiality or just plain horniness, probably wouldn't be able to relate to the nice, white, clean American Christian world that the makers of "Fireproof" live in.
Whereas "Not Easily Broken" comes along much less preachy, and speaks from the heart instead, and thus, to the heart.
You can relate to it, and even if you don't know anybody as well-tempered in real life as the main protoganist in this (after all, a) movie, you wish you would, and you kind of wish it was you. Probably a lot of people can relate to it and feel like "been there," and the lessons and good advice this movie offers aren't just head stuffing you can rave about with the brethren on Sunday morning.
It's an everyday type of gospel, and what's even nicer, an everybody type of Gospel that not only the chosen few can relate to.

Yet another feature on a similar theme, offering a re-encounter with "Titanic" dream-couple Di Caprio and Winslet, presents the other side of the coin, what you could probably term the atheist version, in which the marriage gone bad winds up in total disaster.
Although "Revolutionary Road" definitely has some valuable lessons to teach about the danger of compromising one's true vocation, or even staying true to himself for material gain and safety, it's a painful lesson indeed, and while the first 3 quarters of the movie are definitely promising, intellectually stimulating and challenging, the ending (spoiler intended!) is too depressing to consider it worth it, and the only thing the movie has got going for itself in the end is that you can tell your teenage daughter, "You see, that's what would have happened if the Titanic would not have gone under!"

He's Just Not That Into You

I wasn't sure at first, if I was going to include this movie on this list, because in some way it resembles the experience I had when I watched "Signs" for the first time in the theater, shaking my head at the apparent nonsense I had paid to watch, until everything finally started making sense during the last 10 minutes or so of the film.

The first and major part of "He's Just Not That Into You" is pretty much sheer, painful agony. Partly, because it's so true. Human beings are really that rotten, that motivated by cliches and Hollywood indoctrinations, and for the larger part of all that agony, you simply have to agree and understand why Jesus compared this mating game to the way things were before the days of Noah, and you come to the conclusion that our just punishment would be another flood to wipe us off the face of the earth.

But then that's where grace comes along, and plays the sweetest trick on us and gives us just what we don't deserve in spite of ourselves; and contrary to all natural expectations and calculations, love will come to you, pretty much like that wind that bloweth where it listeth, and canst not tell from whence it cometh or whither it goeth.

All in all, suffice it to say that there is a lesson to be learned from this movie, even if in a little bit of a painful way... that way it hurts when we discover a bunch of awful truth about ourselves, and it makes you feel like the only thing we'd deserve is hell, while all along Salvation and Heaven are just waiting around the corner.

Nothing But the Truth

"Nothing But the Truth" is a great movie in my opinion, but can probably only be appreciated fully by those who can relate to having to pay any sort of price for standing up for one's convictions or staying true to their principles.

It certainly isn't for those who tend to get bored if there isn't a shoot-out happening every 3 minutes in a movie, in intervals with something being blown up.

On the other hand, as I've said elsewhere, the only place we really seem to find the heroism portrayed in this film, remains the movies, since the actual story it is based on doesn't seem to be quite as clear in defining martyrdom for the truth.

Nevertheless it's a good reminder of what we all really should be: un-nudging, relentless, furious voices for the truth sticking to our convictions and principles at any cost, even though in real life those may not be working for the N.Y.Times...

One fact the movie brings out, though: Freedom of speech and of the press is, and has been, and remains a thing of the past, (and not just under the Bush Administration), embraced by hopelessly idealistic men who fought to uphold human rights and freedoms long before they were replaced by the one right we have left: the right to remain silent.

As far as tattling on your friends goes, an interesting question comes up: how far would we go to protect our friends, acquaintances or brothers-in-arms in our fight for the truth?

If the Pre-Tribulation-Rapturists are wrong (of which I'm unfortunately certain), we may all yet have to find out...

The Duchess

This one was definitely the pleasant surprise of the month. While it may not appeal to followers of the current Hollywood type of Christianity where extra-marital sex will wind you up in hell, but killing Muslims will land you in Heaven with the (former) President's personal blessing, those who have learned that the ways of God, love and life itself can sometimes indeed be mysterious and lead us beyond the confines of convention and artificial correctness, may find it quite enjoyable.

I never get into any of that stuff of how brilliant the actors were. If they hadn't done their jobs well, I wouldn't waste my time recommending this movie.
What I care mostly about in movies is the message (since I consider myself a messenger howbeit using a slightly different medium), and in this case we've got another beautiful testimony (since it's based on actual events) of how forgiveness is an integral part of love, and something we both need and need to learn to give, even if the circumstances may be less than fair and just, as well as of a time in which not everybody had the same freedoms, privileges and rights they may enjoy today, but still managed to be much happier and more fulfilled anyhow.

If you want to get a taste of how different life has been (and perhaps still is and can be in other cultures than our plastic Coca Cola culture), this movie is certainly an opportunity.

Frost Nixon

While initially reluctant to watch a movie that was "only" about an interview with an ill-reputed politician from the 70s, all doubts were gone with the wind, pretty much as soon as it started. The actual interview turned out to be more exciting than any boxing match we'd ever seen, and definitely more intellectually stimulating.

For some, back in the 70s, Richard Nixon was the personification of evil. But what this movie sets out to show is that there's hope for anyone who is willing to admit their mistakes.

Girl's Best Friend

If you're one of those types of people who tend to regularly get upset with their fellow humans' nagging quality of sheer imperfection, and you're open to the possibility that "anything is possible," even that your life and critical character might be changed by a quadruped not much bigger than a football, (even if "its" name should be as corny as "Binky"), then you might enjoy this movie.

It's an example of how life sometimes seemingly unjustly rewards the cold and cynical with undeserved happiness.

Now, isn't that what life has been all about, for many of us - enjoying the undeserved?

New In Town

I used to be a city slicker, brainwashed by the politically correct dogmas of our time until I discovered that the gist of what life is all about was found in a totally different direction than the pseudo-coolness and artificial hipness society forces on its victims in the process of finding players for its game.

So, I could perfectly well relate to the role Rene Zellweger was playing in "New In Town."

Coincidentally, I recently recorded the German version of the very Christmas hymn ("Come All Ye Faithful") that the villagers of "New Ulm" sang in the freezing winter of Minnesota - a hymn that the bulk of my former city acquaintances and "friends" would certainly sneer at and would not be able to relate to, but then I doubt if they've come to experience mere fractions of the joy the Christian life has to offer (along its many trials).

While the heroism involved in moving from Miami to Minnesota remains the type that's probably purely reserved for the movies, I also share the belief that what really counts in life is the spiritual sunshine that springs forth from the believing hearts of friends, more so than fun in the sun (as much as I enjoy the latter).

And if you should have made similar experiences in life, I'm sure you will enjoy this movie, too.

Georgia Rule

I only like to feature movies here that either really moved me or have had some other kind of lasting impact on me through some lesson or other valuable information or message it conveys, and "Georgia Rule" lives up to those criteria.

Probably anyone can in some way relate to or learn something from this pretty much true to life family story, whether they're a perfectionist distanced grandmother, a disillusioned parent, or a rebellious and confused teenager looking for a glimpse of real love and truthfulness out in that lost & lonely world of ours.

For those of us who are certain that we have found our path it's a good reminder that no matter how well that path may work for us, we might have to adapt somewhat to those close to us who can't accept that path for themselves.

For those of us who think we know all about people, it's a reminder to "look again" (the meaning of the word "re-spect"), because things people do or say aren't always what they seem; and for those of us who flee to poor substitutes in our sometimes frustrating quest for love it bears a glimpse of hope that true love is on its way, even if it may come into your life from a different direction than we expected.

If you like true-to life stories with a twist of determination to make lemonade out of the lemon life has handed us, and a glimpse of hope, then you'll probably enjoy this film as much as we did.

Inside I'm Dancing

God bless the Irish.

Because that's what it took to make a brilliant movie like the 2004 gem "Inside I'm Dancing."

Remotely resembling British humor, yet the latter is infinitely less divine than what the Irish come up with in their joix de vivre, as opposed to English cynicism, and in embracing that glimpse of spirituality that the Brits have traded in exchange for Darwin.

Don't know why we missed this one for so long. Probably because our corner of the world is in a similar dilemma to her Majesty's.

But better late than never.

If you can handle hardcore humanity, try to see this one if you haven't yet.

Martian Child

I was just reminded of "Martian Child" this morning, a movie I must have watched before I started this list, because it belongs here, I'd say.

Somewhat reminiscent of "K-Pax," the difference being that this one's based on actual events.

The "Making of" reveals that John Cusack originally didn't jibe too well with the kid who was to play the "Martian Child," which shows that regardless of our preferences or reservations, when it comes down to it, we've got to trust the Director of the "Big Picture" for the choice of our partners in the cast of the movie of our life...

He knows best, dude.

Yes Man

I had read a few reviews of "Yes Man" before I finally dared to watch it. I like Jim Carrey, and have forgiven him for antics like "Ace Ventura" latest since "Truman Story," and, of course, "Bruce Almighty."

I understand that some folks can't deal with some of the lessons that movies like "Bruce Almighty" or "Yes Man" have to offer. Maybe they're not the personality types that this type of lesson applies to, so they can't relate to them, or they have a "Smells Like Teen Spirit" attitude toward movies: "Here we are now, entertain us!" and don't want to be bothered with lessons from a movie screen.

Well, I'm not a notorious "Yes Man," so I enjoyed what this movie has to say, and at the same time found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Being a former owner and fond conosseur of Third Eye Blind's '99 debut album, I particularly enjoyed Jim's rendition of "Jumper," probably one of the best 1000 rock songs of all times. I was laughing till I cried...

Apparently I wasn't the only one, judging by the amount of uploads of that scene to Youtube.

Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed!

I haven't featured any documentaries on this list so far, but I think Ben Stein's courage to be one of the few (secular) voices of truth, butting the media and mainstream description of Intelligent Design, deserves an exception.

Even the title of the documentary alone, "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed!" is a stroke of genius in itself, because by refusing to recognize the existence of intelligent information within the very basest form of life, namely within every living cell, and by refusing to acknowledge the fact that there can be no form of intelligent information without an Author, thus leaving the Evolutionary theory flawed at best, if not totally insufficient to explain where we came from, and thus crying desperately for a more sensible answer, the so-called "science" lobby Stein addresses in the movie prevents intelligent thought from happening altogether within their institutions.

Equaling their bias to practices of both the 3rd Reich as well as formerly Communist East Germany (both nations heavily influenced by the teachings of evolution) couldn't be more appropriate.

Apparently Ben is beginning to pay the consequences for his boldness, like any other lonely voice for the truth, but history will tell who were the blind, misled masses and who were the heroes that dared to speak up for the truth when nobody else did it...

10 Inch Hero

Behold, truly one more American fairy-tale, but alas, one of hope and peace, justice and free sex for all...

And that even during a time when you would have thought hippies had all been wiped out by the "war on terror."

But there is a God and He loves us, even those of us who are hippies at heart, and even if there don't seem to be many other confirmations of that fact around than these concocted fantasy tales by dreamers like us, it's enough to keep us dreaming, or hoping that some day - against all odds - there are really going to be people like that walking on this planet, actually getting along wonderfully, and making love, not war.

Jack & Jill vs. the World

Unbelievably, yet another flick cast in N.Y.City, "that great city" which, apparently, a lot of movie producers consider the "stage of the world."

Possibly so.

Well, it's nice to find - on that stage - a role played as nicely as that of Jack & Jill in this movie, as strongly opposing each other as they may initially be, and preaching a message that goes so much against the New York City Groove and its Wall Street Shuffle, and even has the audacity to label its game "stupid."

Thank you, Vanessa Parise, for making such a nice movie.

My better half specially appreciated it, since she very much resembles "Jill," and Jack's conversion probably very much my own... that mysterious conversion taking place when someone stops chasing temporal things (as in "the pursuit of happiness") and actually starts living...

A Good Woman

Thoroughly enjoyable lessons on prejudice and gossip that we caught up with almost 5 years after release.

Just the way a movie ought to be.

The Go Getter

While this road movie probably wouldn't rank among my favorite, potential life changers (I like my life changed regularly, if not frequently, so I allow what some would call fate -and I prefer to call God- greater access to that possibility, even via something as trivial as movies), I liked it because of its positive twist, compared to, for example, Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" with its sobering, if not depressing ending.

But I still wouldn't have bothered featuring it on this blog, hadn't it occurred to me sort of retrospectively that it has one of those metaphor factors in it, that I've discovered a few other times, as in "Serenity" or, of course, "The Miracle Worker," which triggered a torrent of reactions in my mind that still hasn't come to an end...

Some people see ghosts, others see the Devil everywhere; well, I prefer to see God everywhere or in everything, and holy ghosts, for that matter. And I happen to be able to see His fingerprints on this movie, too, although I doubt that the makers of the film intended it any more than Paul McCartney intended writing a song about an Endtime prophetess when he penned "Let It Be."

Inspiration's a funny thing.

Okay, the plot in my mind is this: The kid in the film is a lot like many of us on the road of life, who sort of break free from the System (he quits school), not really feeling much at home in that place to begin with. So, first he runs into the kind of stuff the world has to offer: a fist in the face, false love and counterfeit thrills in drugs, all the while, though, communicating with a voice that he feels "at home with," even though it belongs to someone he's wronged (since he stole her car, and hey, who of us gives God the credit for lending us the vehicle with cruise through life with?), met only with forgiveness on the condition of regular communication with her (sounds to me like the way we can obtain forgiveness via prayer...)

When things look pretty dark & bleak, all of a sudden that embodiment of unconditional love stands right in front of him, ready for more than just comforting words, and while that relationship is not without its ups and downs either (as I'm sure all of our relationships with God aren't, either), there is, lo and behold, a happy ending in sight - and that in spite of disappointments galore from anywhere else, which again confirms my personal experience: only God cuts the cake.

Some folks have great difficulties with any insinuations or attempts to ascribe female attributes to God or the Holy Spirit, but in my opinion they're trapped in some chauvinistic mindset that shaped their ideas of God more on the John Wayne movies they saw in their childhood than Genesis 1:27 and the rest of the Bible, thinking they're doing God a service by going to other countries & shooting off Hottentots, because that's just a real macho thing to do.

Well, you can keep doing that, and keep watching your John Wayne movies, if you wish, I prefer neat little love stories with happy endings. After all, the Good Book doesn't picture our Maker with a gun strapped around his hip, stepping out into the glistening midday sun to bring a swift end to his evil opponent, but in childlike and what some I'm sure might call naive fashion simply states that God is Love.

The Express

Isn't it weird sometimes, how something you don't have anything to do with in real life can nonetheless be a great inspiration to you via the movies?
Take football, for instance, in Texas a religion, as they say in this movie, but zero relevance to my actual life as a musician...
And yet some of the most inspiring movies I've seen over the past year were about football.
Seems like God can use anything.

Even a 23 year old kid to kick some racist ass and change the course of history while he was at it, maybe - just maybe - paving the way for the elections of 2008, nearly 50 years after the incidents of the story this movie tells...

It certainly drives home the feeling of vindication the racially discriminated part of the American population must have felt after Obama licked McCain...

The acting & directing of this movie are both great. You'll have to blame the ending on real life & its sometimes weird ways.

Only Reality's More Bizarre Than "IGOR"

My childhood fascination for cartoon movies is paying off big- time these days, in a way I'd never expected. Because modern cartoons seem to possess a quality that news channels and official media sources seem to have lost decades ago, and thus you can probably learn more about the reality we currently live in from this movie than from being tied to an arm chair and forced to watch Fox News for 72 hours in a row.

Of course, they wouldn't tell you the truth about the fake reality that our evil kings are making us take at face value, forcing us to resort to evil, and especially all sorts of evil inventions, in order to survive.

Nor would they imply that the underdogs and "Igors" of this world (in News lingo also referred to as "rebel forces," "insurgents" or "terrorists") are often a lot smarter than the evil inventors who run this place.

Well, you'll have to find out who the monster created in this film resembles in your life. But when you find out, be careful who you're going to reveal this discovery to, if you want to enjoy a peaceful and quiet rest of the evening.
Oh, did I mention it? The sarcastic humor in this movie is highly contagious, so junkies, watch out!

Then again, some folks - just as with the "Matrix" or any other movies that are truer than life somehow - never dig it, and for them it's just a pretty odd movie...

Possibly because they've never been an Igor...