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...