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AMC Theatres is hosting a day-long showing of the five best picture Oscar nominees on the day before the Oscars. If you didn’t know, those films are Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno, and No Country for Old Men. And it’s only $30. And you get a free large popcorn. And free refills.

Although I’ve already seen No Country and will probably see There Will Be Blood this Friday, I was still tempted to try this Oscarthon. Then again, the listed showtime is 12 hrs, 25 mins.

But, I am glad to see theatres doing something a little different (and inexpensive) to keep the masses happy.

There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie, hasn’t been hyped in the traditional sense; it’s just won or been nominated for a plethora of awards. I plan on seeing it, but the following review makes me even more anxious to view it, especially in light of the movie I took in last night, The Kingdom:

Though not a political film in the traditional sense, Blood nevertheless captures the blood-oil-Iraq-evangelicals-capitalism zeitgeist far better than the countless Lions for Lambs-type films have this year. It got me thinking about the presidential election, and how—like Plainview and his “conversion” to Sunday’s church—so many candidates are pandering to religion not out of spiritual need but material necessity. Like Plainview, it’s not that they necessarily want God on their side; they want God’s people—and the money and support that comes with them. This sort of melding of sacred and secular purposes, however, proves toxic for all involved.

There Will Be Blood is a stunning, thoroughly modern work of art that paints a stark picture of what happens when greedy capitalism and power-mongering is bedfellow with something so contrary as Christianity. As the title forebodes, the results—for all parties involved—will not be pretty.

- Brett McCracken’s The Search

Tunefind allows you to search by TV or Movie title or artist for songs recently featured on television shows or movies. I stumbled across it because I was looking for a song used in, yes, you guessed it, the opening episode of this year’s Friday Night Lights (Fridays at 8pm on NBC). The song, by the way, that I found within three seconds of finding Tunefind is Wilco’s Muzzle of Bees. I have no idea what the song it about, but I sure do love the sound.

Via Tim Stevens, pastor at Granger Community Church

One of the quotes I’ll be sharing is from the book Movies that Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith by Richard Leonard. The first 25 pages is worth the price of the book. Mr. Leonard, a Jesuit priest with a PhD in Film and Theology (wow, what a combination!), says the following…

“Given the power of media, becoming conversant with its mixed messages is an essential tool for Christian life. This involves the process of inculturation—discovering where Christ is already active within a given culture. Inculturation has traditionally been about uncovering Christian resonances in faraway places and exotic rituals. Yet the risen Christ sends us out to our media-saturated culture as well, and in it we labor with Christ to expose the signs of God’s saving love already present there. We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise…we have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, inculturated in some of media’s values, stories and style.”

Mark Batterson at Evotional.com and Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., a church that meets in a theater, says its

Pretty exciting to see the way the theater church movement has taken off in the past few years. I’m still believing for a church in every theater in America!

That’s an ambitious thought, but a worthwhile pursuit. What would it mean if something like that happened? No more building campaigns for one. No more struggling for the best A/V equipment, or even usable equipment. No more pews, just nice, comfortable theater seating. Of course, these are just behind-the-scenes concerns (which are my main concern, given my job).

But what would it mean for the world’s perception of the church? Does it become cooler? More hip? Attractive? Does it lose its otherness, its spirituality, its awe and reverence inducing factors? Or does the environment matter less than the content - the people, the relationships, the stories told and presented?

I was blessed to be involved with terranova from its early stages, but, unfortunately, could not be a part of its shift to becoming a theater church (now meeting on Sunday mornings at City Lights Theatres in Georgetown). I hear its going well, but I wonder what trade-offs they’ve seen, if any, or what feels different. I guess I just miss being "in the know" about the life of that church.

In reference to yesterday’s post about wanting to be a filmmaker of sorts, I just now remembered that my "work" has already appeared on at least 12 screens. I helped to create and edit the promos terranova gets to run before every movie appearing at City Lights. So I am famous, but only in my own eyes. Alas, Pride goes before a fall…

The wife and I just got home from a free pre-screening of Evan Almighty, the follow up to the Jim Carrey-starring Bruce Almighty. Our new favorite actor (and has been ever since The Office began running in the States), Steve Carell, stars as Evan Baxter, a secondary character from Bruce, but also one that stole scenes.

He’s now a Congressman. God visits him and tells him to build an ark. See the movie for the rest of the story. Or read your Bible.

As for our experience, I received an email directing me to a website to sign up for a free pre-screening. Free movie? Sure. That it’s a movie we actually wanted to see made it all the better. This review is my small way of paying for the ticket, since the only benefit I can think of for the studio providing a free screening is word of mouth publicity. There were multiple cities with free screenings. Our theater easily filled up.

We arrived 30 minutes early and saw the line…outside of the theater. We joined the line, met up with a coworker from my church, had our hands stamped, our bags checked for cameras, then found our seats. The air was sticky, damp, and hot. Although we were given word that the A/C would come on, it never did. Oh how we suffered.

But the movie made the trickling beads of sweat disappear into a fairly engaging story with ultimately thrilling visuals. If you know your Bible, and this particular crowd did, then you’ll be in on all the jokes. I wonder how more secularly oriented people will take the movie - if they’ll get the jokes.

The morals of the story were well presented and went beyond repeating biblical platitudes into actual, heartfelt words of biblical wisdom. The touching moments are small, but memorable.

The effects, especially the climactic scene (guess what kind of cataclysmic event occurs?), are breathtaking. I felt like I was on the boat…er…ark. It’s worth seeing this movie on many accounts, but make sure you see the last scene on a big screen.

My last thought was this: if an event happened in real life anything like the final event depicted in the movie, it would change a lot more than what the movie shows it changes. At least, I hope it would.

Final words: Go see it.

Funny story: Movie director Mike Figgis was detained at LAX for more than five hours after he was asked what he was doing in LA. “I’m here to shoot a pilot.”

The guys at Cinematical had a witty retort: “Good thing the immigration officers didn’t ask him about his body of work. Figgis’ answer might have been ‘I recently made a huge bomb.’

Reminds me of the ever-quotable Airplane! - “Hi Jack!”

I love the English language, and when I say love, I mean, well, nevermind.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been able to watch a few more movies than normal. Yes, we’re regular subscribers to Netflix, but sometimes those DVDs go unwatched for days. This kind gentleman has even made a website where you can compute how much you’re actually spending on your Netflix DVDs so you can figure out if you’re better off at the local (but dying) video rental store.

With Netflix’s addition of a "Watch It Now" feature, where you can, actually, watch a movie in your browser, I’ve been a bit more excited about on demand movies. Unfortunately, "Watch It Now" does not cover their entire catalog, but only a select few hundred, although more are added every day. Using this new feature, I watched Word Wars first (although only half of it); it’s a documentary about Tournament Scrabble players. It was very interesting to see these people who essentially forfeit jobs to play Scrabble tournaments for less than a livable income.

Second was Zach Galifianakis’ Live at the Purple Onion. Bluntly, it’s a standup comedy show. More pointedly, it’s hysterical, minus it’s obscenities. His timing is impeccable, as well as his ability to hold a face.

Lastly, for the time being, was Run Lola Run, a modern classic. I’d heard about it from more than a few different sources. I didn’t know it was a German film, and, thusly, subtitled, but that’s never stopped me before. It was an energetic tale told in three parts about the ways the smallest action can change the course of history. And I loved how it’s typically described as an MTV music video, as if anyone can remember what that means.

On demand video, which is quickly becoming the norm, will be very time-consuming once the amount of content explodes.

[Brought to you by EMI Shielding. What's EMI? Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) or Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is an electromagnetic disturbance that interrupts other electronic devices or components. It's what we'll all probably need when the end comes].

It’s become de rigueur for television shows, movies, and books to feature unreliable protagonists or narrators, the people who tell you the story, but for whatever reason you know you can’t quite trust their interpretation of the events. One of the earliest and most blatant cinematic portrayals of this is the classic film Rashomon, where the same story is told from three very different perspectives. The stories are not the same, but they’re all true. In the end, the viewer is left to decide what actually happened. This was groundbreaking for its time (1950), but the latter half of the 20th Century exploited this plot device so much, in my opinion, that viewers seldom believe what they see. We’ve lost trust in the narrator. With more than half of the movies or shows I watch, I have to suspend my disbelief every time a new character is introduced (LOST, anyone?), anytime a good guy turns bad or vice-versa (Jericho), or anytime I’m told one thing and shown another (I am Jack’s smirking revenge).

Is this indicative of the culture at large? Of course it is. Television either tells us what to believe or shows us what we already believe about ourselves. Either way, it’s a mobius strip. Our culture has lost trust in its own narrative. Cynical is the word. Are we being told the truth or just what we want to hear? Can we decipher reality for ourselves or does a talking box or a talking head need to do it for us? Where are the people that say what they mean without false pretense?

I’m tired of disbelieving.

[Ironically enough, this has been brought to you by rosaries, beads on a string that help some to believe in a Reliable Narrator.]

I’m glad I started watching The Daily Show because, one, it’s funny, two, I learn about current events and the correct way to say ‘Putin,’ and three, they’re pretty spot on on some of their critiques. To wit, in reference to Al Gore’s presence at the Oscars and the announcement that the Oscars had ‘gone green,’ the first thought through my head was, "The Oscars! Green! Pshaw! Hollywood is the most conspicuous consumer America’s ever produced." And then I watched The Daily Show after that and what did they make fun of (aside from Jon Stewart’s hosting last year)? The discord between ‘going green’ and Hollywood’s conspicuous consumption. Maybe I should have a hosting gig. (We now interrupt this blog to bring you Hoodia, the Diet Pill of the Stars, which can make you thinner, younger, prettier, more conspicuous through less weightiness, and even cause you to turn green…). And now back to your regularly scheduled blog. Then the news came out about Al Gore’s heating bill. When will the madness stop?