Worth the time...

Sling Blade

In chapter 4, Meeting Frank, we begin to see the relationship that forms between Karl and Frank as they meet outside the local laundromat.  Karl helps Frank carry home the families' wash to his house as they get to know more about each other.   Frank is undeterred by Karl as he reveals his past history and accepts him as he is.

Romans 14:1-4

 ¹ Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

 ^2-4For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

In chapter 18, Football, we see the progression of Karl and Frank's relationship as they play football with some other boys at the junior high football field.  Karl sets up Frank to score and further shows his love for Frank by telling him that he's proud of him.  Karl looks to help fill the gulf left by Frank's departed father in ways rather simplistic, but otherwise paramount to young Frank.

1 Corinthians 4:13-15

¹³When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the earth].

    ¹⁴I do not write this to shame you, but to warn and counsel you as my beloved children.

    ¹⁵After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).

In chapter 21, Goodbye, we witness the last time that Frank and Karl will see one another.  Karl has decided what course of action he must take to provide a safe future for Frank and his mom in the only way that he knows how.  He makes sure that Frank knows that he is loved and that their friendship will not be affected by what happens in the future.  

Proverbs 27:8-10

⁸ People who won't settle down, wandering hither and yon,
   are like restless birds, flitting to and fro.

 ⁹ Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight,
   a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.

 ¹⁰ Don't leave your friends or your parents' friends
   and run home to your family when things get rough;
Better a nearby friend
   than a distant family.

RICHARD CORLISS, Time Magazine, says: But those who have seen Thornton as Karl Childers in Sling Blade can't get that face out of their bad dreams. The skin is celibate smooth, the eyes clamped shut to keep the demons out, or in. And when the pursed mouth opens, it speaks... of dreadful sins with Old Testament vengeance.

Karl Childers: Billy Bob Thornton, Doyle Hargraves: Dwight Yoakam, Charles Bushman: J.T. Walsh, Vaughan Cunningham: John Ritter, Frank Wheatley: Lucas Black, Karl's father: Robert Duvall.  Written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Running time: 135 minutes. Rated R (for strong language, including descriptions of violent and sexual behavior).

Thornton spins a complex, yet simple story about a retarded man, who 25 years earlier killed his mother in a rage after finding her having sex with a very abusive man.      Upon his release from a mental institution, Karl befriends Frank (Lucas Black), a fatherless boy whose kindly mother (Natalie Canerday) has shacked up with an abusive man, Doyle.  Doyle is wickedly portrayed by country legend Dwight Yoakam. Doyle drinks, lambasts his adoptive family and threatens others with physical violence.      There is never much doubt about the Judgment Day event that concludes the story.  But getting there makes for a very compelling spiritual adventure.

Karl carries books with him: the Bible, a book about Christmas, and a book on how to be a carpenter. Very interesting, I thought.     When Karl meets the abusive Doyle for the first time, Doyle asks Karl about the books that Karl always carries with him.      "What's all them books?"      "Never mind. One of 'em's a Bible," replies Karl.      "Do you believe in the Bible, Karl?"      "Yes sir, a good deal of it."      "I don't understand none of it.  This one beget that one and that one beget that one.  Beget.  Beget.  Lo and behold.  Just how retarded are you?"     This dialogue represents a major shift in Hollywood.  Here the abusive bad guy is not also a religious Bible thumper.  Instead, the sympathetic character carries a Bible and believes in it.  This was rarely the case in Hollywood films just a few years ago.  Also, alcohol is not portrayed in a favorable light as it is linked to the abusive man.

Robert Duvall plays Karl's natural father, Mr. Childers.  Karl visits him, hoping to reconcile their relationship. The father ignores his son.  Childers had also secretly murdered his new born baby son (Karl's bother) years ago.  Watching this film causes one to wonder what real insanity is.  It's Childers and Doyle who are insane!  Both are abusive, cruel, heavy drinkers and they both reject Karl believing that he is insane.

There are so many spiritual overtones in this film.  Karl meditates, goes to the high places and wants to be baptized.  He wants atonement.  A Pentecostal type of evangelical preacher baptizes him.   Again, Hollywood is respectful. This shift in attitude is amazing.  In the past, only Roman Catholics were portrayed seriously in film, never Evangelical Christians.  Evangelicals have been portrayed as hypocrites, money lovers and mentally unstable.  This welcomed shift can also be seen inThe Devil's Advocate, Contact, and The Apostle.

I recommend this film highly.  The film's focus on Karl's spiritual journey is complex and very compelling.

Next class...

Storyline

A partially handicapped man named Karl is released from a mental hospital, about 20 years after murdering his mother and another person. Karl is often questioned if he will ever kill again, and he shrugs in response saying there is no reason to. Now out of the mental institution, Karl settles in his old, small hometown, occupying himself by fixing motors. After meeting a young boy named Frank who befriends him, Karl is invited to stay at Frank's house with his mother Linda- who views Karl as a strange but kind and generous man. However, Linda's abusive boyfriend Doyle, sees things differently in the way rules ought to be run- normally insulting Linda's homosexual friend Vaughan as well as Karl's disabilities, and having wild parties with his friends. As Karl's relation with Frank grows, he is ever so watchful of Doyle's cruel actions. Written by commanderblue  

Taglines:

 A simple man. A difficult choice.

Box Office

Budget:

 $890,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $36,644 (USA) (1 December 1996)

Gross:

 $24,475,416 (USA) (27 July 1997)

Surprisingly, this movie is not based on a true story, but it sure was Thornton's breakthrough in the movie business. I feel he sold out to the mainstream when he made the awful Armageddon. Thornton's Karl Childers is released from a mental insitution after 20 years from killing his mother as a child and returns to his backwoods Arkansas town with no family or friends to speak of, but befriends a fatherless boy and his mother. The entire cast is superb; Dwight Yoakum as a bigoted redneck, John Ritter as a gay store manager, Robert Duvall in a cameo as Thornton's almost catatonic father, Rick Dial (a boyhood friend of Thornton's) as Karl's genial boss, etc. The movie has just the right touch for life in the small-town south without the traditional Hollywood glamorization.

A Final Word...

The Evolution Of Sin Has Changed Our Lives And Communities

I'm not a fan of television these days.  Reality television...really?  There is nothing “real” when a person enhances their appearance and adjusts his or her personality for an audience.  I haven't watched television with any sort of regularity for around ten years.  The exception would be College football, and TVland.  Good ole' Andy Griffith...hey, now we can get a glimpse of what the good old days were all about.  White lies were a regular main ingredient in the script on the Andy Griffith show, but usually the truth came out at the end of the episode...sometimes. 

My House, circa 1980

Ecclesiastes 3

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,  a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.



A Different Time, A Different Life,and A Different Community



1960 compared to 2011, hmmmm...I'd say those years aren't that different when considering the sin susceptibility of human kind.  It's the same old 1960 sin, but the evolved 2011 satanic methodology has changed our lives.  If we take the time, we can  rewind time like a DVD video and then we can see the difference with more clarity.   

Have you noticed that most modern homes do not have a functional front porch?  Only 20 to 30 years ago we watched out for our friends and neighbors, and they watched out for us...it was the good old front porch era.  Folks seemed to care about other people's kids back then, and they had a hand in the discipline of other people's kids, to an extent.  The main interface of communication was the person to person conversation previous to the 90's.  When you wanted to say something to your neighbor you didn't text them because you could probably just yell it out the window....the older reader may remember that windows were open back then! 


An Increasingly Introverted Culture 


In these modern times; air conditioning, televisions, and video games have all but silenced the heartbeat of the American neighborhood.  Cute little communications devices such as the i-phone have made face to face conversation seem awkward...even unwanted.  The modern neighborhood looks abandoned because the way we interface with the world has changed. Nowadays people don't interact with others in their neighborhood like the families of the 50's, 60's, and 70's did. As a matter of fact, families don't even interact with their own kinsmen!  Due to modern times; a bad economy, and the ever changing ways of life, families are very much scattered.  Family reunions are now becoming by gone events.  Fear has driven us to keep our children indoors because we feel that we must hide our kids from the evil potential of the sexual maniac.  The non-parental supervised game of street football is nearly a bygone memory.  We can't let our kids ride their bikes down the street beyond our eyesight. ...  What a rip off, I had that freedom when I was a kid!

Advances in technology have changed the manner in which we relate to the community and world, thus America has eliminated the charm of the front porch.  Subtly, In the last 15 years or so, the family has encapsulated themselves within their personal forms of entertainment.  Musing has been swallowed by amusement probably because it takes less effort. Front porches are now crazy looking 4 foot while unlock the door rain shelters nowadays.  We've even retreated from the family room into our own individual bubbles of personal entertainment, and gadgetry. The dinner table has been replaced by the TV tray in front of your personal television. We continue to retreat further into our own little bubble.  The past 7 years has been anenormous step toward a personal entertainment world.  I hate that many modern kids don't have that privilege of near total outdoor freedom anymore, what a shame!  Nobody seems to care or notice. ...  Some wonder why their 10 year old is 120 pounds.  Well, ya know. ... 



Out Of The Darkness And In Your Face



Evolving sin has destroyed decent morality, and the dark adversary knows how to get to us...he is now rolling out his best master plan of all time.  We are becoming more and more closed off as a culture, so what satan has done is he's seized control of the social media and entertainment industry through the minds of the administrators therein.  Thus through the social communication and entertainment media, the evil one is also able to influence the politicians who govern humanity.  The world governing bodies allow the social media and entertainment industry to further promote tolerance of promiscuity and homosexual lifestyles. Traditional gender role life styles and modesty are laughed at and despised.  Sexual expression is badly warped, and it's nowhere near the marriage bed; as a matter of fact, conditions in this modern society resemble Sodom and Gomorrah.  What's currently rated PG now was rated R in 1985. The evil one has indeed succeeded in subduing modesty through the entertainment industry and popular culture! 

Casual sex discussions and sex play is a growing problem with the youth of America.  According to many reports, young children are increasingly likely to have participated in perverted conversations with children, or an older individual previous to their 11th birthday...it is absolutely shocking!  I would never let my child have any free reign internet access, nor total freedom with a cell phone...ever!  My daughter begs me to get her a cell phone, but I've seen the trouble a cell phone can bring into a 9 to 13 years old's life.  Some of the things I hear kids talk about leave me speechless!  All youth's aren't subject to debauchery, but we are all human, thus we have that propensity to mess up!  I'd really think twice about cell phone use for kids.

  Kids 10 to 14 years old who have 24 hour communication access could potentially be receiving phone calls or participating in dirty little text conversations after bedtime. ...  What are parents thinking?  How can parents let their kids have cell access 24 hours a day...they will likely get a big shock one day!

Looking Back 

In 1980 our family watched television frequently, but we all watched the same television; however, I had much more outdoors freedom as a child than the majority of the kids today.  I remember the feel of the peddles on the bottom of my red clay stained bare feet as I rode up Giger Hill, and the sound of the wind as I streaked down the other side.  My three dogs would keep pace and follow me everywhere as I rode my bike.  My legs were skinny, but they were muscled with no blubber on them. ...  I could easily power through the sand and rugged ground on my bicycle.  I would actually wear the tread off of the tires of my bike!  I had outdoorsfreedom, but I knew it was time to come home when the deep orange sky would que the locusts to begin their shrill call in those Milton, Florida pine trees.  I remember popping a wheelie to ride up onto the front porch.  At the end of a busy afternoon I went inside to eat supper and watch the one television in the living room. 


The Re-birth Of A Godly Community


I say that we should give our kid's the outdoors freedom that they have been deprived of.  Most of us likely had the freedom to peddle out of sight and into our world of building forts and getting our school clothes dirty when we were kids, so why can't our kids do something similar?  If a neighborhood committee can be started to inform you that your mailbox is the wrong color, why can't parents in the neighborhood step outside and take a shift in watching the kids as they hit your end of the street?  For that matter, why do we stay inside all the time?  Light the grill, and burn a cow...let's all get to know each other! 

If you don't have many neighbors, at least get involved in, or find a church that has an outreach attitude and serve the community...I'm trying to work towards that now as a matter of fact.  As long as the denominations of the body of Christ believe that Jesus is Lord and the risen savior, then all Christ Followers should have enough common ground to face a lost and broken worldtogether.  We can restore community if we work together in the name of Jesus.  If we can restore community as the body of Christ, we can reach the unsaved! 

Posted by Thomas

http://thomasg1971.blogspot.com/

Little Miss Sunshine

In scene 3 A Nice Family Dinner, we're introduced to our very dysfunctional cast of characters as they share a meal together.  It proves to be quite an amalgamation of persons with very differing goals and ideals.  In many ways it mirrors a very segmented view of community in it's early stages of forming till our characters have time and space to interact with each other and find grounds of commonality and purposes for conformity.

Galatians 5:19-21

^19-21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

   This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

In scene 16 End of a Dream, our centralizing protagonist begins to emerge as Olive is called on to comfort Dwayne as he discovers his color-blindness and the apparent death of his dream to be an Air Force test pilot.  It is here that we start to learn what centers this cast of misfits and drives them to continue on in this quest that seems foolhardy at best.  When words lose their value it's true presence that maintains and it is the driving force in true community.  

Philippians 2:1-4

^1-4If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

In scene 22 Olive performs the dance that her grandfather had taught her to the protest of Frank and Dwayne.  They realize that Olive shouldn't be put through the humiliation of the performance in front of the pageant folks.  When the pageant director calls for the immediate stoppage of her dance, community in the form of her family comes to her rescue right when she needs them most.  

James 3:17-18

 ^17-18Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) | Preview

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) | Preview

Grace in a Broken Van (Manson)

Darrel Manson

A suicidal Proust expert, a drug-addled grandfather, a self-help guru who can’t get anyone to listen and his frustrated wife, and a teenager who hates everyone and has taken a vow of silence travel the road to California in an old VW bus that needs a clutch so that the family’s youngest can take part in a beauty contest. In a nutshell, that is Little Miss Sunshine. But the nutshell can be deceiving. Little Miss Sunshine is a film filled with grace in a world of broken people.

The Hoover family really is a group of misfits: Richard has a nine step program to be a winner at life, but he is a complete failure; his wife Sheryl is busy trying to hold everyone and everything together; Richard’s father has been kicked out of the retirement community he lived in because he’d been snorting heroin; Sheryl’s brother Frank has just been released from the hospital following a suicide attempt precipitated by his lover abandoning him for a rival Proust scholar; Richard and Sheryl’s sullen son Dwayne has set his sights on going to the Air Force Academy and flying jets and has vowed not to speak until he’s reached his goal; their young daughter Olive is obsessed with beauty pageants even though she is very plain. This bunch really doesn’t like each other much – they don’t even like themselves.

Because Olive is suddenly eligible for the regional Little Miss Sunshine competition due to a disqualification, the group takes off from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, California, on a deadline. Soon they discover the clutch is out, so whenever they start the car they all have to get out and push, and once going, they can’t slow down.

That van serves as a metaphor for the family. It’s a mess and it just keeps getting worse, and nobody has the time or the ability to fix it. How it’s managed to stay together so long is hard to imagine. It just keeps rolling along, and in time it will arrive at its destination in spite of everything that is wrong with it.
Throughout the film, the various dreams of the family members are destroyed – Richard’s book deal, Frank’s career as well as his relationship, Dwayne’s future. One by one their hopes fall by the wayside. That may be one of the reasons they are so intent on getting Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine contest, so that she can at least have her dream.

When they get there, however, they discover that that dream may not be worthy of her. When we see these pre-pubescent beauty contestants with their big hair and full makeup, we realize just how empty Olive’s dream has been. The scenes at the pageant are uncomfortably eerie as they exhibit an almost pedophilic atmosphere. As we watch the Hoovers struggle with what is happening on and back stage, we realize that even this collection of misfits is probably more together than the culture that encourages young girls to take on the accoutrements of sex to get ahead in life.

In spite of all the ways each of the family members is mired in the failure of his or her own life, there is a bond between them that allows the whole to be far more than the sum of its parts.

In one scene, as the family tries to deal with Dwayne’s devastation, off in the distance is a faded billboard that reads, “United We Stand”. That sentiment has faded in the Hoover household, but it is still there underneath all the strife and self-centeredness. It is the potential of what they can be to one another that fills the film with hope – hope that is more powerful than all the adversity that has filled everyone’s lives.

Frank explains to Dwayne how Proust discovered that it was the times of adversity in his life that gave life its meaning. The Hoover family certainly has its share of problems. But by the end we see that there is room for them to grow and find the meaning the hardship can bring.

Perhaps we should see that we all spend time in a VW bus with a bad clutch where have to help to get it going, even when we don’t want to be on the journey. Where we have to run to jump in, even when we don’t want to be with the other travelers. Though we may have enough trouble without having to spend our lives with a busload of broken people, in the end, it is sometimes the journey we never wanted that takes us to the places we find love.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) | Review

Sunshine From Misery (Leitch)

Elisabeth Leitch

Misery is horrible. Failure, awful. Hopelessness, almost worse than the other two put together. But put them in a movie, let them run their course, and they easily become nothing short of hilarious.Take this summer’s Little Miss Sunshine. Chock full of misery. Stuffed with failure. Saturated with hopelessness. And one of the most genuinely funny and uplifting movies I have seen in a good while.
Little Miss Sunshine pretty much touches on every major variety of misery.
The trials of losing ability, fighting for respect, and seeking purpose in old age—as in the uncensored Grandpa Hoover who still likes the ladies and just got kicked out of the nursing home for snorting heroin.
The challenge of being a successful husband, father, and man—as in the nails-on-the-chalkboard motivational speaker Richard Hoover who cannot even use his success strategies to gain a voluntary clientele of much more than five.
The misery of unfulfilled love and trumped ambitions—as in the acclaimed Proust scholar, Uncle/ Brother Frank, who has just attempted suicide after watching his archrival claim both the love of his life and premier recognition in his lifelong field of study.
The angst and hopelessness of youth—as in the Nietzsche worshiping, Air Force bound Dwayne who suffers through the daily existence of having to live in the same world as his family and has chosen not to speak in over nine months.
The harried life of a hard-working wife and mother—as in the well-meaning Sheryl Hoover who is just trying to keep her ever expanding household sane and together, even if it means the only thing she has energy to put on the table at night is another bucket of fried chicken.
And then, there’s Olive…
For a young girl, she is just as awkward as the rest of her family. She has huge glasses. She probably is not the most popular girl in school. But in a family filled with people who don’t quite fit in to the world they are trying to live in, she is their ray of sunshine.
While the rest of her family may have consigned themselves to thwarted ambitions and unfulfilled dreams, Olive is determined to go to California and win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant…and so, packing her family and all of their miseries into a VW bus, she takes everyone along for a ride that will show them that obstacles do not mean we will not reach our destination, that alternative routes and detours are not equivalent to wrong turns and dead ends, and that final destinations need not look like everyone else’s to be worth just as much.
From beginning to end, Little Miss Sunshine is a hilarious and touching tale of misfits, obstacles, and bizarre situations that reminds us that purpose, value, and success are never confined to normality.Witty lines and bizarre turns keep us laughing and remind us that things are never really as bad as they seem. With very little plot, its characters and the actors that play them carry the movie in a way that only punches up its humor and its inspiration. And, in the same way that Olive gets her entire family out of their misery and up dancing, Little Miss Sunshine leaves you smiling and chuckling in a way that makes your day feel just that little bit brighter.
Sometimes it may be hard to believe in hope. As Dwayne’s bright yellow “Jesus Was Wrong” shirt tells us, it often feels impossible to believe in anything beyond the things, abilities, and circumstances that have already let us down…but then, even after the worst detours and road trips imaginable, life goes on, past our failures, towards something new, and with the knowledge that we are never alone in this crazy life that we lead.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Box Office

Budget:

 $8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $370,782 (USA) (30 July 2006) (7 Screens)

Gross:

 $100,221,296 (Worldwide)

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Emcee at the pageant is a parody of the official emcee at the child beauty pageants,Tim Whitmer (aka Mr Tim) whom can be seen or heard in various child beauty documentaries. See more »

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Goofs

Continuity: Before getting back in the van after yelling at his family, Dwayne has an orange band on his left wrist. The next shot of him lying down in the van, the orange band is on his right wrist. See more »

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Quotes

[first lines]
Richard: There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.

More than a fresh ray of sunshine!

7 July 2006 | by aharmas (United States) – See all my reviews

Here is a film that lives up to the expectations of a very funny trailer. It's an oddball comedy, and it's dark, and it's funny, and it's touching, and it will charm the pants off many in the audience. Here is a simple story in which our lovely contestant and her family try to find their way to California so that she can prove to the world she is not a loser! The premise itself can lead to years of therapy for a family that should get a group rate in psychiatric care.

Expert editing and superb comedic performances from all the principals involved will have many overlook the fact that the plot line is a little too contrived at times. The set pieces will have the audience howling with laughter as we see different characters trying to overcome some pretty irreverent obstacles. The scene at the gas station contains moments of deep sadness and offbeat humor, something that Carrell pulls off wonderfully, and none will be able to look at the trunk of a car, some dubious literary material, and highway patrol the same way after seeing the infamous scene in the film.

The best is of course, saved for last, and by this time we are waiting for something outrageous which "Little Miss Sunshine" delivers unapologetically. A classic track will probably be recharged for a new generation, as the bonds of family precariously balance a moment that could be as tacky as they come.

"Sunshine" is one of the best things to come out of American cinema this year, an original film that relies on a script that understands the differences between generations in the same family. It doesn't explain why each character is as quirky as can be, and it doesn't build much background because it is not needed to make the film work. Kinnear, Colette, Abigail, Arkin, and Correll are a fine team and keep the film's feel fresh throughout the film. Here is a family that has no special qualities or powers, a family that will make us rejoice that creativity is still alive in Hollywood, a film that will provide us with plenty of much needed sunshine in an otherwise pretty dull summer.

Next class (11/18)...Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film. The road movie's plot follows a family's trip to a children's beauty pageant.

Little Miss Sunshine was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The movie stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million.^[1][2] Filming began on June 6, 2005 and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006, and its distribution rights were bought by Fox Searchlight Picturesfor one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival.^[3] The film had a limited release in the United States on July 26, 2006, and later expanded to a wider release starting on August 18.^[1]

Little Miss Sunshine received critical acclaim and had an international box office gross of $100.5 million. The film was nominated for fourAcademy Awards, including Best Picture, and won two: Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin. It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and received numerous other accolades.

Review

Apparently, You Can't.

Jacob Sahms

James L. Brooks has brought the movie-viewing world such hits as Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, and Spanglish which moved us, made us think, and pushed our romanticized buttons. But in his latest, How Do You Know, he takes the skills and star power of Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd, blends them together into some kind of stew, and puts the pot on simmer for about a half hour too long. What's left? A bunch of scraps, a few good laughs, and a couple of stars who never quite show off their full flavor.

Anything with Witherspoon will get my wife's attention, and I've grown in admiration for Rudd and his late-breaking roles (Knocked Up, Forty-Year-Old Virgin, Role Models, etc.) so we figured it would make for a decent Christmas movie out before dinner. Within twenty minutes of the movie, I turned to her and complained that I didn't like either of the two "options" for Witherspoon's Lisa, that is George (Rudd) or Mattie (Wilson). Neither one quite matches her in charisma, and she's left playing an oaf that we didn't quite believe her to be even when her boyfriend in Legally Blonde tried to tell her she was. But the film does make you laugh out loud enough to forget that the chemistry is strained from the get-go.

George is a down-on-his-luck businessman who seems decent enough but suffers under his overbearing father (Nicholson), and remains friendless except for his father's secretary (the as-always-excellent Kathryn Hahn); Mattie is a successful closer for the Washington Nationals who has a full set of "take home" gear for each of the women he sleeps with; Lisa is a former national softball team player deemed too old for the current team (who seems based on Jenny Finch). But George's financial predicament seems too complicated, Wilson's Mattie never seems to actually have anything that would attract Lisa but she stays with him, and Lisa never finds meaning outside of what we see her slumming through her relationship with Mattie. It seems destined for greatness but it just never works.

When true "love" is found, it seems like there's nothing that could keep Lisa and her "winner" together; he's too invested in her and she hardly knows him. He makes a complete life-making decision solely based on whether or not she follows him out of a party, and there's no equality in the relationship. I think that's where I went, "Now, wait a minute." Sure, we can suspend all sort of reality and buy into cute moments, but if we're going to buy "true love," don't the people have to be in it together? What we're left with isn't real love, it's puppy love on one side and "I guess you're the best I can get" on the other.

Having seen this and The Tourist in back-to-back weeks, I'll easily encourage you to try the Depp-Jolie connection. There's more passion there, and you can actually tell what they have in common.

Review

When Your World Comes Crashing Down...

Nate Watts

For a movie that almost got universally panned across the board, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I know everyone expects a lot out of director, James L. Brooks (Spanglish, As Good As It Gets, and The Simpsons), but I think he brought exactly what I was hoping to this movie, and that was great characters.

Sure, it's predictable in a lot of ways, as far as plotlines go, but the actors he cast, their dialogue, and the way the movie was shot, was quirky, original, and a lot of fun. Not your typical chick flick by time standards (compare the standard 90 minutes to this film's 121), but it gave the audience time to enjoy the characters and really watch them unfold.

Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is apparently too old to play competitive softball anymore, and her whole life and expectations come crashing down with the loss of her spot on the team. She knowingly enters a horrible relationship with a womanizing pro-baseballer named Matty (Owen Wilson), who is self-absorbed and has more than a few "spend the night" kits at his luxurious apartment. Then she meets George (Paul Rudd), a businessman who is under investigation by the federal government on indictment charges, and has nothing left to lose. At such a low in her own life, she is pressured into picking one of them to hold onto as a rock in her storm.

The actors are incredible. Well, I should preface that by saying that they play the exact same characters they normally do in films, but in a way that allows them to be that way, and not making it seem gimmicky, or like a shtick. Wilson is his same old zany self, spacey but lovable, with a bit too much self confidence, while Rudd is the schlub next door, who is pathetic in a puppy dog sort of way. The first has everything all together, a career and a pretty good idea of who he is, while the latter has nothing to offer, is just learning who he is, and provides the worst first date known to man.

Reese Witherspoon, in her best role in a while, is utterly perplexed at what steps should be taken next, and doesn't seem to know what she wants. Their interplay is pretty hilarious, and a lot of fun to watch. Add to that some intelligent script-writing, and some great lines that are more real than most rom-coms out there today. Also the inclusion of Jack Nicholson as George's conniving father rounds out an already great cast.

It's not a perfect movie, but it never tries to be more than it actually is, and it ends up being quite enjoyable. Not sure what the rest of the critics saw so wrong in it, but it was light and fun, and had more than a couple hilarious scenes.

The Blu-ray special features include lots of commentary tracks, a pretty funny "making of" featurette, and almost thirty extra minutes of deleted scenes. The scenes add a lot to the story, but with the length of the movie already topping the norm, I can see why they chose those to adorn the cutting room floor. I'm always a sucker for a good blooper reel as well and this one doesn't disappoint.

Basic Info for How Do You Know

After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball-playing beau.

Storyline

Star softball player, Lisa, has just been cut from the national team; Scholarly business man, George, has just been indicted from his father's company. With everything that they know in their lives taken from them, Lisa and George attempt to find romance. Lisa's potential boyfriend, Matty, however, is as clueless and perpetually single as they come, and George's girlfriend just dumped him. A chance hook-up through mutual friends, Lisa and George may be able to form a friendship, or more, that can help them climb out of the piles of lemons that life has handed to them. Written by napierslogs  

Box Office

Budget:

 $120,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $7,484,696 (USA) (19 December 2010) (2483 Screens)

Gross:

 $30,212,620 (USA) (23 January 2011)

Quotes

Lisa: OK, then this is what I need, if in the middle of the night I start crying, shaking or getting enormously upset I don't want you to ask me what's wrong, I just want you to ignore it. Is that OK with you?
Matty: Actually that's my preference!

Next class (11/4)...How Do You Know

How Do You Know is a 2010 romantic comedy drama film directed, written and produced by James L. Brooks. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson.

The film was shot in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It was released on December 17, 2010. This marks the third film to feature Witherspoon and Rudd following 2009's Monsters vs. Aliens and 1998's Overnight Delivery.

The Invention of Lying

In chapter 5, we're introduced to our main character Mark as he ventures to visit his mother who has been relegated to a nursing facility.  In this reality tho the nursing facility is entitled 'A Sad Place for Hopeless Old People' rather than a nursing home or assisted living facility.  Unfortunately we are to believe that a world devoid of untruths leaves no room for any sense of hope.  

2 Timothy 2:24-26

²⁴And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong.

    ²⁵He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it],

    ²⁶And that they may come to their senses [and] escape out of the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him, [henceforth] to do His [God's] will.

In chapter 13 Mark is overcome by what has produced a wildfire of interest in what he had to tell his dying mother in his attempts to comfort her before she passed.  Anna comes to his side and urges him to share the 'word', as the information he has will 'change mankind forever'.  If Mark's lie is so desperately needed to be shared in this skewed sense of reality, just think how urgent our need for sharing absolute truth in this one is.  

1 Corinthians 14:1-3

^1-3Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you're letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.

In chapter 16 we find Mark and Anna on a park bench sharing perspectives on the people they see and each other.  In a very ironic twist we see just how deep depravity runs in this reality and in many ways parallels our own in that Anna is able to see so much more in Mark, but is ultimately unable to overcome the way the world is.  It is only through God's ability to regenerate us as people through the renewing of our minds that will ever lead to any sense of hope in our existence to come and His existence in the here and now.  

Titus 3:4-6

⁴But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior to man [as man] appeared,

    ⁵He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

    ⁶Which He poured out [so] richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.

  

Next class(10/21)...The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying is a 2009 fantasy romantic comedy film that is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. This film is the directorial debut of Gervais. The film stars Ricky Gervais as the first human with the ability to lie. It also stars Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Rob Lowe, and Tina Fey.