The Ambiguity and Clarity of Scorcese's Silence

PLEASE NOTE: This film review/reflection goes into nearly every significant plot point. It assumes you've already seen the film or don't mind having the plot revealed to you.

The meaning of Martin Scorcese's film Silence emerges to us out of the fog, but then only slowly. And if the film is any indicator, the understanding God wants impart to us can take a lifetime to learn.

Several scenes throughout the film are shrouded in mist: dense, billowy clouds of gray persist for half a minute or more, out of which come people moving steadily toward us, all of whom rarely bring good news. The film's beginning and ending is enveloped with an audio fog, the "silence" of nature: the calming low-hum of insects, birds, and wind, a hum that can oddly enough become deafening and maddening in it's never ending silent blaring.

PCR Podcast Ep36: Fitting The White Album Onto 1 LP & 2016 Year In Review

My friend Trey Mowder and I spend this episode trying to narrow down The Beatles' White Album onto a single disc (which means we have to cut out songs, as if such a thing were possible!). For reference, our full song lists and some explanations on how we made our choices can be found here: Fitting the White Album onto one record. On top of that, I also give my year end best of lists (music, TV, films, podcasts) and some highlights for PostConsumer Reports from 2016 (You can read my full end of year list here). You can listen to our previous Beatles episode here: A Commentary on the Documentary 8 Days a Week.


Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

Related Beatles Articles:
Lessons Learned From the Beatles
Post Impressions #1: The Beatles Blackbird

Past Podcast Episodes

Episode 15: Mike Foster Tolkien Scholar and Author

Episode 32: An Interview With Mitch McVicker

Episode 16: Dialogues With Brandon: How Big Is Your Soul?

PostConsumer Reports Year in Review: 2016

Featuring podcasting, blogging, music, TV, & film, and a look back at the year for PostConsumer Reports.

So, it's the end of 2016. And everybody hates you 2016. You're not invited to anymore parties. No one feels safe around you. It's time to seek serious help. The only people remotely happy with 2016 are those who think Donald Trump should be our president, but I assume even they are more than saddened by all the great artists who died as well as apprehensive about the many troubling issues facing our nation and world (assuming they are paying attention).

PCR Podcast Ep 34: Beatles' Documentary "8 Days a Week" With Trey Mowder

This fall filmmaker Ron Howard released a new documentary Eight Days a Week on the touring years of The Beatles. Trey Mowder and I sat down and discussed what we thought of the film. Part commentary, part movie review, part love letter to the Fab Four, consider this the semi-definitive guide to the new film. 


Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

Related Beatles Articles:
Lessons Learned From the Beatles
Post Impressions #1: The Beatles Blackbird

Past Podcast Episodes

Episode 15: Mike Foster Tolkien Scholar and Author

Episode 32: An Interview With Mitch McVicker

Episode 16: Dialogues With Brandon: How Big Is Your Soul?

Problem: Is The Walking Dead the Kind of Show You Would Watch Again?

A couple of years ago, while watching the season 5 opener of The Walking Dead, I had a strong and unexpected visceral experience. I mean this literally, in that my insides were actually shaking.

For Walking Dead viewers the end of season 4 was a huge buildup to Rick Grimes and his clan of survivors' arrival at Terminus, which was a cataclysmic disaster. The people of Terminus were cannibals and managed to quickly take Rick and all his people captive. Season 5 opens in the frenzied confusion of a flashback of Terminus' tragic beginnings and the darkened battle-planning of Rick's crew from inside their cargo freight prison. Soon though, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Bob, and a few people we don't know find themselves in a human slaughterhouse knelt above a feeding trough, awaiting their deaths. One by one the victims' throats are slit until they get to Glenn, whereupon his potential death is dangled before us a number of times as outside gunshots are heard and Rick distracts Gareth, the Terminus leader, by threatening to kill him. 

Eventually, due mostly to Carol, they all escape and zombie hoard chaos ensues, but once everything died down I realized I had had an actual physical reaction to watching all of this. My hands and my guts were quivering. I was down there in the trenches with them. I had immersed myself in their trauma and my adrenalin was flowing freely. I was the farthest thing from a detached viewer. I cared deeply about these people and I felt like I had become one of them.

Later on, perhaps weeks later, after a few other experiences similar to this, I came to a realization: I don't think I can watch any of this again. This is not something I want to put myself through more than once.

Quick Review: Maria Bamford's New Show Lady Dynamite

I just watched the first episode of Maria Bamford's new show Lady Dynamite. Writer and Director Mitchell Hurwitz is trying too hard to replicate the pace and tone of his previous show Arrested Development and is not letting Maria's personality shine through enough. It's way too much Hurwitz and not enough Maria. The scenes where her quirkiness shines through are the best. The scenes where she she plays "the straight man" to everyone else's over-the-top quirkiness nearly always fall flat—except for Patton Oswalt. He's great. And Maria is generally great too...when she's allowed to do her thing. If the show had a motto it would be: "LET'S BE AS ZANY AS POSSIBLE! TO THE MAX!" If zany were funny, this would be fine, but in this case it is not. Bamford is one of my favorite comedians, so this is disappointing.

Here's what works:

The Greatest Mistake The Force Awakens Made

One of the most powerful images in J.J. Abram's Star Wars: The Force Awakens is of our heroine Rey's speeder zooming across the Jakkuvian desert, with a hollowed out ruin of an Imperial star destroyer enveloping the entire bleak background. Rey had just come out of that very Star Destroyer, scavenging its parts for a paltry day's wage. The image is so powerful because the Star Destroyer is a giant mechanical carcass, a symbol of the Empire's great downfall and the Rebel's great victory. It is a remnant and an ominous reminder of how things once were...except...things are nearly exactly the same as they were when the Empire was at its peak in Empire Strike Back and (most of) Return of the Jedi. And here is the greatest mistake The Force Awakens makes: offering incredibly meaningful symbolism to those of us who know and care about the Star Wars universe and then totally negating that symbolism with the actual plot of the film.

As a reboot of a major blockbuster franchise, the producers and filmmakers gave into the temptation to go bigger rather than smaller, under the default assumption (and cliche) that "bigger is better." The Star Wars prequels made the same mistake in how they portrayed the Jedi's and Episode VII makes this mistake in how they portray the First Order (i.e., the Empire 2.0). In a previous article ("What the Star Wars Trilogy Should Have Been (But Weren't)") my friend Jason Knott put forward the idea that the prequels would have been much better served had they gone smaller, making the Jedi's a relic of the past rather than a politically and militarily enmeshed (and rather boring) foregone conclusion in the life of the Republic. Smaller, according to Jason, would have been far more intriguing. The Jedis would have been underdogs and would have needed to prove themselves. Rather than being a place holding bureaucrat who cannot stick to a decision about training Anakin as a Jedi, Yoda could have been the charismatic and enigmatic leader of a Jedi resurgence. Part of the story of the prequels would have been the rebuilding (and struggle) of the great and powerful Jedi order. He would have had to gain the trust of the Republic's leaders and their training could have been done somewhat in secret (and thus as a rebellion). This plot change would have made them the underdogs and thus far more interesting. 

And so we get to the way the First Order is portrayed in TFA. Honestly, I have had my fill of the all-encompassing autocratic Empire imagery. I think TFA would have been far more interesting (and far more faithful to where Return of the Jedi left us) if the First Order had been the underdogs. I think most everyone has met their quota of Nazi imagery in films and television to satisfy a lifetime. Using Nazi-esque propaganda is so tempting, I know, and it actually looks really good in TFA, especially in the troops rallying scene where Domhnall Gleeson is the stand-in for Hitler. As a scene in itself I loved it. It scared me as a viewer. However, as a whole, the First Order portrayed as being basically just as powerful as the Emperor's Empire, kind of neuters them for me. They do not feel like much of a threat, just another shortsighted bureaucracy that we can fly x-wings into and blow to bits. What if the First Order were WAY more of a threat, what if they were evil-underdogs, what if they were more of a mirror of today's global environment, what if they were...

...Terrorists and insurgents? Think of it. Imagine not knowing where the First Order would show up next. Imagine them being an unseeable threat that was always one step ahead of General Leia's military forces. Imagine General Leia (and Admiral Ackbar?) attempting to piece together the goodness of the old Republic, but constantly being thwarted in their attempts due to the constant threat of random violence. Imagine the First Order taking on the mantle of martyr's, making The Resistance seem like the oppressors, as if they are the corrupt leaders. Imagine them using their rhetoric to recruit hordes of followers and then infiltrate the Resistance's leadership as spies without anyone knowing. Imagine Kylo Ren truly needing to restore the glory of his grandfather's vision for the galaxy.

Now, before you jump too far ahead, I have no interest in turning this hypothetical Episode VII into an anti-Islamic propaganda piece. I have no interest in taking the imagery and methods of ISIS and projecting them onto the Star Wars universe. There would not need to be lo-fi hostages-with-bags-on-their-heads videos or mass beheadings on a beach, or groups of soldiers crazily shooting their blasters in the air shouting "Death to Leia! Death to the Republic!". To me, "terrorism" has become or is becoming a much more universal concept, just as dictatorships and fascism cannot be relegated merely to Hitler's Third Reich. Which is to say that the big military scene mentioned above could have been a reference to Hitler, but it also could have been a reference, to Stalin, Mussolini, Chairman Mao, or any of a handful of African dictators. Autocracies have been universalized, and so it is with terrorism. In fact, Americans know their own brand of terrorism other than the radically Islamic kind, from the "random" slaughterings of the mentally ill and racist, to the highly conceived operations of a few domestic terrorists. 

The idea that anyone can strike us anywhere and at anytime is a fear that pervades 21st century life on the global scale. Now of course the "First Order as terrorists" angle would have to be translated into a more kid-friendly context for Star Wars and would not have to be played heavy handedly. Star Wars could create its own brand of terrorism, its own imagery and culture. But the basic actions of terrorists will forever be simple: rather than a nation mustering its troops in the full sight of the public, we have a group that plans in secret and strikes out when no one is looking. 

Nonetheless, this major plot change would not actually affect much of the film's plot except for one major point:

There would be no Starkiller base/planet/sunsucker to blow up. Now, I did not actually mind the whole Starkiller Base plot device in TFA. Yeah, I thought it was a little lame (and lazy) that here we are blowing up another ultra-mega WMD, but I could roll with it. This is STAR WARS, after all, and we got to see lots of cool aerial fighting and talking back and forth in pilot lingo. So, I was fine as far as it stood in the actual movie itself. However, if the First Order were more in the terrorist/insurgent position, there would be no Starkiller Base at all. There would not even be a budget for that kind of thing! Instead, the plot would go something like this: the Resistance, in an effort to stop the increasing terror attacks on various planets in the galaxy, has finally located the First Order base and they attempt a sneak attack of some kind, both in the air and on the ground. There could have even been some horrible attack, where the Resistance decides "We have got to do something about the First Order!" And then someone shows up with intelligence about where their base is. Whatever, whatever.  You can fill in the details yourself (or J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan can). The second half of the film would feel more like a heist film or a navy seals raid film (Let's do some Zero Dark Thirty business and go take out our First Order version of Osama bin Laden everybody!). 

But really, with perhaps a few tweaks here and there, hardly any of the other main plot points would need to change:

• We could still have tie fighter/x-wing fight scenes, although basically all the space ships and weapons (especially on the First Order side) should look a little run-down and battered, rather than cutting edge and pristine (although I would allow for some new models, because "Coooool!"). Terrorist organizations cannot muster the military strength of an actual nation, but they have been able to arm themselves effectively.
• We could still have Poe Dameron and BB-8 acquiring the map to Luke Skywalker.
• We could still have helmeted/masked all-but-anonymous soldiers, which is to say the 20th century version of the stormtrooper was a representation of a Nazi stormtrooper and the 21st century version of a stormtrooper could be of a masked terrorist, it is just that both representations would look like Star Wars stormtroopers. The filmmakers could figure this out. Suspending our disbelief for Star Wars really is not much of a problem. Maybe there would be a lot less stormtroopers. There could even be the new model of armor, but again just more beaten up than usual. The First Order could be small but growing and attempting to be really organized and disciplined, patterning after the scope and scale of the old Empire military operations.
• All this means that we could still have Finn and he could still be a defector and still help Poe Dameron escape when he was being held hostage at the First Order base.
• We could still have Rey stranded as an exile on Jakku.
• Which means Luke Skywalker could still have vanished after a failed attempt to restart the Jedi Order.
• All the Han Solo/Leia stuff would basically be the same.
• Kylo Ren's whiny teenage angsty raging (which I thought was great), would even be amplified, as his anger would be channelled into restoring the Sith and bringing glory to Darth Vader.
• You could still have Supreme Leader Snoke doing all his creepy maniacal supreme leader stuff, even though I do not quite get him as a character and was truly turned off by the fact that he was a pretty mediocre example of CGI, despite all the claims of the filmmakers' brilliant performance capture technology. He looked very much like and a character in an animated movie, which really broke the suspension of disbelief for me.
• Han Solo could still die, only now it would be during the raid on the First Order (terrorist) base.
• We could still have the conflicts and lightsaber duels with Ren, Rey, and Finn at the end.
• You could still have R2-D2 wake up at the end with the rest of the map, if you still thought that (rather lazy) plot device was necessary. It's fine, really, just go ahead and do that.
• We could still have the amazing Captain Phasma and perhaps there would be an awesome do-it-yourself backstory to her chrome suit of armor that would come in a later movie (or a stand alone comic book) where she had to fashion it herself out of old parts she found on salvaged tie-fighters.
• And we could still tantalizingly leave the reveal of Skywalker to the very end (which I loved, actually).

By the way, we certainly would not want to use the word terrorist or insurgent anywhere. We would let the action speak for itself. Most of the world now knows full well the language of terrorism.

To me, all of this seems like a much more compelling plot. In it, the First Order becomes actually menacing, a terrifying, chaotic, unpredictable force. On top of that, there is movement within the First Order, from having very little power, to gaining influence, to perhaps even restarting the old Empire. This puts the Resistance into a backtracking defense. It would be assumed they were the ones in power, but their's would be an unstable regime where not all the planets in the fledgling new Republic were on board with the General Leia's (or whoever's) leadership. Again, my main assertion is that (in this instance) it would have been better to go smaller. The plot and character lines would be more interesting and they could still do all the cool space and lightsaber fights (or come up with a new exciting scenario for fighting, rather than the same well-worn tropes).

And this shift in plot would certainly have been more faithful to the end of Return of the Jedi as well as to that beautiful shot of the abandoned star destroyer. Making the shift to the First Order as underdogs, terrorists, and insurgents would have made that image more than an epically gripping shot—it would have been an image weighted with meaning. It would have connected the entire film as well as the original trilogy into a cohesive whole, and it would have shown us that defeating empires has actual consequences, both good and bad.

For anyone interested, my friend, Seth Ben-Ezra has offered a more over-arching critique of The Force Awakens here. I have lots of disagreements with him (and we'll have to take care of that in private!), but his article is really well written and thought out:
For Further Comment—Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
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Related Articles:
A New Hope?: A Wishlist For The Re-launch of Star Wars" 
What the Star Wars Prequels Should Have Been (But Weren't)
We Know How the Story Ends: An Exploration of Narrative in Film

"You don't need that man in your life": Feminine Power in Sufjan Stevens' "Djohariah and Mad Max: Fury Road

And the man who left you for dead
He's the heart grabber back stabber double cheater wife beater
You don't need that man in your life
—Sung by Sufjan Stevens in his song "Djohariah"

It all starts in a car.

Sometimes, you just gotta get in the car and leave. But first you have to get that man out of the backseat. If only it were that easy. "I know you won't get very far with the backseat driver in the carpetbagger with the dagger heart grabber stuck in your car," so sings Sufjan Stevens to his troubled sister Djohariah in the song he wrote for her.

A Commentary on Ben Hur—Part 2

Here continues part 2 of my commentary on the 1959 classic epic film Ben Hur staring Charlton Heston. Click here for part 1.

A Commentary on Ben Hur—Part 1

Ben Hur is one of the most iconic movies of all time. I recently got a library card (which I highly recommend) and started checking out classic films that I cannot currently lazily stream through Netrix or Amazon Slime. PSA: libraries are incredible resources. Support your local library! 

I began watching Ben Hur, only to realize this was too interesting not to write about. Here is my scene by seen (zing!) assessment of the film. Feel free to grab your own copy and read through the article as you watch it yourself. Every point is basically a stand alone thought. That is, I am making no attempt at a formal essay—I just logging my thoughts as I go.

Click here for Part 2 of my commentary.

PCR Podcast Episode 12: Dialogues With Brandon: Archer and The Walking Dead

Every month (or so) I'll be putting up a new dialogue with my friend Brandon Lulay. Instead of an interview it's mutual conversation. Today we talk about my difficulties with the animated show Archer as well as our thoughts on the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead (yeah, THAT one). Listen closely to find out how much of a whiner I am about the cliffhanger as well how to win a free CD of mine.


Subscribe to the podcast on itunes

______________________
Past Podcast Episodes:
Episode 06: Mike Condo of Superfan Vinyl on the release of DC Talk's Jesus Freak 
Episode 07: Pastor Luke Edwards on "why churches should stop giving stuff away"

Episode 08: Dr. Jeremiah Gibbs on Postmodern Apologetics

Episode 09: Caleb J. Kruse on Meeting Rich Mullins

Episode 10: David Leo Schultz Director of Brennan
Episode 11: Thom Blair on the Hebrew English Interlinear O.T. and Logos Bible Software

The Comedic Legacy of Garry Shandling

Garry Shandling was a comic presence in my life. No, that sentence is too light. It does not convey enough. Garry Shandling was a comic ever-presence in my life; a shaper of comedic impulses, a force of comedy. 

PCR Podcast Episode 10: David Leo Schultz director of Brennan

Director/actor/writer David Leo Schultz is our first repeat guest on the PCR podcast (and it's our 10th episode as well!). This time he is talking about his new film Brennan, which is an intimate character study of the author and speaker Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel, Ruthless Trust). You can read my review of the film here: Brennan Film Review. We get into the frustrations of making films that are not 100% family friendly with American Christian culture, the difficulties of portraying someone as enigmatic as Brennan Manning, and how we are all pretty messed up and desperately in need of God's grace. For more info on Brennan, including show times and places, visit their website: http://www.brennanmanningmovie.com/.

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes You can financially support the film here: https://www.gofundme.com/brennanthemovie

Film Review: "Brennan" the new film about Brennan Manning

NOTE: follow this link for my interview with David Leo Schultz, Brennan's director.

The weekend I watched Brennan the new biopic about the life of author/speaker Brennan Manning from director/writer/actor David Leo Schultz, was the same weekend we read the "Prodigal Son" passage from Luke 15 in my church. Jesus' parable of the son who squandered his inheritance through sinful and reckless living is a messy story, that ultimately is not about us at all—it is about the vast, unquenchable, and perplexing love of God. As a film, Brennan, starring Hal Alpert in the titular role, is equally as messy, centering around two real life prodigals wandering in the midst of their own journey, sometimes towards and sometimes away from the love of God.

Meryl Streep's Speech From "The Devil Wears Prada" is a Load of Rubbish

My wife and I recently watched The Devil Wears Prada (2006) for the first time. It is a pretty good movie—about as good as formulaic "romantic-comedies" get really. Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are all wonderful, the dialogue passes the Bechdel test, it is plenty funny, and the plot is plenty interesting. It is also plenty cheesy at points, but oh well. As a light-hearted movie about relatively serious things, it is a good way to spend an evening.

But something has not sat well with me in the weeks since watching it. About a third of the way through the film Meryl Streep's "Miranda Priestly" (channeling Vogue's iconic Anna Wintour) drops an epic speech onto Anne Hathaway's fashion neophyte "Andy", a speech that changes the course for Hathaway's character. Andy had just snickered at the Runway magazine team's seemingly superfluous back and forth indecisiveness as to which belt should go with an outfit in question. Miranda turns to Andy and mercilessly dismantles Andy's dismissive smirk with an scathing monologue. It is a speech that advocates for the legitimacy and importance of fashion to all our lives, how every single article of clothing we wear is the result of years of risk and work and money. It is an inspiring speech that should forever shift how we understand fashion, especially if we think it is a helplessly vain and decadent industry. The speech could do that, but it shouldn't, because it is an absolute load of rubbish.

Chris Rock Has About 5 Options As To How He Will Host the Academy Awards

This Sunday, February 28 is the 2016 Academy Awards Oscar ceremony. Comedian/actor/director Chris Rock is hosting and many are wondering what his comedic approach will be as he delivers his opening monologue and skewers celebrities in between awards announcements.

This year in particular seems to be a perfect storm for Rock and his comedic sensibilities. For some reason, the academy chose to offer zero nominations to African American or minority actors (despite there being numerous worthy choices), while also selecting America's most prominent and incendiary black comedian as its host (instead of offering it to Billy Crystal again). The lack of diversity in this year's Oscars has sparked a funny but enlightening twitter category #oscarssowhite, led a number of prominent Hollywood types to boycott the event, and has even caused Chris Rock to entirely revamp his routine for the night (instead of boycotting it). This has lead to speculation as to how exactly Rock is going to take on the current situation in the Academy. 

As I see it, he has about 5 different options before him, all with varying levels of probability of actually happening:

What the Star Wars Prequels Should Have Been (But Weren’t)

Many, many Star Wars fans have spent years wringing their hands, furrowing their brows, and turning away in disgust over George Lucas' prequel trilogy. We nearly all also admit Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, was pretty, pretty, pretty good...but still...our list of grievances against them tend to grow long. As a result, we were all a convoluted mess of hopeful and terrified when it came to waiting for The Force Awakens to be released (You can read my article "A New Hope?: A Wishlist For The Re-launch of Star Wars" to find out what I am worried about.)

Some fans have even taken to writing their own alternate versions of the prequels (more on this below). Some offer slight tweaks and alternate endings, and some change the plot altogether.

A little while ago, as The Force Awakens was reaching fever pitch, Jason Knott, a friend of mine who went to seminary with me, shared his own version of how he thought the prequels should have gone. One aspect of his version gripped me so powerfully I have not been able to stop thinking about it. In fact, while watching the prequels I cannot help but constantly think "If only Lucas would have done this." Over and over I think it, until it ruins my viewing experience. Wait, they were ruined already, so it's a wash.

A New Hope?: A Wish List For the Re-launch of Star Wars

All I want for Christmas is a good Star Wars Movie
Related Articles: What The Star Wars Prequels Should Have Been (But Weren't) & The Greatest Mistake The Force Awakens Makes

I have a friend with an incredibly dry sense of humor (he makes cool videos, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/user/NathanH83), who, about a month ago, came up to me in a coffee shop and said, "Hey, have you heard the news about Star Wars?"

I could only imagine what he was talking about. I had been reading article after article regarding different theories on the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens. Theories about Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, theories about Leia's and Han Solo's children, theories about how now that Disney has the rights to them they will never stop making Star Wars films. So I answered my friend "Yes, I've probably heard the news, but what?"

With an entirely straight face he said "Well they're making a new one. It's called The Force Awakens. Isn't that great?"

Making a Case For Dark Comedy #4: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang

Embrace the dark side...of Charlie Brown...

Yeah that's right. I just put the iconic "children's" character Charlie Brown and the humorous tales surrounding his dog and friends in the category of "dark comedy."

But think about it: the kid only gets rocks for Halloween and it's his own TV special. And did you ever actually see him kick that ball? Good old Chuck is nothing but the locus of perpetual derision and mockery from his friends and family. He is constantly failing at what he puts his efforts toward, finds himself disappointed in everything he puts his hopes in, and receives near unequivocal abuse from those closest to him.

7 things I'm hoping for the new Charlie Brown Film

The Peaunts Movie releases into theaters on November 6, 2015. If you are counting, this also marks the 65th anniversary of Charles Schultz's revered comic and the 50th anniversary of the beloved TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Here is a list of 7 things I'm hoping to see in the new film (along with some fears of what I'm hoping it is not).