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Just finished watching Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, that gives us a glimpse of the “Jesus People” in their natural element. Farmiga also stars as the main character, “Corrinne”, a lady who, though deeply entrenched in the theology of the “Jesus Movement”, wrestles with her faith on a daily basis. When I saw the trailer for the film, about a year ago at local art house theater, I knew I had to see the film. I’ve long been fascinated with various Christian sects, especially the Christian counter-culture of the 60′s and 70′s.

For one thing, I think you can draw a lot of comparisons of the “Jesus People” and the “post-modern” evangelicals and/or “red letter” Christians of today. Indeed, many of the issue “Corrinne” struggles with in Higher Ground, the heroines of the modern progressive-evangelical movement write and speak about extensively–specifically the role and treatment of women within the Christian church and the ways male-dominated theology has damaged the faith of many women.

In the past three months alone, I’ve read two books that examine this narrative thoroughly–Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans and Alisa Harris’ Raised Right. Not surprisingly, Higher Ground is based on a memoir, that of Carolyn Briggs, who now serves as an English professor at an Iowa community college. While Evans and Harris were raised in a different time, in a different brand of Christianity, there are many similarities in their stories.

A couple of thoughts on the movie:

One, I’m amazed that there is not much out there in the way of film or books on the “Jesus People” or “Jesus Movement”, understanding that they greatly influenced the shape of modern day evangelical Christianity. My first exposure to the “Jesus People” was through the music of Larry Norman and the Thief in the Night series of movies (a much cooler, 1970′s version of Left Behind). In college, I attended a Vineyard church, which sprung out of the “Jesus movement”, on occasion. When I look at the latest fads in contemporary evangelical theology, I see the fingerprints of the “Jesus People” all around.

From Mark Driscoll to Rob Bell, from Brian McLaren to Leonard Sweet, from Shane Clairborne to Donald Miller–the leading theological minds of the 21st Century–men (and, yes, they are all men) deemed as trailblazers by their followers–are simply recycling the thoughts of the “Jesus Movement”. The only real difference is the maintenance of the facial hair.

Yet, there is very little out there on the “Jesus People” or “Jesus Movement”. It’s as if it’s a movement that never happened or, if it did, had very little impact on Christianity. When I set out on  a Google search for “Jesus People” and “Jesus Movement”, I expected to find hundreds of scholarly books and essays from theology students and the spiritually curious. Instead, I found only a handful of articles and books from the 1970′s and hardly anything published after 1980.

Why has this particular movement been ignored?

One final note, the soundtrack features many “old time” religious  hymns (the Methodists call them the “Cokesbury hymns”) and Southern gospel favorites. Many of them are sung by this terrific female talent. I waded through all of the credits, just to get to the soundtrack information to see who the voice belonged to. Turns out, its the voice of Amy Helm, the daughter of the great Levon Helm of The Band fame, and who was immortalized in Elton John’s classic, “Levon”. Ms. Helm has her own band, Ollabelle. Their first eponymous first album is filled with many gospel classics.

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In my farewell to FNL, I noted that the show seemed to be far more popular among the Elite–that is the intellectual crowd of the East and West Coasts–than among folks in rural Texas, where the series is set. Now the series (and the movie & book) has been reviewed by The New York Review of Books, which has been described as “”the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language.”

Lorrie Moore provides an astonishingly insightful review of the show, where even some of her erroneous points unearth some indelible truths.

In West Texas, largely because of the heat, high school football is often played on weekend nights under klieg lights to crowds of up to twenty thousand people. These lit matches are just that: they light the fuse and transform these young players into local celebrities, turning these high school games into the only show in what would otherwise be a no-show town. In rough terrain blighted further by the dusty winds of economic collapse—droughted ranches, oil rigs mute and still as scarecrows—these games are the week’s high point for these boys and for the adults (parents, uncles, unemployed older brothers, boosters) who try to live vicariously through them. The town wants to win at something.

We play football on Friday nights in Texas because it is a social event, not because of the heat, but in spite of that misstatement, Moore is able to transform the paragraph into beautiful prose that captures the very  heart of Texas high school football and small town life.

There were a couple of other parts of the review that had me scratching my head, such as this assertion inserted in a paragraph comparing the soundtrack of the movie and the television series:

In the series, though the homoerotic ties of boys and team sports can be noted and felt, they are not as aggressively put forward. In the film there is a father-son pair that is the major romance—”You got one stinking year to make yourself some memories” are the father’s words of love—and the original edition of Bissinger’s book starts off with locker room photographs of hugging teammates and shirtless players blow-drying their hair.

I’ve read the book, watched the movie and have seen every episode of the TV series multiple times and have never detected the slightest sense of homoeroticism–not that there is anything wrong with that–but it simply is not warranted. To interpret male bonding, through athletics, as homoeroticism shows how deeply “out of touch” some intellectuals are with mainstream American society.

In the end, Moore’s piece says what I had hoped to say in my review far my eloquently:

In this particular prime-time representation, small-town Texas culture is less about hardened exteriors and shredded dreams than about preserving, finding, and acquiring integrity and decency: family duty, Christian kindness, and charity are its hallmarks. For decoration there is also a lot of cleavage.

Without a doubt, the best description of the series, and of rural Texas, I have ever read.

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As the lights went down for the 9:40 P.M. showing of Horrible Bosses, I noticed an elderly couple make their way to their seats. My wife leaned over and asked me if I thought they might be lost–half joking–but by the end of the movie I too was shocked they hadn’t left in the middle of the show.

Without a doubt, Horrible Bosses was the most vile, the most reprehensible, the most abrasive movie I’ve seen in a while, even so, I don’t necessarily regret it, if for no other reason than it introduces us to a side of Jennifer Aniston none of us have ever seen. This ain’t the Rachel your girlfriend remembers from Friends.

Likewise, Kevin Spacey, Jason Bateman and Colin Farrell all give memorable performances. This movie served as my first real taste of Charlie Day, a funny man, but a bit of a high-talker. Similarly, I was familiar with Jason Sudeikis (spare me the “I’m unhip” lecture series) by name only and he turned out to be rather funny as well. All in all, I felt the cast fit together rather nicely, salvaging a very juvenile script.

For those of you not familiar with the plot line, Bateman, Day and Sudeikis play three over-worked, underpaid members of the American workforce. Each has boss that is evil in their own unique way. Things get so bad for all three that they set out to permanently dispose of their bosses (played by Spacey, Aniston  and Farrell) and hilarity ensues (or so the writers planned).

My perception of the film may be a little skewed, due to the inordinate amount of distractions in the theater. Even though the film began at 9:40, there were a ton of later arrivers. More than one person dropped a beer bottle on exposed concrete floor during the show, creating an atmosphere more like a bar than a movie theater. A flock of teenage girls, probably not even old enough to buy a ticket to the show, snuck in and were moving about throughout the show.

By the time the show was over, I was happy, but a bit perturbed. The film had made me laugh–kept me entertained–but I couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret for dropping $20 to see the show, when so many other great movies are out right now. I feel I would been much better served to have waited until Bosses was released on Blu-ray and received it as part of my Netflix subscription. For these reasons, I give the show a B-.

Continue reading »]]> I lost all respect for Cameron Diaz long before cameras caught her feeding popcorn to Alex Rodriguez at the Super Bowl. In my opinion, she represents everything that is wrong with Hollywood and normally I avoid any of her projects. However, an effective marketing campaign for Bad Teachers, launched during the NBA Finals, raised my interest in the movie enough to earn it a spot on my summer movie list.

Diaz works blue, throughout the film, in ways that would make  Artie Lange blush. It’s a side of Diaz I never have seen before and just might be the only thing she can do well.

Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a 7th grade English teacher, who in the opening scene we find out is leaving the teaching field, presumably to become a housewife. We learn a few things about Ms. Halsey. First, she half-assed her way through her one and only year at JAMS (John Adams Middle School), never even bothering to learn the names of her associates. We also discover rather quickly that Halsey is a gold-digger, set on draining her fiancee dry. With the help of his Mother, he realizes this as well and leaves Halsey to fend for herself.

Whether it’s smoking a bowl in the parking lot or helping her class cheat on the state assessment test, Diaz’s character does everything a teacher should not do, and avoids everything a teacher should do.  Blinded by her superficial lusts, she misses out on the things her life really needs, which serves to only fuel her self-destructive fire. As you might guess, Halsey eventually learns the error of her ways, through the help of her students, and ends up finding her calling in life.

As absurd as the premise may seem, I know teachers like Ms. Halsey–complete with the pot smoking, drinking on the job and desire to fart their way through the school year, just so they can get a 2 month paid vacation during the summer. Like Halsey, they learned a lot about life and about teaching, from their students.

Teachers will not win any awards, nor will it revolutionize the way pictures are made. It doesn’t require the move goer to engage in any intense self-reflection, nor will it inspire you to be a better person. Indeed, the only thing this movie does is make you laugh, and laugh hard. The movie accomplishes what it sets out today, so in spite of all its obvious warts and pimples, I have to give the movie a B, well worth adding to your summer movie list as well.

Continue reading »]]> As someone who prides himself on being different from the bloggers on the East and West coasts, I apologize for not making this recommendation sooner. I’ve been reading Oxford American for a few years now, after my mother turned me onto the magazine for its emphasis on Southern writing. But Oxford American is much more than a collection of essays on small towns, trailer parks and Truman Capote wannabes. It is a medium for Southerners and non-Southerners alike to share their unique cultural insights of this most colorful of American regions. In fact, I’ve found this best writing to come from the annual Southern foods edition. The magazine also features yearly specials on Southern films & music (much more than just Elvis, Lynryrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers). Whether or not you’re from the South, I highly recommend this magazine. If nothing else it serves as definite change from the stagnant views you find in the generic East Coast publications.

Continue reading »]]> Since getting my first iPod as a gift some four years ago, I’ve downloaded countless gigs of all forms of media. One of my favorite things to download is podcasts. Over the last few years, I’ve tried out hundreds of different podcasts, but have now narrowed it down to 15 or 20 that I listen to on a regular basis. I thought I would share with you my top 5 podcasts:

1.) Slate Culture Gabfest – This is a must listen if you want to stay current on all things related to culture. The shows regular panel consists of Dana Stevens, Julia Turner and Stephen Metcalf, though they are frequently joined by other members of the Slate.Com staff. The content leans towards the “high brow” and much of it involves material published in Northeast publications (i.e. New York Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, etc.), but it provides an inside look at what intellectual elitists all over the nation are talking about.  The most recent episode included a review of the controversial new Lee Daniels’ movie Precious, a review of the Ian McEwan novel Black Dogs to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Jim Windolf’s recent Vanity Fair article on “cuteness.”

2.)  Slate Political Gabfest – Functions in pretty much the same fashion as the Culture Gabfest–three person panel discusses three issues–only involving politics instead of cultural issues. The normal panel consists of John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon and Slate managing editor, David Plotz. Be warned, the panel leans Left–far Left, but it’s entertaining and informative all the same.

3.) Anything You Ever Wanted to Know – This show is produced by KERA, Dallas’ local public radio station. The show airs each Friday afternoon, but I always listen to it via podcast. The show provides an open forum for listeners to submit questions, either on the phone or through e-mail, to be answered by other members of the listening audience and is moderated by Jeff Whittington. Over the past three years, I’ve learned some fascinating things from the show.

4.) The Writer’s Almanac Podcast – Hosted by Garrison Keillor, the show serves as a “this day in literary history” for lovers of words.  Normally, Keillor lists off several key events for each day and then will focus heavily on one birthday or event before reading a selected “poem of the day.” More than anything else, the show has introduced me to some great new poetry.

5.) NPR Playback – While the other podcasts I listed are released on a weekly or daily basies, the NPR Playback podcast is released on a monthly basis and features audio clips from the archives from 20 years prior. For example, the November podcast features audio from NPR segments from November 1984. I love being transported back to the 80′s and this podcast does just that.

Continue reading »]]> I just finished watching an extremely low-budget, but extremely fascinating documentary called Libby, Montana. It’s intriguing to me because for the past 8 or 9 years, I’ve worked in absestos litigation and in the world of asbestos litigation there is no place like Libby, Montana.  The documentary attempts to capture the story of the the vermiculite mine in the town run by W.R. Grace from the 1960′s through the 1990′s.  The film makes a compelling argument that Grace knowingly covered up the fact that mine workers, and residents of Libby, were exposed to tremolite asbestos.

Anyone who works in the field of asbestos litigation, whether on the plaintiff side or defense, needs to watch this film. Sure, the film has an agenda and is biased against the corporations, but I think it puts a human face on our business. I don’t know how compelling this film would be for someone not involved in asbestos litigation or environmental issues. It tends to be a bit slow at times, the audio is horrible and a lot of the basics of asbestos exposure and asbestos related pleural disease is skipped over.

All things considered, I give the film, Libby, Montana, 3 out of 5 stars.

Continue reading »]]> I’ve never been one for boycotts.  I fundamentally disagree with many of the artists on the proper role of the Federal government and on the issue of American exceptionalism. However, I continue to consume their art. Indeed, a quick glance at my movie, music and book library and you’d be hard pressed to find any work by an artist I consider a political ally.

Every so often, an artist harbors such an abhorrent political ideology or personal beliefs that one must question whether or not it’s proper to contribute money to their art.  To this day, I refuse to watch Passion of the Christ or any other Mel Gibson film because of his anti-Semitic tirades.

I’m having similar hesitations when it comes to the new Pixar flick, Up, which currently sits a top the box office and has received great reviews. However, the movie features the voice of Ed Asner.  Regardless of the adjective you choose to describe Asner’s political views, it’s  clear that he is well to the left of center of the average American, as evidenced by his support of the Marxist rebels of the FMLN who fought against our soldiers in El Salvador in the 1980′s. I can tolerate a socialist; I can’t support a traitor.

With that said, I don’t want to act like the religious nuts that boycott everything that runs counter to Puritan values or Levitical law.  What do I do?

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Now playing: Dixie Chicks – Not Ready to Make Nice
via FoxyTunes