Category: Kingdom Culture

Movie Review: Up In The Air (2009)

Up In The Air is an entertaining movie with a worthy message. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) fires people for a living. He works for a company contracted by businesses who need to fire employees but don’t want to deal with the emotional mess that accompanies it.

Bingham loves his job, which allows him to travel from city to city enjoying the “simulated hospitality” offered by airlines, hotels and rental car companies to their loyal repeat customers. Bingham’s loyalty is to impersonal, non-human corporations. His idea of a relationship is a flight attendant greeting him by name when he boards his flight. His life is “up in the air” in that he is not connected relationally to others. Bingham’s job title is as antiseptic as his life: “Career Transition Consultant.” Even in the midst of terminating others, Bingham’s simulated sympathy is delivered dead pan. The lack of community, relationship and emotional attachments insulate Bingham from the pain of really living.

But Bingham loves his life, or so he thinks, until he falls for Alex (Vera Farmiga) and decides to join the human race, leading to an unexpected twist and ending, which I won’t spoil for you here. It’s to Clooney’s credit his charm keeps the movie light enough to be entertaining while it delivers its very serious message.

That message? Community matters. People matter. There is more to life than racking up frequent flyer miles and drinking martinis in the club lounge at the airport. A career is not a substitute for relationships and community. Hollywood got this one right. I recommend it. Rated R (Language and Some Sexual Content). GS

Movie Review: A Serious Man (2009)

I’d been looking forward to seeing the movie, A Serious Man, since seeing the previews and that it was a Coen brothers movie. After such hits as Raising Arizona, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, Intolerable Cruelty, The Big Lebowski and No Place For Old Men they had become my favorite filmmakers.  But A Serious Man was a serious letdown, not because it wasn’t interesting and quirky like other Coen brothers movies but because of its message.

I’m worn out on movies that are excuses for two-hour chase scenes, and I long ago let go of the requirement that movies have happy endings.  I get that movies don’t have to cheer us up or give a false view of reality.  I get that movies are a medium for cultural dialogue and exploring the deeper questions of life.   In fact, that’s why I love going to the movies.  And when filmmakers can make me laugh while exploring the weightier questions, I appreciate them even more. That’s why I like the Coen brothers and Woody Allen.

But while we don’t need trite Leave It To Beaver resolution in our films, do we really need more nihilism?  (Note: In the movie poster our hero is on the roof adjusting his tv antenna because his reception is terrible–read, there is no God in the cosmos communicating with man).   Nihilism is about as fresh as disco.  It was once fashionable.  Now it’s hardly interesting.  And I expected better from the Coen brothers.  Even James Cameron’s graphic pantheism in Avatar was an attempt at something other than nothingness, misguided as it was.

And if Joel and Ethan really believe in nothingness, why do they feel it necessary to tell us?  I mean really, if the universe has no purpose, why would they think it theirs to tell us?  Have the Coens already forgotten that even The Dude, for all his slackerliness, had enough sense to fight off the Nihilists?  Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence. GS

Against A Christian Counter-Culture

I have to admit I’ve never been excited about the idea of “Christian” music, “Christian” movies, or even the “Christian” Yellow Pages.  I don’t listen to Christian radio stations, I rarely go to Christian movies, and the last time I found the Christian Yellow Pages on the front door stoop I threw it away without even removing the plastic wrapper.  It’s not because I don’t like Christians.  I do.  I am one.  And, I think Christians have more to offer in the way of culture than any other worldview, philosophy or religion.

The problem is instead of infiltrating the prevailing culture and transforming it, Christians seek to create a counter-culture.  They create music only Christians will like and movies with religious language only Christians will understand and a phone book so Christians will only have to do business with Christians.  As a result, Christians end up intellectually ingrown, relationally incestuous and culturally irrelevant.

Jesus said the kingdom of God was like yeast which a woman took and worked into dough until it permeated the dough. (Matt. 13:33).  Yeast doesn’t work unless it is worked into the dough.  Jesus also said Christians are to be the salt of the earth. (Matt. 5:13). Salt doesn’t do any good unless it is in food.  Christians are called to be ethically separate from the world, not separated from the world.  In fact, Jesus prayed for Christians saying, “I’m not asking that you take them out of the world.” (John 17:15).  Too many Christians are trying to get out of the world; Jesus is trying to get them into the world.

The game is in the world, not in an insulated cultural cloister.  If you are a Christian, King Jesus wants you in the game, engaging the culture, changing the world.