I wonder… has lecture become a bad word?

I confess, I can listen to hours of good teaching at a stretch, but use the “L-word” (lecture, not the other one) and even my autonomic yawn kicks in. Hopefully, that won’t dissuade folks from enjoying the lec- um… “talk” I was privileged to deliver at our West Seattle Campus. I capped off a five-part l—— series called “Christianity and-”. To no one’s surprise, my topic was Christianity and Culture.

My co-laborers over at The Resurgence posted the audio and some helpful notes. It’s a great primer for those interested in engaging popular culture and entertainment with a gospel focus, reorienting our lives around Jesus’ mission instead of segregating or compartmentalizing our time spent in front of stages, screens, and projected images.

You can check out the text and download the audio here. 

I often get asked to list ten of the more theologically provocative films. The first three are oft-referred to as the “Mars Hill Trilogy”, frequently popping up on pastor’s lists. Not all our pastors would heartily endorse all these films, mind you… and some are definitely not for everyone. (I have also added archived reviews for a few of them, including Fight Club and Signs).

1. The Matrix
The sequels left a bad taste in most peoples’ mouths, but the conversations and imagery provide endless conversation pieces. If you can’t endure Keanu Reeves, comparable films with similar savior themes include Equilibrium, Dark City and even Disney’s Tron. (R)

2. The Devil’s Advocate
A narrative essay on the broad path to destruction, with talent, good intentions, and noble character inevitably compromised by pride, wealth, lust and ultimately the devil himself. Pacino’s portrayal of the devil is chillingly accurate. It pains me to put Keanu Reeves twice in the top three, but there you go. (R)

3. Fight Club
A scathing critique of modern culture, covering everything from materialism, to men robbed of masculinity, to the shortcomings of self-help therapy, to the ultimate “logic” of Nietzchean will-to-power apart from Christ. All this and black comedy. (R) For a full review, click here.

4. Signs
A somber look at how our faith is tested by calamity and the loss of loved ones, culminating in an examination of God’s sovereignty and the assertion in Romans that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (PG-13) For a full review, click here.

5. Amadeus
A semi-historic tale of Mozart and a contemporary who rages against God for giving talent to a man who seems godless. He is livid that Amadeus Mozart will be remembered whereas he will not. Naturally, this angry man overlooks his own pride, jealousy, and the luxurious position he’s been given. (PG; director’s cut, R)

6. Donnie Darko
A thinking man’s film that requires a lot of post-viewing discussion to sort out. The film deals with teen angst, questions about God’s existence, predestination, and sacrifice, set in the 80s with a great retro soundtrack. The director confesses uncertainty about why he was wrestling with the idea of predestination but felt “compelled” to tell the story. (R)

7. The Truman Show
A humorous yet very sobering look at a character who discovers that his life is a television show. This leads to a growing passion to escape being watched and controlled by the show’s creator. The creator in this story is flawed, his motives questionable, yet it still evokes interesting conversation about the human state and our posture toward the true Creator. (PG)

8. Frailty
A haunting tale reminiscent of The Twilight Zone that addresses skepticism and religious fanaticism, playing with our perspective and assumptions and leaving a controversial but undeniable climax. (R)

9. Citizen Kane
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. A masterpiece of groundbreaking cinema that draws several parallels to Ecclesiastes in this story of a man who attains everything.except satisfaction. (PG) For a full review, click here.

10. Batman Begins
Arguably the best comic book hero film, maturely grappling with the difference between vengeance and justice, the shortcomings of pacifism, the abuses of terrorism, and the tension in finding ways to transform a fallen city in desperate need of a savior. (PG-13)

The Simpsons Movie by James Harleman

The funniest part of The Simpsons movie may be the opening, when frustrated father Homer Simpson groans over watching a movie that is essentially a big screen version of what you can see at home on TV. This self-awareness sets up the movie nicely, also setting the level of expectation one should have watching a movie that has been on for over eighteen years and can be found in syndication everywhere.

What do we expect when the longest running prime-time animated sitcom of all time finally has a story on the big screen? Even in Entertainment Weekly, Writer/Producer Mike Scully admits “Story-wise, character-wise, joke-wise…after 400 episodes, we feel like not only have we done it all, we’ve done it all three times, and the audience has been very kind not to notice.”

Inept father Homer will screw up and learn a lesson (he will forget by next episode). Marge will be firm, but steadfast and dutiful. Lisa will be a know-it-all, and Bart will misbehave. Mr. Burns will release the hounds, and the list goes on… we know the drill, and still laugh after a couple decades and a few weak seasons. At this point, The Simpsons movie is incapable of offering anything original, save for slightly higher quality animation around familiar themes. This is the cinematic equivalent of a comfortable pair of slippers, a cel-shaded family reunion, familiarity as fun.

With that in mind, The Simpsons Movie delivers beautifully. Inane situations coalesce into a plot; Homer adopts a pig, but dumps the porker’s waste in the already dangerously polluted Lake Springfield, pushing it to toxic levels that lead a sinister EPA Executive to seal all of Springfield in a giant dome, dooming its residents. It’s up to the escaped and fugitive Simpson family to save the town… but Homer wants them to start a new life in Alaska instead. The city is in danger; the situation tests Homer and Marge’s marriage. Lisa complains about the ecological impact. Bart misbehaves. Has it been done? Yep. Did the audience invariably laugh at Homer’s rendition of “Spider-pig”, even though it’s in every trailer? Without question. Like a donut from Lard Lad, The Simpsons Movie is cinematic comfort food.

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Like millions of other people in July, gathering around the world to stare at one of 4,050 movie screens, I waited breathlessly for Optimus Prime and his band of disguised robots to transform. However, something peculiar occurred as we sat through reminders about turning off cell phones and watching requisite trailers for other films.

The screen is filled with the image of a going away party in New York City, thrown for a twenty-something hipster by his equally beautiful friends. It seems amateurish, voyeuristic: we’re not sure why we’re watching this. How long until the mpovie starts? Some folks head out for popcorn. Suddenly, the onscreen loft party is disturbed by an explosion from outside; young adults spill downstairs into the streets as they hear an ominous groan so loud it echoes throughout the city. Looking at the source of the explosion, they scream and run as something plummets to the street. We realize, as it crushes cars, bounces and lies still, that we’re looking at the broken head of our nation’s Statue of Liberty. Something horrible, something apocalyptic, is happening right before our eyes.

What happened? Did I miss the DreamWorks credits? Did I fall asleep and miss the opening of the movie? Are giant robots fighting? Slowly, we realize this is not the start of the movie we paid to see. it turns out to be a preview for an upcoming film, and yet the trailer offers little information. not even a movie title! A date (1-18-08) is all the cinematic teaser offers. The theater audience erupted with cheers, avid filmgoers turning in surprised whispers musing why they’d heard nothing of this before. Several weeks and thousands of blog posts, articles, and talk shows later, including documentation of this unique marketing technique in Advertising Age, this is yet another superbly executed moment for writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams. This man is becoming one of our generation’s masters when it comes to spinning stories and sustaining suspense, a pale but appreciated reflection of our Master Storyteller’s brilliance.

I generally dislike this century’s movie trailers; anticipating the lowest common denominator, they often spell out the entire rhythm and story and its narrative structure, and include all the poignant lines of each character. It’s virtually a Cliffs Notes experience that can ruin a film, making one’s actual viewing feel like going through the paces versus experiencing revelation. Often, a film will release an initial “teaser” that reveals much less, yet fulfills the purpose of whetting our appetite. Why filmmakers (or a usurping advertising department) feel the need to spell out the film point-by-point, lessening the later viewing enjoyment is beyond me. The Hulk was a classic example; the teaser was mysterious, engaging and disturbing, but the trailer released early and against the director’s express wishes contained unfinished computer effects and revealed too much, actually turning audiences against the film.

Co-Creator of “Lost“, J.J. Abrams not only seems to understand this, he seems to have a firm grasp on how to intrigue, mystify, and reel in his audience. Abrams delivered the only “Mission: Impossible” (the third) which truly captured the spy/suspense feel of its source material, and has enjoyed so much success he’s been entrusted with a seemingly insurmountable task of resurrecting Captain Kirk and the “Star Trek” franchise. However, he points to the other sci-fi giant as his primary inspiration: “Star Wars is probably the most influential film of my generation. It’s the personification of good and evil and the way it opened up the world to space adventure, the way westerns had to our parents’ generations, left an indelible imprint. So, in a way, everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films.”

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