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Encanto: Cracks in the Foundation

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By Seun Olowo-Ake

Encanto is the story of the magical Madrigal family, their sentient casita and the people in their community that they have taken it upon themselves to protect. Written by Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith and featuring music by Lin-Manuel Miranda the Great (Incidentally, that’s how I shall be referring to him henceforth), Walt Disney Animation’s 60th film brings us magic, familial love, bright colours and Miranda’s conversational music style.

As the only person in the family Madrigal that was not blessed with a magical gift, Maribel (Stephanie Beatriz) compensates by helping her family out in any way she can. However, she soon discovers that, rather than aiding it, her efforts put her in the way of the family’s efficiency. This doesn’t deter her though, as when she discovers her family’s magic is in trouble, she decides that she will be the one to save it. Cue awkward dinners, ‘bigger on the inside’ adventures and making amends.

I really love my family and the idea of family in general so, even though it shocked me, I was not surprised to find myself teary eyed by the end of the movie. Seeing the Madrigals siblings, cousins, parents, tias and tios–all led by the graceful Abuela (Maria Cecilia Botero)–helping each other out made my heart very happy.

Encanto conveys different themes: from the importance of family (where the true magic lies) to the weight that comes with having to be perfect/having nothing go wrong with you to finding and understanding your gift when everyone around you seems more exceptional than you are, as seen in Maribel who is determined to prove her worth to the rest of her family.

However, by the end of the movie, I found myself asking an important question: what is good leadership?

Abuela and the Madrigals are the centrepiece of the community, and it is their magic that keeps it running. But when that magic starts to fade, the problem is not just that their family is losing their magic. It is that they are leaving their community vulnerable. Abuela understands this and tries to sell the illusion that the magic is okay for as long as possible. To me, she exemplifies the type of leader that feels they must always project strength, even when that strength is lacking. This need to show strength has been passed on to the rest of her family who eventually crack under the weight of that pressure, forcing them all to reckon with the fact that though they are the “strongest”/“most gifted”, they need their community. The film tells us by the end that good leader doesn’t just do everything in their power to take care of those in they lead. They also empower those under their influence to become leaders themselves.

A good leader understands they can’t do everything alone, and a good leader is not afraid to ask for help when they need it.

Now, I’m going to listen to the soundtrack on repeat because, believe it or not, this fast-talking rap music lover could not fully understand what was going on in some of the songs. Personally, I blame that on the fact that I watch everything with subtitles. (Or maybe I’m getting up there in age. Lol)

Encanto is premieres in theatres on November 24th, 2021.

SF Radio 8.07: Representing the World in ETERNALS

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With the release of Eternals, the MCU fully leans into its cosmic realm at long last. Spanning a story about ‘divine’ monsters over thousands of years, director Chloe Zhao unravels a narrative that asks profound questions about the universe and our place within it. So, why hasn’t it caught on with audiences? With the lowest RT score in Marvel history, Eternals has become one of the more divisive entries into the current cinematic canon, proving that (maybe) the franchise isn’t bulletproof after all. This week, the Marvel-out team of Dina Hamdieh, Miriam Ibrahim and Seun Olowo-Ake assemble to discuss the film’s strengths (and weaknesses), the relationship between leadership and power and the significance of representation.

You can watch the episode on YouTube and stream on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify, Google Play or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

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The Last Duel: Pain from Another Perspective

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By Seun Olowo-Ake

Directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, The Last Duel is set in the 12th Century and is based on the true story of Marguerite de Carrouge (Jodie Comer), Jean de Carrouge (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and the accusation that put all their lives at risk.

Knowing nothing about the movie before I went in, I admit that I didn’t think that I would enjoy Last Duel. However, the more the story unfolded, the more interested I became. I liked how the film decided to tell the story from the three different perspectives and found it fun seeing how all three people saw the exact same situations in such different ways. I also really enjoyed the performances. Damon captured the hot-headedness of Jean; Driver exemplified the charming, eloquent womanizer that was Jacques; Affleck brought so much humour with his portrayal of the more secondary Lord Pierre; and Comer did an exceptional job portraying the devoted, meek wife, the subtle flirt, and the striving-but-not-quite-good-enough wife that Jean, Jacques and her narratives respectively show her to be.

The film begins by showing us the deterioration of Jean and Jacques’ relationship as fortune continues to smile on Jacque, often at the expense of Jean. The resentment that builds in the already brash Jean reaches its tipping point when his wife, Marguerite, accuses Jacques of rape. Jacques insists that he is innocent, and Jean insists that he is ready to fight to the death to prove that he is guilty. This leads us to the duel itself, which was the last one permitted by the Parliament of Paris. (I just discovered that. The title of the movie makes sense now.)

Many people have called this movie a ‘medieval #MeToo film’, and it very obviously has those undertones. From the characters that did not quite believe Marguerite to the women in the film that came forward with their own stories while simultaneously wondering why on earth Marguerite would ‘bring shame to her family in this way’, to the invasive questioning that she endures on the way to her potential death, The Last Duel certainly shows the struggle of women who have suffered to speak out against the toxic men in their lives.

However, another thing that stood out to me is the idea that we are the centre of our stories and that our actions are reactions to what we perceive around us. We see this in all three main characters, but particularly in Jacques who maintains his innocence because of how the world works to him and how he interpreted the behaviour of Marguerite.

I also found it fascinating that the person with the most drastic character change in all three accounts is Marguerite. Both Jean and Jacques were men who had professed in some way to love her, yet they did not truly see her. In fact, the movie constantly shows her struggling to be seen and heard by her husband, by Jacques and by society. It makes me wonder if we as the main characters in our stories view other people the way they truly are, or the way we want them to be. This idea gains more significance when we consider again that our actions are results of how we see the things around us and that we are constantly interacting with other people who are directly or indirectly affected by what we do. The Last Duel (and historical account) gives the more extreme example of assault, but that is something for us all to ponder as we go about our lives.

True love is putting others before ourselves and, in the context of this movie, seeking to truly understand their motivations before reacting- which I’ll admit is really hard, but no one ever said love was easy.

The Last Duel is available in theatres on Friday, October 15th, 2021.

RESPECT: Sing From the Soul

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By Seun Olowo-ake

Before writing this, I asked myself “what defines soul music?” and found that I could only come up with concepts to try to explain it. I know what someone means when they say ‘this singer has soul’ but I can’t tell you what having soul is. I was curious though, so I went to the dictionary to find the most succinct way to put it. 

The Merriam Webster dictionary says that soul music “originated in African American gospel singing, is closely related to rhythm and blues, and is characterized by intensity of feeling and vocal embellishments.”

Personally, I would say that soul music comes from and speaks to the human soul. I would also argue that any music that speaks to the soul soothes it in some way, a fact that is no doubt tied to genre’s origins in the African American community who, not even a century prior, were singing negro spirituals of hope in the midst of slavery. Music, especially soul music, is a space for the human soul in all its complexities to be expressed. Everything that makes the human soul rich is in effect what makes soul music so rich.

RESPECT gives us a glimpse at the rich soul of Aretha Franklin (played by Jennifer Hudson). The film takes us through the joy of her childhood and how it eventually caved in (both of those states of mind portrayed so beautifully by Skye Dakota Turner). RESPECT also shows her journey as a young woman trying to find her sound and the silent frustration of having everyone else speak on her behalf. It explores her dealing with tragedy, enduring abuse in secret, being directly involved in the Civil Rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and finding a haven in her music.

Jennifer Hudson embodies Aretha Franklin exceptionally well, which was to be expected; Franklin herself handpicked Hudson for the role. In hindsight, Hudson theorises that Franklin picked her, not just because of her talent, but because she saw that she could go to the emotional depths that were needed to tell this story accurately since Hudson had also lost her mother tragically. This emotional depth is obvious through the music and onscreen. Jennifer Hudson brought it. Something that I especially loved was how she portrayed Franklin physically, pressing her lips together when she wasn’t speaking, a motion that she explains as ‘almost biting her words’.

To me, the film is a redemption story. It shows the redemption of her voice because she does eventually learn to use it, especially in moments that feel so earned because of how quiet she had been. (One of these moments earned cheers from the predominantly black and female audience I was with.) It is also an example of redemption of her life through song because, as a lot of songs do, they make good out of her experiences. Finally, RESPECT shows a redemption of her soul as she is lifted up from a place of pain and quite literally into worship through Aretha Franklin’s faith in God.

Ultimately, this film is about using your voice. Aretha’s voice was her music. That’s where her soul was, and it called out loudly through song that ‘This is who I am, and I deserve some R-E-S-P-E-C-T”.

RESPECT is out in theatres on Friday, August 13th, 2021, and its soundtrack featuring the powerhouse that is Jennifer Hudson is available for listening. 

May they both wash over our souls and help them find the strength and dignity they deserve.

7.19 Diverse Heroes in THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

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With the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel finally begins to grapple with one of the most pertinent questions after Avengers: Endgame: Who will take on the shield of Captain America? However, at the same time, the latest series on Disney+ also tries to delve into the much larger issues of American history and racial inequity. This week, Seun Olowo-Ake and Heather Johnson return to tackle questions regarding murky morality, the importance of new perspectives and the battle for the American soul.

You can stream the episode on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

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7.12 Making Home in MINARI

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In Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, a Korean American family moves to an Arkansa farm in search of the American Dream. As they struggle to start a new business, they also struggle to rebuild their lives in a new environment. This week, we welcome SF’r Shelley McVea and newcomer Seun Olowo-ake to talk about making a home and the pitfalls of ambition.

You can stream the episode on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

7.12 MinariDownload

The Flash: Saviours, Sacrifice and the Speed Force

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By Seun Olowo-Ake

Like many shows, The Flash hadn’t completed its season before production shut down because of the pandemic. This means that us Flash fans were left without closure to the Mirror Master storyline of Season 6 and had to wait a whole 10 months before the Scarlet Speedster graced our screens again. So, to tide myself over, I resorted to re-watching old episodes.

Even though I would identify as a binge watcher, I had never actually binge-watched The Flash before. Watching all the episodes so close together like that made some character traits more obvious to me. For instance, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) is not afraid to call his friends out, Iris (Candice Patton) is always ready for combat and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin)–the Flash himself–has a saviour complex.

There are a few examples of this throughout the show. In every episode, it seems like Barry says some version of “I’m not fast enough to stop them”/ “this is all my fault”/ “I should have been there”/ “I can’t save them”. He also has to be told repeatedly by his friends that, “you are not God, Barry”. However, it’s the first half of Season 6 that really puts his complex on display.

The season opens with the Crisis where it was foretold that “the Flash must die”, which looms over Team Flash’s heads. At first, they think they can stop it from changing their lives, but after Barry pulls a Doctor Strange and sees billions of possible futures, he develops the conviction himself that he must die to save everyone. He spends a portion of the show trying to prepare his friends for a world without the Flash, training them so they can be heroes without his leadership and picking out who should lead the team when he’s gone. In this season particularly, I find that the show positions Barry almost as a Jesus-figure. He becomes a ‘paragon of love’ who is willing to sacrifice himself to save all of humanity.

My favourite episode of the season (and possibly of the entire show) is episode 7 “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Pt. 1”. It plays with the choice between good and evil and, as the name implies, Barry is presented with the possibilities that his life holds if he chooses evil in an “all this could be yours if you bow down to me” type of situation. Aside from Grant’s phenomenal acting, the reason I love it is that we finally see that our hero has a dent in his armour. Still, even though he’s argued with his friends and family about the reasons for his conviction and has been preparing his team for his demise, Barry outrightly says to the Speed Force here that, “I don’t want to die.”

The Speed Force is a sentient, infinite source of energy that I like to think about as the speedsters’ God. It chose Barry to be the Flash and he only maintains his speed because of his connection to it (as of right now) and it frequently tells him of the sacrifices he must make as a hero. It even has laws that he must abide by, with repercussions for breaking them. The Speed Force shows up in this episode to help our hero make the right decision and Barry speaks to it about the trajectory of his life as a hero and as a man.

Since we’ve known him, Barry has developed close friendships with his co-workers (the aforementioned Team Flash), married the girl that he has had a crush on for over a decade, and even met his daughter from the future. He loves his life. So, even though he has always willingly adhered to the laws of the Speed Force and accepted its consequences when he broke them, Barry snaps when it states that it is just here to guide him on the path he has chosen. “A lightning bolt shot down from the sky and struck me!,” he cries out. “I didn’t choose this; this was done to me! … Why do I always have to suffer for you?”

I low-key relate to that resentment, feeling like I have to be strong for everyone–my family, my friends, even God–and then sitting in my bed going ‘I can’t do this’/’Can I just have a minute?’. Maybe you feel that way too as a parent, a guardian, a sibling, or a friend. It’s hard not to try to be strong when you have people who are depending on you. I mean the lives of millions of people rest on Barry’s shoulders! Yet, in this episode, he finally sees something his friends have been trying to teach him. Something we must all learn at some point in our lives:

We weren’t made to carry our burdens alone.

No matter how good or smart we are, we’re all flawed people who need help from our own Team Flash and from our Infinite Source.

The Flash returns on the CW on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.

About ScreenFish

Tell me about ScreenFish!

ScreenFish.net is a non-profit website devoted to engaging the stories that matter in our culture.  Although we’re willing to speak with narratives in various streams, our primary focus is in the area of television and film.  In other words, anything on a screen.  Why?

Because Screens Reveal…

Identity

We, at ScreenFish, believe that the stories we tell reveal who we are.  Through the narratives that we share, we recognize that they are often windows into the deepest longings of our souls.  In this space of freedom to express ourselves, we believe it is an opportunity to engage these points of view from an open and faith-based perspective.

Values

We, at ScreenFish, believe that the arts offer echoes of deeper spiritual callings and realities.  As a faith-based site, we recognize that our God is a creative God and story-telling is one manner in which He seeks to inform and engage our world.  We, at ScreenFish, seek to examine and engage these spiritual imprints in an effort to discover God’s voice where it is active in our world today.

Community

We, at ScreenFish, recognize that narratives such as film and television are a key way in which we are brought together as our world.  By sharing our stories with one another, we create spaces for conversation around the things that matter most to us while, at the same time, listening to each other in humility and grace.

Welcome to the conversation.  Welcome to ScreenFish.

Our Team

Jacob Sahms, Editor

jacob sahms

I write for Citizen and The Dove Foundation as well as ScreenFish. Friend me on Facebook, follow my tweets @Spider_Raven, or comment on one of my posts here.

Read Jacob’s writing here at SF.

Steve Norton, Editor

Born at a very early age, Steve is a Toronto-based writer and podcaster who loves to listen to what matters to our culture on screen. When he first saw Indiana Jones steal the cross of Coronado, he knew his world would never be the same and, since then, he’s found more and more excuses to digest what’s in front of him onscreen. Also, having worked as a youth and community minister for almost 20 years, he learned that stories help everyone engage the world around them. He’s a proud hubby, father (x2) and believes that Citizen Kane, Batman Forever (yes, the Kilmer one), and The Social Network belong in the same conversation.

Read Steve’s writing here at SF.

j alan sharrer
J. Alan Sharrer

I am a writer, web designer, and media aficionado who loves God and thinks that ‘the box’ is overrated. I live in California with my wife and three daughters. Follow me on Twitter @nomoreblackeyes or visit my blog at nomoreblackeyes.com.

Read Alan’s writing here at SF.

arnaldo reyes
Arnaldo Reyes

I am a loving husband and father who loves God, comics, and movies. I love to find God’s love and grace in all mediums. You can find my comics reviews at www.comicsfaithandmore.com.

Read Arnaldo’s writing here at SF.

Darrel Manson

I am a retired Disciples of Christ minister who loves to consider the theological/philosophical underpinnings of films. I enjoy film festivals where I can see movies I would never have a chance to see otherwise. I’m also an passionate baseball fan who bleeds Dodger Blue.

Read Darrel’s writing here at SF.

Heather Johnson

Heather is a marketer by trade but a writer at heart. She is always looking for the good that can be found in film and TV, even if the subject matter isn’t. By day she works in nonprofit PR while trying to keep track of her four kids and husband, and by night she is a small business owner and binger of media that isn’t directed at preschoolers.

Read Heather’s writing here at SF.

Julie Levac

Exposed to emotionally-driven cinema by her most important female role models, Julie is no stranger to feeling the transformative effects that film can have on one’s life.  From Billy falling off the playground in Kramer vs. Kramer, to Norma Rae standing on a table holding a union sign, or really any salon scene in Steel Magnolias, such moments can shape someone.  Julie loves learning more about the world and herself through film, and is always intrigued to discuss how others interpret film.

Read and listen to Julie’s content here.

Oluwaseun Olowo-Ake (Seun)

Seun is a Christian, writer and an arts lover from Lagos, Nigeria. She studied Media Production at University where she became interested in how stories shape culture; an interest that shapes how she engages with film and TV- as a viewer and as a creative. She is currently the Technology Director at Connect City, Toronto. When she’s not working, she’s holding one-woman mini concerts in her room, and dabbling on the keyboard and ukulele.

Read Seun’s writing here at SF.

Daniel Collins

Hi! My name is Daniel Collins! I’m the host of the teenFish podcasts! I love watching and recording on shows and movies because I get to challenge myself and others to take a deeper look at what we are viewing, and think about how it relates to us as youth and how we can relate it to what we read and learn from the Bible. It’s also a great way to build connections and strengthen relationships with the youth!

Listen to Daniel’s work at teenFish here.

Shelley McVea

Hi! I’m Shelley McVea. I’m a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada. Ever since my mother took me to see In the Heat of the Night (I was a kid – could she not find a babysitter?), I’ve been hooked on movies. I’m so glad that I met Steve Norton at a non-movie-related event in Toronto. Now I have an excuse to always be watching movies.  “I think I’m writing a review on this – I have to see it”. 

Read Shelley’s writing here.

Jason Norton

Jason Norton

A lifelong fan of horror and sci-fi, I now write stories that I hope will one day make it to the silver screen. I live with my wife (and my four sons, two dogs and two cats) in Virginia.

Read Jason’s writing here at SF.

Writing for SF

Interested in writing for ScreenFish? Contact our Editors and they’ll walk you through the process of joining the team!