ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Christ Figure

Katie Says Goodbye – More than a Victim

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“Thank you for this day, Daddy. I hope I lived right and if I see you one day that I make you proud.”

I first saw Katie Says Goodbye at the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival, where I ranked it among my favorites. The film won jury awards for Best Actress (Olivia Cooke) and Best Screenplay (Wayne Roberts, who also directed). Now it has found its way to select theaters and to VOD.

Katie (Cooke) is a waitress in a small Arizona town that is little more than a trailer park and diner. She is constantly happy even though her circumstances are less than ideal. Her mother Tracey (Mireille Enos) is unemployed, and does nothing but watch TV all day. Her mother squanders the rent money, constantly leaving Katie to deal with it. Katie’s dream is to go to San Francisco and become a beautician. She is saving money that she makes by prostituting herself with some regulars, including Bear (Jim Belushi), a truck driver who stops on his way through. Bear is kind and fairly paternal towards Katie. Katie is also mentored in life by the owner of the diner, Maybelle (Mary Steenburgen), who is far more of a mother to Katie than Tracey is.

When Bruno (Christopher Abbott), a new mechanic with a shady past comes to town, Katie is smitten. Bruno never smiles, but Katie is willing to smile enough for both of them. As they spend time together, Katie blossoms. But when Bruno discovers her prostitution, he is upset and demands she stop, which she does. However, there are others who demand more from her.

For all Katie’s rose-colored view of the world, things soon become darker as Tracey continues to take advantage of her, Bruno’s coworkers treat her badly, and another waitress at the diner frames Katie for theft. As her world begins to crash around her, Katie faces losing everything. Her smile disappears.

One criticism that some (but not me) might raise is that Katie is too much a victim. Her innocent (some might say naïve) approach to the world sets her up to be used and abused by those around her. And she never fights for herself. And when others do wrong, she is willing to silently assume the guilt. In a “Me Too” world, Katie could seem to be the poster-child for women accepting exploitation.

The reason I do not bring such a charge is that I see in Katie a similarity to the Servant of Isaiah 42-53. I think the film invites us to open ourselves to see more than just Katie’s victimhood. Each night as Katie goes to bed, she speaks to the father she has never met, with the quote I opened this review with. It is only a small leap to think of this as a prayer. How then does this filter our understanding of Katie?

Consider some of these descriptions of the Servant (all scriptures quoted from NRSV): “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench (Isaiah 42:3); “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” (50:6), and “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account…. But he was wounded for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed…. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that before the shearer is dumb, so he did not open his mouth.” (53:3-7 passim).

Of course, this picture is familiar to Christians because the early church quickly came to see Jesus’ sacrifice in its light. But there is more to the Servant than just the suffering he underwent. It is important to note that the Servant Song found in Isaiah 50, even as the Servant recounts the suffering he has undergone, is not a song of lament, but rather a psalm of confidence. He says, “The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near” (50:7). Such is the realization that Katie finally comes to at her darkest moments. That allows her to move on to a new life with hope that others might find Pollyannaish, but that certainly resonates with the Servant of Isaiah, and by extension, with Christ.

Photos courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

The Holy Fool of ABC’s The Middle (or: What Would Sue Heck Do?)

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not sure if you watch
ABC’s The Middle;
if not, you might consider it

it’s just a family sitcom,
but a pretty good one,
especially if you
watch with your kids,
which is how we do it
and how it’s intended, i’d say

it’s in its 9th (and final) season,
so i’ve been thinking
a bit about it,
especially about how
there’s something
particularly significant
about the character of
Sue Heck

over the years,
Sue became my
hands-down fave on the show;
compared to the
frazzled downtroddenness
of Frankie,
or the
practical indifference
of Mike,
or the
charmed nonchalance
of Axl,
or the
odd aloofness
of Brick,
there’s something
unique/
special/
different
about Sue

she’s…
romantic;
quixotic;
a true believer
when it comes to life

where others frown,
she smiles;
where they dismay,
she hopes;
where they doubt,
she trusts;
where they lay fallen,
she gets back up

i mean, seriously:

of course,
this type of
(supposedly)
overnaive/
overgullible/
overhopeful/
overidealistic/
character is oft made
the butt of the joke
by other characters,
and this holds
true for Sue, too

“that Sue,”
we laugh with them,
“always failing,
but never giving up –
she’ll just never get it!

what a fool!”

but that’s just it:
she’s not a fool;
she’s so much not a fool
that, truly understood,
the other characters –
characters not like her,
people not like her –
perhaps need to
consider for themselves
where that moniker might
truly fit best

Sue Heck is,
actually, truly, what’s called
a holy fool:
in the words of a
Russian hymn,
someone whose
“imaginary insanity
[reveals] the insanity of the world”

( i want to say so much more
about holy fools rn –
about Jesus Christ himself,
about Paul (who called himself
“a fool for Christ”),
about the Hebrew prophets,
about the myriad incarnations
of holy fools in art
(Don Quixote, Prince Myshkin,
Solaire of Astora from Dark Souls) –
but time is short;
if you’re interested, Google a bit;
also, check out this great piece:
“The Holy Fool” by theburkean )

in other words,
though her
perpetual smile
seems foolish,
it really only
shows us to be foolish
for smiling less

though her
unstoppable optimism
seems foolish,
it actually shines light
on our too-easy
doubting and despairing

though we want to say
“just stay down,
just give up,”
the fact that
Sue doesn’t
only makes us the fools
for saying so
in the first place

in biblical language,
we might say
Sue’s foolishness
exemplifies love,
for surely she
“bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things;”
and, surely,
living like this can seem
pretty silly,
pretty out of place –
pretty foolish –
in the warp and woof
of the day to day
of this world

but, we’re saying:
that doesn’t mean
that it actually is 

in fact,
we’re saying:
it may be
actually the opposite

and,
indeed,
doesn’t this all
seem to fall
pretty well in line
with the God who
goes down a “failure,”
the God who dies “like a fool,”
scoffers and mockers afoot,
but then gets back up
and comes back to life –
because of love –
despite the “insanity,”
despite the ridiculousness,
despite the foolishness 
of the story?

🙂

 

The Dark Horse – A Saving Presence

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“You are not what they are making you think you are.”

Based on a true story, The Dark Horse, follows Genesis (Gen) Potini, a one-time chess champion who spent years in and out of mental hospitals. While it’s not unusual for stories to have a Christ figure who is mentally ill, I found the unusual way that Gen serves in that role to be both fresh and challenging.

We get just a glimpse of Gen’s mental illness in the opening scene when he wanders down the street in the rain and into a store where he plays a solo chess game on a board there before the authorities come to take him away. When he is released he must live with someone, so moves in with his brother Ariki. It’s not a good fit. Gen needs calm and stability. Ariki is part of a violent Maori motorcycle gang. Ariki’s son Mana is a mild mannered fifteen year old, but Ariki is pushing to get Mana jumped into the gang. To feel needed Gen volunteers as a local chess club (where chess is rarely played) for disadvantaged youth. He soon has them preparing for the national junior chess tournament. When Ariki kicks him out of the house, Gen sleeps at a memorial overlooking the city. As he mentors the players and tries to provide Mana with an alternative to the life in the gang, Gen also struggles to maintain his own connection with reality and life.

For Gen chess is more than a game—it is his connection to his heritage. As he teaches chess to Maori children he connects them to their warrior folklore. He also demonstrates that the pieces all work together as a community—as a family. So when he has them all take pieces from a special chess set to serve as talismans in their playing, he also has them bring them back to keep the family together.

The Dark Horse is a richly layered film that allows viewers to plug into it in a variety of ways. On one level, it is a sports film in which the wisdom of the ages is passed down to a new generation. It follows the convention of such films by taking us to the tournament where the children must play on their own (which is harder for Gen than it is for them). It values community and reflects on some of the healthy and unhealthy ways we seek community in our lives. Ariki and his gang are a type of family just as the chess club becomes for Gen and the children. For Mana, a choice must be made between these two paths to community—or maybe the choice will be made for him by Ariki.

But for me this is the kind of film that draws me in at a theological level. I mentioned above that Gen serves as a Christ figure. Often that means one who is sacrificed to save another. When Gen interacts with Ariki and the gang, that is always a potential. But Gen is not so much a sacrifice as a presence. Even given his tentative grasp on sanity, Gen represents the coming presence of one who brings new life—both to the kids in the chess club and to Mana. That atonement (to use the theological term) does not take place through sacrifice (although it plays a part), but rather through Gen’s decision to be a part of their lives and to create with them a community that is based not in power but in acceptance of all who come. Gen, then, is a model for Incarnational Atonement—the concept that it is in the Incarnation, the Word becoming Flesh, that reconciliation, redemption, and salvation are found. The Dark Horse gives us a chance to consider what it means that God reaches out to us to be reconciled and what it means to find that connection to the one who comes to us.

Photo Credit: Steve King / Broad Green Pictures