ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

comedy

Jerry and Marge Go Large – What is the value of money?

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“I’ve waited forty years for it to be just us, and so far, we suck at it.”

Retirement can be a challenge for people who have been busy their whole lives. It helps if you find a hobby to fill your time. Maybe that hobby turns out to be lucrative—lucrative enough to change lives. Jerry and Marge Go Large, directed by David Frankel, is a wonderfully entertaining story of such a remarkable hobby and the way it touched lives and built a community. It’s based on a true story.

Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston) has just retired (not happily) from a career at Kellogg’s. He lives in a small town in Michigan that is well past its prime. He’s floundering for something to do. Jerry is a wizard with numbers. One day he discovers a loophole in the state lottery that adjust the odds so that winning is more likely. After a couple of failures to score, he determines that he needs to bet really big to get a payoff. So he recruits others in the town to trust him with their money (we’re talking thousands each) and forms a corporation. It starts working, but Michigan shuts that game down. It is still being played in Massachusetts, however.

So every few weeks, when the jackpot gets large enough to trigger the loophole, he and his wife Marge (Annette Benning) do a road trip to Massachusetts to spend the day printing the thousands of lottery tickets involved, aided by a friendly and eccentric convenience store clerk (a very entertaining Rainn Wilson). The payoff is astounding. The small town is enjoying the life of new money in town. More importantly Jerry and Marge are having a great time rebuilding their relationship in a new way.

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However, soon, Tyler Evens (Uly Schlesinger), a student at Harvard, discovers the same loophole and gets money from other well-healed students in his dorm. When Tyler figures out there are two group doing this, he threatens Jerry with the idea that he would hack all his neighbors and ruin their lives. Tyler is the epitome of privilege, who wants nothing more to win at anything he’s involved in.

In some ways, this part of the story provides some dramatic tension to make it interesting, but it also opens the door for us to consider what it means to be stewards of the gifts we have.  

For Tyler this is a matter of ego. The money really doesn’t mean anything to him; his family has plenty. It’s about showing off how clever he is. And he won’t tolerate anyone who threatens his plans. The money, per se, doesn’t matter to Jerry either. He’s more interested in what he and his neighbors can do with their winnings. For them, this is a chance to rebuild their dying little town. Parks are spruced up. Downtown shops, which have been boarded up for years, are bought and rented out for €1 a year. (There is a humorous reason they do it for a euro rather than a dollar.) For the Michigan people, this windfall is all about the community. To be sure, they all get to make some personal upgrades, but more than anything else they see this as making everyone’s lives better.

Stewardship of what we have is a frequent topic in scripture. For example, Peter tells us “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” (1 Peter 4:10, NRSV). Tyler has no concept of serving others; he expects others to serve him and feed his ego. But for Jerry, Marge, and their neighbors, the gift that Jerry nurtured for them has changed their lives, not just by making them more money. It has enriched their lives as families and community. There we see “the manifold grace of God” at work.

Jerry and Marge Go Large streams on Paramount+.

Photo credit: Jake Giles Netter/Paramount++.

The Phantom of the Open – Losing with style

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“No one can say you didn’t try.”

I’m not a fan of watching or playing golf, but I am in awe of those who can play at the professional level. That’s because I’m absolutely awful at it. Craig Roberts’s The Phantom of the Open is the story of a novice who tries to play at the highest level of the golf world. Based on the true story of the man who was known as the worst golfer in the world, this film is a testament to being willing to keep at something, even when failure seems inevitable. Perhaps it’s not winning that matters, but doing your best—even if your best is nowhere near good.

Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) is a crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness. It’s 1976 and the nationalizing of the shipyards may put his job at risk. When he learns that the British Open golf tournament has a prize of £10,000, he decides that he’ll enter and the money will take care of his family. Of course, Maurice has never played golf, so he gets some books and clubs and practices mostly on the beach, since he’s not a member of the golf club and couldn’t afford green fees if he were. (Although he does sneak on the course from time to time.)

He fills out the application for the Open, and through his ineptitude in even knowing what the questions mean, it is approved. So he heads to a qualifying round. He plays the worst round in the history of the open, shooting 121, 49 strokes over par. (This record still stands, and probably will forever.) The guardians of golf are appalled and ban him from clubs throughout Britain. But he becomes something of a folk hero when all this becomes known.

Maurice is determined that if they say it’s an open tournament, that he should be included. He continued to try to enter with names like Gerald Hoppy, Count Manfred von Hoffmenstal, and Arnold Palmtree, with elaborate disguises.

The film is more than just a humorous story of wrong-headed determination. It is also the story of a loving family that is caught up in Maurice’s obsession. It is the love story of Maurice and his wife Jean (Sally Hawkins), who stands behind him throughout his eccentric fixation, even though it will never bring them money. He also has twin sons who dream to be professional disco dancers. They follow their father’s example of letting their passion guide them. But his eldest son, who has been to college and now works in the offices of the shipyard is embarrassed by his father’s antics and tries to distance himself, which isn’t easy with a name like Flitcroft.

What makes Maurice such a hero, both to the public and to viewers is that most of us are not the greatest in the world at what we do. There are a lot more people who play golf like Maurice than like the pros. Not being good at it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it. My wife and I have taken up bridge. Sometimes we do well. Sometimes we don’t. We usually play with people at our level, but sometimes we play with people who have played for decades. We keep at it because we enjoy it, even when we make dumb mistakes.

Eventually, Maurice discovers that he has become an example and inspiration for people worldwide who will never win a tournament. Even the guardians of the game come to understand that golf is not always about winning or even playing well.  As Maurice said in an interview at one point, “For every winner of a tournament, there are 499 losers.” The lesson Maurice brings us through this story is that we need to enjoy what we do and not worry about being the best. Nearly everyone spends their lives as part of the 499. It’s not really that bad of a way to live.

The Phantom of the Open is in general release.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Sexual Drive – Food, sex, and love

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Food and sex are among our greatest pleasures. At times, they are intimately linked, especially in films. Sexual Drive¸ from director Yoshida Kôta, is built around the connection of sensuality the two share. It is part thriller, part sex comedy, and culinary adventure.

The film is made up of three vignettes, each titled after a culinary dish. The vignettes are linked by one common character, Kurita, who visits people and tells them things (which may or may not be true) about intimate things in their lives. In “Nattu” (a fermented soy bean dish), Enatsu is worried about the absence of sex in his marriage. Kurita comes and tells Enatsu that he is having an affair with his wife, going into graphic detail about the pleasure he brings her. In “Mapo Tofu” (a spicy Chinese dish), Akane suffers from panic attacks while driving. After (maybe) hitting Kurita with the car, he tells her they were in the same class in 2nd grade where she bullied him, and that her true nature is a bit sadistic. In “Ramen with Extra Back Fat”, Ikeyama is thinking about breaking off an affair. Kurita calls him from his lover’s phone claiming to have kidnapped her, and making him follow her journey after being rejected.

In each section, food is either eaten or prepared with a certain amount of eroticism. The “Nattu” section gets a bit lewd, but over all the stories are not so much about either sex or food. They are about what it means to find pleasure in another person. That is, what it means to love.

Food has often carried a sensual power in film. Some examples that come quickly to mind are Chocolat, Tom Jones, and When Harry Met Sally. Films often show hedonism in both the kitchen and the bedroom. And it becomes easy for us to make the not very long leap to connect the two.

So it is with Sexual Drive. As Kurita makes his visits with these people, he is a mixture of sex/relationship counselor, storyteller, and torturer. He brings hard truths to the people he meets, but in those hard truths are the way for them to find a happiness that is eluding them—and the people they love.

For viewers it is a reminder of the pleasures that fill our lives, but even more that the real pleasures of life are found in the people we love and share our lives with.

Sexual Drive is available through Virtual Cinema and VOD.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

Moon Knight: Marvel’s Wildest Experiment… and it Works

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Once again, Marvel has proven that they aren’t the most successful franchise in history by accident. With each entry into their massive (and ever-expanding) canon, they continue to flex their influence by releasing increasingly risky characters and stories that somehow still fit their brand.

A world entirely translated by generations of television.

Multiple Spider-Men from the past 20 years of film franchises.

A giant purple titan who wields an all-powerful gauntlet.

No matter how (doctor) strange their continuity becomes, Marvel somehow manages to make it work. (Yes, there are franchises that are better than others… but the percentage of quality in their cinematic storytelling is surprisingly high, especially considering how long they’ve been doing this.)

Now, here comes what is arguably the most insane story of all: Moon Knight.

Streaming on Disney+, Moon Knight tells the story of Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift shop employee who is struggling with bizarre dreams. Every night, he fears falling asleep as he finds himself transported to exotic locations and dangerous situations. As his dreams begin to blur with reality, Steven discovers his inner mercenary (literally) as an alternate persona known as Marc Spector battles for control of his body. Fierce and ferocious, Spector is under the servitude of the Egyptian god, Khonshu, who demands that he fight on his behalf. As Steven/Marc begin to unravel their complicated relationship, so too must they defend themselves against a mysterious Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), an acolye of the goddess Ammit.

Moon Knight is ridiculous on almost every level… but it’s also ridiculously fun

Spearheaded by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Moon Knight is stylish and well-executed. Billed as a ‘horror comedy’, the series is a wild blend of the terrifying and goofy. Known for their work on Synchronic and She Dies Tomorrow, Moorehead and Benson have a background in psychological horror and the put those talents to work here. Flashing hallways, demonic jackals and psychological breakdowns all work together create an unsettling atmosphere of terror. However, the best example of their horror influence comes through the depiction of Khonshu. Voiced by F. Murray Abraham, Khonshu’s bird skull and long, bony physique pushes the boundaries of what Marvel has offered by creating an intimating ghostly figure that ominously follows Spector/Grant. (Note to parents, while it keeps to its PG rating, this image may intimidate younger ones so use caution.)

At the same time though, Knight is also genuinely funny. Although the series features Marvel’s trademark silliness (such as a car chase in a cupcake truck), much of the credit here falls on a stellar performance by Isaac who is absolutely erratic as the psychologically-divided hero. From the Coen Brothers to Star Wars, Isaacs has always been willing to balance his independent work with big franchises. 

But his performance in Moon Knight is truly unique.

As Marc Spector, Isaac is allow to engage his dark side. A mercenary indebted to Khonshu, Spector remains calm, collected and often brutal. However, as Steven Grant, Isaac is practically bouncing off the walls with erratic energy. Armed with a British accent and high anxiety, Grant is constantly in motion as he attempts to figure out what’s taking place around—and within—him. Together, Spector/Grant have a tension reminiscent of the Hulk & Banner as both men battle for control of the same person. When you add in the demanding demonic voice of Khonshu, Disney has invariably created an ‘Odd Throuple’ with each persona attempting to dominate the other. (In fact, the relationship between these characters echoes Sony’s recent rom-com superhero franchise Venom which features a similar silliness between Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote.)

At its heart, Moon Knight feels interested in addressing the nature of justice. Whereas Spector is more than prepared to exact vengeance and violence when called upon, Grant has a gentler approach. To Grant, violence is never the answer and there is always a better way to solve his problems. However, Spector’s strength is often required in order to defeat the baddies that go bump in the night. There is a tension between their styles that creates some interesting conversations about the definition of justice and what sorts of methods are required. (Admittedly, Knight often favours Spector’s brutality as necessary yet, as the series progresses, one gets the sense that Grant’s humility will become important to Spector’s growth.)

Held in juxtaposition to this internal battle is the villainous Harrow who believes that the sins of man require judgment. Committed to the goddess Ammit, Harrow believes that humanity can be judged for actions that they haven’t yet been committed if there is darkness in their hearts. Whether it’s an elderly woman or infants, Harrow is relentless in his belief that those who (may) create suffering should be eliminated before they have the chance to do so. 

When held up against Spector/Grant, the series creates some space for what it truly means to create a safe space for others. To Harrow, man’s sins are inevitable and therefore justifiably erased. For Grant, man cannot be blamed until the actions come to life and then invited to change. Finally, Spector argues that those who threaten peace are justifiably stopped by any means necessary. Between the three of voices, the series highlights the breadth of opinions on justice and tries to hold them all in tension together.

How Moon Knight fits in with Marvel continuity is not yet known. Set in its own space and time, Knight very much feels like a standalone series. (Although, it’s fair to say that we know that’s not the case. Nothing in Marvel ever exits on its own.) However, anchored by a phenomenal performance by Isaac, Knight manages to carve itself its own corner of the Marvel Universe. Once again, Marvel has taken an insane premise and created something infinitely watchable and engaging.

Somehow, they’ve managed to let this Knight shine.

Moon Knight begins streaming on Disney+ on Thursday, March 31st, 2022.

Cyrano – Who is worthy of love?

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“I’d give anything for someone to say….”

We long—to be heard, to be seen, to be loved. Such loving is the driving force in Joe Wright’s film Cyrano, a reimagining of Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, by way of a musical stage play written and directed by Erica Schmidt, who wrote the screen play. It is the story of people who long to be loved—even though they don’t feel worthy of being loved as they would like to be.

Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Peter Dinklage as Cyrano in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The classic version of Cyrano de Bergerac centers on the title character, a guardsman who is known for his skill as a swordsman and for his wit, but is even more renown for the size of his nose. In this version, Cyrano’s nose is not the issue. Instead, he is played by the diminutive Peter Dinklage. It is his size that makes others scorn and ridicule him (but they do so at their peril). This is more than just a gimmick. Dinklage bring a certain reality to the role that actors in fake noses don’t have. We sense that he truly understands Cyrano’s feelings about being different.

Cyrano is in love with Roxanne (Haley Bennett), his friend from their childhood. But he feels that he can only love her from afar, because no one would accept him because he is so different. When Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) arrives in town, he and Roxanne lock eyes and are immediately smitten. Roxanne asks Cyrano to take care of Christian, a task he accepts out of love, but it breaks his heart. When Cyrano encourages Christian to write to Roxanne, Christian balks because he does not have the words or poetry that Roxanne desires. So Cyrano writes the letters for him, and together they win her heart, but it is obviously complicated (and comic).

Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There is another rival for Roxanne, Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), a foppish, but rich and powerful nobleman. It would not be accurate to say he is courting her. Rather he has decided to possess her. He is the personification of entitlement. De Guiche’s main song is “What I Deserve”.

Those familiar with the original play will know that for all the comic aspects that play out in the romantic triangle of Cyrano, Roxanne, and Christian, the play evolves into a great tragedy of unfulfilled love.

The songs that are a part of this production fit in naturally, some more so than others. (Although the production numbers with large numbers of dancing guards seem less organic to the story.) Some of the songs are more spoken than sung, which works especially well in an early scene set in a theater, in which Cyrano’s lines have an almost rap quality.

Peter Dinklage stars as Cyrano, Haley Bennett as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There are various themes entwined in all of this. One of those focuses on love and our desire to be loved. Often, however, at the same time, we feel unworthy of love. Each of the three main characters are deeply in love, but they each feel that for whatever reason, they don’t deserve to be loved: Cyrano because of his abnormal body, Christian because he can’t live up to the words that Cyrano has put in the letters, Roxanne because she wants more from love than she thinks anyone can give. It raises the question of what it means to be worthy of love—or more precisely if it’s possible to be unworthy. Love is not something we earn, but something bestowed upon us as a gift. That is a key point of the Christian faith: that God loves us not because we are worthy, but because God deems us worthy.

Honesty is another issue that this story deals with. Obviously, Cyrano and Christian are not being honest with the woman they both love. But we also know that Cyrano writes honestly. Everything he writes is from his own heart. The only dishonest thing about it is having Christian sign the letters. In time, Christian realizes this truth, and demands that they come clean with Roxanne—that she deserves the truth and to know of the love they both hold for her. De Guiche’s dishonesty is evident from when we first see him. His ostentatiousness, his highly powdered face and ghastly wig, serve to hide anything that might be considered common. His more shameful nature is hidden from view by his wealth and power.

Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Ben Mendelsohn as De Guiche in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We also see the way pride interplays with a sense of inferiority.  De Guiche may try to hide himself with makeup and clothing, but Cyrano has no way to hide the part that makes him different. But both of these men have a great measure of pride. De Guiche’s pride is much more in the nature of hubris. His pride comes not from accomplishment, but from his position. For him, pride is just another bit of makeup to cover his lack of love. Cyrano’s pride comes from overcoming his adversity. However, he allows that pride to stand in the way of achieving the one thing he desires in life.

Cyrano is the story of all who long to love and be loved. It calls us to allow ourselves those blessings.

Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Cyrano is playing in wide theatrical release.

The Magnificent Meyersons – Wandering Wisdom

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“Sometimes, I wish God would just reach down and give the world a big old shake, you know?”

One day. One family. And it all gets shaken up a bit. Evan Oppenheimer’s The Magnificent Meyersons is a peripatetic search for understanding what it means to live in a world that may or may not have a god, in which right and wrong may or may not be relative, in which the future and the past may or may not hold the answers. And it’s a comedy (sort of).

We wander through the streets of New York along with four upper middle class adult siblings: Daphne (Jackie Burns), the older daughter, who is struggling with not being quite fulfilled as a mother, wife, or at work; Roland (Ian Kahn), the older son, who is a confident businessman, but perhaps a bit overprotective of his daughter; Daniel (Daniel Eric Gold), the younger son, a rabbinical student who may or may not have faith; and Susie (Shoshannah Stern), the younger daughter, who is deaf and seeking to make her way as a realtor. There are also interludes involving their mother (Kate Mulgrew) and memories of their absent father (Richard Kind).

Note that the term “peripatetic” means to walk around, to wander. As the day progresses, each of the siblings sit or stroll through the city talking to friends or family about any variety of things. The subjects are just as wandering as the people in the film: the existence of God, what makes man [sic] unique among the animals, what it means to be successful, what makes us happy, and if the past can be forgiven.

There is a philosophical bent to this film similar to what is found in the biblical book Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes, the author (often referred to as Qoheleth) ponders the meaning of life and what makes life worth living. Qoheleth is also a bit peripatetic. He wanders through various approaches in search of the answers to his questions. The four siblings, along with the parents to a lesser extent, all have different understandings of life. The film and all the talking are not so much about finding the answers as it is about all the questions. That too is a bit like Ecclesiastes.

Because the discussions are so diverse, there are many interesting things said along the way. There is an ontological proof of God set side by side with an ontological disproof. At another point, Roland says, “You know what makes man unique? He’s the only animal who can’t take care of himself.” When Daphne admits to being “selfish, vain, and lazy”, her husband concurs, and adds, “like everybody else”. Perhaps the deepest wisdom expressed is “Everything matters”.

The theme line of Ecclesiastes is “Vanity of vanities! All is Vanity.” That refers to the ephemeral nature of life. That concept is also central to the musings of the characters in The Magnificent Meyersons. As they all try in their own way to deal with the life, there is an understanding that things are constantly changing. But how we deal with all those changes can open new ways for us to live in vain lives.

The Magnificent Meyerson is playing in limited theatrical release and on virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of Argot Pictures.

The Paper Tigers – Kung Foolery

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“When a man’s virtue exceeds his talent, he becomes the superior man.”

Perhaps you think kung fu movies are all about the graceful movements. You may expect great flying leaps and masterful kicks and punches. The Paper Tigers, from director Tran Quoc Bao, goes in a different direction. This comedic approach to the discipline is more about renewing lost friendships and remembering long lost lessons about loyalty and honor.

As teens in the 90s, Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan), and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) bonded as friends as they trained under Sifu Cheung, a kung fu master who seemed to be happier cooking in a Chinese restaurant. But now they have grown apart—and into middle aged men.

When their Sifu dies, Hing reconnects with Danny so they can go to the funeral. But Danny is estranged from Jim. At the funeral, as Sifu Cheung’s disciples, they are expected to lead the service and take possession of his ashes. But they have not been involved with him for many years. When there is a question about what really happened to the Sifu, they are expected to seek the truth and vengeance.

They are no longer the fighters they were back in the day. Danny, the senior disciple, now sells insurance and is an absentee father to his son. Hing was injured at work and has a very bad leg. Jim has become an MMA coach. As they seek to set things right after Sifu Cheung’s death, they must first deal with the issues that have separated them over the years. They also must rediscover the gifts their Sifu taught them to defeat younger fighters. It could be that the greatest lessons were not how to fight, but how to live. The importance of honor, discipleship, and loyalty are essential to the three finding the bond they had lost through the years.

The film plays with the kung fu trope, in part by being set in suburban America. Also through bending the racial stereotypes. The most “Chinese” character is Carter. When they were kids, Danny would embarrassingly defeat Carter repeatedly. Now Carter wants to be called Sifu Carter as he trains young fighters. He is most likely to repeat a Chinese proverb. Although there is continued animosity, Carter in many ways gives the trio important lessons along the way.

A side plot involves Danny and his son. Danny is pretty much a failure as a dad. He teaches his son to avoid violence. But Danny also discovers that there may be times that violence is the righteous response. How he passes that on to his son is a lesson in itself.

A key concept is that of discipleship. Disciples do not just soak up the things their teacher gives them. A true disciple becomes an extension of the teacher. That is something the three protagonists had lost track of. And in losing that they had lost a bit of themselves. So it is for any who call themselves a disciple.

The Paper Tigers opens May 7 in theaters and on demand.

Photos courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.

My Wonderful Wanda – Win-Wins?

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“This is a family matter.”

Bettina Oberli’s My Wonderful Wanda is about family—and about the ways families become intertwined without planning to. It also serves as a bit of social commentary of the relationship of the haves and have nots of society.

Wanda (Agnieszka Grochowska) is a Polish caregiver who has come to a lakeside Swiss home to care for Josef Wegmeister-Gloor as he recovers from a stroke. Wanda comes for three month stents while leaving her children at home with her parents. This is perceived (at least by the Wegmeister-Gloors) as a win-win. They get inexpensive care for their husband and father; Wanda makes more money than she could at home. But it is also a strain on Wanda’s family in Poland.

The Swiss family has two adult children with their own foibles. Gregi has been groomed (against his will) to take over the family business, but prefers birds (mostly stuffed). He’s also a bit in love with Wanda. Sophie is married to a lawyer, but is unsatisfied with her life. Elsa, the family matriarch, is controlling, but often in ways that seem very kind. Wanda is skilled at negotiating the various personalities and is especially good at making Josef happy.

When Wanda becomes pregnant, it raises a number of issues in both families. How does this affect inheritance? Is Wanda just trying to extort money from the family? What truths have been hidden through the years that must now be addressed?

The film is a bit uneven in its movement back and forth between comedy and drama, but it does create an interesting look at what makes up family. Even though the Polish and Swiss families are very different in outlook, Wanda has managed to bring them together, even if in an adversarial way. Each family is concerned with its own well being, but also with how Wanda’s child will be incorporated in each.

The rub comes when the child comes to be seen as a commodity. There are solutions to the problem that are proposed that seem like everyone benefits, but as with the idea that the use of cheap Polish labor is “win-win”, it fails to take in the personal cost that these solutions create.

In the end, it is Wanda who must struggle against all the attitudes of both families to decide what will become of her child. And in that decision it may be that many other issues will find new solutions as well.

My Wonderful Wanda is in theaters and available via virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of Zodiac Pictures

Beate – Socio-Economic Farce

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Never mind politics, economics is where you may find really strange bedfellows. In the Italian film Beate (which translates to “Blessed”), from Samad Zarmandili, two very different groups of women join forces to try to stave off the greed around them.

The first group of women are the workers at the Veronica lingerie factory. When the owner abruptly closes the factory, planning to open a new one in Serbia with cheaper labor, the women, led by their forewoman Armida at first picket, but then sneak out the equipment and fabric to make their own line.

The other group is the nuns of the “Convent of the Holy Mantle”. The nuns are renown for their embroidery skills that were developed by their founder the Blessed Armida (yes, the Armida in our story was named after her) 700 years ago. City inspectors come and announce that the building must be repaired. The Bishop will not promise funds. He and the mayor (who also owns the factory) plan a new resort in the place of the convent. When the women of the factory propose a joint venture using the nuns’ embroidery to enhance the lingerie, the young, inexperienced, temporary mother superior sees it as the only way to save the convent.

This is a film with a fairly simplistic view of social economics. Both groups of women are seen as dispensable. For those who are running the town, it is all about profits. Whether workers or nuns are displaced is of no importance. Such is unbridled capitalism. It would have made the film more satisfying if the final solution to the issues had been based in the value of the people, rather than finding a new way of making money—especially since in this case it is exploitive of religion.

Comedy is something that often doesn’t travel well. I think that is often true with Italian comedy, which tends towards farce. In this film, the characterization of the nuns seems especially stereotyped. The main contact we have with them is Armida’s aunt, who is something of a fanatic about adoration of the mummified body of the order’s founder. Most of the nuns are just background to what is going on. The interactions between the two groups of women was a possibility for some important themes, but wasn’t developed.

Beate is available on virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of Corinth Films.

Running Naked – Days of Vain Life

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“Benjamin Taylor is leaving living today.”

Sometimes it takes the specter of death to bring light into life. Running Naked, from director Victor Buhler, is a feel-good dramedy that helps us see the beauty in life, even if we know that life is finite. Perhaps that finitude helps us see the meaning of it all.

As teenagers, Mark and Ben (Samuel Bottomley and James Senneck) were roommates in a cancer ward as they underwent treatment. The two would push against the confines of their situation. They plotted an escape from the hospital, only to discover there was nothing to do after they succeeded. Their highlight was a one lap race around the hospital floor au naturel.

Sixteen years later, Mark (Mathew McNulty) is an oncologist trying to bring hope and happiness to the teenage patients who are going through their own treatments. Ben (Andrew Gower) has become a reclusive, nervous nerd. Ben is plagued by OCD and a phobia of hospitals. He has a job in a basement that most people in the company don’t even know is there. Yet, through the years Ben and Mark have gotten together every Wednesday night.

When tests show a return of the cancer for one of them, Mark sets out to give Ben the life he has been missing all these years. With only a bit of time, the two reinvent their lives to discover the richness of life all around them, and finding joy and love that give meaning to days whether short or long. It also tests their friendship when they have to come to terms with changes in perspectives.

While not a outwardly religious story, there are places along the journey that allow us to reflect briefly on spiritual issues. For example, when the two men go to a dog track (where they won £50 as kids), Ben, at the last minute, chooses to put their money on a long shot, Hope Eternal. Later, we see the two, both as teens and as adults, sitting in the hospital chapel contemplating the words on the wall, “I will never forget you. I have written your name on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:16)

Although the Book of Ecclesiastes is never mentioned or quoted, the film is firmly rooted in the wisdom found there. The book’s key theme, stated in Ecc. 1:2, is “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” It moves from a view of the world that is meaningless and repetitious (as Ben has been living) but through a search for wisdom, the writer discovered that the meaning of life is to “Enjoy life . . . all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, for that is your portion in life.” (9:9)

The film serves as a reminder that we too often get bogged down in the vanities of life when we are meant to be seeking the beauty and joy that surrounds us—even in seemingly dark times.

Running Naked is available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Trinity Creative Partnership.