Joel Edgerton

Boy Erased: Shame On Me

Based on the memoir of Garrard Conley, and written and directed by Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased?is based on a true story that shows us the struggle of coming out, particularly in a religious home, and the dangers of conversion therapy.

Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) was the son of a pastor and grew up in a very religious home. While away from his family at college, Eamons began to experiment with his sexuality and, eventually, he was outed to his parents by a vengeful ex-partner. After seeking the counsel of fellow pastors, Jared is sent to conversion therapy by his father, Marshall (Russell Crowe).

During Jared’s time in conversation therapy, the audience witnesses the meritless and often abusive tactics that are taken to ?cure? these boys of their homosexuality, like being hit repeatedly with a Bible to extract demons. In fact, boys would be so broken from this process that some would even commit suicide. To avoid the abuse, some would pretend to go along with the therapy in an effort get out sooner and continue living their lives as they see fit.

The villainous leader of the conversion program, Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton), continuously pushes the boys to admit to some deep anger, particularly towards their fathers. It was assumed that there was some deeper reason why they were gay. They must have damage in them somewhere. However, Victor meets his match with Jared. He argues that he doesn?t hate his father. He?s not going to pretend like he?s angry as an excuse for who he is.

Jared lived a somewhat sheltered childhood with a longing for the freedom to be who he really was, and we see this symbolically with the scenes where he flies his hand out of an open window in a moving car. Despite his mother?s warnings, Jared knew this was what he wanted in that moment.

In many ways, Jared?s mother, Nancy (Nicole Kidman) becomes the unsung hero of this story. She trusts her gut and goes against her husband?s wishes for the betterment of her son. She realizes that conversion therapy is wrong and refuses to continue to subject her son to the torture. We see this most in a very powerful scene where she says ?Shame on you!? to Victor, but then says ?Shame on me!? to herself, realizing the mistake she?s made in sending her son to the program.? Nancy reminds us to trust out gut, stick to our guns and, most importantly, to know when to own up to our mistakes.

In Canada, conversion therapy only appears to be banned in 4 provinces.

In America, conversion therapy only appears to be banned in 14 states and 1 territory.

Boy Erased?exposes the fact that conversion therapy is not ?therapy? at all. It shows the travesty that has and can severely damage people if not stopped.

Loving – When Marriage is a Crime

?You do know what?s right, don?t you? Maybe you don?t.?

There was a time when two people who loved each other could not be married in some states. Even if they were legally married in another state, some states would refuse to recognize that marriage and might even consider it a crime for those people to live together as a married couple. Yes, that sounds familiar. In recent years, it dealt with the concept of marriage equality for people in same sex marriages. But half a century ago, it also applied to mixed race marriages. Loving is the story of the two people whose marriage (and their case in the courts) put an end to what we now look at as an absurd practice. In many ways, it laid the foundation for the more recent issues surrounding marriage.

Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) Loving were married in the District of Columbia in 1958 and returned to their home in Virginia. However, because Richard was white and Mildred was African-American, Virginia law would not recognize the union. Within a few weeks they were arrested for violating state law. Advised to plead guilty, they were sentenced to a year in jail, but the sentence was suspended on the grounds that they leave the state for a period of twenty-five years. Moving to DC and raising their children was a strain, since their families were still in Virginia. In time, they moved back, but were again arrested. Eventually the ACLU learned of the case and offered to help them. In time, the case went to the Supreme Court, which struck down such laws as unconstitutional.

The case, Loving v. Virginia, is considered one of the landmark civil rights cases of the 1960s. Yet this film is not a courtroom drama. We hear almost none of the legal arguments that were made as the legal case made its way through the court system. This is not the story of the battle to overturn an unjust law?that is merely a side issue in the story. This is the story of the two people whose name is the referent of the case. Richard and Mildred were quiet people who loved each other and their families. They didn?t marry to challenge the law. They married because they loved each other and wanted to raise their children together. They didn?t seek out publicity, yet they ended up with their pictures in Life magazine for the world to see.

It should be noted that those who defended these laws were clear that they felt that they were carrying out God?s law. The judge who sentenced them, when asked to reconsider, wrote in his denial, ?Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his [arrangement] there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.? How frequently we confuse the laws we make with the divine will. What makes matters worse is that often when we claim that God is on our side, we dehumanize the people involved. They are objects?sinners?criminals. Yet at the most basic level those involved need to first be recognized as beloved children of God. That is why it is important that the film focuses on Richard and Mildred?the people, who like so many others throughout history fell in love and just wanted to be married as they shared that love. Even though Loving v. Virginia is such an important case, the really important part of the case is the Lovings?and loving.

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Special features on the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Combo pack include ‘Making?Loving,’?a look at the cast and on location, and a look back at the court case in “Loving vs. Virginia.” Director Nichols also provides a feature-length commentary.?

Podcast: Ordering the [MIDNIGHT] SPECIAL

This week on the show, Steve Norton welcomes Seeing and Believing co-host Wade Bearden as they discuss Jeff Nichols’ MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. Plus, the guys offer up their Top 3 Sci-Fi films of the 21st Century!

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.

2.13 Midnight Special

Midnight Special: Light Cannot Be Hidden

For a good portion of Jeff Nichols’?Midnight Special, we don’t know exactly?what?is going on but we can tell?something?is going on. In the writer/director’s fourth film, he takes us on a spellbinding journey, traveling along on a progressive chase with Ray (Michael Shannon, 99 Houses, Take Shelter) and his young son, Alton (Jaeden Libeher,?St. Vincent, Aloha). With a religious cult, the FBI, and the NSA hot on their heels, the two are running – but what are they running for?

To be clear, Alton isn’t normal. He possesses special powers that would make him worthy of the X-Men, if we knew exactly what they did. For most of the first half of the film, the special effects-worthy aspects of the narrative are back-seated to Ray’s determined effort to protect his son at all costs. Sure, we have some “greater good” arguments that come into play, but we know that if someone came to take your kid… you’d fight back.

While his involvement is less clear in the film’s narrative (just to Nichols’ liking) is state trooper Lucas (Joel Edgerton), who was once Ray’s best friend and is now intent on protecting Alton. Lucas doesn’t understand Alton – and doesn’t even claim to believe in what Ray says must be true about the boy. But the journey isn’t Ray’s alone, as they travel with the ‘bad guys’ in hot pursuit. Thanks to Dave Wingo’s driving score, it’s a pulse-pounding, anxiety-filled ride that entertains in ways most films only dream of. [And, in a slightly more wordy way, it works toward the?Mad Max: Fury Road?mode of storytelling: show, don’t tell.]

Pick a film from the 1980s -?E.T., Starman,?Firestarter – and you’ll see a pattern where the forces that be determine that someone (or somebody in the case of E.T.) has special powers that they can’t control on their own. [If you choose to be more paranoid, you can say that the government wants to control said powers.] But for Nichols’ script, full of places for us to imagine or?wonder, it doesn’t matter why Ray and Alton are running as much as it matters that Ray believes.

Belief. Obviously a big topic at a site like ScreenFish, right? In Nichols’ script (and under his watchful direction), belief gets analyzed by the atheist (Lucas), the zealot (Sam Shepherd’s cult leader, Calvin Meyer), a former cult disciple (Kirsten Dunst’s Sarah), an NSA agent (Adam Driver’s Paul Sevier), and several other less-heralded characters. To be honest, I don’t think Nichols cares if you’re satisfied with his answers, but he’s determined to ask the questions.

He believes in something. You don?t.? Sarah
It doesnt matter. Good people die all of the time. ?Lucas

This exchange between Sarah and Lucas highlights the issue. For some, it’s not about belief, it’s about practicality. For others, it’s about belief in the face of impracticality but which must be explored. For a third set, it’s about belief that rises above (denies all?) practicality and any other reason. Artfully, the film presents us with the various options, and asks us to consider which category we fall in,?without narrowing it down to a single choice.

Driver – The FBI thinks you?re a weapon. The Ranch thinks you?re their savior.
Alton- I?m not any of those things. I belong to another world.

It’s this faith-filled discussion that drove the film to places that I think the best science fiction goes. Why are we here? Who are we supposed to believe? Is this it? It’s the kind of question that Nichols seemed to point to in our interview yesterday, and the kind of questions that I think we’re supposed to ask – whether we’re involved in organized religion or not.

While all of those ’80s sci-fi thrillers are good places to find comparison, I couldn’t help but think of the times from my own reading of the Bible where I saw people misinterpret who Jesus is or was. I think we still do it today. In John 6:15, it says that “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” Or, in Matthew 27:11, we see it when Jesus refuses to let Pilate pin him down to one thing.

Friends, there is?mystery?here. While I believe in an omnipotent God who sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins, I will admit that I can’t understand or fathom it all. I don’t even always know what questions to ask! But I know it can’t be controlled, or hidden, or held onto – much in the same way that neither Ray nor the NSA can quite hold onto Alton. Alton’s light shines – and light cannot be hidden.

Go see this movie, and ask yourself what questions do you need answered.

Midnight Special Writer/Director on Faith, Fatherhood, & Fear

In?Midnight Special, Ray (Michael Shannon) takes his son,?Alton (Jaeden Liberher), on the run. Pursued by the FBI, NSA, and a mysterious group known as the Third Heaven Ranch, the film unfolds like a throwback to science fiction films like?Close Encounters of the Third Kind?or?Firestarter. As the film’s release grew wider and wider, I was offered a chance to talk one-on-one with the writer and director, Jeff Nichols.

A North Carolina University of the Arts graduate, Jeff Nichols is still an Arkansas Razorbacks fan at heart and bears none of the pain from Monday’s heartbreaking loss by the UNC Tarheels. But the pain of fatherhood? That Nichols fully understands, as he watched his infant son struggle with a medical emergency he couldn’t fully understand – or control. Those feelings drove the emotions of Shannon’s character – and the action of the film.

“As a father, I feel responsibility to take care of my son,” Nichols explained. “But we don’t know how it will work out. We can plan and prepare.”

“Just the other day, I got life insurance!” he continued, chuckling. “All of this stuff we have to do, but I ask myself, ‘Am I giving the right advice? Am I too strict? Am I not strict enough?'”

We?shared a laugh about the way that children are always asking questions – and that we know the need to answer them even if we’re not sure. “In my heart of hearts, I don’t always know the endgame, but I have to try.”

Stuck in the middle of this ‘old school’ classic sci-fi flick is the narrative of a father trying to figure out how to protect his son, and let go of him if necessary. “We don’t have the option to throw our hands up, even if we don’t know exactly where we’re going,” Nichols shared. “Michael Shannon read the script and came back to me with one thing: ‘I just need to know why I need to get there.’ There’s just this weird combination of love and fear, where you’re afraid your child will be taken away or that they’ll grow up to be someone you don’t really like. For Ray, he’s shown up in this religious setting on the Ranch and stayed by choice, but now, he begins to understand that everything pales in comparison to this child.”

Critics and early screenings have earned the film nothing but rave reviews. But Warner Bros.’ release of the film started out quite narrowly, and has only begun to widen to smaller markets (like mine). I asked Nichols what he thought audiences were seeing that was gripping them enough to change the pattern of the film’s release.

“Hopefully, it’s a well told story,” he mused. “It’s important to share an emotional experience with the audience – even more than the plot. The beginning, middle, and end don’t all have to satisfy people, because you won’t get everybody, but it’s my job to give them an experience that makes them think.”

“I hope people will go out and say at parties or the office cooler, ‘I saw this really strange movie, and I’m not sure what to think. But I’m thinking about?this… It made me feel something.'”

In one of the many facets of this ‘little’ film is the inclusion of faith from many perspectives. Alton’s differences cause him to be examined and perceived by different people in different ways. There’s the leader of the religious group from The Ranch, Sam Shepherd’s Calvin Meyer; the perspective of Adam Driver’s NSA examiner Paul Sevier and his math-based reasoning; there’s even Ray’s best friend, and atheist, Lucas (Joel Edgerton).

“It was a calculated progression of the script,” Nichols admitted. “Writers are building the bridge while we’re walking across.”

“When I made?Mud?(starring Matthew McConaughey), I realized that to have a full character, I have to build a belief system for them. Oddly enough, this ends up running through the script of?Midnight Special.”

So, what is belief about to Nichols?

“Faith is belief in something that you don’t know. For Ray, or Lucas, or Paul, it’s a sense of something else. In life, there are lots of choices in religious dogma,” he said. “For me, I want to know how things operate.”

“We all have to put things in place to go forward and function. It’s bigger than how the sun rises and sets. I want to know about death and where life comes from. The way we answer those questions become our worldview whether we mean to or not. It’s either organized religion or ‘I’m going to go it alone.’ But even denying it is a concept in a belief system.”

The storyline certainly allows all of this to play out in way that Nichols?shows, rather than tells us. But on the phone with the writer/director, his enthusiasm for the subject is apparent. “Look,” he said, “even the bad guys chasing Alton have a belief system. For Doak [Bill Camp’s character], his belief system is in contrast to his moral compass. Religious dogma trumps everything, and that becomes evil.”

“I want to line up my moral compass with the belief system. I struggle with it and I’m confused by it when it doesn’t work. We have to be honest to opening up about the things we don’t understand. It’s a disservice not to be open.”

Next up for Nichols, even as he continues to publicize for my early favorite of 2016, is?Loving, which will also star Shannon and Edgerton. Based on the life of Mildred and Richard Loving, who were sentenced to prison in Virginia for being an interracial couple in 1958, the film will highlight the 1967 civil rights case.

“What drew me to the story was that race and marriage equality are political issues,” Nichols said. “People go to their corners and prepare to fight. But the Lovings weren’t political. Richard saw himself as this poor white guy no one would mess with who happened to love this lady. They never set out to be zealots for civil rights or martyrs. It’s a simplified conversation.”

“If we can show the story outside of a political context, maybe we can move the needle. It’s a quietly beautiful way to go through the back door into the topic. If people can just be quiet, maybe they’ll see the love.”

With each story he tells, Nichols shines some light into a corner of our universe, highlighting questions and seeking answers.?Midnight Special?will entertain you, certainly, but even more, it will remind you of another love, that of a father for a son.

The Gift- Reaping What You Sow

It doesn’t take long in?The Gift?for the audience to figure out that not everything is what it seems. While Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) seem like the perfect couple (not quite the Waltons, but…) they’re bound to have life as they know it blow up in their faces because that is the kind of film this is. [And you don’t have to have seen the trailer to know that.] But when everything is out on the table – when?The Gift?is unwrapped – who will be left standing?

Gordon “Gordo” Moseley (Joel Edgerton, who also directed from his own script) interjects himself into the lives of the couple when they move from Chicago to Los Angeles. He’s a long forgotten classmate of Simon’s who has a peculiar habit for sending presents to his ‘friend,’ usually when Robyn is home by herself.?Single White Female??Fatal Attraction? The Talented Mr. Ripley? We don’t know right away, but it will give you the creeps!

What viewers should know is that the film’s production puts it right there on the poster: “Just because you’re done with the past doesn’t mean the past is done with you.” Maybe Simon (and Robyn?) isn’t who we think we is, and maybe Gordo isn’t who we think he is either. But in a more serious tone than Adam Sandler’s?Billy Madison, we see what it looks like when your past comes to your present and demands retribution.

The Gift?plays with our expectations, showing us bits and pieces of the back story through Robyn’s investigation of what is happening all around her. While she struggles with her own questions, Simon doesn’t seem terribly bothered by the invasion of Gordo or Robyn’s questions. He’s reasonably immune to caring it appears, and we recognize that Gordo isn’t the only force of terror in the film.

Viewers will walk away recognizing that there’s plenty at stake when we lie, cheat, and steal the happiness of others. The sins of the father are poured down on their children, right? However you look at it, our snarky main character Simon reaps what he has sown.

TIFF Hits: BLACK MASS

Johnny Depp is back.

At least that’s what everyone is saying.

In some ways, it’s odd to think of Depp being ‘back’ when he never really went away. Certainly, he remains?beloved by people around the globe (especially evidenced in?the borderline chaos that erupted when he arrived in Toronto). Although,it’s fair to say that, by filling up his time with Tim Burton films and the Pirates franchise, the actor hasn’t really had a role to sink his teeth into over the past few years.

With?Black Mass, that trend has changed dramatically.

Taking place in 1970s Boston, Black Mass tells the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger (Depp), the infamous crime lord. ?Approached by FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), Bulger is convinced to form an alliance with?the agency in order to bring down the Italian mob. As their unholy alliance begins to spiral out of control, Bulger increases in his power, becoming one of the most infamous gangsters in U.S. history.

Deftly directed by relative newcomer Scott Moore,?Black Mass is a dark exploration of the nature of evil. Backed by a solid script, he depicts Boston with?grainy, bland colours reminiscent of 70s noir thrillers that remind us this is a world with a neutralized sense of morality. Most importantly though,?Depp’s performance as Bulger creates a hurricane of chaos in the lives of the other characters, pulling them deeper into his own darkness. However, even though Bulger is clearly?a man to be feared, he also maintains a human side that never quite disappears. Even in his darkest moments, Bulger is (mostly)?seen?as a man of loyalty to his family and friends.

With a performance as strong as Depp’s, one might imagine that supporting players would fade into the background. However, the film is also buoyed by strong performances by Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons and (even) Dakota Johnson. (Incidentally, Edgerton really takes things up a notch as conflicted Agent Connolly. Called to play a man who is torn between loyalty to Bulger and the law, he attacks the role and (almost) steals a scene or two from Depp.)

Even so, it’s Jimmy’s?world–and the rest are caught up in it.

At it’s heart,?Mass?uses it’s characters to explore?the relationship between humanity and evil. For instance, through Bulger, the narrative asks whether he is?an example of evil incarnate or merely a broken man who was the victim of a darkened world.?Meanwhile, through characters such as Connolly and William Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch), the film asks whether or not it is possible to associate with darkness without being pulled inside yourself. In?Black Mass, there is no clear sense of good or evil as the lines between them begin to blur. This depiction of sinful humanity reminds us that, if we are left to our own devices, redemption needs to come from outside ourselves.

Black Mass?is sure to be in the conversation come Oscar season, not only as a film but definitely for Depp’s performance. This is the type of role that reminds us of his incredible talent when given material that suits him.

After all, it’s Depp’s world–and the rest of us are caught up in it.

Black Mass

Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch

d. Scott Moore

Rated R for violence, language

****1/2 (out of 5)

TIFF Hits: Shooting Stars

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At ScreenFish, we’re very conscious of those moments where faith and film collide… but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun as well! ?Here are some exclusive shots of?the celebs?around the city as the Toronto International Film Festival enters it’s second half. ?Pics will be updated as new sightings occur…

Black Mass premiere:

Johnny Depp

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