ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Michael Pena

6.21 Living the Dream on FANTASY ISLAND

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In Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, the mysterious Mr. Rourke (Michael Pena) generously welcomes five contest winners to his secluded hotel for a weekend where all their dreams can come true! However, when those dreams become nightmares, his guests must fight their way through their own desires in order to survive. This week, we welcome returnee Allen Chabot and newcomer Adam Howard to talk about whether or not fantasies are dangerous, what it means to forgive yourself and the nature of a hero.

You can also stream the episode above on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Soundcloud! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts or Google Play!

Want to continue the 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.

6.21 Fantasy IslandDownload

1on1 w/Allan Loeb (screenwriter, COLLATERAL BEAUTY)

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collateral

One last present under the Christmas tree! This week, Steve has the privilege to speak with screenwriter Allan Loeb (21, WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS) about his latest film, COLLATERAL BEAUTY, which stars Will Smith and Helen Mirren. They chat about love, death and the nature of fables.

A special thanks to Allan for joining us on the show!

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Collateral Beauty – Arguing with the Cosmos

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“When something starts with a six year old dying, nothing’s going to feel right.”

Unresolved grief fills and drives Collateral Beauty. The film opens with a joyful Howard (Will Smith) presiding over his ad agency’s Christmas party, reminding his employees that they make connections with people through three key concepts: time, love, and death. Then the film jumps ahead three years. The joy is gone from the office. While others quietly work, Howard spends days at a time building elaborate domino structures, just to knock down the first block and walk away. Obviously something has happened.

Three of his partners, Whit (Edward Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Peña) watch this, wondering when Howard will snap out of it. The business is beginning to suffer. And they have an offer to buy the agency, but Howard won’t even talk with them. So they hatch a plan they hope will bring Howard back—or if not, be evidence that he is incompetent.CB40594.DNG

They come across three actors, Brigitte (Helen Mirren), Amy (Keira Knightly), and Raffi (Jacob Lattimore), who operate out of a very off, off Broadway theatre (The Hegel Theatre). But perhaps it is the actors who really find them. When it is discovered that Howard has written angry letters to Time, Love, and Death, the coworkers hire the actors to confront Howard as Time (Raffi), Love (Amy), and Death (Brigitte). In time the seeming hallucinations drive Howard to a grieving parent group when the leader (Naomie Harris) connects with him. But it turns out that the three coworkers also have their own issues that need to be addressed. As the co-workers work with the actors to focus on Howard, Time, Love, and Death also seem to speak Whit, Claire, and Simon as well.

Besides working well on the level of plot and character, this is a film that also provides some philosophical depth. (Note the theatre’s name.) As the actors confront Howard as the cosmic personae, the discussions become heated and quickly move into more complex ideas that many films would not want to touch on. Because these are impassioned philosophical discussions, they never become off-putting or overly cerebral. But the film does respect the audience’s intelligence and ability to comprehend that ideas being presented without talking down.15021626_83452_still_2_s-high

Along the way, as Howard vents his rage at the cosmic forces, he gives voice to all the pain and anger that can often accompany grief. That pain and anger includes religious concepts that never seem adequate for people in the time of loss. He is an equal opportunity ranter. He takes on Christian, Buddhist, and secular ways that we use to try to explain away the pain of death.collateral

It should be noted that a simpler film would have just set Howard against his idea of God but, through blaming these non-divine cosmic forces, we can still imply that Howard is rebelling against a divinity he finds inadequate. (Although there is a certain Trinitarian vibe to the trio of Time, Love, and Death.) In this, Howard is the newest incarnation of Job. He is willing to state his case that the way the universe works is wrong. Like Job, Howard receives answers that may be less comforting than he wants, but in the challenge of confronting the questions there is an opening for him to begin to find a way through the pain to see again that there is beauty in the world and his life.

 

The Vatican Tapes–Did the Devil Really Make You Do It?

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vaticantapesolivia“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”

With those iconic words, cartoon starlet Jessica Rabbit wove her thread into the forever tapestry of pop culture. That was way back in 1988, as she defended her actions to human flatfoot Eddie Valiant in the innovative comedy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Fast forward nearly 30 years and horror takes a stab at the same moral quandary with the much creepier possession-flick, The Vatican Tapes. The villain is just as attractive—and, perhaps just as “innocent.”

This time, the “I’m not bad girl” is Angela Holmes (Olivia Taylor Dudley), who becomes possessed by evil forces through no fault of her own. In fact, the Vatican priests who document such cases (and vow to take up the charge to deliver her) say as much. The opening five minutes (styled more as a the now overused found-footage documentary) shows the two Holy Men, Cardinal Bruun (Peter Andersson) and Vicar Imani (Djimon Hounsou) espousing that there is no rhyme or reason for demonic possession. The Devil is much alive and well, they say, and his minions are constantly on the prowl, waiting to invade the human hosts that will best serve their needs.

True to that theory, there is no reason given as to why Angela becomes possessed. In fact, there’s relatively no lead up to her transformation from “perfectly normal” to “acting a little weird” to “trying to drown a baby, speaking Aramaic and compound fracturing her own arm to go after the priests trying to exorcise her.”

Anglea ponders just what the heck is going on with her...before things turn even uglier.
As the story begins, she’s treated to a surprise birthday party courtesy of her boyfriend, Pete (John Patrick Amedori). Pete even manages to get her oft-absent Army General Father Roger (Dougray Scott) to attend. As she’s cutting her cake, butterfingers Angela nearly slices off her finger. When she goes to the hospital to get stitched up, she meets Father Oscar Lozano (Michael Pena, who was much better utilized in End of Watch and Ant-Man), a hospital chaplain who passes her in the parking lot. Lozano, a former soldier, works up a conversation with Roger, admitting that he chose the cloth after seeing too much death in battle.

Lozano meets up with all of them again after Angela nearly kills herself and the rest of the group when she freaks out during a cab ride, grabs the wheel and plows them into a parked car. She’s admitted to the hospital and soon begins to pace the hallways, trance-like, and nearly drowns a newborn in the delivery wing. The entire incident is caught on security tape and the hospital’s psychiatrist takes note. She makes sure that Angela is kept onsite and begins to counsel her, much to Angela’s chagrin.

Lozano tries to comfort--and contain--Angela.

As her behavior continues to become more erratic, Roger insists that exorcism is the only way to bring Angela back. Cardinal Brunn takes the case; his angry-bully style coming off as nearly as evil as the demons he’s trying to defeat (as is often the case with Hollywood exorcists). Lozano joins in, but nearly comes to blows with Bruun when the elder priest threatens to kill Angela in order to thwart the evil inside her. And then she strikes back with a power, the likes of which neither of them—or the world—has ever seen before…

Cardinal Bruun and Lozano try to hold their own agains the ultimate enemy.
Though there are many better exorcism films out there, The Vatican Tapes does raise the aforementioned Kobayashi Maru-like quandary of whether we, as humans, are the architects of evil or rather, merely, its puppets. Peter warns the churches in Asia to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Luke writes that Satan himself “entered Judas,” spurring him to conspire with the Pharisees to kill Jesus (Luke 22:3). But were these writers giving the Devil too much due? Do we?

Angela's not going out iwth out a fight, unless it's in a blaze of glory.
When Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he also responds by quoting a few pieces of scripture, but ones that recount God’s sovereignty, strength and protection. When at his weakest, when near defeat at the hands of the Tempter, instead of giving in and succumbing to the powers of darkness, he relied on God to deliver him.

But of course, he’s Jesus. It may seem like it should be a little easier for him to have faith that God will deliver him. But it shouldn’t be that way. He’s our model for living and promises that if we have faith in him, we’ll be able to do even greater works than he did.

But is faith enough? Can it stave off the evil of this world or prevent demonic possession? It can certainly better equip us to withstand the powers of darkness. But a life of prayer, worship, study, service and yes—faith—best arm against the Enemy. By setting our course on Christ, we make it harder for Satan to set stumbling blocks or lay traps. And each piece of his Holy word—his Gospel armor—adorned makes us that much stronger for the battle.

If we truly want to turn from sin, we must make the conscious effort to do so. We must take responsibility for our own mistakes, seek forgiveness for our sins and pray for strength to resist evil.

We can’t blame the Devil for all our misdeeds.

The only thing he should make us do is love Christ that much more.

The Vatican Tapes’ Olivia Taylor Dudley: Transformation Is An Actor’s Dream

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oliviataylordudleyIn The Vatican Tapes, the upcoming horror film by Mark Neveldine (Crank, Gamer), Father Lozano (Michael Pena) fights to save the soul of a young woman via exorcism, and realizes he may just be fighting to save the world. I caught up with Olivia Taylor Dudley, who plays the possessed woman, Angela, to ask her about her improv career and what happens when the future of the world lies in the balance.

Dudley told me that her 5 Second Films career began six years ago, and that they film all weekend to be able to release one film, every week day. She told me that a single, five-second film could take hours to film, but that the focus is on making it funny.

Funny? Funny doesn’t begin to describe her latest output, or her previous film, The Chernobyl Diaries, but Dudley says she isn’t out to be “just” a comedian.

“I’ve been acting my whole life,” she said. “I’ve been in all different kinds of movies; I like doing all of it. Comedy was obviously something that got me recognized but it’s not necessarily what I want to do for my whole career.”

“Acting is acting; it’s all the same,” Dudley said, before laughing. After a pause, she admitted, “It is nice to have a script.”

We turned from her comedic exploits to the more serious nature of The Vatican Tapes. Seriously, how could a woman funny enough to make 5 Second Films really dig into a role like Angela’s?

“I love Angela,” Dudley said. “I’ve been a big fan of exorcism films since I was a little girl. It’s awesome to be able to play someone who is goodhearted and pure when you meet her, who turns into something else, and finally, who transforms into someone else is an actor’s dream.”

She continued, “I had a month of rehearsal, so there was lots of time with the director, script, and the other actors. I was able to pinpoint how far to go with the character at each spot along the way.”

The film itself sets us up to understand that it’s not just about one young woman’s soul (like that isn’t enough) but that the fate of the world is at stake. I asked Dudley if that wasn’t a sort of superhero vibe, defending the world at a galactic level.

“No one has called it a superhero movie before!” Dudley said. “I think it’s a battle that has been going on for a very long time, and one that will keep going for a long time, without end.”

She continued, “The pope recently said the antichrist is real and is here. I think good and evil does exist. And there are real people out there performing exorcisms like the priests in the film, people who are acting as superheroes every day.”

But what does evil look like, I asked? How can the faith we see in The Vatican Tapes really speak to the way that the world works today?

vaticantapesolivia“I think this is a pretty extreme example of evil,” said Dudley. “You never know what choices you make will affect how things turn out.  You can find yourself down an evil path.”

“In Angela’s case, she was a good person; she’s definitely not an evil person,” Dudley said. “It’s no longer Angela in the end. People have been obsessed with exorcism movies for a long time, because in the back of your mind, it’s a possibility it could happen. Maybe people will think twice about what is going on with the people around them.”

 

I asked Dudley what her dream job would be, and she admitted that the desires can change from day to day. “One day I have one answer for my dream job, the next day it changes,” she said. “If the character is good, and the script is interesting, I’m happy with it.

But as we closed, she admitted, “I like playing badass women. I think Angela is one, physical (and I got to learn a new language.) I like to kick ass.”

Superheroes saving the world from evil, indeed.