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where faith and film are intertwined

Mila Kunis

Breaking News in Yuba County: The Affirmations Run Out

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He’s missing! Then again, so is a slice of my birthday cake…

I think it’s safe to say that most of us have had days where it seemed like nothing seemed to go right. The car ran out of gas; a coworker received a promotion instead of you; a stain appeared on your outfit that couldn’t be easily disguised; and many more situations that have already come to your mind. 

In the case of Sue Buttons (Allison Janney), her life seems to consist of nothing good. At the beginning of Tate Taylor’s Breaking News in Yuba County, she picks up a birthday cake for herself while muttering affirmations to herself (“I am good”; “I am special”). The cake is misspelled and she is unable to do anything about it. She drives to her job at a call center and her first call is demeaning. She thinks her workplace remembered her birthday, but their celebration was for another person.  These are only the beginning of her issues thanks to a completely dysfunctional family and a latent desire to be known and respected.

In theory, this sounds like a fantastic premise for a film. Add in an extremely talented group of Hollywood actors (Wanda Sykes; Juliette Lewis; Ellen Barkin; and Dominic Burgess among others) and actresses and you’ve got a verifiable winner.  The problem is that Breaking News in Yuba County starts off wonderfully before devolving into a muddled mess that leaves more questions than answers. How did it go so wrong?

The problems begin as soon as Sue gets home. Her husband Carl (Matthew Modine, who gets woefully little screen time) is caught up in a bad situation involving millions of dollars and a tryst in a seedy hotel. Thinking the flowers he purchased were for her, Sue follows him and discovers more than she bargained for. Catching him in the middle of an affair was bad enough, but watching him fall over dead was worse. Suddenly, the film takes on a dark Weekend at Bernie’s feel except she buries Carl and the money in the hotel playground.

This triggers a flood of cops, confusion, and a trio of Mafia-ish characters (including Awkwafina) that are geared up to inflict damage in cruel ways. There’s more, but I’ll focus on Sue’s attempt to increase her popularity as a result of a missing person case not unlike those Nancy Grace episodes on CNN. Her sister Nancy (Mila Kunis) is a local reporter and gets the word out that Sue’s husband is “missing,” but Sue wants to go higher and piggybacks on a national missing person case. At this point, the plot completely unravels and becomes a gore-fest – both in its ending and in a number of grisly deaths that would’ve made the director of Saw proud.  Will Sue be able to finally affirm herself?  You’ll find out if you can make it to the Crash-like ending.

It is important to recognize that a common thread throughout Breaking News in Yuba County involves Sue’s constant attempts to affirm herself.  She starts off talking to herself in the grocery store and is heard recounting the same phrases as she goes from nobody to pseudo-star.  It becomes a catalyst that transforms her into someone who is desperate to do anything to get seen in a popular light (at least in her eyes) by the public. The issue here is not the affirmations themselves, but where the words point her to. They give her ego a massive boost that, once triggered, is near impossible to get rid of.  Conversely, as a Christian, I believe that our affirmations should come from the Bible and the words God tells us. He loves each of us with an everlasting love and has drawn us with lovingkindness (see Jeremiah 31:3).  If that’s good, there’s a whole lot more of these God has to share.  By finding our value and worth in Him, we won’t have to resort to being a part of a racket (knowingly or unknowingly) as Sue horrifyingly discovered. Instead, we can relate to One who sings songs over us (see Zephaniah 3:17)

Breaking News in Yuba County is available on VOD.

Bad Moms: Freed for What?

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badmoms

“Moms don’t quit. Quitting is for dads!”

That’s basically the summation of the latest raunchy comedy wrapped around a message about independence, freedom, and friendship. For everyone who ever wished there was an Old School or a Bridesmaids for moms, the minds behind The Hangover deliver… Bad Moms.

Interestingly enough, Bad Moms is the story delivered by writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. In a film about women finding their own voice, there’s some irony there – but it still carries with it some hilarious moments, some “did they just…?” moments, and some stand-up-and-cheer moments. That’s thanks to a witty script and the diverse assembly of actresses that Universal unleashed.

BAD MOMS

Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis) is the steady half of a marriage – she takes care of the kids from sunup to sundown, works full-time for part-time pay, and takes care of her husband, David Walton’s Mike, who is even more juvenile than her children. When Mike betrays her with an online tryst, Amy snaps, kicking him out, and launching into a wild thrill ride with the hyper-sexualized Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and the repressed Kiki (Kristen Bell) that involves too much drinking, bad choices, and recognizing that she’s not perfect.

Up against Amy in her fight for individuality and motherhood is the picture of snide perfection, Christina Applegate’s condescendingly ominous Gwendolyn James and her two cronies, Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Vicky (Amy Mumolo). Gwendolyn controls everything about the school, including the soccer coach (J.J. Watts in a hilarious cameo) and the principal (Wendell Pierce). But Amy is not alone – and that’s before she starts romancing single dad Jessie (Jay Hernandez).

While we recognize that Amy has been unfairly treated – by her husband and others in her life, she begins to see that finding herself and her space in life doesn’t have to be at the cost of everything. There’s a balance she comes to that grounds the film: yes, she doesn’t have to be a perfect mom but she still has responsibilities, purpose, and meaning even when she feels like all is lost. Amy is a mom – even if she thinks she’s a bad one!

And just in case you’re worried… Bad Dads is due in July 2017!

You can also see the real life stars interview their real life moms, laugh along with the gag reel, and check out deleted scenes. It just might change how you see motherhood… or not. 

Jupiter Ascending: Open Up Your Eyes

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jupiterascendingJupiter Ascending is either as awesome–or as terrible–as you’ve heard. It’s not the kind of movie that can be seen as middle-of-the-road, given its Wachowski Brothers spin that sees The Matrix mashed up with Star Wars in a way that only the guys behind The Matrix Trilogy, V For Vendetta, and Speed Racer could create. It’s over-the-top, CGI, and galactic, with a cynical female lead (Mila Kunis) who draws the powers of the universe into an epic collision while spouting lines (“I love dogs”) in the most ridiculous settings. Love it or hate it, you’re all in either way.

Jupiter (Kunis) grows up with a deep-rooted desire to see the stars. What she doesn’t know is that she’s part of a semi-eternal clan of aliens who rule the galaxy, of which Earth is just a small part. (I told you, it’s galactic.) Jupiter cleans toilets, deals with her extremely lame family (one of them suggests she have her eggs harvested to help him get a bigger TV), and wishes she was anywhere else.  However, all hell breaks loose on Earth when one of her alien siblings discovers she exists and wants to kill her to get her inheritance.

Thankfully, Jupiter isn’t alone: she’s got Channing Tatum, er, Caine Wise, part-dog, part-human soldier on her side. And Stringer (Sean Bean) jumps in out of loyalty, too. So, it’s Jupiter, Caine, and Stringer against the galactic forces of the Empire, er, House of Abrasax, headed up by Eddie Redmayne’s Balem. [Ironically, Balaam is the name of the prophet in Numbers 22:1-39 whose donkey speaks to him. Does that have anything to do with the film? Probably not, but with this melting pot of a flick, it’s always possible. Seriously, Redmayne’s character is an ass.]

jupiterascending2Balem thinks that Earth should be his, mostly because his an insufferable bad guy who drips evil and refuses grace to his reptilian sidekicks. It’s all uphill battle for the final fight between Balem and Jupiter, but we know that nearly from the moment it’s all laid out by the beginning. The film itself doesn’t care how direct or obvious it is: it’s busy taking shots at immigration, diplomacy, the DMV, and how much it stinks to be a house cleaning maid. There’s plenty of sociological exploration of entitlement and classicism, too, that reads like a much more on-the-nose examination than Neil Blomkamp’s District 9. The Abrasax definitely think they’re due, and everyone else owes them. Because Jupiter didn’t believe in all of this from the get go, she’s more of a commoner-turned-queen (think Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy).

Overall, I found Jupiter Ascending to be entertaining in a campy sort of way. It’s derivative but it knows it. And it plays Kunis and Tatum off of each other, quite well. It wants us to be entertained, but it also asks us how much we accept about the world because someone else says so. What do you believe? Who tells you what your reality is? How do you determine what’s right and what’s wrong? From a pastor’s perspective, there are plenty of voices (like the different Abrasax siblings) who want to tell each of us what to believe [Editor’s note: consider what news station you watch, and which one you believe is ‘right’.] How we determine truth, and what we believe to be undeniably, unalterably, absolutely true shapes the way we live.

jupiterascending3I believe undoubtably that Jesus Christ was God’s one and only Son, who died on the cross for everyone’s sins and rose again (Romans 1:16!) I’ve studied and seen it worked out, I’ve experienced God’s grace. I’m still learning and I’m sure the ways I understand God’s grace will grow. But this is truth – and not just because someone told me. I learned it but I had to unlearn some things, and I had to grow.

Just like Jupiter. She starts out naive and blind to the way the world works. Sean Bean’s Striker tells her, “I don’t believe that most people want to know the truth.” Jupiter says, “I want to know.” The truth about the galaxy follows, and her eyes are opened: she sees, and seeing changes everything.