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iMordecai – Fixing what’s broken

February 24, 2023 by Darrel Manson

?Days like this, I miss Siberia.?

A new phone becomes the catalyst for an older man to find new ways of seeing things in iMordecai from Marvin Samel. The story is based in the Samel family history. As such this is a personal project.

Mordecai Samel (Judd Hirsch) is a Holocaust survivor. As a child, he and his parents escaped Poland to the Soviet Union. The rest of his extended family were killed at Treblinka. Mordecai spent years in a Siberian orphanage. He later moved to Israel when he fought in the Israeli army. Then, he moved to Brooklyn where he married Fela (Carol Kane), and worked as both a housepainter and a plumber until they retired to Florida.

Mordecai spent his life fixing things. He figured he could fix everything. He sets out on bizarre DIY projects, like remodeling the bathroom with a jackhammer. At times, he pushed his way into his son Marvin?s (Sean Astin) life, almost always upsetting Marvin in the process. When Mordecai?s old flip-phone, held together by duct tape and foil died, Marvin takes him to get the latest new phone. Mordecai wants nothing to do with this thing that doesn?t even have buttons. But Nina (Azia Dinea Hale), a young woman who works at the store gives him private lessons on how to use it.

Then Fela is diagnosed with dementia. She needs special care, but Mordecai sneaks out to connect with Nina for more lessons. He is also making new friends with the other young people in the store, telling them his life story.

Marvin is also in the process of a major business deal, but he doesn?t want Mordecai to know about it, thinking that his father would want to get involve and ?fix things?. The rift that is developing between the two men has been growing for years. Is this something that Mordecai can?t fix?

As I said above, this is a personal project. The real Marvin Samel began writing the stories of his family after his mother?s diagnosis. Such personal histories are important. They contain both humor and pathos, as does this film. Probably the highlight of the film is a well edited section where Mordecai and Martin are in two different venues telling rapt audiences the same story from Mordecai?s life in Brooklyn.

Vanity projects often offer limited appeal. It relies a bit too much on stereotypes of both senior citizens and Jewish immigrants. While there are some universals to the family history, the film will not have the meaning to many viewers that it will have for those who know these people.

iMordecai is in theaters.

Photos courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

February 24, 2023 by Darrel Manson Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: based on a true story, Carol Kane, comedy, dementia, Judd Hirsch, seniors, technology

The Your Sunday Drive Podcast Midsummer Blowout Spectacular!

July 14, 2021 by Matt Hill

your-sunday-drive-podcast

In a shocking turn of events, 2021 is half over. We catch up on what’s been happening in our usual realms of current events and pop culture in this fast-paced episode.

What do we talk about? Better question is: What don’t we talk about? 🙂 Topics include: the seeming end of the pandemic and takeaways; related positives/negatives of technology; the Summer Olympics; the return of movie theaters, The Fast and the Furious 9 and memes; books we’ve been reading; Bo Burnham’s Inside and Returnal on PS5.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive

July 14, 2021 by Matt Hill Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Bo Burnham, Christian, christian podcast, church, culture, God Hypothesis, inside, Pandemic, ps5, religion, returnal, stephen c meyer, Summer Olympics, technology, The Fast and the Furious

Sing Me a Song – Undetached Buddhism

December 4, 2020 by Darrel Manson

If your mind pictures a Buddhist monastery as a step back in time or as a place of detachment from worldly things, you may be in for a surprise when you see Sing Me a Song from documentary filmmaker Thomas Balm?s.

Balm?s first visited the monastery in Bhutan ten years ago when making his film Happiness. The beginning of Sing Me a Song revisits the previous film and Peyangki, an eight year old monk, as he anticipates the coming of electricity, TV, and internet to Laya, the last village in Bhutan to get that technology. When the film jumps to the present day, we see rows of young monks reciting prayers, while simultaneously playing on their cellphones. Peyangki, now a young man, is still in the monastery, but he is fascinated by the technology, and especially with connecting with Ugyen, a young woman in the capital city, Thimphu. We?re not entirely sure what Ugyen?s life is like, although it appears that she is a B girl who is contemplating going to Kuwait for work.

In part this is a coming-of-age film as a young monk must come to terms with his calling and his desires. For Peyangki, the monastery has been his home for most of his life. He desired to be there as a child. He dreamed of becoming a lama. Now the distractions of the outside world pull him away from the more spiritual life he has been following. His relationship with Ugyen is another draw away from his life in the monastery. That burgeoning love story is followed.

But the key aspect of the film is the way that consumerism and technology tend to take over our lives. This is clearly evident in Peyangki?s life. His teacher at the monastery is constantly pointing out that he is not making progress. He is told he must quit playing and study. In a spiritual discipline that focuses on detachment, the coming of technology does not seem to be a good thing.

The connection to Balm?s?s film Happiness is important. He made that film because the King of Bhutan had deemed the rapid modernization of the country as something that would create more happiness. Bhutan claimed to be the happiest place in the world. Yet, as we watch Peyangki and Ugyen, we don?t sense that the King?s plans have brought them happiness. And in Peyangki?s case, it may have taken away the joys he found earlier in the spiritual life in Laya.

Sing Me a Song is available on Virtual Cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of Gravitas Ventures and Participant Media

December 4, 2020 by Darrel Manson Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Bhutan, Buddhism, documentary, monks, technology

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