Ella's Reliable Reviews: The Premier Show!

I am pleased to present a brand new webcast from my favorite 10 year old. Ella's Reliable Reviews, your only source for reliable reviews, premiers with her take on Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street (book one). Enjoy!




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Oscar 2010

I love the Oscars for the way they remind me that we are Americans.  We aren’t content to create art and let it stand on its own.  We aren’t even happy to pass judgment on it for its individual merit.  We have to compare our works of art to one another and crown a single winner. 

All of those actors, directors, costume designers and the like, they were the kids who didn’t play sports in high school.  They didn’t spend one second in the locker room.  They hung out at the theater, the band hall, the art room.  But now, at the apex of their careers, they find themselves in this bow-tie and sequined Super Bowl. Competition, like death, comes for us all.

I watch the Oscars every year.  I root for my favorite teams, I boo my villains.  I’m always looking for that pure moment, those ten seconds in one of those acceptance speeches in which a man or woman, truly humbled, speaks from the heart and reveals their humanity.  Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to sit through James Cameron instead. 

In the spirit of true Oscar watching competitive excitement, I hear bestow my thoughts on the awards this year.  To be honest, I haven’t seen all of the films.  I’m just an amateur critic, after all.  I have seen eight of the ten nominated for best picture, as well dozens of other movies over the past year, so I’m not totally making stuff up.  My list is alphabetical by category, and I skip things I have no comment upon.

Best Picture
Someone is going to be upset by my saying it, but Inglourious Basterds was the best film of 2009.  And, frankly, it wasn’t even close.  Now, I did not see Precious or the Blind Side.  I do think that the eight I did see were all good films, some were great.  But Basterds was the film I still think about, wonder about, and worry about all these months later. 

Of the films I saw, Avatar is the least deserving to be on this list and the most likely to win.  Since my favorite has no real hope, I will be pulling for the Hurt Locker.  Here is my prediction.  Avatar will win, and ten years from now we will look back and say “seriously, did that really happen?”

Actor in a Leading Role
Since Sam Rockwell was not nominated for Moon, I choose Colin Firth from A Single Man.  A remarkable, subtle, and genuine piece of acting that should be studied for years to come.  I saw all five of these performances, and I can assure you that Morgan Freeman did not deserve to be nominated, and no one else compared with Colin Firth or Sam Rockwell this year.  But Jeff Bridges will win.  Good for him.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christoph Waltz will win, and he should win.  In the past two years, this category has gone to men who play psychopaths incredibly well, and Waltz will prove that evil comes in threes. 

Actress in a Leading Role
Carey Mulligan is my favorite here.  If you haven’t seen “An Education,” you don’t know what you are missing.  She is truly splendid in this film.  I hope we see a great deal more from this actress.  As for who will actually win, I think this one is wide open.  Your guess is better than mine.

Actress in a Supporting Role
All the buzz is for Mo'Nique, but I didn’t see Precious so I have no comment on that at all.  Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I usually love as an actress, was medicore in Crazy Heart, so don’t ask me how she got nominated.  If I were choosing, I would give it to Anna Kendrick.  I completely believed her in Up in the Air.  For me, acting rises or falls on one thing: believability.  I didn’t doubt her for a second. 

Animated Film
Up should win, and Up will win.  One of my top five films of the year, and the only one that made me weep uncontrollably in front of my children. 

Art Direction
Avatar will win, and I only saw two of these films so I don’t know nuthin’ bout it.

Cinematography
I’m pulling for Basterds, though I’d be happy with the Hurt Locker.  Avatar will win.

Costume Design
Will go to Young Victoria or Nine, because those are the Periods that always win.

Directing
The real “Best Picture” decision this year, with the official category bloated with 10 nominations.  You know what I’m going to say: Tarantino would get my vote, but I’ll be rooting for Bigelow over her ex-husband. 

Music: Original Score
Many people didn’t like it, but I loved the score to Sherlock Holmes.  Whether it should win or not?  I’m not a musician, so you should probably ask someone else.

Music: Original Song
I’m pulling for Down in New Orleans from Disney.  Unfortunately, it is running against another song from the same film, and no one actually saw this jewel in the theaters.  So, I’m guessing Crazy Heart takes it.

Visual Effects
Seriously, I really didn’t hate Avatar.  The visuals really were amazing.  But District 9 blew me away.  They made it look like they took regular hand-held cameras to Africa and filmed aliens walking around.  Seamless and never cartoony, I’m pulling for the District. 

Writing: Adapted Screenplay
This is a tough one.  I’m going to pull for An Education, though I think all of them seem deserving.

Writing: Original Screenplay
Frankly, all of these were terrific screenplays (well, maybe not the Messenger which was almost all improvised from what I am told).  I’m going to give my Oscar vote to the Coen brothers for a truly original piece of writing. 



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One Minute Review: Shutter Island

Wow, that movie looks creepy, weird, and scary. But is it any good? Let the OMR be your guide!


OMR: Shutter Island from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.


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OMR: The Lightning Thief

This is the One Minute Review of "The Lightning Thief." Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief is a book my kids love. Now it has been made into a movie. I saw it, and now I’m reviewing it. If your kids loved the book, it is pretty well a done deal that you are going to see this film. But otherwise, is it worth plopping down your hard earned drachma on? Better find out.

OMR: The Lightning Thief from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

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One Minute Review: Wolfman

Want to hear me howl at the moon?  You know you do!  Watch the OMR of Wolfman, and all your wishes will be fulfilled! 

OMR: Wolfman from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

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40 Days

A very funny, if a little out of tune, song about Lent.  Based on Sting's King of Pain.  It probably won't last long on YouTube before someone yanks it, so watch it while it lasts. 




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OMR: Moon

The One Minute Reviews of Moon.  Definitely my type of movies; and I am ashamed that I had to catch it on DVD instead of seeing it surrounded by the stoned employees, sticky floors, and stained seats of the Regal Hollywood 27.  Assuming it even played there, which I doubt.


OMR: Moon from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.



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OMR: The Hurt Locker

The long-delayed one minute review of the multiple-Oscar nominated film, the Hurt Locker (now on DVD). Take a look.


OMR: The Hurt Locker from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

The Mumbo Jumbo, part one

Several days ago, I was in Greensboro NC attending the annual Anglican Mission in the Americas' Winter Conference.  The thing I like most about Winter Conference is hanging out with my friends and making new friends.  The thing I like least is the Mumbo Jumbo.

I am really happy to be a part of the AMiA.  I love my bishop and the clergy in my network.  I love that the AMiA focuses on the mission of the Church.  Unlike any other American form of Anglicanism I have ever experienced, it is solidly committed to proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Most folks in the AMiA, including myself, are evangelical.  By “evangelical” I mean that we believe in the uniqueness of Christ, his atoning death, this resurrection and return, and the necessity of personally putting your faith in him.  There are also folks in the AMiA who are Evangelical.  By Evangelical, I mean part of the American Evangelical movement.  They are theological committed to the Good News (“evangel” in Greek), but they are also part of the Evangelical Christian subculture. 

The Evangelical subculture is the source of some good things and some bad things.  Some of the bad things I would describe as “the Mumbo Jumbo.”  Part of the Mumbo Jumbo is the idea that church congregations should use marketing tactics to increase the size of their Sunday attendance.  This is sometimes called “Church Growth.”  It is a very important part of the Evangelical subculture. 

There are things which are marketing ideas that are helpful.  For instance, I think churches should have good looking and helpful websites.  We should use communication tools, like e-mail and facebook.  We should have decent signs pointing to our church buildings.  These sort of things are, I think, good and proper. 

There are, however, problems with some marketing tactics.  Sometimes these tactics are actually antithetical to the Good News.  They are dehumanizing and manipulative.  They come from a worldview that sees the Gospel as a product and human beings as buyers.  While the way of Jesus is love, the way of the marketer is control.  Those two things just don't seem to go together.

Another major problem is that most church people don’t have the slightest understanding of what good marketing is.  It is one thing when a church uses some awesome marketing tools to sell itself.  It is another thing when a church misuses marketing and therefore harms itself as well as its “customers.” This happens when churches fudge on Word and Sacrament in order to become more hip and cool. 

If you had been in some of the sessions at this conference, you would have heard some speakers say, in effect, "the bigger the church is the better." If you had been in the hallways, you would have heard people talk about the methods they us to make their churches bigger. Sure, bigger churches mean more people know Jesus (supposedly, but that has been shown to be a whole lot less true than your megachurch would like to believe).  But there is a certain devaluing of the Holy Spirit that happens when conversion stops being a miracle and becomes the end result of a "good close."

Enough for now.  In part two, I will give you two examples of the Mumbo Jumbo; first one that made me angry, and then one that made just shake my head.

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One Minute Review: Crazy Heart

Wow, a film about country music, and I live in Nashville.  It stars some of my favorite actors.  The Academy gave it TWO acting Oscar nominations.  Did I love it?  Take a look:


OMR: Crazy Heart from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.


Or take a listen here:

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An Un-Cancelled Church

Nashville doesn’t see a lot of snow. When we do, it appears as shimmery flakes falling like dandruff on the bare ground. It might pile up like so much white dust, but it is soon gone.

This weekend has been an exception. On Friday it really snowed, and that snow lingers even today on roofs and yards and streets. My children did not go the school Friday because of the mere threat of snow, and they were told to stay home again today because of the “driving conditions.”

What we don't have in snow, we make up for in churches.  Nashville and environs are home to hundreds of these. On any given Sunday, a significant percentage of the local population is in attendance at one of these houses of worship. That is, except yesterday. Yesterday, tens of thousands of Christians stayed home rather than joining together in worship. Why? For many of them, they simply could not go. Their streets were iced in, or their normal transportation was not working. Others did not want to take the risk. Older people, people with small children, people who have medical conditions--these folks wisely avoided dangerous situations. But there was another reason that Christians did not worship together. Their churches were closed.

If you looked on many of the church websites on Saturday night or Sunday morning, you saw that there were many notices of cancellation. Specific services, Christian education, church events, and entire Sunday schedules were set aside. Most of these churches did not say why they had taken this action, simply that it had been done. Perhaps a site would say  “dangerous driving conditions.” One huge church did have a note from the pastor, explaining that he did not feel comfortable asking thousands of people to get on the road when the police had advised against it.

Our congregation cancelled its “annual meeting” because we knew that it was unreasonable to expect that we would get a required quorum of members. We did not, however, cancel either worship service.

In our tradition, we practically never cancel Sunday morning worship. It would take a cataclysmic event to cause us to cancel, and I frankly can’t come up with an example of what that might be.  For instance, our house is in a small valley.  There is no way to get from my house to anywhere without going up a fairly steep hill.  I was concerned that my car might now make it.  When my wife asked what I would do if my car did not make it, I told her that the church isn't that far a bike ride away.  I was not kidding. 

So, why? Why not cancel church yesterday?

1) The Centrality of Eucharist. In our tradition, celebrating Christ in Word and Sacrament is essential to the way we live our faith. Our individual spiritual lives as well as our life together in community find their center in Sunday morning Eucharist. Is our salvation dependent upon our worship? Of course not. But we believe we should at least have the opportunity to gather each and every week.  This is part of what it means to be liturgical, that we engage in an ongoing pattern of work and worship.  

2) This Mission of the Church. Our mission is to share the Word of the Lord with those who do not know him. One way we do that is to offer the Public a place where they can unfailingly hear the Gospel at a set time and place each week.  We actually had multiple visitors at both of our services on Sunday.

3) Treating Adults like Adults. We are not the kind of church that commands its members. If someone does not feel that they can come to church, that is their choice. I have no interest in forcing anyone to come to church, especially those who would be in danger by so doing. At the same time, other adults may make the reasonable decision to get on the road and drive to the place of worship.

4) Tradition. By tradition, Anglican’s don’t cancel worship. We don’t use fake flowers in the sanctuary, we use real wine with communion, we don’t cancel worship. That is how we roll.

I have no problem with other people living according to their traditions.  I wrote this because I thought it might be helpful to explain ours. As for yesterday, our population was definitley affected by the snow. We had a bit better than a third of our regular attendance. But I will say this: the Lord was worshiped, his Gospel was proclaimed, and his people celebrated Communion together. I’m glad I went.


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