Review: Iron Man 2 @ Parma MotorVu (did I just make a rhyme?)

Tonight was the first time back at a drive-in theater for me in about 35 years (at least).

Growing up, I remember going to drive-ins fairly frequently.
I remember us making an evening of it, going down early, playing in an onsite playground until dusk, waiting for the first image to be shot up on the screen. I remember large metal speakers hooked onto our car window and watching from inside the car.

Which was one of the pointed differences between tonight’s experience and what I remember. Tonight was like one big tailgate party. Hatches open, lawn chairs set out, boom boxes for sound systems, kids spread out on the roof of their family cars. There wasn’t even any need to silence your cell phone. And then there’s the huge screen with the backdrop of a starlit sky. Half the time I found myself gazing at the stars, at the deep, darkening blue/black of the night sky with that fading tinge of reddish orange on the horizon.

Iron Man 2 is a throwaway film that reveals the kingdom of God by contrast (humility versus narcissim and braggadocio, organic simplicity versus high-tech gadgetry, one-another community versus the one man show – with a timely assist), but the show God put on behind the show filled me. What a way to watch a movie!

Add in the community aspect of the tailgate party happening down the row, and there was much more of the kingdom in evidence behind the screen and before it than on it.

Not a bad way to spend an evening…makes me think of one creative use for that big athletic field behind the church. Can you imagine it – the Vineyard Motor Vu right in our own backyard…

Dreaming, dreaming…

Four Types of Films

In Faith and Film, Edward McNulty urges film viewers not to judge a film by its rating, any more than we should judge a book by its cover. He then proceeds to list four types of films to help us to sort out “the wheat from the chaff” when dealing with films. I think these may come in handy as we think about and watch movies. I’m going to resist giving examples of each of the four types. See what films come to your mind as you consider each. Here you go:


Harmless Throwaway Films
“About as valuable as the throwaway popcorn boxes and candy wrappers that we discard at the theater, these films make up the bulk of the more than four hundred and fifty films that Hollywood releases each year,” says McNulty. We would probably characterize these films as harmless fun, nice diversions. The plots are formulaic, characters predictable, and you see everything coming the proverbial mile away. But if it’s done well, who cares? Whether you're laughing or crying or cheering, it’s a nice distraction from whatever life pressures you may be facing.

Toxic Junk
“These films are dangerous, even in small doses.” Actually, I think the Message rendering of Paul’s classic “works of the flesh” text in Galatians 5 sums this category up pretty well:

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. Galatians 5:19-21

Now, I wouldn’t say that a film that has any or all of these elements is necessarily toxic – it’s the wallowing in it, smuggly parading it, I would say. The fact is this is all the stuff of real life, so if we are moving beyond throwaway diversions to something connecting more with life, we will be encountering this. I suppose the question is how it’s handled. Toxic junk is serving it up as a main course and it tends to leave you feeling slimed to no end. It’s not a diversion, it’s a waste (and you know it when you see it).

Gritty Reality Films
“These take us to places, usually to the darker corners of our world, which we could never experience in reality.” These films are usually not pleasant to watch. Some might consider them toxic, but they are simply exploring the darker places of life where niceties are removed, the gloves are off, the fluff is gone. We see a vision of the way the world is, and it’s communicated in such a way that we are moved to think, to read, to act. They are life-impacting rather than merely nerve-numbing (the domain of the toxic junk film). These can be hard movies to watch, and when it’s done well, you’re often sorry you went to see it (especially if you were expecting something from the first category).

Visual Parables
“A small percentage of the 450 films released each year illuminate the great themes of life and faith. Like the parables of Jesus they point beyond themselves to a moral or spiritual truth.” These are the great stories that stick with you, haunt you, shadow you, or bring you wide-eyed into wonder. They don’t rely on shtick or formulas, and they end up probing the deeper places of life. They honesty visit the despair and darkness of life, prod us to ponder and probe it, often lead us to a place of hope and light in the midst of it.

So there you go. I didn’t think I could go through those without launching into this or that film, but I made it. At least for now. The films we’ll be watching together in Cinegogue will be drawn from the first, third and fourth categories (probably a disproportionate number from the fourth category), at least in my view – and such classification is in the eye of the viewer, isn’t it? What I consider gritty or parabolic, you might view as toxic waste or just a waste of time. Regardless, hopefully these categories will be helpful in your own personal film viewing – and in the movies we watch together in Cinegogue. And if you love the movies, check out McNulty’s book.

See you at the movies.

a theology of seeing

Your old men shall dream dreams
   your young men shall see visions… Joel 2:28

The God of Israel and of the church is far greater than our sanctuaries and carefully crafted worship services can contain…the God who spoke to the patriarch Joseph through dreams and to Moses through a burning bush continues to speak in unexpected ways and places to those who have “eyes that see and ears that hear” – even in a movie theater or video store. Edward McNulty, Faith and Film

Movies.

Movies are my love language.

Growing up in the sixties in a broken home, my dad would faithfully come every Sunday afternoon and take us out to the movies. I grew up with spaghetti westerns, James Bond (Sean Connery glory days), 2001, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Patton,What’s Up Doc?, In Like Flynt, Ben Hur and more war movies than I care to remember (The Longest Day, Von Ryan’s Express, The Dirty Dozen, Battle of Britain, etc., etc., etc.).

I didn’t grow up seeing God or the kingdom of God in the movies – I didn’t know either. But I connected with the silver screen. Movie soundtracks became my music of choice (in that wonderful LP technology). And the truth is I still don’t go looking for him now...I just can’t seem to stop running into him, whether it’s the full-on IMAX experience or a rental on my laptop.

Cinegogue is simply an exercise in developing what Edward McNulty calls “the theology of seeing.” It is allowing the Holy Spirit to show you his story in the cinematic story unfolding before you. It is seeing his hands painting in technicolor or even in 3D across the screen before you. Seeing his movements with each shift of scene, his nuances in the dialogue and expressions.

Cinegogue is simply doing what people who love movies do: watching a movie and then discussing it afterward (or sometimes during) over a cup of coffee.

Usually we’ll gather monthly in the Chapel (Vineyard Boise campus) for a free screening (bring your own concessions) watch and discuss and see what we see. Other times it will be an opportunity for a field trip to the theater (as our kick-off cinegogue is this month). Either way cinegogue is simple a wonderful excuse for small groups or couples or singles or families (if the film is appropriate) to spend some time together watching for the kingdom of God at the movies, developing the theology of seeing.

See you at the movies!