Episode 44: Lord, Help Me Get One More

After a brief discussion of politics and Batman, we jump into a review of Mel Gibson's new film Hacksaw Ridge and how it handles pacifism, conscience, violence, and point of view.

Episode 42: On Law and Order (feat. Scott Ott)

We talk about Trump and Hillary, constitutionalism, Christianity, Hamilton, A Tale of Two Cities, and scary movies - featuring our first guest, Scott Ott of BillWhittle.com.

Episode 40: Austentatious

"The heroine of many a modern novel writhes and reels her way through the story, chews and flings away fifty half-smoked cigarettes...goading every mood to the verge of madness...dashing to the druggist and then collapsing on the doorstep of the psycho-analyst; and all the time congratulating herself on her rational superiority to the weak sensibility of Jane Austen."
~G.K. Chesterton

Honor and sacrifice, wisdom and emotion, modernity and gender roles in Sense and Sensibility, a 90's adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, featuring a sparkling cast which includes Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Kate Winslet. Also: dating advice from Jane Austen - and a Christian approach to emotion and reason.

Episode 13: Saving Steven Spielberg

This week, we talk about the themes and influence of Steven Spielberg's filmography. What's the Spielberg Kid? Fathers, children, and innocence lost and regained. Is the Patriarch a hipster? Also: God's Not Dead as done by Spielberg and Indiana Jones as done by Malick. Find out in Episode 13 of The Pilgrim's Podcast.

Gracepoint - Episode 10 - Review

My review of last week's episode

I've already noted that the Gracepoint showrunners completely missed the point of their source material, but this finale clinches it.

For those who saw episode 9, the killer reveal shouldn't have been all that difficult to predict. Several subplots had been resolved - the whole Jack Reinhold part (my favorite segment of the season), Beth and Paul, Emmett's background, Susan Wright's past, Vince's reason for threatening Susan. All that was done with, so it was fairly reasonable to expect the one unresolved thread to come to the fore, as it did.

(Spoilers for the endings of both Gracepoint and Broadchurch.)

Gracepoint - Episode 9 - Review

My review of last week's episode.

It's been a pretty good year for small-screen Brits in the U.S. of A. Not only has David Tennant hopped the Atlantic and gained an accent, but so has Martin Freeman. In other quarters, Ioan Gruffudd and Jonny Lee Miller investigate crime in the big city.

For Gracepoint, the things lost in the passage are subtlety, originality, and faith. It doesn't help that comparison to the much superior Broadchurch is almost impossible not to make when Gracepoint has steadfastly refused to break out a new plot. Rather than a poignant reconciliation under the direction of Paul Coates, we get a pedestrian love-triangle which climaxes in an argument between Beth and Mark (followed by...revelation? reconciliation? what?). At least we can hope that that subplot has finally been played out, because, like Beth, none of us care about Paul.

Episode 3: The Godfather: Part II - If You Love Me, You Have a Funny Way of Showing It

Star Wars and Jurassic World trailers, killing Jar-Jar Binks, making good things into ultimate things, podcasting via hologram, escaping from the mafia, and Vito Corleone as a god figure.

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Gracepoint - Episode 8 - Review

My review of last week's episode

And...that was a let-down. It's not a terrible episode, but a few logical fails manage to dispel much of the story.

Speaking of dispelling tension, we start by finding Tom, who is indeed in the woods bleeding. Paul Coates is creeping along singing hymns out of tune, because apparently that's what Hollywood people think priests do. The moment when he does find Tom is appropriately scary, but most everything's down-hill from there, because Ellie and Carver completely buy Tom's explanation that he was going looking for Lars so that he could confront him with...knowledge of his sins. Do normal children do this? I think not.

Tom must have been thinking: Incredible! One of the worst performances of my career, and they never doubted it for a second...

Episode 2: Indiana Jones - If You Like Your Ark...

In Which: we discuss self-reliant heroes, danger in action movies, and why John Williams is the star of every movie he scores. Also: What is a swashbuckler? Is the Ark of the Covenant a weapon of mass destruction? Does this movie end with a Deus ex machina? And could Indiana Jones have been European?

All this and more in the second episode of The Pilgrim's Podcast.

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Gracepoint - Episode 7 - Review

My review of last week's episode

If last week was a marked departure in terms of atmosphere, this week's plot has finally diverged significantly from the original. Not only does Tom Miller go missing, but we're introduced to the Creepy Backpacker, and Emmett Carver's daughter Julianne. All of this happening in one episode gives us a lot to chew on (not to mention the fact that it ends with a cliffhanger - AGH).

The last episode ended with the death of Jack Reinhold. We pick up as the town is coming together for a memorial service. Paul Coates gives the congregation a tongue-lashing (translation: mild rebuke, because the man has no charisma whatsoever) about failing Jack. Presumably, this is because they suspected him, because soon after this, Joe lets Carver have it about suspecting Paul Coates.

Episode 1: The Godfather - Never Go In Against a Sicilian

The theology of story, the need for grace to counterbalance justice, and throwing tea in the sea of Galilee. Should the plural of fish be fish? What would the world look like without police? Is Christianity a democracy? And is The Godfather all about the Pharisees?

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Gracepoint - Episode 6 - Review

My review of last week's episode

This episode is the first to really strike into new territory. And it does so in fairly dramatic fashion.

The unquestionable star is Nick Nolte, a surly teddy bear of a man, trying to cope as his life crumbles around his ears.

In the last episode, Nolte's character, Jack Reinhold, was accused of statutory rape. There's never really any question of his innocence - the man exudes sincerity. But while there isn't a tremendous amount of suspense about whether or not he's guilty, the episode makes the most of the tyranny of public opinion, the reaction of the community, and the way something like this is quickly sensationalized.

The Pilgrim's Podcast

Things are about to change. Rumblings across the interwebs foreshadow the coming of changes for Longview the Blog. Don't panic, Dear Reader. Change cometh, like all things. (In related news, I've been blogging here for nearly a year. Wow.)

Things around here will pretty much stay the same (I'll still be posting regular reviews), but as of tomorrow, Longview will now a) operate under a new name, and b) host a movie podcast that's headed up by me, my dad, and a mystery host.

This has been in planning for some time, and it's the product of three things: a whim, the discovery that my computer houses a cheap microphone, and the fact that we already love to talk movies at length.

Since this is now the internet home of The Pilgrim's Podcast, my dad, Allan Long, (he prefers "The Patriarch") is now a guest contributor, and he'll post his thoughts on movies here from time to time. For a foretaste of that, check out his blog, What's He That Wishes So?

As for the mystery host, you'll just have to wait.

We recorded our first episode last night, and we're really excited about getting it out in the world (any tech tips would be highly appreciated). At the moment, I'm working on post-production stuff, finishing the theme music, etc. We're not sure when it'll be finished, but I'm hoping for sometime this week.

The plan is to make this a weekly deal. We'll let you know what the film is so you can watch it, or join in with any livetweets we may do.

The movie? We decided to start with some light family fare. The Godfather: Part I. (I. Am. Kidding. Don't watch it with the kids.) By the way, you can catch my livetweet of that movie here.

And it's up! Check it out here.

Hannah Long

Gracepoint - Episode 5 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Apparently the only way Gracepoint's inhabitants have of dealing with their anger is to grab people by their jackets and shake them around. See Mark Solano vs. Paul Coates, and Paul Coates vs. Raymond Connolly.

But is there anybody out there that wasn't cheering when Owen Burke got knocked silly by the Wrath of Nick Nolte? And as for me, I think Emmett Carver ought to have been a bit harder on everybody's favorite psychic.

Gracepoint - Episode 1 - Review

I just had to get this off my chest.

Gracepoint would have been a much, much better show if it was set in Appalachia.

David Tennant, an uppity Yankee, arrives in small-town Gracepoint just in time to investigate the murder of Opie Taylor. Assisted by a shocked local sheriff, he must investigate all the inhabitants of this seemingly idyllic town.

I kid. But only a little.

In remaking the amazing British show Broadchurch, it's inevitable that some themes would cross over. The idea of a small town turning on itself. The theme of Christianity and community. There would be no better place to transport this conflict than a small Appalachian town - that symbol of American rural life - complete with a heavy dose of Flannery O'Connor.

Becket - Movie Review

I've been on a history of the British monarchy kick, from Henry V to A Man for All Seasons to Chariots of Fire (hey, Prince of Wales). The royals have long been popular on the silver screen, and Becket is a pillar of the genre, despite numerous inaccuracies and a general spicing-up-of-facts goin' on.

Book-ended by scenes at the tomb of Thomas Becket (b. 1118, d. 1170), the rest of the film is a flashback to his life, from a wild youth, to a career as a statesman, and then his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Central to the drama is the bond between Becket and Henry II, to the point that the film is almost less a biopic than the story of a relationship. Peter O'Toole is at his best here, throwing himself into the dissolute, petulant king with gusto (a role he would reprise in 1968's The Lion in Winter). He nearly steals the show from Richard Burton's gentle, erudite Becket, but if O'Toole provides driving force of the narrative, it is Burton that channels it.

Ragamuffin - Movie Review

Well-known skeptic David Hume once traveled twenty miles to hear celebrity evangelical George Whitefield preach. When asked if he believed what Whitefield said, Hume replied: "No. But he does."

If there was anything I could tell about Rich Mullins, it was that he did. That's impossible to fake, and Ragamuffin, the indie biopic of Mullins's life, doesn't. However, it has its moments.

Beginning in Rich's troubled childhood on a mid-western farm, the film stretches through college, his musical career, and retirement to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. One of the most significant problems is pacing, and I'd say that at least half an hour could have been lost with no ill effects.

While quickly proving that it is no bright, sunny Christian flick, Ragamuffin does at times spin into the opposite pitfall of self-important hipsterism. Michael Koch is impressive, given his meager film experience, but he can't quite play someone as sincere as Rich (I mean, how can you be a sincere impersonator?) Koch's character is angsty, angry and considers himself a free spirit. And while I didn't know him personally, that wasn't my impression of Rich Mullins.

12 Years a Slave - How Long Until the Reckoning?

It’s the curse of almost any American movie about race relations to instantly become a political football. I usually ignore the outrage, because in general, these are message movies exploiting furor to distract from dearth of artistry—but 12 Years a Slave is a startling exception.

For one thing, it isn’t a message movie. Well, it kind of is, but it’s not the expected message. This movie isn’t about skin-color, or even prejudice—it’s about slavery. And it’s really about slavery. Easily earning its R-rating, much of the film’s length is spent portraying brutal violence—psychological, physical, and sexual, all this amidst the poverty and privation, hopelessness, nakedness, and cruelty that was the slavery of the American south. It’s graphic, but (except in, perhaps, a few instances) never gratuitously so, never sensationalist, never Tarantino. Indeed, my overall impression was one of restraint, with many long shots, silent but for the sounds of crickets.

And it’s a true story.

A Man for All Seasons (1966) - Movie Review

"More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity: a man for all seasons."
~Robert Whittington, 1520

This film took me by storm. I expected a dry, rather cheap-looking medieval period piece, with a few quirky British thesps to spice up an otherwise dull historical biopic. Given the age and source, it seemed like an archetype of respectable, old-fashioned film-making. In a way it was. It wouldn’t be made today—it was far, far from the cutting edge of cinema, even in its own time. But it’s just these things that allow it to be the best film I’ve seen this year. 

A riveting political fable, A Man for All Seasons is jam-packed with superb performers and spearheaded by the most interesting protagonist I’ve encountered in a long time. It uses many standard conventions—long scenes, big-budget visuals, everything a little bit stagey, but given these play-like customs, it is allowed a slow, insistent growth of suspense and complexity of character. There are moments when you could cut the tension with a knife, mostly due to clash of personality between these expertly drawn characters.

Minireview: Flywheel

This film quite surprised me. While obviously shot on a tight budget and suffering from some weak acting and preachiness, Flywheel's unrelenting sense of reality saves it from the mass of faith films.

It just all seems so real (even more so, in fact, than the more polished films the Kendricks would later produce). The used car lot, the unglamorous people, the dialogue. The ever-sincere Alex Kendrick, as well, anchors the cast as a Scrooge character, Jay Austin. Instead of demonizing Austin in his swindling sales, we're allowed to see his motivations, understand why he does it, and also how he justifies it to himself (even though we don't sympathize.) We can see clearly that while getting his life together and turning to God could solve some of his problems, it will exacerbate others. What's more: it does, and it's no plain sailing from there on out.

While we do end with a little too much sunshine, Flywheel is an entertaining faith drama (albeit with a set audience), that is endearing in its smallness, earnestness, and willingness to take on the issues not just of converting to Christianity, but living with it.

3.5/5 stars






Hannah Long