(Display Name not set)March 2006 Archives

Tangos and foxtrots are hot, hot, hot once again, thanks to shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and movies like “Mad Hot Ballroom.” And now you can take a spin around the dance floor with a new movie that celebrates life, death, and a mean quick-step. “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School” was the big crowd pleaser last summer when I saw it at the Waterfront Film Festival, and the film is finally releasing in theaters nationwide this weekend--only 15 years after producer Randall Miller originally shot the story as a short film with the same name.

“Marilyn Hotchkiss” tells the story of Frank Keane, a recently widowed breadmaker (played by indie film favorite Robert Carlyle), who is making a delivery run one day when he comes across a terrible car accident. He stops to help the man in the wrecked car (John Goodman) but then recklessly promises the dying stranger that he will honor the man’s final wish by keeping an appointment the man had with a childhood sweetheart at a place called the Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.

Though the childhood sweetheart never shows up, Keane is drawn to the slightly eccentric atmosphere of the school as well as the oddball characters he meets there. He begins to take dance lessons and becomes an immediate hit with the ladies there--though the other men in the class have a different take on Keane’s sudden appearance on the scene. From there, he begins a slow process of healing, as he begins to fall in love with a woman, Meredith (Marisa Tomei), he meets in class.

“Marilyn Hotchkiss” might be too sweet or sentimental for some and a few of the plot points are a little implausible, but what I liked best about this movie--in addition to the phenomenal supporting performances from such unlikely actors as Donnie Wahlberg---is the way it represents the process of grieving. All of the characters in this movie are grieving the loss of something--a spouse, a reputation, a leg--and in the process of wallowing in that grief, they have become disconnected from the world around them. “Hotchkiss” celebrates the uneven, uncomfortable growth each character experiences as he or she takes a leap of faith by once again daring to accept the unconditional love of another--a risk that in Mariyln Hotchkiss' world is only slightly greater than the risk of embarrassing yourself by trying to learn that quick-step.

If you’ve ever wanted to witness a crucifixion with your own eyes, well, now you can, thanks to the online computer game Roma-Victor. The multiplayer game is designed to be an authentic recreation of the British Empire in Roman times, in which players live virtual lives as slaves and citizens. However, for players who attempt to abuse the game or cheat in any way (called “ganking”), Roma-Victor has decided only one punishment is brutal enough--crucifixion.

The first crucifixion of a player was held just last week. Cynewulf--who is actually some guy from Flint, Mich.--was the first player within Roma Victor to be crucified. He was hung on a cross for a full seven days through digital reconstruction at the provincial town of Corstopitum (modern day Corbridge in Northumberland, England).

Kerry Fraser-Robinson, the CEO of the game’s publisher, said in a statement on the Roma-Victor website that while crucifixion in present-day society carries with it religious overtones, game-makers added crucifixion as a punishment simply as a way to make the game historically accurate. The game is currently in the final stages of testing and will officially launch on July 1, after which thousands of players will be able to live out their own virtual lives in ancient Britain. However, Roma-Victor has--so far, anyway --decided not to add to its arsenal of tricks either virtual penance or virtual forgiveness for virtual sins. Too bad. That might make for a truly fresh addition to the world of gaming.

Dover, Penn.--the town made famous last year because of a court decision to overturn a school board requirement to teach intelligent design in the classroom--is about to get the Hollywood treatment. Variety reports that Paramount Studios is developing a film version of the trial, which will focus on the way the court’s decision divided the community. Ronald Harwood, the screewriter for the project, has said that he is using "Inherit the Wind," the well-known play about the Scopes monkey trial, as his moral touchstone for the project.

No comment from either Paramount or Pat Robertson--who told the community last fall they had turned their back on God--as to whether or not Robertson has been offered a starring role.

Blowing up a national landmark to make a statement about terrorism. Unleashing a dangerous virus for political gain. No, I am not describing the latest news headlines. It's the plot of “V for Vendetta,” the latest blockbuster action flick from the makers of the “Matrix” trilogy.

In the film, based on a graphic novel of the same name, “V” (played by Hugo Weaving) is an anti-hero living underground in a futuristic and totalitarian Great Britain. He has spent years plotting an elaborate plan of revenge against everyone who was once involved in a horrible scientific experiment in a prison camp where he was tortured. His plans take a detour, however, when a young woman, Evey (Natalie Portman), comes to his aid and he must return the favor. “V” begins to care for Evey, and she soon becomes inextricably involved in his crusade to rally the fearful masses from complacency to revolution against the military regime under which they live.

“Vendetta” wants to be an important movie about ideas--political, moral, and spiritual--and it certainly starts out that way. In the first 15 minutes, we are inundated with numerous not-so-subtle references to 9/11, the Iraq war, the Patriot Act, and the potential legacy of the current Bush administration. The movie is also quick to take on religion, as spiritual books such as the Koran are banned in this Orwellian society. And while the government slogan, seen everywhere in the film, states, “Strength in Unity. Unity in Faith,” the slogan is not referring to faith in God but blind faith in a corrupt government. Even “V” himself doesn’t have much use for God, as he explains early on in the story: “Unlike God, I don’t leave things to chance.” (For more on the theory that this is a deliberately and completely an anti-Christian film, click here.)

And while all of the spectacular special effects and endless allegorical allusions to contemporary society pulled me in at first, by the film’s end “Vendetta” was an unsatisfying look at courage, justice, hate, and love. For the audience to care about "V" as a heroic figure, we need to see good in him that we do not see in the enemies he is fighting--but we don't. "V" is as much of a monster as the people he destroys. There is no virtue in his vengeance and no interest in his own redemption.

During its two hours of murder and mayhem, "Vendetta" didn't attempt to answer any of the significant questions it raised about life in a truly godless society, and it also didn't give those questions the serious reflection they deserved.

Why do evangelicals have such an affinity for Fox News, homeschooling, and church potlucks? Is there really a "Master List" of who's actually gong to hell--and wouldn't you like to take a tiny peek at it if there was? Author and satirist Joel Kilpatrick tackles these and many other important issues as he offers his blistering commentary on the evangelical subculture in his book, "A Field Guide To Evangelicals."

The book, on sale starting today, has the same offbeat sensibility as Kilpatrick's website, Lark News, where he has poked fun at trendy Christian books such as "The Prayer of Jabez" and "The Purpose-Driven Life" and offered readers an advice column called "The Missionary Position" and an online game called "The Fantasy Evangelism League."

One of my favorite parts of Kilpatrick's "Field Guide" is his "How Evangelical Are You?" quiz. The results of the quiz will tell you your EQ--Evangelical Quotient. Here's a sample question:

3. You think “backslide” is:
a. A country dance step.
b. A type of alcoholic drink.
c. A sinful state of non-belief.

Kilpatrick's quirky commentary in "Field Guide" is always dead-on, but yet somehow never mean-spirited in its examination of the outward manifestations of the evangelical faith. Maybe that's because secretly he's as evangelical as the people he writes about and yet smart enough not to take himself, or others, too seriously.

What if someone made a movie of your life? Would you want to watch? And if you did, what would be the highlights? What would you change? The independent film “Illusion,” currently in limited theatrical release, ponders these questions and...

Forget Enron exec Ken Lay's trial or the latest phone company merger, the biggest business scandal in the news this week has been the L.A. Times expose on Thomas Kinkade, the kitsch painter best known for selling warm and fuzzy...

Who needs to see Bruce Willis play a down-on-his-luck, tough-but-tender cop... again? That was my thought when I allowed a friend to drag me to Willis’s latest action-adventure flick, “16 Blocks.” But while “16 Blocks” has all of the typical...

Last night's Oscar ceremony showcased the best and the worst of Oscar's tradition of longwinded acceptance speeches. The one moment of last night’s Oscar ceremony that I was truly dreading was 81-year-old director Robert Altman’s acceptance speech for his honorary...

I can’t even remember the last time “Oscar” and I actually agreed on the winner for Best Picture. Last night, however, the Academy decided to listen to me, as well as many other critics, and they named “Crash” the best...

Watching the Oscars has always been one of my greatest guilty pleasures. I love everything about the evening, from chuckling with Joan and Melissa as they dish the dirt live on the red carpet to watching weepy celebrities--dressed in clothes...