film | Friends and Films

My love of film is really just part of my love for storytelling. Given that I had difficulty reading growing up, I think film gained a disproportionate role in my love for stories. I love that some of my friends make films.

In February, I had the great fortune of having Todd Sills, a friend of a friend, stay with me. Todd co-directed the documentary that won the Audience Choice Award at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival entitled, Red Without Blue. Red Without Blue is an artistic and groundbreaking portrayal of gender, identity, and the unswerving bond of twinship despite transformation.


An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, Red Without Blue follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, the film documents the twins and their parents, examining the Farley's struggle to redefine their family.

Luckily, if you have Netflix, you can add this documentary to your queue. While I'd prefer everyone to frequent independently owned video stores, two decades of Blockbuster, with it's uninspired and anemic holdings -- sure they have 100 copies of Pirates of the Caribbean, but what if you want to watch The Diary of a Country Priest? -- has decimated their kind. If you want to join Netflix, click on the logo to the left.



I recently got to see the rough cut of the South American footage of The Soccer Project, a documentary film about pickup soccer around the globe. My friend Ryan White is one of the people working on the film.


So far, the footage, stories and editing are great, the cinematography is beautiful. You really get a sense that when people play, they are at their most vulnerable, their most human. I'm excited to see the final cut in a year or two.

Then there is my dear friend, Reno Lauro. We walked the streets of Princeton together; he picked me up when I moved to Scotland; I was there at the baptism of his first. Reno is finishing up his dissertation which links theology, Tolkien, imagination, Baudrillard, and craft in interesting ways. Somehow between being a husband, father, and doctoral student he also finds time to make films. Recently, he has been interning on the set of the new Terrence Malick film, Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. As this is only Malick's sixth film [Lanton Mills (1969), Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), Tree of Life (2009)] in forty years and since the humble Malick is one of North America's living directorial geniuses, I'm sure Reno is like the proverbial boy in a candy shop.


[Reno on the set of Last Rites]
A month ago I receive an email that Reno is working on a short film, entitled Last Rites, in order to enter it in the newly created The Doorpost Film Project, an organization created to recognize, honor and equip emerging filmmakers whose work depicts themes central to life, its struggles and its ultimate purpose. Winners of the contest receive $10,000 in order to make a 10 minute short film. I'm really curious to see how Reno marries old films of his parents with his recent filming (see pictures of the shoot, here). Reno reports that the film shoot on April 19th in Dallas was a success, and I can barely wait for the film to be up on the DFP website in a week's time.

Two ways of contributing to this project. First, Reno still needs to raise $1000 to cover the cost of making the film. If you can donate some money [even small amounts help -- $5-$25], go to PayPal, then click on “send money,” enter Reno's email address r_lauro@yahoo.com and choose service/other and follow the rest of the instructions. Second, when the chance to view and vote on the film arises, I'll add another post asking everyone to vote for Last Rites.

I love film and I love that I have friends that are engaged in the process of crafting stories through a camera lens.

[If you choose to give money to this film project, please
email me to let me know, so I can thank you personally.]

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Film][Red Without Blue][Malick]

politics | The Philadelphia Debate?

If you missed the debate on Wednesday, you didn't miss much. The questions were terrible, Obama wasn't particularly sharp (despite using his favorite line "I want to be clear about something." When he says that, you know he means business), and Clinton admitted that Obama can win (Her rejoinder was that she would be better. What she should have said to keep her electability claims alive is that she has a greater likelihood of winning.) If you must watch, click here, or take a look at Jon Stewart's take:

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics]

news | AAR And SBL

From the American Academy of Religion:

"In light of the scheduling and logistical problems connected with the proposed Independent Annual Meetings, and given the views our members expressed in our recent member survey, the Board, in its April 12, 2008 meeting, approved a recommendation that the AAR begin scheduling concurrent, yet independent Annual Meetings with the Society of Biblical Literature as soon as is feasible."

Hopefully SBL will play nice. The two meetings should have never been separated.

life | My Former Automobile

Some who have known me for years will remember the last car I owned, a green Acura Integra. I sold it to a friend in 2005 before I took off for Europe. Obviously it hasn't faired too well as it was recently stolen and stripped.

[America's Young Theologian][Life]

life | Giving Up Things...

I haven't smoked in a week. I'm done with MySpace.

film | Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I've seen two comedies recently that were both set in Hawaii. The first was the 2004 Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates. I was looking to waste some time and accomplished that. The acting: poor. The humor: induced eye-rolls instead of laughter. Rob Schneider is a good sign that a movie will be awful.


The second is the soon to be released Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I saw Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad (all produced by Judd Apatow). Frankly, I wasn't overly impressed with any of them. They all had their scenes certainly (and Anchorman had Will Ferrell), but only Knocked Up had any character development and that was at best anemic. Now, you might say that character development, or plot development for that matter, is not what they are going for in these films. I understand that the comedic elements may be the driving force, but I'd suggest that the best comedies have comedic elements equally matched to the story in which they are placed.

I actually enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jason Segel deserves credit for writing the script and acting the male lead. He plays Peter Bretter, a recently-dumped man who goes to Hawaii to get away only to find his TV star ex (Sarah Marshall, played by Kristen Bell) at the same resort. Sarah is there with her new boyfriend and plenty of awkwardness ensues. Peter falls for a member of the resort staff, Rachel Jansen (played by Mila Kunis, probably most well known for her role as Jackie on That '70's Show). Segel provides more subtle acting than we are perhaps used to in such a comedy and does well playing the depressed, heart-broken lead. Kunis is equally effective. In short, while neither performance demands a lot, neither disrupts or gets in the way of the standard but surprisingly fruitful storyline. The humor of the film is sexually based and not for the young or easily offended, but I watched the film with a theater full of college students and joined them in laughing throughout. I'm not normally a huge fan of this sort of film (and by 'this sort,' I mean movies that rely on ploys like frontal male nudity for shock humor), but this is probably the one I enjoyed the most since There's Something About Mary (and that was a decade ago). Perhaps the audience I watched it with helped, but I found it a lot of fun: not as over-the-top as Superbad but far funnier than Knocked Up.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Film][Forgetting Sarah Marshall]