There’s a new comedy opening this month, one that’s received a lot of praise at film festivals.
And I’m very concerned about what is going to happen when it opens.
Since I don’t want to distract people who will see the movie and mess up their experience of it, let’s just call it “J” for now.
J‘s storyline involved a controversial ethical decision, just as Million Dollar Baby‘s story involved a different controversial decision.
Already, conservative and Christian media personalities and film critics are celebrating J because of a particular twist in the story. The buzz has begun, the rejoicing that the film may prove very “useful” in advancing a particular “cause.”
And thus, it’s almost certain that there will be backlash against J in the mainstream press. The questions are only these:
How much, how vicious, and what effect will that have on the film’s box office?
But more than that, I’m already concerned about what effect the film’s enthusiasts… and detractors… will have on the audience’s ability to see J… AS A MOVIE.
The rising enthusiasm about the movie’s ethical “stand” will undoubtedly send people of the opposite perspective into the movie with their pens in hand, ready to find and exploit the film’s weakness in hope of weakening the film’s impact and limiting its popularity. Or, they will take the opportunity to lament the lack of films that make a convincing, eloquent case for their side of the cause.
And believe me, if the movie had taken the opposite turn, many Christians and conservatives respond with exactly the same tactics. It happens every time.
This almost-inevitable spectacle has the potential to really blunt the effect that J has on audiences, even spoil it entirely, before anybody has a chance to buy a ticket.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be enthusiastic about J. (Heck, I haven’t seen it yet, so I have no idea whether I’ll care much about it at all.) But I do hope that Christians who examine movies will talk about all aspects of it as a work of art. I hope they’ll consider the whole story, the filmmakers’ artistry, and what the story has to offer, rather than reducing it to be just an “Issue Movie”. If it’s a good work of art, it will convey much that is meaningful and give us a lot to consider and discuss.
I’m still frustrated by how impossible it was for me to watch Vera Drake without fighting off all of the slander I’d read in the Christian press about the film. Turned out that Vera Drake was not anything like what they’d made it out to be. So I’m trying to avoid reading any more reviews of J, or articles about it, before I see it, because I want to SEE THE MOVIE, not consider it through a particular lens, inclined to pay close attention only to how it represents and explores particular questions of ethics.
(I already went into Bella trying to suppress the noise in my head about one particular Issue at the center of it, and I was so pleasantly surprised to find out that Bella was about all kinds of things. Early Christian press about it had inclined me to expect a pleasant piece of propaganda, and it most certainly isn’t that.)
The more we exploit J for whether or not it helps, or hurts, a particular “cause,” the more we weaken its ability to make its way into people’s hearts… which is the only place where it has an opportunity to make any real difference.
Just as it is impossible to properly gauge a movie based on hype and buzz alone, so too it is impossible to gauge the hype and buzz without seeing it for ourselves. So Jeff, I know you want to preserve the movie’s anonymity for now, but at some point — closer to the movie’s release date, if you like — you should really provide links to the kind of hype and buzz that has you so concerned. Because apart from my own very limited raving about the film — raving that is motivated by all aspects of the film, as will be quite clear when my review runs a few weeks from now — I have not seen any other response to this film from the Christian media (which I probably see much less of than you), and I am very curious to know more about this hype and buzz that you refer to. It sounds like it’s absolutely wrong-headed (kind of like the conservative attempts to hijack March of the Penguins?), and if I need to distance myself from it, then I need to know what it is.
And for what it’s worth, there is no comparison at all between the twist in “J” and the twist in Million Dollar Baby. The latter film had a twist that sent the entire third act in a very different direction than the first two acts had led you to expect. But there’s no twist in “J” beyond a plot device to explain why there’s any story to tell in the first place. Once that bit of set-up is out of the way, it never comes up again. The reason I get a kick out of the plot device, myself, is that the movie could have used a different plot device, or it could have skipped the use of plot devices entirely, just as certain other movies did earlier this year — but instead it used the plot device that it did. But beyond that, there is no “twist”.
Well, I take that back. There *are* twists in “J”. But they have to do with entirely different issues than the one which motivates your concern here.
Just as it is impossible to properly gauge a movie based on hype and buzz alone, so too it is impossible to gauge the hype and buzz without seeing it for ourselves. So Jeff, I know you want to preserve the movie’s anonymity for now, but at some point — closer to the movie’s release date, if you like — you should really provide links to the kind of hype and buzz that has you so concerned.
The “buzz” I’m talking about was buzz among Christians gathered at an event I attended recently, not online buzz. Not yet anyway. But I suspect it will materialize soon. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Because apart from my own very limited raving about the film — raving that is motivated by all aspects of the film, as will be quite clear when my review runs a few weeks from now — I have not seen any other response to this film from the Christian media (which I probably see much less of than you), and I am very curious to know more about this hype and buzz that you refer to.
Well, as I wanted this post to be about a tendency, rather than to contibute to the “branding” of a particular film, I kept it anonymous for very good reason, and linking to harmful buzz would only spread the problem, rather than doing anything to try and prevent it.
And for what it’s worth, there is no comparison at all between the twist in “J” and the twist in Million Dollar Baby.
Well, as there’s a “choice” in the film that will cause one side of a cause to cheer, that’s the only comparison I meant.
The thing about the central plot point of J–which happens to be similar to the central plot point of a 2007 blockbuster–is that said plot point makes for a more entertaining story. Going the other way makes for a Serious Message Drama, and Serious Message Dramas do not make for box office successes unless they have major stars in them (cf Million Dollar Baby).
I hate when people say things like, “Oh, Hollywood NEVER tells our side of the story.” Because that’s kind of a lie, see. Characters in Hollywood movies & network TV series are more likely to do what J does than they are to do the opposite. The opposite is the aberration.
Assuming “J” is the movie I’m thinking about – which I have seen and reviewed on my own blog – it might not be as welcomed by the Christian conservative market simply because of the frank sexual dialogue and situations among the teens in the film. I found the story, characters, and dialogue to be much better than “Knocked Up” which did remarkably well at the box office. There’s also the fact that “J’s” screenwriter has held a job that will freak out any uber-conservatives in the mix. But I agree that reaction to the movie among Christians and the general public will be interesting to observe. Either way, it’s an engaging, funny film that deserves to be seen.
I just saw “J” last week and I’m almost tempted to say that any publicity it may receive would at least get people into the theater to see what I believe is one of my favorite movies of 2007. It’s funny, heartwarming and I absolutely think the actress who plays “J” should receive an Oscar nom.
That said, I never once looked at the movie and saw it as a message film or thought that Christians would use it as a rallying cry. I simply saw it as a funny, superbly well-written comedy that was about broken people trying to make the best of their situations.
I agree with superfastreader that the only reason the film takes the “twist” it does is that if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be much of a comedy there. J’s choice is simply the McGuffin that allows the character to meet the other people who share the screen with her and discover her own maturity. I also agree with tonyrossi that I don’t think there are too many Christians reviewers who will look kindly on the frank sexual dialouge, which is just safe enough to earn a PG-13 or the fact that the screenwriter of the film (who also deserves an Oscar) had an unsavory career before screenwriting.
But hey, if it gets people to see the movie, fine. I worry that it may be seen as too quirky, along the lines of Little Miss Sunshine, for some audiences when it’s actually very accessible. But I have a feeling most people will see it and just enjoy it as a wonderful little comedy and not as a message movie…and as for another blockbuster that has a same theme, I think it was a very vocal minority that made it into a message film. Everyone else enjoyed it as a touching, yet supremely raunchy, comedy. J is much better, by the way.
By the way, where is the Christian love for “Lars and the Real Girl,” one of the few movies that actually addresses the true joy of unconditional love and acceptance and is one of the nicest surprises of the year?
I’m sorry, but this abstract, semi-secretive discussion is a little frustrating. Maybe everyone but me knows what “J” is, and what the controversial decision in that film was, but this veiled exploration of it seems pretty exclusive. Have a conversation about it elsewhere, where you can actually talk about what you are talking about without being afraid to share what you are talking about with the rest of the world.
Dittos to concrete…
I have no idea what movie you are talking about, and it was annoying to have to witness what seemed like a kind of “wink, wink, how grand to be a cinema gnostic” go around.
To paraphrase Golda Meir, “Don’t be so coy. You’re not that great.”
JUST KIDDING! (Kind of….)
The focus of this post is on a *tendency* of Christian media… and media of all kinds.
Fill in the blank on “J” if it makes you feel better. I’m sorry that it was annoying to you, but my blog is where I start up conversations with a wide variety of folks… especially film critics, film enthusiasts, film industry people, etc, and that post was meant primarily for them. If it bugs you, feel free to ignore it.
I certainly didn’t mean it as some kind of elitist “in-the-know” post. It was just a way of saying, “Can we see the damage that we do when, with the best in intentions, we *exploit* art to advance a particular agenda? Not only do we sidetrack the audience, but we cripple the art’s ability to make a meaningful difference on *any* theme subject.”
“Have a conversation about it elsewhere, where you can actually talk about what you are talking about without being afraid to share what you are talking about with the rest of the world.”
Concrete, I think you are forgetting whose blog this is. Jeffrey cannot compel you to read it, and by the same token you cannot compel him to disclose anything he doesn’t want to disclose.