Fay Grim (2007)
This review was originally published in Risen magazine.
•
Have you been counting down the days until the follow-up to Henry Fool?
What? You didn’t see Hal Hartley’s sick and twisted comedy about the garbage man who became a famous poet?
If you want a witty, challenging, intelligent comedy about art, pornography, poetry, trash, publishing, and puking… well, Henry Fool is the flick for you. James Urbaniak, Thomas Jay Ryan, Liam Aiken, and the hilarious Parker Posey make this a DVD worth tracking down. And when you do, well… the unlikely sequel’s been released to theaters and DVD simultaneously.
Fay Grim picks up where Henry Fool left off. Several years after the disappearance of her husband Henry, Fay(Posey) is raising their troubled son. Her world-famous brother Simon (Urbaniak) is in the slammer for his attempts to assist in Henry's escape from the law. And intelligence agents from all over the world... including the eccentric Officer Fulbright (Goldblum)... suddenly want Henry’s mysterious, profane diaries.
Frustrated, Fay sets out to find her man, and ends up facing spies and terrorists. For the diaries, we learn, just might contain coded messages in a conspiracy of Muslim extremists.
Along the way, Fay runs into all manner of suspicious characters (she has one particularly memorable encounter with Elina Löwensohn in a ladies' room), picking up the clues that will lead her straight into the lions' den. In the anticlimactic finale, it's anybody's guess which cats will catch which mice. And viewers may not understand any better at the end just what we're supposed to make of all of this.
All of that to say: This isn’t Hartley’s best film, but it’s certainly his most ambitious. Fans will love Posey’s performance, even if they have a little trouble following the rather contrived adventure, which is so talky it's tiresome. Unless you're a die-hard Hartley fan (and my enthusiasm for his quirky style is dying hard, but yes... dying...), it's probably best to let Henry Fool stand alone.
Come Have a Pint at The Eagle and Child.
Yep.
I'm going for some kind of world record.
I'm really excited about this one. It will give me a chance to invite you to meet some of the most interesting people I know in the world of artmaking.
Ever since I visited The Eagle and Child, the pub where the Inklings gathered to discuss their work, I've wanted to start a website with that title. And now... since I really have nothing else to do (choke, cough)... I've started a blog where I'll be hosting conversations with writers, visual artists, filmmakers, readers, reviewers, and others. These conversations will explore the territory where faith and art intersect.
I hope you enjoy it, and I invite you to discover my first special guest. She's a poet. She's a visual artist. She's a nomad. She's a reader. And she's a blogger. Her name is Margaret D. Smith. And I'm a big fan.
If you have anyone you'd like to recommend as a special guest for The Eagle and Child, send me a note. (It would really help if you could also provide contact information.)
Extra points for the person who identifies the banner image.
Steven D. Greydanus at Decent Films Notes "Through a Screen Darkly"
A big "Thank you!" to Steven Greydanus, one of my favorite film critics, for being so kind as to highlight Through a Screen Darkly in his latest batch of answers to inquiries at his Decent Films website.
When someone asked for a recommendation of a book about Christian perspectives on film, Greydanus answered:
Jeff doesn’t just tell you whether or not he liked a movie. He offers you a seat next to him as the movie unfolds and he points out and reflects on the things that thrill, fascinate or trouble him. It’s an invitation not only to look more closely, but to ponder more deeply and appreciate more fully.
There are other books out there, such as Robert K. Johnston’s Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue and Brian Godawa’s Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom & Discernment, but Through a Screen Darkly is the one I’d, um, recommend.
Thanks, Steven!
Terry Mattingly on Two Words: "FOX" and "Faith"
Terry Mattingly looks at what happened to* The Ultimate Gift when it was tagged with the term "Fox Faith."Read more
Peter Chattaway on "For The Bible Tells Me So"
At the Arts and Faith conversation, Peter T. Chattaway reveals that he has seen For The Bible Tells Me So, a documentary about homosexuals and their experience in the church.Read more
Yi-Yi (A One and a Two) (2000)
2007 Update: In honor of the recently departed Edward Yang, let me nudge you toward picking up Criterion's glorious edition of the late filmmaker's masterful film Yi-Yi (A One and a Two). Here's a look back at my original response to the film from 2000. I was effusive in my praise then, and were I to rewrite this review, I'd be even more enthusiastic.
Read more
What's Your Favorite Movie Poster?
Here's a look at the top-grossing movie posters of all-time, divided up by their MPAA rating. (Thanks, Stuart Blessman.)Read more
Specials: Harry Potter; Mother Teresa; Wilson on Atheism Books; Cummings on Satyajit Ray
I'm a week late to this blog entry, but wow... Andy Whitman writes about music better than just about anybody I know. And now he's posted a home-run entry about Harry Potter.
-
Yesterday I posted news about the new book on Mother Teresa. Here's more on Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul, from Amy Wellborn.
-
Here's a list you haven't seen before: John Wilson, the voracious reader who edits Books and Culture, rates his top five books on atheism. Know before you debate!
-
Doug Cummings has seen Satyajit Ray's shorts. I mean... two short films that he made early in his career.
Kapurush (74 minutes) and Mahapurush (65 minutes) are narrative sketches that allowed Ray to subtly experiment with form and style; as such, they worked against expectations at the time ("Many of Ray's critics think that Ray is making too many films in too short a span of time," scoffed one Bengali journalist) and were largely dismissed upon their release. But according to Andrew Robinson's book on Ray, the filmmaker said, "These are twin films I have considerable affection for; I have a pretty high opinion of Kapurush myself and I was disappointed by the response." I'm leaning toward Ray's assessment.
Of course, most moviegoers haven't even seen the Apu trilogy. (I hadn't until a couple of years ago.) And I'd encourage anyone who loves great storytelling to seek it out, even if you can't do better than the shoddy VHS or DVD editions currently available in the U.S.
The Passion of Sean Gaffney
God bless Sean Gaffney.
He's been hosting auditions for his church drama group.
Seems like a simple enough job, doesn't it?
Oh, no, no, no.
Judging auditions is a very complicated job. And judging them for a church drama group can be hell on earth.
Sean's story will be familiar to many of you who have struggled with being an artist in the church.
Here's the riveting Part One...
... and he's just posted Part Two, in which he dares to consider what the Bible has to say about all this. "What," you might ask, "does the Bible have to do with drama auditions?"
And Sean will show you.