- My recent rating of There Will Be Blood at 4.5 stars (on the right-hand side of the page; not visible to RSS readers) marks the 100th movie rating since I rated (and reviewed) Superman Returns on June 30, 2006. Thats an average of 0.17 movie ratings per day for the past 588 days. The average rating for a movie is 3.5 stars (3.445 to be precise); the highest rated are Little Miss Sunshine, Once, and Juno at 5 stars, and the lowest rated is The Final Season at .5 stars. I’m sure you wanted to know all of that. 01/31/2008
Four must-see documentaries about teens (or, How to fully understand teenagers in under 8 hours)
January 24th, 2008 | Comments (2)
Okay, okay. The title of this post is admittedly hyperbolic. But my point is that there are some fantastic documentaries being made about teenagers - four of which are listed below. Please leave a comment if there’s another documentary that should be on this list!
Frontline: Growing Up Online (2008, whole program online for free)
A tip of the hat to Brian at Rethinking Youth Ministry for this one. I have yet to watch it, but I plan on doing so once this post is finished.
In “Growing Up Online”, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. “The Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it’s something that really is the province of teenagers, ” says C.J. Pascoe, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Berkeley’s Digital Youth Research project.
Frontline: The Merchants of Cool (2001, whole program online for free)
I first saw this documentary during my student ministry internship in the summer of 2005, and it impacted me so much that I referenced it two years later in my senior thesis. Even though it is a bit outdated (which throws many of the figures and facts out of whack), the gist of the film is still quite relevant - alarming, even.
They are the merchants of cool: creators and sellers of popular culture who have made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts–and wallets–of America’s youth?
Soul Searching: A Movie About Teenagers and God (2007, DVD)
I ordered this documentary after reading Tony Jones’ review. It’s sitting on my desk waiting to be watched.
Based on the book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, which reports on research conducted over a seven year period by the National Study of Youth and Religion. Featuring interviews with the books authors, youth pastors, and teenagers from around the country, this compelling documentary illustrates some of the major themes and findings of the book, and goes behind the book in depicting the inner lives of a sample of American teenagers. Find out what these teenagers really think about God and religion, what their hopes and aspirations are, and what the research says about the effects of religion in their lives.
American Teen (2008, not yet in theatres)
This documentary just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The folks at /Film gave it a review that totally piqued my interest.
Set in the small typical midwestern town of Warsaw, Indiana, American Teen follows a self absorbed Cheerleader, a loser video game playing band geek, the basketball star, and the artsy outcast. While at first glance, these descriptions serve as cliche social stereotypes, you will be surprised at how three dimensional these kids are. The drama that is their senior year is both fun, emotional, and at times horrifying. This observational documentary plays out uncensored, giving an surprisingly accurate look at a group of TRL-generation teenagers.
Best of 2007
December 23rd, 2007 | Comments (6)
I am pleased to present the second annual JakeBouma.com “Best of” list. Feel free to argue with my choices in the comments. Here’s the list for 2006.
1. Army of Me - Citizen
2. Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope
3. Andy Davis - Let the Woman
4. Anberlin - Cities
5. Kanye West - Graduation
Honorable Mention: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger, The Alternate Routes - Good and Reckless and True, Eric Hutchinson - Sounds Like This, William Fitzsimmons - Goodnight
1. Once
2. Atonement
3. Bourne Ultimatum
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Sweeny Todd
Honorable Mention: Ratatouille, American Gangster, I Am Legend, Oceans 13, No Country for Old Men
1. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From A Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation by Andrew Root (Review forthcoming)
2. Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by James K. A. Smith
3. Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr (Review forthcoming)
Honorable Mention: The Courtier and the Heretic by Matthew Stewart, The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch
1. Chicago Cubs games
2. Heroes
3. Man Vs. Wild
4. The Colbert Report
5. Project Runway
1. Google Reader (seriously, I live a different life because of it)
2. Twitter
3. Bleed Cubbie Blue
4. IAmJoshBrown
5. Rethinking Youth Ministry
The Final Season
October 4th, 2007 | Comments (0)
The Final Season is a new movie releasing October 12, 2007 which tells the story of the 1991 state championship baseball team from Norway, Iowa. 1991 was the last year that Norway played with its own team, before a major school district consolidation. It stars Sean Astin (a.k.a. “Rudy”) as the head coach. I tell you this for two reasons.
First, who doesn’t love a good baseball movie, especially one that takes one in Iowa? Don’t forget that the greatest baseball movie of all time takes place near Dyersville, Iowa.
Second, as the coach of the team, Sean Astin proudly wears a Luther College t-shirt in the movie, and you can even see it in the trailer. The story is based on Kent Stock, a 1985 graduate of Luther who was the actual coach of the baseball team. 1970 Luther grad Terry Trimpe is an associate producer of the film, and played a role in getting Luther College on the big screen. You can read Luther’s press release here.
Click here to view the trailer for The Final Season
Click here for the official website for The Final Season
And a tip of the hat to Shawn for informing me about the movie and its Luther references.
- We all know that I loved Little Miss Sunshine. Well, the upcoming movie Juno (IMDb) has been called “this year’s Little Miss Sunshine”. 09/16/2007
Pan’s Labyrinth
June 15th, 2007 | Comments (1)
Not sure where I heard of this movie, but I finally got the opportunity to watch it this afternoon. The Apple trailer website for the film describes Pan’s Labyrinth1 as “a gothic fairytale set against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain. Harnessing the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century landscape, [Guillermo] del Toro delivers a timeless tale of good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, love and loss.”
After the movie, my brother and I talked about it and decided to both give it a rating out of ten. My initial reaction was eight, but the more I think about it the more I want to give it a nine or a ten. The movie is basically a fairy tale for adults, which is partly what makes the movie so moving. It’s a fairy tale that feels real. The next part might have some spoilers, so if you want to see the movie (and you should), maybe you should hold off reading the rest until you’ve seen it. If you’ve (a) already seen it or (b) don’t care, just click below.
- The original Spanish title is El laberinto del fauno, which literally translates as “The Labyrinth of the Faun”. ↩
Spring break
March 22nd, 2007 | Comments (1)
My spring break is pretty much going as planned. I have been making lots of headway on my senior paper, spending about four hours per day reading/taking notes and formulating the basic outline of the paper. As far as movies are concerned, I have seen three of the seven on the list: The Number 23, 300, and Zodiac.
The rest of break looks to be about the same. More reading and more movie-watching. Keep in mind that I am still restricted to dial-up at home which is reflected in my lack of posting.
Spring break is for flicks
March 8th, 2007 | Comments (2)
Unlike many college students, I have never taken a spring break trip, and this year is no exception. In the past I have spent the week at home, getting some R&R and catching up with some friends. I have only two goals for this spring break: (1) make lots of headway on my senior paper and (2) see as many movies as possible.
Listed below are some of the movies I would like to see while I am on spring break. Links are to the respective trailers.
Are there any movies missing from my list? I should probably prioritize my paper, but it would totally be nice to see a bunch of movies.
The year in review
January 3rd, 2007 | Comments (2)
I realize it’s a little late to be doing a year in review, but I can’t resist. Here are my favorites from 2006.
Books:
Movies:
Television:
Music:
Anything that I left off the list?
- The DVD of Little Miss Sunshine (by far my favorite movie of the year) is now available for pre-order on Amazon with a release date of December 19, and the cover says it has four alternate endings. 11/06/2006
Mad Hot Ballroom
August 7th, 2006 | Comments (5)
For the past couple months I have been experimenting with a new movie rating system. Located beneath the first full post, it displays ratings and short reviews of the five most recent movies I have watched. At the time of this post the most recent movie is a little-known documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom (trailer), with a rating of 4.5 stars.
The documentary follows fifth grade students from three elementary schools in the heart of New York City as they learn how to ballroom dance in preparation for a city-wide dance competition. While the plot summary may sound entirely corny, the movie is fun, engrossing, and even inspirational.
About a year ago, I took a class called “U.S. Schools” in which we read a book by Jonathan Kozol called The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. In the book, Kozol disusses what he calls the “national horror hidden in plain view;” the resegregation of American schools. The NYC Public School system provides many of the case studies Kozol uses, and his conclusions are sickening. While watching Mad Hot Ballroom, I immediately thought of this book and the movie gave me hope that students from some of the worst schools in the nation will indeed survive unscathed. Part of the film is even dedicated to one young boy who his teacher says would have been in a gang, but the discipline of dancing and the mentorship of the instructor visibly changed him. It all makes the movie’s tagline (”Anyone can make it if they know how to shake it”) that much more poignant.
I highly recommend this documentary. On my to-do list, right after watching this movie again, is learning how to foxtrot, merengue, rumba, tango, and swing dance.
Retrovision
July 29th, 2006 | Comments (9)
I just finished ordering Clarissa Explains It All: Season 1, an old Nickelodeon show and one of my favorites as I was growing up. Hopefully it will get here before the summer is over so I can watch it with the other interns.
Ordering the DVD put me in a reminiscent mood and got me thinking about all of the shows I used to watch on Nickelodeon. Here are a few that I used to watch all the time:
Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Salute Your Shorts, You Can’t Do That On Television, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Hey Dude (intro video), The Secret World of Alex Mac, Doug, David the Gnome, Wild and Crazy Kidz (theme song), Rocko’s Modern Life, The Elephant Show, Guts, and All That.
Am I forgetting any?
Update: Thanks for all the comments so far. I totally forgot about the following shows: Legends of the Hidden Temple, Ren & Stimpy, Double Dare, Ahh! Real Monsters, What Would You Do?, and Gak. Keep ‘em coming.
Superman is my personal Lord and Savior
June 30th, 2006 | Comments (5)
I just accepted him (Him?) into my heart at the local movie theatre.
Superman-Jesus comparisons and their respective puns are rampant: Jesus Christ Superman, The ‘Savior’ Returns, and Superman Returns as Jesus are three of the many a simple Google search reveals.
Sitting in the theatre, it was evident early on that Christ imagery would abound in the film, but when Superman said to Lois, “You said the world doesn’t need a savior, but I hear people crying for one every day,” there was no looking back. Craig Detweiler at HollywoodJesus says:
Much has been written about the Christ imagery soaring through Superman Returns. Director Bryan Singer connects this thrilling update to 1978’s esteemed Superman: The Movie by incorporating footage and voiceover of Marlon Brando as Jor-El. He advises his son, “Even though you’ve been raised as a human being, you’re not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all—their capacity for good—I have sent them you…my only son.”
The parallels to the Christ story are striking. Singer and his crack screenwriting partners, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, push the analogies even further with Superman’s physical suffering. A slight trace of the song, “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” becomes a lived reality. Superman carries much more than the Daily Planet on his back. As he summons all his strength to save humanity, Superman falls to earth, arms outstretched, a living sacrifice for us all.
If you’re still interested, check out The Incredible Biblical Connections of the 1978 Superman, an extensive, illustrated overview.
I could point out many more blatant Christ references - as I was doing in the theatre - but I won’t. And for all of the youth pastors out there, in this interview director Bryan Singer says “I grew up as a relatively secular Jewish kid in a Catholic neighborhood. I went to a Christian youth club as a kid, ’cause I liked the sports.’”
Upcoming Attractions
December 11th, 2005 | Comments (0)
As I study for finals and write final papers, I decided that I needed some new “study music” to replace the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack that I have been listening to for the last three weeks or so. I wanted something ambient again… so I decided to go with another orchestral score from a film: Memoirs of a Geisha. The soundtrack has its own website, which informs me that the music is composed and conducted by John Williams, perhaps the most famous film composer of all time (Star Wars, E.T., Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.).
Looking for a new soundtrack reminded me of all of the movies that are coming out soon that I want to see. I saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Friday night (the soundtrack comes out Tuesday) and it was awesome. Upcoming movies I want to see:
Am I forgetting any? Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze one or two of these in sometime during winter break.
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