Massachusetts film on the big screen

An ongoing theme in our bar and church blogs is community -- a major reason people say they go to either place. It would be easy to think of going to the movies as something quite different. One might think of movie going as a solitary experience. It's dark. Ideally people in the audience aren't talking. Yet movie going is, of course, about community as well.

There are online communities where people gather to talk about movies. I've been part of one of those communities for years, Hollywood Elsewhere. When I wrote about this trip to every state on that site, some folks suggested getting together. That finally happened in Massachusetts where we met with Paul, one of those online friends. We met at Jordan's Furniture in Reading, the location of an IMAX 3D theater. It is not a place that values subtlety. Fenway's Green Monster was in residence. The location includes a ropes course, "Beantown" made from jelly beans, an ice cream parlor, and a water fountain show. And there is a Fuddruckers where we met Paul.

I asked Paul to tell me about his favorite movie going experiences. He spoke of watching movies with his parents and his daughter. He told about seeing Pulp Fiction with friends and getting together a group of friends for Star Wars debuts. Almost every remembrance was about the people he saw movies with more than the movies.

As for the movie we saw: the theater was state of the art. It had a huge screen with comfortable seats and a fine sound system. I was glad we didn't have many commercials to sit through, only a number of spiels for Jordan's Furniture. There was only one preview of coming attraction, for the next show at this IMAX, Suicide Squad.

Star Trek Beyond, which was fine. It was cool to see it in such a nice place. I liked it better than the second J. J. Abrams Trek film but not as well as the first. I watched every episode of the original series many, many times, so it's nice to see a new episodes. (Comparing the film to episodes of the Shatner/Nimoy series, it's better than "The Alternative Factor" but not as good as "A Piece of the Action.")

We watched

I doubt that I'll watch the film again anytime soon -- it's okay but rather forgettable. We will remember meeting and having a great time talking with Paul. So now this blog ends up being about community just like the our other two.

Movie Churches Featured at Church and States in November

Movie Churches Return to Dean and Mindy Go To Church

           

Shortly after we began Church and States, about a year ago, we included a weekly feature about movies in churches. But we soon decided that the reviews of churches in movies should probably be a blog unto itself, and now we post about movie churches here. 

This month we've decided to have a blog crossover event. Our Sunday churches will all have facilities that have been featured in movies. Before we go to the church, we'll write about the movie in this blog. Then we'll go to the real church to see what it's really like. Our first church was featured in the film, "Sister Act," and I will be extremely disappointed if the church doesn't have a choir that sings adapted sixties pop songs as praise anthems -- just as I expect the church featured in "High Noon" to have horses tied up in front, and when we go the church featured in "The Graduate," I expect the service to be interrupted by a cross-wielding Dustin Hoffman.

I am preparing for the possibility the churches we visit will be nothing at all like the churches featured in the films. We might find God is doing something even better.

(Find the review of the movie church in the film "Sister Act" here) 

Grace Unplugged (2013)

Every father can agree that one of the greatest movies of this century is Liam Neeson's "Taken" because it teaches the important lesson that Dad was right all along. I'm not saying "Grace Unbroken" is in that class of cinema as it doesn't have shootings, electrocutions, or car chases but it still has that important theme. The reason I'm writing about it here is the film has a church, while, sadly, "Taken" does not.

"Grace Unplugged" tells the story of a one-hit-wonder rock star, Johnny Trey, (think Barry McGuire) who hit the skids and is now the worship leader in a small church. His daughter, Grace, plays with him on the church's worship team, but they fight and she leaves home for Hollywood to become a rock star. It's sort of like the Miley Cyrus story with a happier ending.

Early in the film we see father and daughter together in a church worship service performing the song, "Never Let Go". Though there are other singers and musicians, the two are standing up front -- both thinking they're the primary worship leader. The minor clash in styles is obviously not a small thing for them. After the service we see a friend of Grace's full of compliments which Grace swats away with disgust.

At home, we see father and daughter argue about the worship service. Johnny wanted Grace to play the piano, as she had in rehearsal, but she played the guitar.

He also wasn't pleased with her singing style, which leads to the memorable quote, "The rest of us are doing Chris Tomlin and you act like it's a Renae Taylor concert!" You probably don't know who Renae Taylor is, because she's a fictional rock star character in the film. She things like this: "In this business, your body is your main source of capital and sometimes you have to spend it." You might not know who Chris Tomlin is, but he is a real Christian musician.

And you know one thing for certain when you hear his name mentioned: he will make a cameo appearance in the film. Yes, it happens.

What I loved about this was it does capture something that I have seen happen far too often -- squabbling on the worship team. Yeah, usually it's brothers and sisters in Christ squabbling rather than a father and daughter, but it still is something that happens. A lot. Which always gets explained as "You know how those creative types are."

Something that baffled me in the film was the size of the church. All the pews seem full in the worship service we see, but even the most generous ushers' count would place it at about 120 people. Yet the church somehow seems to be able to afford a full time teaching pastor AND a full time worship pastor, Johnny Trey. The only possible explanation is he is living off the royalties of his hit, "Misunderstood," and at the church he's working for all the coffee he can drink.

We never see the pastor, Pastor Tim, preach, but we do see him socialize with the Trey family and providing counsel to Johnny. When the Trey family fights, Tim and his wife also bicker, and he chuckles sympathetically. When Grace runs away, Pastor Tim does offer sound advice. He says that Grace might not listen to Johnny's advice anymore, but he can trust her in God's hand.

In the end, Grace sees the moral depravity of Hollywood and returns home. Obviously, the church is what brings Grace back, with Pastor Tim mediating her return.  So we're giving the church (and Pastor Tim) 3 steeples.

(And though we usually don't review the film itself, I give the film two big thumbs up for the moment Grace says, "You were right, Dad."  I was touched.)