Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr Harper. San Francisco. November 2009. 400 pages
reviewed by J. Stephen Rhodes
"Age seventeen, stringy-haired and halter-topped, weighing in the high double digits and unhindered by a high school diploma, I showed up at the Pacific Ocean, ready to seek my fortune with a truck full of extremely stoned surfers.” So begins poet Mary Karr’s tale of her recovery from alcohol addiction and her conversion to faith.
Those of you who can sing along with me the "Yogi Bear" theme song from the late 50s/early 60s cartoons need to know that this “Yogi Bear” is a re-make: new voice actors for all the characters, new type of animation, but, comfortingly, the old familiar story line. (Who said that music memory isn’t powerful?)
"The Fighter” is a real-life story, of “Irish” Micky Ward, the pride of Lowell, Mass., rising to the world welterweight title. But it sure wasn’t an easy road.
OK, first you have to enjoy that whole British royalty thing — regal, isolated, aloof, and treated with such tremendous deference by everyone around you that if you’re not careful you’re likely to start believing in — divine right or something.
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are among the elite actors in Hollywood: they’re proven veterans, and between them, they’ve done everything from comedy to drama to musicals.
We first encounter Angelina Jolie through the lenses of the men watching her from a surveillance vehicle, complete with the latest high-tech equipment.
A film based on the wondrous writings of C.S. Lewis is bound to be very satisfying for the believer, because Lewis himself was a Christian apologist, in the classic rhetorical sense, and he very much intended the heavy symbolism of his “Narnia” series to be understood as Christian.
“Burlesque” is not so much a movie as an elongated musical video. It’s like the old-fashioned song-and-dance musicals, except this one boasts stage routines that are a lot more suggestive. It’s rated PG-13 — they were careful not to fall into the trap of actually revealing anything that would give it an “R” rating — but the racy material is definitely not for children.
“Greenberg” is a very depressing film about two very depressed characters. But once you get into it, you find yourself caring about them, anyway, and hoping that somehow, some way, they would find a little happiness — and maybe even through each other.
It’s refreshing to see a lad play a troubled teen who actually is a teenager. Keir Gilchrist, a veteran television actor, plays Craig, who’s so depressed that he checks himself into a psychiatric unit.
“Tangled” is the animated adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale “Rapunzel.” It’s a really strong production, with great singing voices, a credible plot, a big helping of humor, and a romance to root for, besides.
Here, in the long-awaited semi-finale to the enormously successful series of novels made into movies, our trusty trio of neophyte magicians, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) have graduated from Hogwarts School just in time for a resurgence in power of the evil Voldemort.
You would think that in this technological era, we wouldn’t have a mechanical disaster like a runaway train. But we did. And it wasn’t that long ago, in southern Pennsylvania.
“For Colored Girls” is Tyler Perry’s adaptation of the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enough.” Like good theater, it’s more about the character development, and the personality interplay, and this strong ensemble cast leaves some really strong impressions:
"Tamara Drewe” is one of those British relational comedies, where everyone is witty and clever, and seems to be doing the “Aw, shucks” routine with hands in pockets and shoes scratching the dirt and tongue planted firmly in cheek. You almost expect Hugh Grant to come shuffling onscreen with that ironic, crooked grin, shrugging and scuffling.
Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years- by Philip Jenkins HarperOne, 2010. vii+317 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-176894-1
reviewed by Rebecca Harden Weaver
In A Brief Statement of Faith (Book of Confessions 10.2) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we make an astonishing claim: “We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God.”
