UPDATE: and the winners ARE….
Here are thoughts from reviewers – some more theological, some less so – on the ten films selected as Best Picture nominees at tonight’s 82nd Academy Awards.
Avatar (reviewed by Peter Chattaway):
You might say that, just as our souls are embedded within our bodies, so too our bodies are embedded within something even bigger — and that this is a theme that Cameron, whose films often involve technological extensions and enhancements to the human body, is particularly interested in.
If I were a more ambitious thinker these days, I might go even further and point to the spiritual, religious and/or mythological references in Cameron’s films and try to make something of the fact that the word for “breath” in both Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma) is identical to the word for “spirit”. But I’m not, so I won’t — at least not yet.
The Blind Side (reviewed by Brandon Fibbs):
Leigh Anne Tuohy is unique in a Hollywood film—a non-stereotypical Christian. Christians used to portrayals of themselves as close-minded bigots or spaced-out nut jobs will see instead someone who is humble, down to earth, and instantly relatable. If Leigh Anne adheres to certain clichés, particularly those at the intersection of faith and southern Republican politics, we must remind ourselves that certain stereotypes are, after all, based on truths. While the film never uses her faith as a bludgeon, it is not shy whatsoever with letting its audience know that it is because of her beliefs that Leigh Anne acts the way she does. She doesn’t need to preach; her actions do all the talking. She is quick to thank God for his blessings and beseech him for aid when her own strength is inadequate.
District 9 (reviewed by Ron Reed):
The film focuses on two characters: Wikus, a white man in charge of the district relocation program who becomes infected by prawn fluids [note: “prawn” is the derisive term for the alien life-form -ed.], and a prawn who seeks to transcend the wretchedness of his environment. Is it a coincidence that this prawn is named “Christopher,” meaning Christ-carrier? Christopher returns to the heavens by re-igniting the alien spaceship that has been inertly hovering over Johannesburg for 20 years. But before he ascends, Christopher promises Wikus he will come again, returning to earth to save him from the evil that has deformed him. Coincidence? You decide.
An Education (reviewed by James Berardinelli):
On the surface, it might look as if this is a cautionary tale about the dangers of a teenage girl entering into a relationship with a man twice her age, but Jenny embarks upon her romantic adventure with a clear head. She is ultimately a casualty not of her own innocence but of something that could victimize someone of any age. In the end, this is more a character study of Jenny than a tale of tortured love, and a reminder that any education worth having comes with its share of trauma.
The Hurt Locker (reviewed by Elisabeth Leitch):
Although most of us probably think of addiction as an affliction only suffered by crack addicts in dark alleys and alcoholics in dimly lit bars, the truth is that a lethal addiction can be born of nearly anything. Think working out and cutting down calories is good? Not when you work out so much and eat so little that your body can no longer sustain itself. Think giving your dream job the best you have day in and day out is an accomplishment? Not when you give so much to your job that you don’t even have one hour a day to give to your friends and your family. Think going to church twice a week, going to Bible Study every Saturday morning, and reading your Bible every night makes you a near reflection of God? Not when you spend so much time inside a church building, with your nose in a Bible, and with your head in the clouds that you don’t even see the dying man beside the road.
Inglorious Basterds (reviewed by Mark Bilby):
Piety, even the academic variety, has often felt obliged to whitewash the sacred texts. We so often find ourselves compelled to pasteurize, homogenize, and bleach the offensive, the particular, and the macabre. We do to the divine stories what Disney does to den Brüder Grimm. To avert this penchant is difficult, but it can happen, and it has happened in Tarantino’s film despite a comedic treatment of dreadful subject matter. What the heart and mind finds so difficult but so necessary to remember, finds a catharsis of laughs in place of tears. For insiders, this is the stuff that makes for sanity.
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (reviewed by Christa Banister):
… it’s an all-too-important reminder that we’re all precious in God’s sight, even if we’re broken, abused and unloved like the leading lady in this movie.
A Serious Man (reviewed by Amy Butler):
[I]f the book [of Job] originally ended after Job 42:6, as many scholars suppose, then it ends with Job right in the middle of a conversation with God — God and Job, hanging out together. “I’d heard about you before this,” Job said to God, “but now I can see you.”
That right there is the only thing this clergyperson could think to proclaim as good news from the book of Job. Not that Job got everything back in the end, but instead that God was there the whole entire time — when Job had more than he ever dreamed of and when his life was completely decimated. It was a promise that, no matter the pain we feel and could never understand, God is there with us. We are never alone.
Therefore, I would like to lodge a formal complaint with Joel and Ethan Coen, because all throughout such a hilarious and heartbreaking movie they never mentioned that profound discovery — the steady, constant presence of God.
Up (reviewed by Sister Rose):
Up has so many dimensions that recommend it as a winning film because it is filled with universal human themes. I think you can find almost every Beatitude expressed in this animated picture. The art direction and the understanding of the power of image (the silent sequence is amazing) exhibit a profound grasp of cinema as art.
Up in the Air (reviewed by Owen Gleiberman):
The ”interviews” that Ryan does with the folks he fires give you a chill. They’re a vision of what’s going on in the country today, and Up in the Air is the rare film that does justice to economic desperation by expressing it with an honest populist embrace. At the same time, it’s a movie about how one man living inside the cocoon of an overly detached culture comes to see the error of his own detachment.