Horton Hears A Who

It is a great time to be a parent in our culture. So many of the "kids" films out there are fantastic, and Horton Hears A Who is the latest. This is by far the best Dr. Seuss adaptation I have seen since the old school Grinch. And what a cast: Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Carol Burnett. The animation is top-notch beautiful in every way, truly capturing Seuss' unique style but also modernizing it for the CG age. This is a very pleasurable film not only for kids, but also for adults.

We all grew up with the story of an elephant noticing a small world of "whos" on a tiny speck which landed on a flower. We all know that this elephant, Horton, does whatever he can to protect this spec. And we all remember the theme of the story: "A person's a person, no mater how small." What an important statement. We all struggle, as I know I do, with feelings of superiority at times, especially living in such a privileged culture and time. We have to remember we are no better than any of God's creation. We are no better than those who have gone before us, no better than those who have less, and no better than the stray dog running across the street. God created this world and said that it was good. Then He commanded us people to rule over it. What a misunderstood section in Scripture, one that has been used over the years to dishonor the God who gave it all to us. He wants to to take care of His creation, to honor Him by being His stewards. We are in charge for only a time, and we are responsible for running the show in a way that honors Him. God didn't tell us to rule over the earth because He didn't care about it, because He wanted us to treat it like our trash can/dump/etc. If God created the world and said that it was "good," how can we think otherwise. I know, it sounds too much like a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap, but I believe that caring for God's creation is foundational to Scripture. Let us be a "pro-life" people in every sense, not just narrowing our view of "pro-life" to be solely a battle that takes place in a mother's womb. My parents raised me to love and respect the environment, and here is a film that will help me do the same for my son.

Horton reminds us to love all, as hard as that sounds (let's face it, it is impossible without God). Horton is a great example of selfless love and sacrifice, one that reminds us that life is a miracle, and that we have no more right to it than others, people or otherwise.

The Darjeeling Limited

What a thoroughly enjoyable film to watch. The Darjeeling Limited is about the haphazard spiritual journey of three brothers: Francis (Owen Wilson) Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman). They are all at a crossroads in their lives, especially Francis. He has just been in a life-threatening accident and wants to make the most of the time he has here and now. So he gets his estranged brothers (they don't speak much) and they go on a journey through India on a train, the Darjeeling Limited.

These brothers have not seen each other since their father's funeral (which their mother did not show up to), and now are learning to reconnect. They all have their secrets and pains in life, and they are trying to guard themselves from each other. Francis planned the trip through India to see spiritual places, temples/shrines, gurus, etc. They are three Westerners trying their best to experience the spirituality of an Eastern worldview. This is pathetic, funny, interesting, and fascinating. It echoes Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men." God created us all to be spiritual beings, and to desire something beyond ourselves. These brothers epitomize that. They are searching for something bigger, something beyond themselves. It is sad to think that they grew up in a "Christian" country, yet had to travel to the other side of the globe in search of "spirituality." We as Christ-followers had let them down. One particular ritual takes center stage in the film, this being the one involving the peacock feather. The first time they try, each brother does the ritual differently, and they all end up angry and flustered. Ah, man's futility in trying to reach God. We must realize that it is about God reaching down to us, not the other way around. He is the gracious initiator.

Yet the trip does provide the brothers with truth and wisdom. They learn about themselves, and each other, in a way that they had never done before. Each man is struggling to not let others in to his true heart, yet (through gossip, ironically) each is laid bare before his brothers and becomes vulnerable. This is always a good thing. One particular incident, involving saving children from a rushing river, brings their trip to a head. They come face to face with humanity at its rawest. Though they do not speak the Indians' language, and the Indians do not speak theirs, there is a profound connection between the two groups. Though these Americans are continents away from home and everything they know, all the cultural walls come down and a fundamental human love is reached. It is a truly beautiful thing. And this epiphany of shared humanity inspires the brothers to continue on their own pilgrimage, one involving their past.

The Darjeeling Limited does a fantastic job of walking the lines between awkward, funny, touching, and authentic. As with all Wes Anderson films (The Life Aquatic, Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, etc.), life is at once real, strange, inspiring, gawky, and unrefined. His film feels more real and less staged than a normal film, it captures the oafishness of our lives and of all humanity. Darjeeling reminds us of our futile attempts to connect to the divine, our pathetic attempts at hiding our faults and scars, and yet, in the end, reminds us of our shared humanity, our shared pains, and our shared victories. Wes Anderson has made his best film to date.

Be Kind Rewind

Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) should be lauded for his brilliant creativity. In Be Kind Rewind he has made a hilarious movie about the importance of creativity itself. Jerry (Jack Black) has accidentally erased all the VHS tapes in his friend Mike's (Mos Def) store. But the faithful customers want their movies. So when one woman really wants to see Ghostbusters, and the tape is erased, they make their own version starring themselves and some tin foil. Jerry and Mike go on to make many more films, like RoboCop, Driving Miss Daisy, and Rush Hour 2.

The story eventually becomes a David vs. Goliath tale. The guys want to save the video store, and they will do anything to do so. But the video store has videos, VHS, who watches videos anymore? Plus, they are just a mom and pop store in an old neighborhood. How can they compete with the giant Blockbuster-like stores that are popping up everywhere (the ironic thing is that Blockbuster is having the same problem, getting shoved out by the likes of Netflix). The store, also called Be Kind Rewind, has an identity tied to the neighborhood, whereas the giant corporation is bland and has no personality. This can be translated to their creative enteavors as well. Gondry could be saying that these low-budget, hack remakes have more heart and soul than the multi-million dollar studio pictures that they are remaking. Hollywood itself is one big, bland, repetitive corporation, and what we need to do is find people that are actually doing original, cutting-edge things in film. Yet at the same time, the guys are embracing their past (in the form of Fats Wallace, a famous jazz musician). But it is still creative, still original, still full of the neighborhood's personality. The message of this film resounds with what happened this year in regards to the Oscar-winner for best song, Once. Once was a "starving artist" film, in which the musicians/actors did everything out of creativity and originality. Three cheers for another film lauding the creative process and going against the epitome of everything wrong with the apprecation of art in our culture, ie American Idol and everything like it.

Be Kind Rewind not only shows us the importance of artistic originality, it is just flat-out funny. They way they remake the films made me nearly fall out of my seat. Great times.