Flicks
I know a fellow who keeps track of the books he reads through the year. At year’s end he shares the list, or at least the number, as an act of accountability. I can’t do that with books—when the book isn’t fiction, I usually dip into it, read around in it, but seldom read it through. Increasingly, by contrast, I am watching films. Last year I saw several, at least 19, some in theaters, some on DVD. (I’ve written about a few of them here and elsewhere.)
Last year a number of the films concerned marriage and children; reckon them as research for “the marriage book” that we’re still offering to publishers. (Prayers, please.) Other films are on AI, one piece of the big question of how technology can alter our humanity (Gattaca continues prescient). Several feature Greta Gerwig, whom I first saw in Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress; Gerwig and Stillman alike have a fascinating, off-beat traditionalism that hides in plain sight. I also ventured a few “mystery” films at the Angelika: you get your ticket and take your seat without knowing what you’re getting into until it starts rolling. (I sit by a side aisle in case I feel the need to escape.)
Here’s the list, minus some of the duds: Ex Husbands, Waitress, She’s Having a Baby, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, I Robot, Lola Versus, The Phoenician Scheme, The Life of Chuck, A Little Romance, Decalogue II, Maggie’s Plan, Gattaca, Mistress America, While We’re Young, Frances Ha, and Jeremiah Johnson. The sleeper was The Life of Chuck, which is in three acts, the first of which concludes daringly with the end of the universe! It was the first time I’ve judged a Stephen-King-inspired work to have some profundity.
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I wrote about While We’re Young recently for the Human Life Review’s “pastoral reflections” online column. In it, one can see how the longing for children persists despite everything. This 2013 film opens with a close-up shot of an infant, snugly wrapped in a blanket with only its little head visible. The baby’s eyes are open and move a bit as we hear a woman and man talking. They, we later learn, are Cornelia and Josh, and as we can tell from their conversation—their awe of the baby—they really don’t know beans about children. It’s not long before the baby starts to whimper, then cry. Cornelia picks it up, awkwardly, and tries a little bouncing—the cry crescendos into high volume. Suddenly, another woman enters the room, rescues the baby from Cornelia’s hands, and demonstrates how to bounce and move around and make cooing sounds to calm the child.
This woman is the child’s mother; Cornelia and Josh are friends of her and her husband. Although most people in their circle have children, Cornelia and Josh do not. We hear them remark they are glad they never had a baby. Yet things are not so simple. As we later learn, they tried very hard. Josh describes how he had to put “a long needle in her butt” every day; they had miscarriages; they decided not to try any more. What they say to each other—and what they say to the world—is that they are glad they don’t have a baby. At the end of the film, though, they are being dropped off at the airport for a flight to Africa to pick up a child they are adopting.
Noah Baumbach, the film’s director, is an astute cultural critic; his most notable film is likely Barbie, the screenplay for which he wrote with Greta Gerwig. I find it noteworthy that his film While We’re Young is framed by babies (even as When Harry Met Sally is framed by couples speaking of their marriage). There is something here that is irrepressible, something true that, despite everything, human beings long for and understand.
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You can read my entire post “Film Life,” in which I say more about While We’re Young and its context, here: https://humanlifereview.com/film-life/
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Out & About: Yours truly is to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas on Sun., Jan. 18, at the 9 and 11:15 a.m. eucharists.
Coming Good Books & Good Talk seminars: At St. Matthew’s in Dallas on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 5 p.m., we’ll discuss The Skin of our Teeth, a play by Thornton Wilder. It features a suburban New Jersey family of three who turn out to be, sort of, Adam and Eve and Cain. An ice age is coming and they have a pet mastodon. To my mind, this play deserves as much fame as his Our Town.
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Ethics class: I will be teaching Christian Ethics at the Stanton Institute, at St. Matthew’s Cathedral; it’s a five-session class that takes you through basic questions: Is ethics really something, or just a word for our prejudices? What makes Christian ethics Christian? Which is the best way to think of ethics: a matter of maximizing good outcomes, or following laws and rules, or developing character? What are virtues? What does friendship have to do with ethics? And do you have to have some sort of minimal intellectual power in order to be ethical? Our first class is just around the corner: Sat. Jan. 17. Write me (right away) if you’re interested and I can get you what you need to prepare for the first class as well as direct you to the registrar/administrator: