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Yesterday, Christianity Today unveiled their annual “Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.”

In my opinion, here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Good:

Well, it’s mostly good! This year, the website’s lists for “Critics’ Choice” and “Most Redeeming” have a similar feel to them. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is the critics’ number one choice, and is second for most redeeming. Actually, Malick’s film, which was nominated by the Academy for Best Film this week, is the unanimous pick for Christianity Today, Think Christian, and Looking Closer. Oh, and we thought so, too.

I’m also glad to see Of Gods and Men, Moneyball, and Hugo all bunched together near the top of the list. They were three of my favorites of the year, for sure. Also, it’s good to see Win, Win and The Mill and the Cross receive some recognition. These seem to be overlooked a bit on the year-end lists.

The Bad:

I know: according to Rotten Tomatoes’ top critics, it’s possibly the best movie ever. But I saw the film this week, and, as I mentioned briefly in my column on the Oscar nominees and nostalgia, my first thought was “that’s the frontrunner for best film of the year?” But, it seems CT’s team regards it just as highly. (Shrugs).

I’m also a bit disappointed at a few omissions. Not even an honorable mention for Certified Copy, Buck, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, or Attack the Block? Ok, well maybe the last one is wishful thinking on my part, but the first three? I’m a bit surprised by their total absence.

The Ugly:

Oh, the comments! There’s some cringe-worthy ones under the Most Redeeming List. Three of my personal (least) favorites:

“d b” says: “As usual, CT has borrowed again the Hollywood mantra “unsuited for young viewers.” This means that errotic movie scenes and foul language “may be” detrimental to our children.”

Phillip Henson chimes in: “I tried to refraim from commenting, but the Tree of Life has now taken the number one spot on my list of worst movie’s I’ve ever seen, it had no plot. I fully support an artist taking risks, but I don’t think a movie should get rave reviews only because it was an artistic risk. Really, the movie was like reading only the first page of each chapter of a book and saying it was beautiful. It wasn’t beautiful, it was trying to tell a story but not taking the time to write it, only giving the viewer an idea of it.”

Ricardo Herrera: “I cant bealive they put Harry Potter in the list of reediming films next to real inspirational movies like Courageous.”

We still have a ways to go, it seems, when it comes to evangelicals, the arts, and culture. Hopefully these kind of comments aren’t as representative as they might seem.

Christ and Pop Culture

I have been keeping in touch with Jason Berggren, early vocalist of Florida Christian hardcore band, Strongarm, about getting him involved in the Sociology of Christian Punk research at the University of Bristol. I referred the researcher to Jason and, as I was, he was recently interviewed about the subject of, and many issues including and surrounding, Christian punk/hardcore music/scene.

About a week ago, Jason mailed me a copy of his book, 10 Things I Hate About Christianity: Working Through the Frustrations of Faith. I plan to begin reading through the book very soon and will be posting about the material within its covers, either as I go along or in whole when I am finished.

On a different note, I am really trying to find the time, as well as the motivation in my little free time, to post some more music, some scans of zine articles, updating missing artwork (thanks for the iTunes tip Mike!), rips of some 7″s and LP’s recently obtained, and scans of entire album artwork from memorable Christian hardcore records from the 90′s and early 2000′s. Honestly, the little free time I have has been taken up by EA Sports’ FIFA ’10. But, bear with me! I have been doing a lot of work gathering some pretty awesome figures in the Christian hardcore scene of the past, some of the present, to participate in the Sociology of Christian Punk research, writing music for Killing Years and getting us back on track with playing shows and recording, and working. Some prominent figures that are confirmed to be interviewed or have already been interviewed for the research are members of great bands such as: Bloodshed, Unashamed, Overcome, Strongarm, and Outcast; as well as the man behind HXCChristian.com. I am still waiting on confirmations from several other members of memorable Christian hardcore bands, such as: Underoath, Stretch Arm Strong, Focused, Zao, Six Feet Deep, Sleeping by the Riverside, and Focal Point; as well as well-known Christian hardcore enthusiast and artist, Dave Quiggle.

There is a lot to look forward to with this research. It will be awhile, but this stuff is going to be published in sociology articles with the University, presented in a dissertation from the researcher, and then hopefully into a book on the entire subject (which will be great!). In other news; I am psyched that Tim from Focused will be sending me a shirt from their reunion, I will finally be getting my hands on a couple rare Christian hardcore 7″s I was offered, and I’m going to get me an Overcome shirt!

Christian Hardcore Records