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
1. Lost
“All of this matters,” is what Jack claimed in Losts’ final season. Ask almost anyone, and they will tell you that Lost was wrong. From the Dharma Initiative, to the polar bears, to the weird lady with the giant swinging thing, there were tons of mysteries in Lost that simply faded away in the series finale, never to be answered (save a lame DVD bonus feature that we will here on out ignore). We doggedly demanded that simply because the characters were surrounded by mystery, and simply because those characters wanted to know answers as much as we did, we deserved answers to those mysteries. After all, this is story-craft 101, right?
Wrong. Lost was self-aware and carefully written to the point that it had the ability to pull off something special. It was the rare television show that actually had the ability to prepare its’ audience throughout its’ season without giving even the slightest bit away about the Great Rug-Pull In the Sky. In the end, while most of us may have responded with an intense frustration directly after the finale, we still talked about it for days and days.
A month after it went off of the air, I was convinced I was over lost. I was pretty sure that the ending was a misstep and that I would be put off the entire series for the remainder of my life. But eventually, as the noise started to quiet down and the final season DVDs were old news, I found that season finale permenantly etched into the back of my mind. It was beautiful there, even if it made no sense. And yes, of course, we have to go back. -Richard Clark
2. Parenthood
Parenthood is not your typical American family drama (miles away from something like Desperate Housewives). The drama in Parenthood doesn’t feel forced, it feels natural and nuanced and most of it comes from what feel like real parental struggles. Whether you agree with the decisions made by the five sets of parents in the show, you will certainly empathize with them because their struggles are ones every parent faces. The show’s parents clearly love their children and are continually struggling to do what is best for them and, as their children grow, help them make good decisions. Parenthood deals with making time for your spouse without neglecting your children, protecting your children versus letting them make mistakes, and the tension between sacrificing one’s self for one’s family versus standing up for one’s own individuality.
Now that I am an expecting father, Parenthood feels even more real to me. Of course I realize that no show can prepare me for what is to come, but nonetheless I appreciate that Parenthood continues to portray parenting as I expect it to be—very difficult and very rewarding and it gets better with every episode. -Drew Dixon
3. 30 Rock
Its no secret that 30 Rock is quite the force in the world of sitcoms. I was skeptical when I first began watching because I have never thought Tina Fey was as brilliant as everyone makes her out to be, but watching a few seasons of 30 Rock changed my mind. 30 Rock has so much going for it, its hard to know where to start: Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy might be the funniest character on television right now (and yes funnier than Steve Carell’s Michael Scott) and Jack McBryar’s Kenneth Parcell is an under appreciated close second, the rest of the cast is solid, the writing always seems fresh, and the dialogue is brilliantly fast paced making for perhaps more humor per minute than any other sit com.
Perhaps what I appreciate most about 30 Rock is its willingness to make fun of itself. 30 Rock makes fun of celebrity, big corporations, right and left wing politics, and everything in between. Sometimes 30 Rock trivializes sinful things but rarely without a foil (often Kenneth or Liz). Well written and chockfull with self-depreciating comedy, 30 Rock is arguably the best comedy on television now as it seems even funnier on the second viewing. -Drew Dixon
4. Conan
The biggest TV story of 2010 was likely the three-way kerfuffle of NBC, Leno, and Conan O’Brien. Battle lines were drawn. Brother betrayed brother. Parents and children turned against each other. It was like end-times prophecy over late-night TV. Fans rallied together as Team Coco in an unprecedented demonstration of solidarity. He was our Tonight Show host but we rallied on principle. We would not pretend to agree with or approve of these “business” practices or legal maneuverings. O’Brien emerged from the conflict with bolstered credibility. He rejected NBC’s offer to push Tonight back half an hour, believing that would damage its legacy. When in talks with TBS about a new show, O’Brien refused to do to George Lopez what had been done to him. It took a call from Lopez to convince him to take the deal. The most remarkable thing has been O’Brien’s creative response to disappointment. O’Brien inspired even after going off-air, first with the launch of his Twitter account and then with his “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour”. Since the debut of Conan in November, the host has made clear: we picked the right guy. -Chase Livingston
5. Sherlock
I’m not usually a fan of remakes that take classic works and transport them into the modern era. In the process of updating the classics and make them more relevant, whatever was timeless about the original often gets exchanged for whatever is trendy right now. Not so with this show, which transports the world’s most famous detective into 21st century London. Its whip-smart from the get-go, with intricately plotted mysteries that are consistently entertaining as they’re unravelled. At the show’s center is Benedict Cumberbatch’s wonderful portrayal of Sherlock Holmes as a man who is as brilliant and charismatic as he is arrogant and sociopathic, and who is completely obsessed with his work. The modern setting adds a stylish and hip vibe to the show without feeling trivial, and the inclusion of modern technology — this new Holmes is more likely to use text messaging then a magnifying glass — adds a nicely geeky element that also drives home the idea of Holmes as a purely analytical information-processing machine. My only complaint with the show: it’s going to be another year or so before new episodes make it over to this side of the pond. -Jason Morehead
6. Parks and Recreation
In the beginning, Parks and Recreation was written off as just another Office clone, but that audience forgets that The Office itself was a clone of The Office, the original BBC sitcom that only lasted two seasons. And like the American version of The Office, Parks and Recreation needed a second season to truly find its way. Like the best sitcoms, the show is all about the characters, who are not only likable but truly and substantially admirable. The first season never would give such an impression, but in the second season each of these laughably flawed characters surprise us in all the right ways. The incredibly sharp wit is a reason to start watching the show. The sweetness, boldness and determination of this group of government workers is a reason to stay. -Richard Clark
7. Hoarders
Hoarders is equal parts cultural tour of America, exploration of the human sinful condition, and vomit-inducing reality television. Each episode tells the story of someone who has an unhealthy addiction to hoarding various possessions to the point where they no longer live in a healthy environment. Though sometimes the show is awkward to watch, as these people’s dirty laundry is aired for all to see, it is certainly fascinating on many levels. The show invites a professional cleaning crew and a professional psychologist/organizer to help these people clean up their houses and their lives. The results are varied. Though the cleaning crews often succeed in cleaning up the houses, it is difficult to tell if any lasting changes have been. Thus the show illustrates how deeply sin is often rooted in the human heart and how people respond when their sin is brought to light. The subjects of Hoarders often waver between denial, defensiveness, and despair, but the show is worth watching if even for the one person in 5 shows who seems to understand their predicament and is determined to change.
Hoarders is also fascinating as an indictment on American culture because hoarding is particularly common in America and because the show travels all over the country. People of all sorts are covered, reminding us that we are susceptible to an unhealthy appropriation of our possessions. Hoarding may be a particularly American problem because Americans have more stuff than most, but misappropriation of our possessions is human problem. Hoarders will make you sad, make you cringe, and if watched thoughtfully might encourage us all to clean up our own lives. -Drew Dixon
8. Men of a Certain Age
Ramano. Braugher. Bakula. One of these actors played a favorite character of my young life. Another was the breakout star in my all-time favorite series. The other is Ray Ramona who as it turns out is a brilliant writer and producer. The premise of Men is of three old friends approaching their late forties together. That midlife setup usually entails grown men attempting to reclaim their lost youth by purchase of a flashy, sports car, extramarital affair, or other reckless escapade. Here is a new, untold story: one of men gradually coming of age by coming to terms with themselves, their broken lives, and the reality of unmet expectations. To call this is a testosterone-laden Sex and the City (as some critics have) is lazy analysis. Terry, the womanizing has-been actor, is the character closest to that description but even he is tiring of his own exploits. There is an emptiness about Men of a Certain Age that is, like Terry, endearingly promising. As these men acknowledge their failings, they find new life through humility. -Chase Livingston
9. Dollhouse
What’s that, another Joss Whedon show that was cancelled prematurely?! Seriously, this guy needs to never work with Fox again. But I digress… The point is, Dollhouse, though only lasting two seasons and 27 episodes, managed to cram more into its brief runtime than many shows that run two or three times as long. The show’s truncated nature meant that it was often frustrating, with plotlines and character arcs that should’ve taken a season or two to manifest coming to fruition within only a couple of episodes. But even with all of its flaws and frustrations, I found the show’s primary themes — What defines a person? Are we nothing more than programming? Can we ever truly lose that which makes us individuals? — to be consistently fascinating. The same goes for Whedon’s knack for crafting wonderfully redemptive moments in the unlikeliest of characters, as well as his thoroughly sadistic knack for killing off beloved characters. It’s a testament to Whedon and everyone else involved in the show that, despite getting cancelled early and having to wrap up a whole bunch of material really quickly, Dollhouse still ended with a nice, satisying sense of closure for both its characters and viewers. Unlike, say, Lost. -Jason Morehead
10. The Middle
Patricia Heaton doesn’t get enough credit. Unless desperate or scandalous, housewives and moms aren’t considered socially relevant or cool. So maybe that is it. If her talent was overlooked on Everybody Loves Raymond it may have been because her character was less neurotic than the others. While her strength as straight man is worth noting, Heaton has in The Middle an opportunity to shine like the big crazy diamond she is.
The cast of The Middle is surprisingly balanced. Scrubs’ alum Neil Flynn co-stars as the more sensible of the two parents, though that should not deter fans, his comedic timing is as reliable as ever. The younger actors (McDermott, Sher, Shaffer),who play the Heck children, are no less qualified or enjoyable. Family programs almost always fail on this point.
A working class family’s struggle to get by is territory so commonly trod in series television that to go there risks banality. The trick here is that the family operates as a unit of dysfunctional people functioning together; each one’s quirks and weaknesses actually strengthen the unit. The Middle is a most rare portrait of a healthy, if not perfect, family and one that you can appreciate with yours. However, my recommendation is not on account of its being “family-friendly”, I recommend The Middle because it is great fun. -Chase Livingston
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Christ and Pop Culture
1. James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at University of Virginia, provides a helpful and timely analysis of how American Christians tend to conceive of and participate in “culture.” The book begins by laying waste to the cherished evangelical notion that culture resides in the hearts and minds of individuals. Hunter is equally critical of the Christian Right (Dobson, Pearcey, etc.), the Christian Left (Jim Wallis and company), and the Neo-Anabaptists (Hauerwas and Yoder) for conflating “public” with “political.” Against these over-politicized visions of culture—handily summarized as “defensive against,” “relevance to,” and “purity from” culture—Hunter instead advocates “faithful presence within” culture.
Hunter’s book is particularly strong in its critique of existing models of culture in American Christianity, though perhaps a little short on describing what faithful presence might actually look like. What I found particularly interesting is that, though Hunter is critical of postmodernism’s distrust of reality, he uses a lot of postmodern theory—especially Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu—in his analysis of how cultures change. Perhaps Hunter’s book itself—written by a confessing Christian, primarily for a Christian audience, but published by Oxford University Press and making use of the best of what postmodernism has to offer—is an example of faithful presence within culture. -Carissa Smith
2. Jay-Z, Decoded
Decoded is an artistic experience. The cover, the font, the photography, the layout, and the lack of formal chapters all have specific intent. The song lyrics, together with helpful explanations of key lines, are interspersed with stories of growing up in the projects and hitting it big with hip-hop. There’s a lot to like.
But what you will really come to love is Jay-Z’s thoughtful, articulate descriptions of his art and its place in the world. He forces you to appreciate hip hop and rap and those who developed it, and see how much they share with, say, the creators of rock and roll or blues. He gives the larger-than-life characters we see in entertainment news context and purpose, explaining why this is part and parcel of the entire experience. More than anything, he shows you that his art, like others, comes from internal struggle and true experiences.
I came away unconvinced in several areas, but even so my view of that world was radically changed by this book. It has a lot to say about art in general, and brings tremendous insight to hip hop and rap in particular. It’s well worth your time to experience it. -Ben Bartlett
3. Connie Willis, Blackout and All Clear
Connie Willis is the author of several time-travel novels in which Oxford historians from the 2050s and 2060s travel back in time to research the past in person. One of these, To Say Nothing of the Dog (1999), is one of my Top 10 Fun Reads of All Time, and her fiction in general finds a fascinating balance between fate and free will: as a friend summarized the working of the space-time continuum in Willis’s novels, “everything you do matters, and everything you do doesn’t matter.” Blackout and All Clear, both published this year and originally intended to be a single novel (it grew), continue Willis’s combination of humor, carefully researched history, and theology embodied in time paradoxes—this time sending several historians back to World War II London.
In these two novels, everything Oxford historians—and Willis fans—thought they knew about the space-time continuum is called into question. As a result, the time-travelers are thrown into an interpretive frenzy, questioning the significance of their most miniscule actions and ultimately revisiting one of the crucial questions of time travel: do good intentions matter? -Carissa Smith
4. Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
In the tradition of Neil Postman’s Technopoly, Nick Carr shows how our use of computers and the internet have changed not only the ways we read, think, and communicate, but has altered the shape of our brains. He focuses on research that shows that the effect of any repeated action is a change in the structure of the brain, dedicating more space to that action. You may think this “neuroplasticity”–the ability of the brain to change physically–only exists for children (which is what we’ve been told for so long), but the research in The Shallows shows that it’s true for adults as well.
So, is the internet making us stupid? Maybe “stupid” isn’t the right word.
We’re not losing intelligence. We just think differently. We value a different kind of originality, a different way of being informed, different types of relationships.
But the way we read online, and the way computers are “designed to distract,” causes us to expend a lot of mental energy just switching from task to task and trying to get settled–long before we take in any ideas–only to break out and switch to another task in short order. The result is a weakened ability to think deeply. That, in Carr’s estimation, is more than a minor problem.
Carr’s writing is direct, clear, and smooth, for the most part. A fairly enjoyable reading experience. For other (older) reading on subject, try Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think…and What We Can Do About It (Jane Healy). -Charles Jones
5. George W. Bush, Decision Points
Throughout his time in the public eye, George W. Bush has been cast as an intellectual lightweight. I am sorry to report that this book will not destroy that notion. However, it will go a long way toward bringing nuance and reflection to a conversation that rarely has any. President Bush was neither a great man nor a great President, and you will see that in this book. At times, his pleading for your understanding and appreciation will even become uncomfortable. But he is and was a good man and a good President, and it is time we allowed him the dignity of being just that.
Decision Points is well worth reading because you come to appreciate the man, appreciate the gravity and confusion and competing interests he had to deal with, and appreciate his place in our country’s history. You will not be awestruck, but you will gain closure. You will not find any smoking guns, but there will definitely be some surprises of historical detail. And you will not revere the man, but you will, in some sense, be thankful for him and the role he took on. -Ben Bartlett
6. Catherine Fisher, Incarceron
While Incarceron was published in 2007 in the UK, for some reason it took three years to make its way across the pond. It’s worth the wait, however: among the young adult fantasy novels published (in the U.S.) in 2010, it’s easily the most intriguing. The setup is in some ways postapocalyptic: after the Years of Rage (gotta love that phrase), the Realm decided to start anew by sending off all its undesirables to Incarceron, a semi-sentient prison in an undisclosed location. Incarceron was intended to be a utopia, with the prison benevolently tending to the needs of all. The Realm, meanwhile, restored order by returning to an 18th-century society of manners, with strict period protocol (except for the wealthy, who cheat by using “skin wands” to erase their wrinkles). Each world views the other as perfect, though of course each is a different sort of dystopia.
Incarceron is extraordinarily well-paced, dispensing clues to important mysteries in just the right increments and just the right places. Dystopian young adult fiction may be a fad right now, but Incarceron goes deeper than most in raising questions about the interrelatedness of utopia and dystopia, and the role of human nature in bringing it all about. Unfortunately, the promise of these questions isn’t fully realized in Incarceron’s sequel, Sapphique (just published December 28 in the U.S.), but readers can still enjoy Incarceron and imagine their own resolution. -Carissa Smith
7. Carlos Eire, Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy
Eire’s previous memoir, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (which won the 2003 National Book Award for Nonfiction) is constructed as a series of proofs for the existence of God, but it won over readers of all faiths with its vivid descriptions of life in 1950s Cuba. Eire’s parents sent him out of the country at age eleven, as part of Operation Pedro Pan, and Waiting for Snow hinted at his subsequent life in America, but Learning to Die in Miami fleshes out that part of his story, recasting exile as a type of spiritual formation.
One of the major themes of Learning to Die in Miami is the tension between love of this world and detachment from it. Loss becomes the school for the soul, especially after Eire, as a teenager, returns to the one book he was allowed to bring with him from Cuba: Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, which advocates viewing all life on this earth as a kind of exile. Eire describes his first experience of reading and understanding this book as an entry into “Bizarro World,” where “Loss loses its sting. Pain gains its wings. Now becomes forever. Forever begins now, forever.” Learning to Die may not be as lyrically written as Waiting for Snow, but it’s a poignant depiction of Christian conversion as both homecoming and exile. -Carissa Smith
8. Tom Bissell, Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Some of the most significant works of nonfiction are often looked at derisively or with little sense of import when they are first released, often because they are viewed to be overly optimistic, naive, or speculative about certain subjects or ideas. Extra Lives is certainly one of those books. Subtitled “Why Video Games Matter,” Extra Lives manages to strike a balance between objective analysis and subjective personal reflection, between cheering on a medium and pointing out some of its unique flaws. It’s an important book for Christians to read because it speaks of the inevitable influence a growing medium will have on individuals and culture going forward. It speaks both to the likely dangers and the hopeful possibilities of the medium. It may seem strange and speculative now, but the further into the decade we get, the more the book will ring true. -Richard Clark
9. Brett McCracken, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide
Brett McCracken’s book about the collision of “church” and “cool” caused quite an uproar here at CaPC a few months ago. It seems that his description of “hipster Christians” hit a little close to home for many of our writers and readers, who speculated that he was basically an old guy complaining about “these kids today.” McCracken, a 2005 grad of Wheaton College, doesn’t really fit that description, and that fact gives his criticism a bit more weight.
In Hipster Christianity he sets out to describe the modern nature of hip (rebellion for rebellion’s sake), give some (imprecise) boundaries to the category “Christian hipster,” explain what the hipster church looks like, and discuss what this brand of faith might mean for the church. It’s the second of these goals that caught the most ill-will on these virtual pages. The most common complaint was that his description of Christian hipsters is too broad to be useful, that it simply describes 20-something Christians. I found that it described a particular type of 20-something—yes, generational difference plays an important role, but it’s not everything.
If you recognize yourself in his description, don’t feel insulted by the term “hipster” (McCracken calls himself one, after all), and you’ll be able to see some valuable cultural and ecclesiological insight into the nature of affluent, college-educated, largely white, urban and suburban Christians…more easily referred to as “Christian hipsters.” -Charles Jones
10. Robert Cording, Walking with Ruskin
Robert Cording has been one of my favorite contemporary poets since I discovered his poem “Common Life,” which discusses Augustine, the Road to Emmaus, and flatulence—all in twenty-some lines. Cording’s new volume of poetry, Walking with Ruskin, similarly combines the sacred and the mundane in unexpected ways. Even if you don’t know much about poetry, Cording’s poems tend to be fairly accessible because of their narrative approach, as well as their immersion in the everyday.
The poems in this volume take as their subject matter a mother’s grief for her child, looking though Czeslaw Milosz’s glasses (literally), aging, taking a walk with a dog, and observing woodpeckers, swallows and starlings. One particularly moving poem describes a neighbor’s madness–or is it wisdom?–in repeatedly and painstakingly decorating her mailbox, in spite of the fact that teen vandals will just knock it down again. Above all, the poems in Walking with Ruskin celebrate the virtue of attentiveness to the created world around us. -Carissa Smith
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Christ and Pop Culture
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1. Waiting for Superman
Say what you will about the director’s previous film, An Inconvenient Truth. His latest documentary takes a focused look at an issue that nearly all Americans have an equal stake in: the failings of the public school system. Even with an issue that has yet to become a prominent political hot-topic, moviegoers no doubt came into this film with certain expectations and assumptions about both the movie and its’ subject matter. What Waiting for Superman does better than anything else, though, is sort out those assumptions and present us with a film that rings true. By treating all sides of the argument with respect, by refusing to create villains for the film and insisting on a nuanced take on all related issues, the film avoids looking like the next Michael Moore hatchet-job. Yes, the film seems to praise certain charter schools and present labor unions in a negative light, but that’s not a result of tricky editing or title cards as much as it is the actions of those respective systems.
There is no snide, smirking cynicism in this movie, and every emotional beat feels truthful rather than manipulated. Instead of indulging our pretensions and bias, it asks us instead to care about the individuals affected by a flawed system. All kinds of people will see this film, but as a middle-class white guy, I remember taking my education for granted and coasting through high school. I had that luxury because I felt assured of a halfway decent life. Waiting for Superman reminded me that there are some who desperately want to learn their vocabulary words, to do their math homework, to read books. One kid wants to leave home for a boarding school where he will be forced to give up television and video games. He wants to do this because he wants a future that doesn’t end in jail, death or poverty. Leaving the theater, I wanted to do anything I could to make sure he gets what he wants, even if it meant voting for policies that seem to fly in the face of my own libertarian ideals. -Richard Clark
2. The Social Network
If The Social Network is not the year’s best picture, it certainly is one of the most fascinating personal stories told in any movie this year. The movie is equal parts exploration of the social struggles of the brilliant, the allure of money, and the dawn of social networking. It is certainly up for debate as to how much of The Social Network’s story is based in fact, but if even 5% of the story is true, it’s still fascinating—most notably in the revolutionaries of social networking making such a horrendous mess of their own social relationships.
I think people wanted The Social Network to be about what Facebook has done to the world, but the movie just isn’t about this—its about what the world has done to the people of Facebook. You should see The Social Network because the movie illustrates how the allure of money and notoriety can make monsters of us all. The movie sends an important message to all of us: we can understand people’s deep desire to connect and yet never make any meaningful connections because we all love ourselves more than we are willing to admit. -Drew Dixon
3. Toy Story 3
Sometimes films made by big name movie studios can feel like they are all style and no substance, but that couldn’t be further from the truth with regard to Pixar. Though the studio has always excelled in animation, its latest offerings, Up and Toy Story 3, have provided viewers with meaningful cinematic experiences. Toy Story 3 has great art, writing, and action but what makes it stand out is how each of these elements are brought together to promote themes worthy of the Christian’s attention. In short, Toy Story 3 was a story about friendship, growing up, loyalty, and selfless service. However, what I found most fascinating about Toy Story 3 was its exploration of how we feel about our possessions. It’s rare for any movie to explore the temporary nature of our possessions in any serious way, but Toy Story 3 did this quite naturally and maturely for a movie aimed at a young audience. Here’s to hoping that there is no Toy Story 4, because the third installment was an appropriate end to wonderful triology. -Drew Dixon
4. Inception
As a general rule, any film that can be described as a “blockbuster” or “roller coaster” or “event” will probably just annoy me: Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ironman. I can’t defend this flaw in my character which prevents me from immersing myself in rollicking big-screen fun, so I won’t. Thankfully, there are a few movies that have managed to be skillfully made blockbusters, big budget action movies which provoke the viewer to entertain important and interesting ideas. Christopher Nolan’s Inception was one of these movies. Although it is hindered by Nolan’s typical directing flaws (supporting characters who lack development, hard to follow dialogue, convoluted plots), Inception affected me on many levels. It was visually stunning, the action was exciting and captivating, the universe was intriguing and imaginative, and the themes of love and forgiveness and redemption and truth were developed both emotionally and conceptually. Inception was the most enjoyable moviegoing experience I have had a long time and I’m excited to see what Christopher Nolan has in store for us next: The Dark Knight Rises. -Alan Noble
5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
When it was announced that Edgar Wright was adapting Bryan Lee O’Malley’s acclaimed graphic novel series, it struck me as a stroke of genius given Wright’s track record (particularly the TV series Spaced, which feels like a Scott Pilgrim precursor in many ways). Wright’s adaptation is not without its flaws, and it hasn’t stood up to multiple viewings quite as well as I would’ve liked. That being said, however, the film is so full of geeky/nerdy love, so goofily self-aware, so full of wild, imaginative style — like the sadly maligned Speed Racer, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World pushes so far beyond reality that it becomes hyper-real, with its style becoming its substance — that it still engenders more good will and affection than nearly any movie I’ve seen in recent memory, flaws and all. - Jason Morehead
6. Winter’s Bone
If I see one more review calling Winter’s Bone a “slice of Americana,” this Arkansan is going to slam her nonexistent banjo over someone’s head. What’s striking about this movie—about an Ozark girl’s quest to find her meth-cooking father—is how it unites the universality of Antigone-ish themes of honor and justice with the particularity of life in southern Missouri, without reducing that particularity to prepackaged charm or shock (the two things the mountain South is usually good for, in filmmakers’ eyes).
See it because it’s a well-made film with great performances, especially by Jennifer Lawrence as 17-year-old Ree and John Hawkes as the creepiest uncle ever (both have been nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Lawrence has been nominated for a Golden Globe). See it because it’s a film directed by a woman not named Catherine Hardwicke or Nora Ephron. See it because the credits roll to the gospel hymn “Farther Along”: “We’ll understand it all by and by.” See it on DVD, because it probably didn’t come to a theater near you. -Carissa Smith
7. 127 Hours
They could have made this film for network or cable television. It could have won a Golden Globe for best TV movie. It could have been a fascinating story about a guy who does something we could never do. Instead, thanks to director Danny Boyle, the story of the man who cut his own arm off became a story of a man who learned to let go and let others take up his burden. It went from being a sensationalistic headline to a story with a theme that is universal. While Boyle’s tendency to disorient the viewer through constant sound and editing tricks can take their toll, those same tendencies enhanced this film. A film is more than just a good story. It has to be directed in such a way that the story takes in the audience and allows them to internalize what is happening on screen. For this story, Boyle is the only director I can imagine succeeding at this task. -Richard Clark
8. Babies
While not the most entertaining movie I saw this year (a toss up between Red and Iron Man 2), Babies is definitely the most interesting. The film follows four babies, in Tokyo, Namibia, Mongolia, and San Francisco, from birth to their first steps. This is documentary in the purest sense I can imagine. There is no dialogue, no voice-over, no subtitles. The only information given is each child’s name and location. The Christian Science Monitor aptly called it an “essentially enjoyable celebration of the mundane.”
Two things stood out to me. First, babies are babies. I figured that going in, but none of these kids did anything mine haven’t done, or wouldn’t if given the opportunity (it’s tough to run outside naked when you live on the 8th floor of a high rise). They eat toilet paper, bite each other, make messes of their parents’ things, and throw fantastic tantrums. Yes, babies are babies. The second thing is how ridiculous my parenting seems compared to the Mongolian and Namibian parenting. In an early montage, these scenes are put together in something close to this order: a rooster walking around on the bed with the Mongolian infant, the American parents worriedly discussing SIDS with their doctor, the Namibian baby laying naked in the dirt, chewing on rocks, and back to the American girl, who’s being cleaned with a lint-roller by her father. I remember leaving the theater laughing sheepishly at the whole idea of baby aerobics, then took my kids to a class that weekend.
Of course, raising children in these harsh areas can’t be as parochially charming as filmmaker Thomas Balmes made it appear on screen, but the story he told made the growth of these children in exotic places and cultures just as familiar as the growth of my own. Sometimes they’re all just too adorable for words. Babies is so sweet it’s like film dessert – not a Klondike bar, but that chocolate cake volcano that gives you a sugar rush just looking at it. -Charles Jones
9. The Town
I’d like to tell an old joke. This line has served me well through the last decade, constantly refreshed with new material. Here goes: Ben Affleck. From “Armageddon” to “Pearl Harbor” to “Surviving Christmas,” the man spent nearly a decade constantly refueling the jabs at his poor film choices and paltry acting within them. Yet I want to tell the joke that is Ben Affleck because the old joke now has a chance of staying old. Starting with “Gone, Baby, Gone” a couple years ago, film-watchers saw a new side of Affleck: the director. This film was no joke and with his new directing project, “The Town,” neither is Affleck. A tense film with the some parts heist film, others doomed love story, Affleck shows great potential behind the camera. The picture is not perfect; it does suffer from sparse but ill-advised melodrama. Also, the near-constant profanity, while at times accurate to the characters, at other points seems gratuitous. Affleck’s acting is adequate though not nearly to the level of his movie-making. The Christian themes are not easily picked off the surface. In fact, the film is a harsh teacher, showing how the ripple effect of past wrongs can permeate later choices, even those aimed at redemption. Its Christ-less nature, ironically enough, can point us to Christ. -Adam Carrington
10. Shutter Island
The mantra “everything you know is wrong” is not exactly new but Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have jumped on the “question reality” bandwagon with his two films this year: Inception and Shutter Island. Inception, written of elsewhere on this list, digs into that murky territory between dream and reality. In Shutter Island, DiCaprio delivers a protagonist as likable as any other he has played, and yet as the movie progresses we begin to wonder if he is not the good guy. If he is not innocent then he is certainly wrong about everything. His whole understanding of reality is mired in that premise of his goodness.
Another film, 2000′s Memento, trod this familiar path. In that film, Leonard was a monster but told himself differently. He created an elaborate framework to collaborate his theory and he was convinced! Memento had been Christopher Nolan’s directorial breakthrough and of course, it was Nolan who directed DiCaprio in this years’ Inception. Nolan is said by many to be more precise and to leave the viewer with fewer unanswered questions. That has been used to prove a now popular theory about Inception. With Shutter Island, Scorsese presents us with a Hitchcock-induced treatment of this repeating post-modern theme of skepticism. While Shutter Island may not provoke as much discussion as Inception, it did generate divided opinions about its outcome: Was Teddy criminally insane or was he the victim of a most impressive conspiracy? How we answer this kind of question about ourselves says much about how we live. While Shutter Island may not have been the strongest work of either DiCaprio or Scorsese it is superior to the bulk of 2010′s cinematic fare. If for no other reason, the film is worthwhile for its exploration of this question: if everything I know is wrong, what does that say about me? -Chase Livingston
11. Honorable Mention: True Grit
Our process started too soon for True Grit to make the cut this year, but it’s clearly one of the better films this year. Had it come out before December 2nd, it very well might have made this list. You can read more about that film here.
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Far from an objective declaration of the best video games out there (you’ll notice a distinct and shameful lack of Wii games), the following is a list that we have compiled of our favorite games of the past year. These are games that we had the chance to play, and that we loved not just for their value proposition or for their genuine ability to entertain, but for their undeniable beauty. For the most part, this is a list of experiences. The great thing about games, is that they are experiences that can be recommended and passed on. That’s what we hope to do with this list.
1. Limbo – Xbox Live Arcade
Limbo doesn’t look like much, and in truth it’s not. It starts with a simple title screen. The controls are uncomplicated. There is no multiplayer and no long list of features. Once you start the game, there’s no words of any form, and no color. It’s just the silhouette of a boy, and the things around him that want him dead. Trying to articulate exactly what makes Limbo a harrowing, haunting and ultimately hopeful experience is impossible, but I can tell you that it’s well worth the small price tag you’d pay to play it on Xbox Live, despite the lack of features and special modes. It’s a game that causes you to remember what it was like to be young and alone, that reminds you what it was like to long for someone, and ultimately, it’s a game that changes you if you let it. -Richard Clark
2. Bioshock 2 – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Bioshock 2 and the Power of Influence,” “Time to Revisit Rapture – Again”
After such a complete and artistically flawless experience as Bioshock, the announcement of a sequal drew a large amount of skepticism, and I’ll be the first to admit that the skepticism was indeed fair. The sentiment only got worse when it was revealed that Irrational Games, the studio behind the original Bioshock wouldn’t have anything to do with the sequel. Throw in an arbitrary multiplayer mode and you’ve got all the ingredients for a disaster.
Instead, 2K Marin made Bioshock 2 their own, and in doing so managed to unequivocally improve the gameplay while also embracing an entirely different mood and theme than the first. While the original Bioshock contained a satisfying mix of mystery and philosophical rumination, the sequel embraces the emotional and relational impact of certain ideas. Yes, this is a game about collectivism and its affect on a community, but more importantly it’s a game about its affect on families and individuals. If I can make one recommendation, it’s this: if you are a father, and you play games, you should absolutely play this one. -Richard Clark
3. Red Dead Redemption – Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Recommended Reading: “Read Dead’s Particular Brand of Redemption,” “Read Dead Redemption’s Squandered Potential,” “The Dastardly Achievement.”
Red Dead Redemption is on the top of most everyone’s list and for good reason too—it’s graphically beautiful, boasts an intricately detailed game world and a dynamic main character. All that said, what was most memorable about RDR was how much it frustrated me. If you make it to the end of RDR, you will never forget the way the story was brought to a close and the way in which the game forces you to take part in that ending. I wish I could say more, but I would ruin for many who really ought to give this game a try, but in short, I would say that the story was as memorable if not more so than the original Bioshock.
Red Dead Redemption, as the name implies, is meant to be a story of redemption, but it’s certainly muddled in the way that redemption comes about. If you are like me and like to play the hero in video games, you will find that although there is much to be done that is heroic, being a true hero in RDR is impossible. That frustrated me and forced me to step back and observe John Marston and the story that is RDR. In fact, I would say RDR refuses to let you take ownership of Marston and forces you to deal with him as he is. Despite my disgust at some of Marston’s decisions (mostly his compromises to help shady characters), I began to empathize with him. Sure there are lots of things I didn’t like about Marston, but by the end I wanted redemption for him because there was much about him worth redeeming. This journey of hating and growing to love Marston was intentional and makes the games’ ending all the more brilliant. -Drew Dixon
4. Halo Reach – Xbox 360
If you think Halo Reach is stupid, that is partly because you have never been involved in one of our CAPC and friends’ multiplayer matches. Reach deserves to be on this list if for no other reason than it is the best console multiplayer experience available right now. That may sound like overly boastful praise and perhaps it is, but Reach excels at giving its players a myriad of options for how to best enjoy multiplayer. If you like to play co-op you can play with 4 people in both campaign and survival modes. If you like to play small games you can do that. Large games? Yep. Lots of vehicles? Yep. You just want to play on the same team with your friends? Sure can. Want to play with 3 other friends online on one Xbox? Of course. Want to play against uber competitive people? Yep. Want to play just for fun? Indeed. Basically, Reach makes every effort to make your multiplayer experience enjoyable. Finally, I feel like I have found a multiplayer experience on a console that is pretty much everything I want it to be. What games like Call of Duty: Black Ops get horribly wrong on multiplayer, Halo gets consistently right.
I have had more fun playing Halo online with good friends than any game I can remember. Its almost as fun as the massive LAN parties I used to have with friends in college playing Halo 1 and 2, but at least we don’t have to lug our consoles and TV’s around anymore to have nearly the same kind of experience. If you haven’t joined in one of our CAPC multiplayer games, now is the time to start—tweet me your gamer tag and we will invite you to the next game. We are going to tentatively shoot for having a CAPC game most every Monday Night around 10:00 P.M. Eastern time. -Drew Dixon
5. Mass Effect 2 – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Mommy, What is that Alien Doing?”
Mass Effect 2 improved on its predecessor in many ways—numerous critics have hailed it due to the lessening of RPG elements so as to appeal to shooter-fans—in so much as they succeeded in that goal, I applaud them if only for putting this fantastic game in more people’s hands. ME2’s greatest achievements, however, have been largely overlooked—its world and its characters kept me playing to the very end. The world of ME2 feels massive, complex, and detailed. To me it rivaled the world of a good science fiction book. ME2 is less linear than the first installment but still a largely linear game and yet, I never felt forced to do anything in the game. I wanted to complete the quests, I wanted to do more than I had to do to complete the game and I think this is due mostly to the compelling characters of ME2.
ME2 gives you quests to complete on behalf of each of your playable characters and each quest reveals more about the characters who are helping you on your quest. I found this fascinating because the people helping you are complex and their desires often conflict with each other and their pasts intertwine to make every decision you make, to support them or not, very important. Most of the characters have at least a few redeemable qualities and this makes your decision to support them all the more difficult. These characters, their back-stories, and your interaction with them kept me coming back to ME2. I would have liked to see ME2 make more of my decisions in ME1, but nonetheless, I think ME2 is a tremendous example of character writing in video games is capable of rivaling that of other mediums. My ability to influence these various characters in their growth made that element all the more fascinating. -Drew Dixon
6. Super Meat Boy – Xbox Live Arcade, PC
In what world does a game titled Super Meat Boy deserve to be on this list? That is an excellent question and it is worth noting that SMB’s story is less than moving in comparison to many of the games we have included here, but SMB, after all, pays homage to Super Mario Bros (also SMB) as its spiritual successor. It plays like a 2D Mario game on steriods. The hero is Meat Boy—a boy with no skin who is determined to save bandage girl from certain peril at the hands of evil Dr. Fetus. I am not making this up and yet I promise you this is a great game. SMB will take you back to a time when game consoles didn’t have hard-drives and finishing a game felt like a significant achievement. In short this is an incredibly difficult platformer that will frustrate you. Still, the accomplishment of actually beating some of its most difficult levels is so rewarding that I couldn’t pass up the chance to write about this game.
Some of SMB’s levels will take you dozens of attempts to finish and there are no checkpoints. You die and you go right back to the beginning. Thankfully the levels are all rather short and once you finally do finish a level, you get to watch a replay of every single attempt you made to complete the level at once—all the struggle that led up to your eventual victory is summed up in a 10-15 second clip. If you could beat every level on your first try the game would probably take less than 30 minutes to finish. Unless you have super human dexterity and concentration, you will surely be playing much longer than that and yet despite your failed attempts, none of these levels will ever feel unbeatable and when you finally beat them you will relish the replay of your every failure and your final victory. If you are like me, you will be so delighted you’ll save many of them and reminisce on the insanity of their difficulty. Although SMB is single player, this is a great game to play in groups and take turns seeing who has the chops to take on various insanely difficult levels. SMB will make you laugh, cry, and potentially break your controller and its this combination of emotions that it will produce in you that makes it one of the year’s best. -Drew Dixon
7. Fallout: New Vegas – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Fallout 3: The Challenge of Gaming Morality,” “Gamer’s Choice”
The Internet tells me I should warn you about the myriad of bugs that are a part of this game, but to be truthful, I haven’t experienced even one of them. What I have experienced is a game of limitless possibilities in a haunting environment with a heart-wrenching series of plotlines. Sure, some of the games narrative turns are silly, but the most resonant moments are those when you are forced to make hard choices between two equally good or bad ideas.
One of the most interesting changes from Fallout 3 is the inclusion of factions, which seem to basically represent different ways of looking at the world. Each of these factions see the world differently, and it’s up to you to decide not only who you most relate to, but who you’re willing to allow to exist. -Richard Clark
8. VVVVVV – PC, Mac
What’s so special about a bare-bones pixelated 8-bit style platformer? At first, nothing, but the longer you manage to stick with this game, the more depth you’ll find in every facet. The gravity switching mechanic never seems to get old, as the game iterates on it in increasingly unique ways. The concept of an 8-bit open world platformer is carried out flawlessly. Bring up the map at any given time and the sense of endless possibilities is inescapable.
By the way, have you ever noticed that when a sense of endless possibilities is inescapable what that really feels like is a sense of being lost? Welcome to VVVVVVV, where it’s all about being lost and helping those who are lost. The varying characters may only consist of different colored stick-people, and their expressions may not span beyond huge smiles and distraught frowns, but you will get to know them, and eventually you will care for them. As an experiment in minimalism, it’s a huge success. As a game, it’s creepily affecting and undeniably resonant, not to mention a steal at . -Richard Clark
9. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Assassin’s Creed 2: Shot Through the Heart”
Many dismissed Assassin’s Creed:Brotherhood as Assassin’s Creed 2.5, and in some ways they’re right. More than anything, this game is an iteration on the previous, picking up immediately where AC2 left off and adding a few intriguing mechanics to an already full gameplay experience. The final product, though, is markedly more satisfying than its’ predecessor. With the tech mastered and the format established, the team that made AC:Bros were able to take that foundation and build one incredible game on top of it. On top of all of that, the game includes a multiplayer mode that’s by far the most unique we’ve seen all year, rewarding patience, focus and subversiveness rather than indiscriminate killing and destruction.
But of course, for Christians there’s a bigger question: does Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood continue the precedent set by AC2 in its excessive railing and preaching against organized religion? The answer is complex. The game builds on the foundation that was set in AC2, operating on the same assumptions of the world and the characters within the fiction. Still, the game also manage to call a number of those assumptions into question, and very little of the game is spent trying to convince us of any truth at all. Instead, Ezio and Desmond’s quest is a search for answers. As the game progresses, we actually become more and more unsure of the truth that was set forth in AC2, even if organized religion is still portrayed in a less than stellar light. In perspective, it’s set against organized religion, but unless you’re paying attention, you’d never know it. All the more reason to play this game, and pay attention. -Richard Clark
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC
Racing games have always been a fun diversion, but they have also felt a bit shallow and monotonous. After all, there are only so many variations of beating other cars to a finish line. Games like Mario Kart and Burnout have given the genre some much needed variety, but only by adding arbitrary and disconnected elements. With Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion (the studio that brought you Burnout: Paradise) managed to develop a racing game with something the racing genre has never really had before: import.
You know that feeling you get when you’re speeding, and you realize too late that you’ve passed a cop, only to see him turn on his lights and pull up behind you? It’s a truly sickening feeling. Dread, panic and guilt set in all at once. It’s a feeling you’ll get the first time this happens playing NFS:HP. Having the opportunity to keep driving is truly a guilt-ridden fantasy come true. When the roles are switched and you are that cop, the feeling of fighting for justice at the expense of order and caution is exhilarating. The climactic moment in that game, when you “bust” a racer and his car flips spectacularly across and off of the road, is a moment you will not soon forget. -Richard Clark
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