"I'm In Love With A Church Girl"; "The Counselor"

The film "I'm In Love With A Church Girl" is a tale of mercy, where bad choices and an intimate relationship are on a collision course towards redemption.  Many Christ-followers will be able to relate to the themes presented in the drama by Galley Molina, which is based upon events in his own life. The story follows an entertainer named Miles Montego, played by rapper Jeff "Ja Rule" Atkins (song "I'm Always on Time" featuring Ashanti), who seems to have it all: money, good looks, posh home and stylish car.  Montego's involvement in a high level drug trafficking ring has the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) spying on him.  Meanwhile, Montego meets a beautiful woman named Venessa Leon, played by Adrienne Bailon (Disney channel's "The Cheetah Girls"), who is involved in her local church.  Montego is a man turned-off from church tradition because of his own past.  The chemistry they experience together leads one another to face who they really are and ultimately to face God. With approximately a $3 million budget, director Steve Race ("Latino Comedy Fiesta Series") delivers the linear plot with limited ability and depth. There is a lot of talent lacking in this film.  Like the main character who strives for perfection, this film desperately focuses on its own image and thus true substance is easily missed.  Yet also like the main character in this film who receives grace, the film is saved, saved by its own genre, where the message is more valued by the author's community than the quality of performance, and it works.

The film "The Counselor" is a tale of wrath, where bad choices and an intimate relationship are on a collision course towards destruction.  Novelist Cormac McCarthy, known most recently for writing the novel adapted into the 2007 film "No Country for Old Men", returns to the big-screen this time writing his first original screenplay. The story follows a lawyer who is referred to as 'The Counselor.'  Played by Michael Fassbender ("Prometheus", "X-Men: First Class"), 'The Counselor' is a man who seems to have it all: money, good looks, posh home and stylish car.  The lawyer's foolish decision to dabble in a high level drug trafficking deal lures him into harm's way with very dangerous people.  Laura, played by Penélope Cruz ("Vicky Christina Barcelona", "Vanilla Sky"), is the woman the lawyer asks to be his wife and she too is vulnerable to the consequences of his actions. With approximately a $25 million budget, director Ridley Scott ("Gladiator", "Thelma & Louise") portrays suspenseful and crafty dialogue between its star-studded cast with intermittent scenes of very graphic images of both sex and violence. There is a lot of talent wasted in this film.  Like the main character who strives for perfection, this film gets too greedy and thus true substance is taken for granted.  Scott directs a rather simple story with very fascinating subject material but keeps the characters at a distance.  It is almost as if Scott is directing a false intimacy.  The film subjects its audience to see offensive and brutal images, yet the film does not invite its audience to feel what the characters are feeling.

'Gravity'

As shown in the October 23, 2013 edition of the 'Monroe County Reporter':

Alfonso Cuarón's science-fiction thriller "Gravity", which debuted October 4, invites its audience to experience the visual and emotional effects of zero-gravity suspended above Earth.  Mission Specialist Dr. Ryan Stone, portrayed by actress Saundra Bullock ("Speed", "The Blind Side"), is on her first space shuttle mission where she is to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  Stone is accompanied on the crew by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney ("Solaris", "The Descendants"), who is commanding his final expedition.

The suspense is triggered when a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite causes a chain reaction of destruction with its path heading towards the shuttle crew at bullet speed.  Both Stone and Kowalski are outside the shuttle upgrading the Hubble when they receive this news and do not have enough time to respond.  Communication with Mission Control is lost and the large debris field collides with the shuttle. Both Stone and Kowalski are left floating in space as the sole survivors. 

Writer-director Cuarón ("A Little Princess", "Children of Men") seems to have made this film to not simply be a story of survival in space but also about detachment.  As the story progresses Dr. Ryan Stone reveals a dissociation to her own suffering due to the tragic loss of her daughter.  She would rather be adrift in denial than feel the gravity of her pain.  This choosing becomes an apparent impasse to her survival.

The cinematography is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), with one scene brilliantly portraying Dr. Stone hovering in the fetal position together with floating hoses and wires as if she were in the mother's womb.  This image, among others, invites us to transcendently watch this film.  The realms of space and the planet it overlooks are merely canvas.

Sound also plays a transcendent role in "Gravity".  As the film's opening text recognizes, there are very few molecules in empty space to mobilize sound.  By honoring the laws of gravity, this film acknowledges the dynamics of both sound and silence through its suspenseful sequence of events.  Dr. Stone confesses silence is what she loves most about space, and later in the film she indicates how silence is an escape for her.

To bring this down to earth, "Gravity" is fun to watch because of the breath-taking cinematography and screenplay.  It errs on the side of melodrama yet maybe this is the movie's strength.  Both Bullock and Clooney play convincing roles even though the cinematic effects detach you from their acting.  It was inspiring to witness the attachment between Dr. Stone and Kowalski because of the hope we have in the face of each other.  Whose face, touch, or words can be a life-line when we encounter the emptiness and void of our own heart?  How can we be a life-line?