pheed

This movie is very much in the tradition of Kubrick. It's quiet, it's dramatic, sophisticated and beautifully shot. The ending is ambiguous; open to interpretation. Cameron Bright is convincingly haunted as the possible re-incarnation of Anna's (Nicole Kidman) deceased husband. Birth reveals the ways in which love and the removal of that love can traumatize us. I did not realize who the director of this film was until after I finished it. I was pleased to see that Mr. Glazer has also directed Sexy Beast which is another excellent film and one of my personal favorites of the past 10 years or so. I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Sexy Beast or the work of Kubrick.

I just finished watching Jesus Camp. It literally took me years to build up the courage to watch it because I thought it might be too depressing or outrageous. Thankfully it wasn't. The tone of the movie is pleasant enough. It reminded me of an extended This American Life segment. The movie shows a somewhat extreme indoctrination of children by Christian adults. From the film, it appears that this is a relatively small segment of American society. What was most encouraging to me about the movie was the thought that some of these children are smart enough to resist this indoctrination. I myself was raised in a very religious household and I attended churches with very similar beliefs and practices from age 4-18. Around the age of 12 I began to resist and by the time I was 14 I was an atheist. I don't begrudge religion or the religious, but I do disagree with those that would brainwash children like this. I was most struck by the young boy of 9-10 with the blonde bowl cut hairdo. You could see on his face -- he wants to believe what he's being told to believe so badly, but he simply cannot bring himself to. He's too smart.

The other thing that left an impression on me was a near-complete lack of child-like happiness. Only in perhaps two moments through the film can children be seen happy and having fun as children would normally do. Whenever the children are having fun, either their own indoctrination or a nearby adult comes along to clamp down on that fun. The young girl who is seen dancing wants to make sure she's not dancing "in the flesh." The young boy telling a ghost story is told that ghost stories don't glorify god and therefore should not be repeated. That is the saddest part of the movie. But some of these kids will escape.