BMC MOVIE OF THE WEEK: MARTYRS

Martyrs (2008)

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• Morjana Alaoui,
• Mylène Jampanoï,
• Catherine Bégin

The Brotherhood of the Wolf director Pascal Lauguier follows his 2004 thriller House of Voices with this relentlessly brutal tale of a girl who suffered unimaginable abuse as a young child, and the unspeakable horrors that unfold when she arrives at an isolated cabin in the woods fifteen years later. The story begins as the young, badly battered Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) -- obviously the victim of inhuman abuse -- is hospitalized after somehow managing to escape her sadistic captors. Nearly catatonic after her life-altering ordeal, Lucie only manages to become functional again as a result of her friendship with Anna (Morjana Alaoui), a fellow abuse victim who selflessly reaches out to the badly damaged girl. Fifteen years later, Lucie guns down an entire family in cold blood. Is Lucie seeking belated vengeance against the people who tortured her as a young girl, or has her fragile psyche finally snapped, resulting in the bloody demise of an innocent family? Later, when Lucie calls on her old friend Anna, the truth about Lucie's traumatic early life experience slowly comes into focus. – All-Movie Guide

72% liked it

R, 1 hr. 37 min.

Director: Pascal Laugier

 

July 18, 2010: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Martyrs. “Yeah it’s a great film.” noted Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist, “Don’t see it.”

As any horror fan who doesn’t mind reading subtitles knows, France is the go-to place right now for visceral, gory, and (sometimes) thought-provoking chillers. And as Mr. Lindqvist’s comment hints at, Martyrs stands near the top of the bloody heap. Personally, I think Alexandre Bustillo’s Inside is the better film, but that’s like picking which leg you’d rather have stuck in a trap and have to chew off while simultaneously discussing the meaning of life. There ain’t much difference. As far as mixing metaphysics with meat grinding goes, Martyrs gets the job done just fine.

The trick to making it through Martyrs (besides closing your eyes a lot if you tend to chunk noodles easily) is to hang in there until Act II. That’s when the film begins to head off into more philosophical (yet still repulsive) territory. And when mysticism enters the picture in Act III, you might just find that the director is intent on more than just making you ill. Not that he avoids doing that, mind you.

You see, the final third of the movie revolves around the original Greek meaning of the word martyr as one who bears witness to the truth. Death wasn’t really part of the equation. It was only around the time of the Maccabees that religious persecution began to be associated with the word, and only in the first few centuries of Christianity that martyrdom came to be seen, as the Catechism defines it, as “the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death.”

It’s important to grasp the distinction between the original meaning of the word and our current usage if you’re going to make sense of the ending of Martyrs. (This assumes, of course, that you’ve actually made it to end rather than fled the room to go vomit.) You see, in Christianity, the reason the martyr is willing to submit to pain and persecution, even death, is everything. It can even bring a certain internal happiness to the situation. That’s how St. Paul can exclaim in this week’s readings, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” But in the original secular sense of the word, the motivation of the martyrs is inconsequential. It is only that they provide answers which is of any importance. Understanding that the antagonists of Martyrs hold to the old meaning is necessary to put the brutality of the movie into some kind of meaningful context. There is no joy in the fate of some of the characters in Martyrs which, when you consider the secularist state of France right now, is just what you would expect.

THINGS TO COME: SHARKTOPUS

After waiting almost a year since the title of this movie first surfaced, the time is nearing in which we patient B-fans will finally be able to revel in the unparalleled awesomeness that is… Sharktopus.

With Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts, no less.

Okay, so I’m sure not everyone has been as eager for the arrival of Sharktopus as I have. But, you know, looking forward to silly things like this always helps me to remember to keep the joy in “joyful expectation”. Every time I start to feel things dragging me down a bit, I can watch a trailer like this and be reminded that even the souls in Purgatory have a little smile on the inside knowing that better things are coming down the line.

NOW SHOWING AT A BLOG NEAR YOU

Well, for what it’s worth…

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

At least that’s what this web site thinks. According to the font of all wisdom that is Wikipedia, “Wallace's novels often combine various writing modes or voices, and incorporate jargon and vocabulary (sometimes invented) from a wide variety of fields. His writing featured self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long multi-clause sentences, and a notable use of explanatory footnotes and endnotes—often nearly as expansive as the text proper.” Okay, so that sounds a little familiar. Unfortunately, I’ve never actually read any of Wallace’s works, although I do remember there being some hoopla when he committed suicide, so I guess I’ll have to pick one or two of his books up.

Speaking of books, The Happy Catholic has discovered John Steakly’s novel Vampire$, which all good B-movie fans will recognize as the source material for John Carpenter’s Vampires starring James Woods. She highly recommends the book “for those who like vampire tales, mercenaries with hearts of gold, Texas, and old-school use of the Catholic Church in fighting Evil.”

Alas, while the Church plays the hero in Steakly’s book, it doesn’t fare so well in Italian zombie films, at least not according to The Vault Of Horror, where B-Sol suggests that the genre is a purposeful subversion of all things Catholic.

With one for the Church and one against, we may as well throw one in the middle. Mark Stricherz over at True/Slant ponders the question as to whether or not Easy Rider was a Catholic film? His conclusion? Eh, maybe.

If you want something a bit more conclusive, be sure to check out the blog of philosophy professor Edward Feser where he mulls over The Metaphysics of The Fly. The good Prof gives his answers to the questions, was Brundle-fly still a person by the end of the movie, and if so, who would that person have been if he had successfully spliced himself together with Geena Davis’ character? Big questions for a movie in which the main character eats by vomiting on donuts.

After all that heavy philosophizing, you just might need a humorous respite. If so, then drop on by Creative Minority Report where Matt Archbold gives his brief take on Gilligan's Island and the 7 Deadly Sins. Hilariously, the tongue in cheek post managed to spark off a couple of days of debate in the combox. We've all become God's madmen.

And finally, even though it has nothing at all to do with religion or philosophy, there’s no way I was going to let this news pass without mentioning it. It’s been confirmed that 80s pop princesses Debbie Gibson and Tiffany are set to star in the Syfy Original Movie, Mega Python Vs Gatoroid. Only in my dreams have I imagined such a thing could become reality. There’s simply nothing to say after that.

BMC MOVIE OF THE WEEK: DONNIE DARKO

Donnie Darko (2001)

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• Jake Gyllenhaal,
• Jena Malone,
• Mary McDonnell

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a bright and charming high-school student who also has a dark and willfully eccentric side; he does little to mask his contempt for many of his peers and enjoys challenging the authority of the adults around him. Donnie is also visited on occasion by Frank, a monstrous six-foot rabbit that only Donnie can see who often urges him to perform dangerous and destructive pranks. Late one night, Frank leads Donnie out of his home to inform him that the world will come to an end in less than a month; moments later, the engine of a jet aircraft comes crashing through the ceiling of Donnie's room, making him think there might be something to Frank's prophesies after all. The rest of Donnie's world is only marginally less bizarre, as he finds himself dealing with his confused parents (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne), his college-age sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal), his perplexed analyst (Katherine Ross), a rebellious English teacher (Drew Barrymore), a sleazy self-help expert (Patrick Swayze), and the new girl at school who is attracted by Donnie's quirks (Jena Malone). Donnie Darko was the first feature film from writer and director Richard Kelly; Drew Barrymore, who plays teacher Karen Pomeroy, also lent her support to the project as executive producer. – All-Movie Guide

77% liked it

R, 1 hr. 53 min.

Director: Richard Kelly

 

July 11, 2010: Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

The above synopsis tells you almost nothing regarding what Donnie Darko is REALLY about. Let’s just say that if you enjoy stories involving time travel, infomercial parodies, tangent universes, 80s new wave pop, arguments over free will versus predestination, obsessed pre-adolescent dance troupes, rabbit symbolism, the possible existence of God as an intelligent space-time continuum, and gratuitous discussions of Smurfs… and if you like all that encased in a layer of teen angst so thick and oppressive that you’ll begin to believe EVERY adolescent should have psychoactive antidepressants forcefully crammed down his/her throat… if you like all that, then you just might like Donnie Darko.

But you still probably won’t know what it’s all about.

Donnie Darko is so cryptic that the director felt compelled to spend almost the entire running time of the DVD commentary explaining the theories (scientific and speculative) behind each scene. And then, realizing that there are probably still things left unexplained, he invites you to visit the movie’s website where you can sift through page after page of multimedia presentations that will hopefully make everything clear. Which it doesn’t. Fortunately, the movie does give you enough information to figure out the basic premise of what’s happening to Donnie, enough so that when he’s faces his final decision, you understand exactly what the right thing for him to do is, even though it will come at a cost.

That’s kind of what Moses was trying to get across to the Israelites in this week’s reading while they were apparently whining (again) over what God was trying to teach them. “For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.” Moses exclaims, “It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”

The words of Moses should carry even more weight today. What with the 73 books of the Bible, the 2,865 paragraphs of the Catechism, the 400+ apostolic constitutions and papal encyclicals, the dozens of documents from 21 ecumenical councils, etc., it’s easy for us Christians to get bogged down in doctrinal minutiae trying to figure out exactly what God wants from us. Of course, we should study and dig deep, God basically demands it. But as Jesus reiterates to the scholar of the law in the parable of the good Samaritan, our first duty is to simply live out the gospel through acts of charity to one another. All the other needed explanations will follow in due time.

BMC MOVIE OF THE WEEK: OGRE

Ogre (2008)

• John Schneider,
• Ryan Kennedy,
• Brendan Fletcher

A forgotten town harbors a horrible secret that's discovered by a group of teens seeking to unlock the mysteries of the past. Somewhere, in the woods surrounding a remote village, a temperamental ogre waits for his next victim. When four teens in search of a cursed village arouse the ogre's attention, their discovery of a shaky truce between the beast and the local population threatens to spell doom for all involved. – All-Movie Guide

17% liked it

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Director: Steven R. Monroe

 

July 4, 2010: Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Remember M. Night Shyamalan's The Village? Wouldn’t it have been great if halfway through it, some cheap looking CGI thing showed up and bit off William Hurt’s head? Well, the folks at the SyFy Channel thought so, emptied the change in their pockets, and gave it to Steven Munroe to make Ogre.

Now most people understand how SyFy originals work. You hope for a Mansquito, and pray to God you don’t get an Alien Siege (Sorry, Bruce Campbell, but you know it’s true). Luckily, Ogre falls somewhere in between. John Schneider, Katharine Isabelle, and the rest of the cast play it straight. The effects are barely above World Of Warcraft quality, but not much worse than a rubber monster suit. And the plot holes are… okay, so there’s no excuse for the plot holes. The ogre is supposedly trapped by a mystical barrier, but the first time you see him he’s clearly walking around outside of it? The very first time? That’s just sloppy.

Still, the central idea of the villagers turning to magic to handle the plague decimating their town after medicine fails them is actually kind of interesting. It does leave you with a couple of questions though: (1) was having the virus metamorphose into a gut-munching sacrifice-demanding ogre really the best solution, and (2) why did they wait until almost everyone was dead before considering a non-scientific tactic?

Considering the amount of CGI blood spilled by the ogre, the answer to the first question is obviously… NO! As for the second, well, maybe it’s because, unlike the seventy-two disciples from this week’s gospel who went out to heal people and came back to Jesus exclaiming, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name", people in the 1850s era village were already suffering from what sociologist Max Weber described as “disenchantment”. To dreadfully oversimplify, Weber’s theory was that as science began to explain more things, people began to perceive the world as a less mystical place and value rational explanations over belief in unseen forces.

However, the irreligious Weber didn’t see this as an entirely positive development. The Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy notes that Weber felt disenchantment had “created a world with no objectively ascertainable ground for one's conviction. Under the circumstances… a modern individual tends to act only on one's own aesthetic impulse and express arbitrary convictions that cannot be communicated in the eventuality.” In short, Weber proposed that “disenchantment” had led to a society full of people who are both miserable and wishy-washy.

This was evidenced recently in some of the responses from non-believers who are mortified that Christians have begun praying for the health of terminally ill atheist guru, Christopher Hitchens. Their inexplicable hostility towards this simple act of good will says volumes about what their disenchanted world view has done to their psyches. In a certain sense, they are as ill as Hitchens himself. Let’s pray for them to.

CUTAWAYS: ULTRAMAN - THE MISCHIEVOUS RASCAL FROM SPACE

The bad news is that a lightning storm not only knocked out our power for a night, but also fried the satellite dish, one TV, two receivers, and half the cable in the house, so I had to spend ten hours the next day with the repair technicians. In other words, there was no time for a movie of the week. The good news is that as a consolation prize, you get a clip from one of my all-time favorite childhood shows, Ultraman!

Yep, it’s all fun and games until someone conjures up a giant hellbeast from outer space and possibly loses an eye. Not to mention an entire luxury hotel. It just goes to show that the old saying is right… sin makes you stupid.

As St. Cyprian explained in his 63rd Epistle, “the profound gloom of the falling darkness has so blinded the hearts of some, that they receive no light from the wholesome precepts, but, once turned away from the direct path of the true way, they are hurried headlong and suddenly by the night and error of their sins.” Or to put it In more technical terms, as Presbyterian minister James Hastings did in his Encyclopedia of Religion, “Often moral ignorance extends to general principles. In the moral life of men there is no fact more familiar than the experience that conscience is kept clear by a consistent course of virtuous conduct, while it is darkened by persistent indulgence in vice. Men may come to prefer moral darkness to moral enlightenment because their deeds are evil. As this darkening of moral intelligence is a natural penalty resulting from habitual disregard of its teaching, the condition has been described in old religious language as judicial blindness. Such moral ignorance, so far from being an excuse for sin, may be its most heinous aggravation.”

And that’s why the little sins matter, because over time they can dull the moral senses and ultimately make you too dumb to avoid committing the big sins. And as this clip from Ultraman so ably demonstrates, while the little sins may be all laughs for awhile, the inevitable big ones really have a way of backfiring on you.