Last Weekend:
Lots of Snow, Lots of Movies
With the Big Snow last weekend, I was one of those raiding the local video stores. I had a chance to get caught up on some movies that I wanted to see. So, here's my quick review of last weekend's movies.

Half Nelson
An Academy Award-nominated performance by Ryan Gosling powers this view of the downhill spiral of addiction with the renewing possibility of redemption, led by a child (albeit a teenager.) Another in the long string of decent movies about addiction and its impact on people. You can watch Gosling's character slide into the deeper and stronger grip of the illness. Sad and powerful. A half-nelson is a wrestling hold and, I would assume, is used to describe what kind of hold addiction gets on you. It could almost be reality TV.

Hollywoodland
Film noir of a possible murder, or was it suicide, of Superman, George Reeves. Ben Affleck got top-quality reviews of his portrayal of Reeves. Some even felt he should have been nominated for an Oscar. Adrian Brody does as well as a fictional private investigator trying to find out if Reeves did commit suicide or was he murdered. A dark and less-than-flattering portrait of Hollywood. Very well done.

Science of Sleep
Off-beat and frankly weird. Gael Garcia Bernal (Che in Motorcycle Diaries, the nephew in Babel) turns in a sparkling performance in this unusual movie about love. I have no idea what it meant but it was fun to watch.

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
No one is beyond redemption says Tommy Lee Jones who directed, produced and starred in this highly acclaimed movie from last year. The darkness of human prejudice and hatred is challenged by Pete (Jones) who wants to bury his murdered illegal immigrant friend, Melquiades. The journey is the story and a spell-binder at that. It is a movie that will hold you enthralled and let you go at the end.

Footnote: Christianity Today published an online list of 2006's most inspirational films. Melquiades was #8 on that list. I will have more to say about this list and its movies one of these days. What I did want to say now, right after watching this movie, is that I am pleased that Christianity Today would include on such a list such "secular" films as this one. The language and events are the kinds of language and events I, as a young Christian, would have been told to never go see. Actually, I was told by my church to never go to the movies. (Or dance, for that matter.) How sad that would have been if I would have listened. Inspiration can be found in many places, even if they act in ways I might have difficulty with. Thank you, Christianity Today and reviewer Jeffrey Overstreet.