Tag Archives: FaithBasedFilms

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Daily Broadside | Mice, Rice and a Review That’s (Mostly) Nice

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a nice weekend. I spent mine getting the house decorated for Christmas. I hate the amount of time that it takes us to “put up Christmas” both inside and out. On the other hand, I enjoy the fruits of our labor when the front of the house is all lit up and the inside has been transformed into a veritable wonderland with the ornamented and lit tree, the red and white table cloths, the mantle with lights and pine branches. It really is a special time of year and very festive.

One of the things we discovered as we were hauling out large plastic bins full of Christmas decor was that a mouse (two? more?) had gotten into a 25 lb. bag of rice that we had on a shelf in our storage room. They had nibbled through a corner of the bag.

We found out because a blow up mattress that we had to move to get at some decorations had rice falling out of it — there was literally a hole chewed in the plastic and something had been storing rice inside of it. That led us to the bag of rice and — I kid you not — fully three-quarters of it was gone. Gone! That’s 18.75 lbs. of rice! Where did they take it? Besides the blow-up mattress (which we had to throw out) we found another large pile of rice under the cushions on a sofa.

But we didn’t find 18 lbs. of rice. Where’s the rest of it?

I know, I know …. first world problems. But I was astonished that however many mice were helping themselves to the rice, they had moved almost 19 lbs. of it! If they had been smart mice, they would’ve just left it in the bag and come back to get what they needed when they needed it.

A few posts ago, I wrote about a new film from Angel Studios called “The Shift” and told you I’d let you know what I thought of it when I saw it. Well, I went to see it last night with the Missus, having gotten the specially-priced $5 tickets for us.

Let me start with what the film did well. The cinematography was excellent. Apart from one or two moments where the scenery felt low budget, the rest of it was extremely well shot. The majority of the movie has a dark, grim dystopian look which fits the sci-fi genre like any big budget Hollywood movie.

The acting is excellent. Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) turns in a terrifyingly real performance as the ice-cold villian known as “The Benefactor.” The protagonist, Kevin, played by Kristoffer Polaha (Jurassic World Dominion), and his wife, Molly, played by Elizabeth Tabish (The Chosen), both make their characters truly believeable, with some of the best dialogue I’ve heard in a Christian-themed movie when they meet in the opening scene.

The premise is intriguing. A married man (Kevin) is “shifted” from one reality to another by The Benefactor, where his life continues while trying to find a way back to Molly, while another Kevin apparently takes his place back in his original reality. It’s an imaginative plot that holds a lot of promise.

However, in my opinion, the movie fell short in both character development and in story-telling.

For instance, while Kevin and Molly’s relationship is developed quickly as a time-saving device, the development of other relationships is barely shown at all. After his initial encounter with The Benefactor, the next thing we know Kevin has been in his new reality for five years.

In his new reality, Kevin has to work, but we’re never shown how he gets his job or even what he does. We see him sneaking folded sheets of paper to a co-worker, Gabriel (Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings), but we have no backstory to their relationship or why Kevin has chosen to give Gabriel these pages (they end up being scripture passages he recalls and types out, though not word-for-word). It’s obvious that having or citing scripture is illegal, but we don’t know what this reality is or who “owns” it.

In a restaurant scene, everyone in the place seems to know The Benefactor and is terrified of him. But we have no idea why. Is this The Benefactor’s “home” reality? Has he shifted all of these people to this reality and have they all decided to work for him? Why do they fear him if he promises to give them something they want in return for working for him? Or has he threatened or deceived them all?

One of the waitresses is clearly traumatized by The Benefactor. When she falls victim to a whim of Kevin’s through the power of The Benefactor, it’s not shocking because we don’t know her story. It’s holes like that in the plot that make it difficult to stay with it.

The other misstep, in my opinion, was the overt Christian messaging. I really think this movie, which is loosely based on the story of Job in the Old Testament, could have stood on its own if it strengthened the plotline and stayed away from the preachy-ness that often keeps movies like this from reaching a larger audience. Sound of Freedom, another Angel Studios product, was very successful in allowing the story itself to be the message, rather than using the dialogue to “explain” the message.

In the end, it was hard to keep up with and figure out what was going on as the story progressed. My better half didn’t like it at all. There were some things that I liked about it but overall I didn’t find it to be a great film, which is too bad. However, as a Christian-themed movie, the solid acting, cinematography and creative approach gives me hope that we’re making progress for faith-based films.

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Daily Broadside | Another Faith-Inspired Movie is About to Hit Theaters

Taking a break from the madness in our world, today’s post promotes an original new movie from Angel Studios, which brought us Sound of Freedom (which I reviewed back in July). Like when I also promoted Nefarious earlier this year, I haven’t seen this movie yet. Unlike when I promoted Nefarious, this new movie isn’t being touted by two Christian writers I admire. But I’m intrigued by the concept and the Christian theme it’s alleged to have.

“The Shift” follows Kevin (played by Kristoffer Polaha), a man with a struggling marriage who is thrown into the multiverse when he refuses to be the minion of a malevolent man called The Benefactor (Neal McDonough) who has the power to “shift” people to different universes. Now, Kevin has to find a way to survive in the hellish world he finds himself in and the way back to the woman he loves (Elizabeth Tabish).

The film has all the elements of every great sci-fi adventure: a great concept, a great core relationship and a great antagonist. In “The Shift,” the genius central sci-fi concept is that this other dimension is real and a place where, in effect, everyone’s interpretation of their experiences is correct since every difference in perspective or memory is the result of the multiverse.

This is a fascinating twist on the multiverse as it makes this place a metaphor for misunderstanding and potential reconciliation. The central relationship is the love story between Kevin and his wife Molly. The film does an extraordinary job making you fall in love with their relationship. Kevin and Molly feel like a real couple. In fact, the opening scene between the two is some of the best writing I’ve seen in a faith-based industry film.

The villain — known as The Benefactor — is both terrifying as he’s essentially a traditional (and implied literal) “devil” character. The horrifying power to shift people in and out of the multiverse is coupled with a dogged commitment to never giving Kevin a moment’s peace until he works for him. McDonough’s performance has all the archetypal villainy you would want from this role.

It sounds like a winning concept. The devil tempts his victim, Kevin, to get what he wants—his wife—by agreeing to work for him.

The reviewer I’m quoting is Joseph Holmes over at Religion Unplugged. (TBH had never heard of the site until I did some research on this film.) Holmes cautions us that while the movie is good, it doesn’t resolve the questions it raises very well.

Instead of exploring the multiverse and the themes of reconciling misunderstanding or different worldviews, we get stuck in one stock dystopian world for the majority of the film with stock non-believers tossing him stock “where is God when you suffer” questions. Instead of spending the film exploring Kevin and Molly’s relationship, they spend the whole movie apart.  

And this:

You may say that’s the point. We are supposed to believe God is good even when life doesn’t look like that, even if we never understand like in The Book of Job, the story that this movie is loosely based on. And yet, even The Book of Job resolves its tension. Instead, “The Shift” doesn’t give us a similar revelation of God’s power and goodness. As a result, conflict remains unresolved. 

That’s disappointing, I suppose. Having not seen the movie yet, I can neither confirm nor deny his assessment. As an “award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic” he has more credibility than I do, so I suggest we all adjust our expectations accordingly.

My main point in calling attention to this film is that there have been some pretty good efforts being made by Christian filmakers over the last decade or more, and I want to encourage them to keep trying. The only way that happens is if Christians and like-minded citizens support their work. I’m not so much interested in showing up Hollywood like Sound of Freedom did (although I’m not adverse to that happening) as much as I am rallying believers to at least give Christian outfits like Angle Studios a fighting chance.

Besides, Disney has gone woke and many of the other movies being offered to the public are so much mindless garbage. Yes, you can find an occasional movie that’s well done (Oppenheimer comes to mind, despite its flaws), but the majority seem to be mental cotton candy.

I’ll go see The Shift and let you know what I think in a future post.

The Shift opens on December 1, a week after Thanksgiving. The film is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 1 hour 55 minutes. Watch the trailer, block out some time, then go see it.