The Unlikely Disciple

I have only reviewed movies in theaters so far on this blog, so I finally wanted to expand and review a book I finished a little while ago. It will go down as one of my favorite books of all time.

The books premise excited me right from the start. A secular student was spending an entire semester at Liberty University, a fundamental Baptist school founded by the late Jerry Fallwell. As a secular person myself, all religion fascinates me, but fundamental Christianity seems to intrigue me more than others. I think it has something to do with the large role that evangelicals now play in our government, a larger role than I think most secular (or non-fundamentalists) are comfortable with. So as I read the book jacket in Borders (where I could easily spend ½ of my salary), I knew this was a must read. I wasn’t disappointed.

In his book, Kevin Roose decides to forego spending a semester abroad, and instead enrolls at Liberty University, where for the next semester he will pretend to be a born again evangelical Christian. His insight into this world highlight both the good and the bad without demonizing or glorifying the culture and the students. There are plenty of students that seem like genuinely kind and loving people, that despite vast differences, I could see hanging out with. Then there are the students that seem to embody the stereotypes that secular people have of evangelicals. They bashed homosexuals and there were even a few racist comments. At the end of the book I found that I actually respected most of these students. I respected them for their seemingly unwavering faith, their real desire to help people and the ways they still managed to rebel against the very strict rules and regulations at liberty. That doesn’t mean that I agreed with them, I still think church should be vastly separate from state, and that condemning others for not believing exactly as you do is incredibly wrong. I just feel I got to peek into their world for a little while, and the knowledge and understanding that I gained from that is priceless.

Kevin Roose did an excellent job of making you feel like you were on his journey with him, and wrote a book that I think should be mandatory reading for Christians and secular humanists alike. It would do us all a lot of good to better understand each other.

Julie and Julia

IMBd Summary: Julia Child’s story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell’s 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child’s first book.

I am a big fan of Meryl Streep, so anytime she stars in a film it automatically goes onto my “must see” list. Lucky for me, The Husband has a bit of a crush on her, so I can usually coerce him into going and seeing even the most girly movies with me as long as she is in them. Julie and Julia was one such movie. Who would have guessed that The Husband ended up liking it just as much as I did, and was even a bit inspired to work on his own blog? Inspiration can come from the darndest places ϑ

The story itself was engaging, inspiring, humorous and witty. Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep, led a very interesting life. I must say that I was a tad jealous of her life in France in that beautiful home with all that yummy food. The Julia Child half of the story was certainly the stronger portion, but I simply believe that is because Julia was a larger than life character, and Meryl Streep did an amazing job or portraying her exuberance for life AND food. Stanley Tucci, who played her husband, was also a great character. Their romance was full of mutual admiration and love, and they both helped each other to reach for their dreams. Julia Child is the woman we all want to be, fearless, strong, smart, funny and a good cook to boot! Watching this movie only helped to magnify how horrific my kitchen abilities really are…

The Julie Powell portion of the story was still inspiring, but just not a gripping as the Julia Child portion. Julie was what many of us late twenty/early thirty-somethings are: confused. Lost. We all have those moments in life where we start to wonder what it is we are actually DOING with our lives. We have dreams that we have pushed aside in order to make ends meet, or to please others, or just because we were lazy. Julie embodies those feelings in all of us. While some people found her whiney and self-centered, I found her honesty about her feelings refreshing. Sometimes we are all a little whiney and self-centered, right? In fact, sometimes we need to be. Amy Adams did a great job portraying the frustrations and desires of Julie and her story of success certainly inspired The Husband, a writer himself, to get moving on creating what he has always wanted to create.

I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars.

500 Days of Summer

I LOVE romantic comedies, even the bad ones. I am a big sucker for a happy ending with a bunch of mushy gushy lovey stuff. So needless to say I was very excited to see 500 Days of Summer, especially since it stared Zooey Deschanel whom I may or may not have a little girl crush on. Well, about 20 seconds into the movie I realized this was not your run of the mill Rom Com, that it might in fact be about the opposite. “This is not a love story” is one of the first things the narrator says … so I was a little apprehensive. I am not good with sad movies, or movies that are not tied up into a neat bow at the end. I was pleasantly surprised by my reaction to this movie. I loved it. Everything about it. It was actually one of my favorite movies of the year so far (behind “I Love You Man”).

The movie was not tied up in a neat package at the end, but it didn’t matter, I still felt fulfilled. The characters were Vibrant and human, and you cared about them immensely. The relationship was very believable, which seems to be an issue in some movies. (I am so sick of 50 year old men being pared with 20 year old actresses. Ew.) Zooey Deschanel played Summer, a girl that does not believe in true love and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a boy that has been waiting his whole life to meet “the one”. When they meet the chemistry is immediate, and the movie follows their relationship. The story telling bounces around from when they first met to the end of their relationship, which makes for a unique story and makes it stand out from the standard faire Rom Com.

I highly recommend this movie. The husband liked it a lot too, but didn’t love it as much as I did.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Funny People

IMBd Summary: “When seasoned comedian George Simmons learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer under his wing as his opening act.”

I have to admit that this review may be a little biased, as I am a HUGE fan of almost everything Judd Apatow touches. 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up are certainly on my list of favorite movies of all time, which is really saying something considering how many movies I have watched over the years ;).
That being said, I loved Funny People. It contained the usual Apatow style of combining the raunchy with the touching, the serious with the hilarious. This movie did contain more serious than his previous movies, but it really worked well. Seth Rogan and Adam Sandler were perfect in the main roles (although I am sure that they were written for them). In fact, this is probably the best real acting Adam Sandler has done since Spanglish. He relied les son his over-the-top antics and portrayed someone with conflicting emotions about life and death very well. The relationship between Adam (George) and Seth (Ira) seems very genuine and real, never forced.
Some of my favorite scenes in the movie come from Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman. They are all comedians rooming together in LA, and in typical twenty-something guy fashion have some great (albeit raunchy at times) conversations. Since I am about 10 mentally, these types of situations always bring about big laughs. Leslie Mann and Eric Bana are also great in their respective supporting roles as Adam’s ex and her husband. Leslie Mann always does a great job, and her and Judd’s kids reprise their roles as Leslie’s on screen kids in this movie. They are adorable.
There were a few slower parts in this movie, so it is not without fault. Out of Judd’s big 3, this would be my least favorite. It just wasn’t AS funny as some of his other work and was quite long (over 2 hours), so it meant a little down time. I also wished that they would have spent more time on Seth Rogan’s love interest. It seemed a little thrown together and the girl (played by Aubrey Plaza) never had any substantial character development. I do admit that the yearning for a more substantial love story might just be the girl in me coming out ϑ
Overall I really enjoyed this film. It will be one that I buy for our ever growing DVD/Blu-Ray library next to our other Apatow favorites.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.