Too Many Motives, Not Enough… Moat?: I Watch “The Bad Sleep Well”

Last updated on: July 22, 2014 at 1:21 pm By Eve Tushnet

Sometimes you just can’t find the right headline for your post. Anyway, I recently watched Akira Kurosawa’s epic tale of postwar building corruption, The Bad Sleep Well. It’s mostly great! The opening scene, at a tense paparazzi-stalked wedding, is unforgettable. Most of the characters are on a wildly tilting seesaw of conscience and complicity: wastrel heir Tatsuo, fearful and sheltered heiress Yoshiko (who’s mostly a pawn, not a person, but she’s an interesting pawn), mysterious newcomer Koichi, and corporate catspaw... Read more

I Watch “Deliver Us from Evil”

Last updated on: July 22, 2014 at 11:05 am By Eve Tushnet

for AmSpec. I’ve now read a couple other horror fans’ reviews, and they have the same mix of “There’s clearly something interesting here, yet the execution is off somehow–bland, reliant on cliche, SOMETHING’s not right.” This even though they pick out different and in some cases opposite elements to praise or criticize. My conclusion is that the specific bits of the movie you find powerful or frustrating may vary, but there’s something lacking in it, something a bit paint-by-numbers and... Read more

A Couple Gay Christian Whatnot Links

Last updated on: July 20, 2014 at 1:15 pm By Eve Tushnet

Protestants! CAN YOU FEEL THE ECUMENISM. First, my friend Matt Jones looks at how his shifting understanding of vocation has changed both his emotional and spiritual life–very powerful: Two years ago, as I was just beginning to think more critically about my faith and sexuality, I attended a wedding. It has been interesting to revisit the memorialized emotions that accompanied the ceremony, to examine the well-worn paths down which my uncertain thoughts routinely fled when confronted by longing and sorrow.... Read more

From “Graham Greene on Film”

Last updated on: July 20, 2014 at 11:17 am By Eve Tushnet

Granted that From the Manger to the Cross is well made, was it worth making? The film critic of The Times who didn’t like it at all–“sincerity is not enough”–noted “a tendency towards gross materialism,” and certainly, as in Spanish churches, you are allowed no escape at all from physical suffering; Christ is a man beaten up, like a Nazi prisoner in the Brown House. The physical horror is never far away and always well conveyed–whether it is the Massacre... Read more

“In Sweden, Human Darkness Is Confronted by the Arts, Not the Church”

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 6:44 pm By Eve Tushnet

terrific final paragraphs: The culture wars afflicting the Church of England are basically over. By the end of the summer, the General Synod will have agreed women bishops. And while the fight for full gay equality has some way to run, this one is substantially over too: not least because the demographics are pushing inexorably in a liberal direction. Young people, even evangelicals, don’t see the problem. So Christian progressives like me ought to be celebrating? Well, not quite. more Read more

“Ask Yourself These Questions Before Entering a Celibate Relationship”: A Queer Calling

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 11:48 am By Eve Tushnet

Really important stuff imo. I infest the comments: As you can probably imagine, many people ask us for advice about celibate relationships, how realistic that concept is, and how to make such a relationship work. Several people can be frustrated by our typical reply: we don’t think we’re very good at giving advice. However when enough people ask us the same question, we think we ought to address it to the best of our ability. We know a fair number... Read more

Supporting Friends & Family Who Have Cancer: Jim Henley

Last updated on: July 19, 2014 at 11:36 am By Eve Tushnet

A lot of these “what not to say/do” lists strike me as… less “actual advice you might use” and more “venting about how nothing anyone says or does will actually fix the problem, everything anyone tries to say can be in its own way painful and humiliating” (which is totally true and important) but this one is not like that. Warning: Long. I have cancer right now! Here are a few dos and don’ts based on my personal experience. I... Read more

“The Boy Is the Father of Whatever”: I Review Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood”

Last updated on: July 18, 2014 at 9:33 am By Eve Tushnet

at AmCon: About an hour and a half into Richard Linklater’s memorable new film, my notes say, “This is RIVETING.” Exactly one hour later, as the movie finally ceased (“ended” is too strong, too decisive), I breathed a sigh of relief. What went wrong to turn the movie from startling, luminous journey into boring, platitudinous slog? Linklater’s movie has gained a lot of press for one of those gimmicks which hide deep meaning under their showy surface, like the delays... Read more

Various Tails: Or, An Update on My Summer Reading

Last updated on: July 16, 2014 at 3:37 pm By Eve Tushnet

This year I answered not one but two of those hubristic “What do you plan to read this summer?” poll-articles. Last year I read exactly one of my “planned” (= “selected in order to bolster my public image,” really) books, and didn’t like it–you guys can hate me, but I did not get A Confederacy of Dunces at all, just thoroughly remained outside of it the whole time. I did read Two Murders in My Double Life eventually, and liked... Read more

From “Graham Greene on Film: Collected Film Criticism, 1935-1939”

Last updated on: July 16, 2014 at 3:00 pm By Eve Tushnet

During the conferences [with David Selznick] which followed I remember there were times when there seemed to be a kind of grim reason in Mr Selznick’s criticisms–surely here perhaps there was a fault in “continuity,” I hadn’t properly “established” this or that. I would forget momentarily the lesson which I had learned as a film critic–that to “establish” something is almost invariably wrong and that “continuity” is often the enemy of life. Man, that is great advice, especially the bit... Read more