In my experience of discussing movies online, few people have challenged me to dig deeper and look closer at movies than Ken Morefield.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I\u2019m enthusiastic about having his as a \u201cguest reviewer\u201d so often at Looking Closer<\/a>.<\/p>\n So I am delighted to discover that\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 Morefield has a book deal<\/a>!<\/p>\n Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema<\/em> will include some of his work. And not only that, it will include essays by several more of my favorite film interpreters: Doug Cummings, Mike Hertenstein, and Darren Hughes. I\u2019ve met these three in person, and they\u2019re great guys with impeccable taste in films.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the Table of Contents.<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m excited about this book. Congratulations, Ken, Mike, Doug, and Darren.<\/p>\n If these guys started a film studies program, it would be pretty close to ideal, and I\u2019d want to sign up right away. (Of course, I\u2019d have to quit the rest of my life \u2014 I can\u2019t even manage to find time for lunch these days, much less movies.) If these four were regularly participating in a film discussion board, film enthusiasts like me would flock to it from around the world. But you wouldn\u2019t find much discussion of the movies that are playing in your neighborhood multiplex. Instead, you\u2019d find discussion of the finest films ever made, visions from all corners of the globe. Not movies that pander to the audience, but movies that ask the viewer to consider what the world looks like from very different perspectives. Movies that the people who pick the Oscars probably don\u2019t even know exist.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never be able to keep up with these guys, mostly because I can\u2019t even average one movie a week these days, due to the demands of working a full-time job; fulfilling Christianity Today\u2019s film-review assignments (which are usually about mainstream American cinema, not art films from foreign countries); *and* the pressure of deadlines associated with publishing one novel per year. But I\u2019m thankful for the films I\u2019ve discovered due to the discussions in the blogs and reviews of these writers. And I\u2019m grateful to have enjoyed conversations with each of them that sharpened my discernment a little more. I miss those conversations.<\/p>\n Now, sometimes when film critics start talking about the difference between popular movies and art films, they quickly start sounding like snobs. Likewise, when film critics bother to talk about box office hits, they can be quickly judged as simpletons by other film critics. I find this constantly frustrating. I see a wide range of movies, for very different purposes, in very different contexts, and I discuss them daily with different communities.<\/p>\n I go to movies for so many reasons.<\/p>\n Alas, there are some circles of film dialogue that seem to require me to \u201crepent\u201d of these enthusiasms in order to deserve some kind of worthiness, and I\u2019m not interested in reinforcing any such condescension or cliquish behavior. Nor am I interested keeping up with box office hits when so many of them are a total waste of time.<\/p>\n When I\u2019m out on the town with friends on the weekend, I usually end up in the cineplex watching blockbusters. I want to spend time in relationship with those who still enjoy the things we enjoyed in high school and college. We love to talk about sequels and how they measure up. Or we\u2019re looking for a new, quotable comedy that will add new vocabulary to our banter. It\u2019s not a matter of art, it\u2019s a matter of community. Like Madeleine L\u2019Engle said, I don\u2019t think of my age as an isolated statistic. I\u2019m still four, and seven, and fourteen, and twenty-three. I still enjoy today the things I enjoyed then \u2014 and that includes ice cream bars and cheeseburgers.<\/p>\n Sometimes, it\u2019s a matter of convenience and capacity. I went to see Iron Man<\/em> because a traffic jam had caused me to miss a speaking engagement. I suddenly found myself in a part of town where only the only Plan B available to me was a cineplex playing the box office top five. I was frustrated by the two hours in traffic, and weary. Since I knew my local moviegoing friends were across town watching Iron Man<\/em>, I liked the idea of unwinding later by discussing it with them. So I grabbed a ticket to a showing at the nearby shopping center. I didn\u2019t have the energy for anything demanding, and Iron Man<\/em> really only requires about 5% of your brain.<\/p>\n Online, I devote a great deal of time to the Arts and Faith community<\/a>, because I\u2019ve found more than just film discussions there \u2014 I\u2019ve found lasting (even life-changing) friendships there, and there\u2019s an openness to discussing the whole range of filmmaking. I can toss around trivia with comic-book fans, or I can discuss filmmakers\u2019 subtle engagement with spiritual mysteries in abstract art. It\u2019s part of a discipline of examining what is popular and uncovering what those movies reveal to us about our culture, our questions, our strengths and weaknesses, and our obsessions. Sometimes tempers flare, sometimes personalities clash, but it still feels like home because it\u2019s okay to be a fan of both Kieslowski *and* the Coen Brothers *and* Disney *and* the X-Men movies. That\u2019s where I met Mr. Morefield, and I\u2019m glad I did.<\/p>\n But then, on those days when I\u2019m on my own and I can watch whatever interests me most, I go to movies for entirely different reasons. I consult particular reviewers, take trips to particular theaters, and have very different experiences. Or I rent something that never would have discovered without the help of writers like Jonathan Rosenbaum<\/a>, who is so interested in the social and political implications of film, or Doug Cummings<\/a> who is becoming an expert on the state of progress of cinema as an art form around the world.<\/p>\n A copy of Syndromes and a Century<\/em> from Netflix has been sitting on my television for three months, just so I can watch it again and again, and I wouldn\u2019t have been so eager to see it without the enthusiasm of these writers. (Next up: Private Fears in Public Places<\/em>.) I have a hard time finding folks in my community who are eager to watch and discuss films that don\u2019t feature familiar celebrities, or that are subtitled, or that don\u2019t have a simple narrative flow. But I don\u2019t care. When I have a day to myself (a rare event days), more often than not I end up driving across town to some out-of-the-way theater where only five or six people are in the audience. And on Sunday, when I\u2019m asked \u201cWhat have you seen lately?\u201d, my answers usually provoke blank stares.<\/p>\n At the Christian writers\u2019 conference in town last week, someone recognized my name, and asked me what the last movie I saw was. When I said Flight of the Red Balloon<\/em>, his disappointment and disinterest were obvious. \u201cHave you seen Incredible Hulk<\/em> yet?\u201d he quickly asked, hoping to talk about something that qualified as a Movie in his vocabulary. We ended up talking about, yes, Iron Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s fine. Iron Man<\/em> isn\u2019t trash. It\u2019s an amusement park ride. But I do tire of talking about rollercoasters and bumper cars. I wish I could have talked to him about Flight of the Red Balloon<\/em>, which is not<\/em> an amusement park ride\u2026 it\u2019s more like a painting hanging in a Paris museum. But in our two-minute chat, how would I even begin to explain what I appreciate about that film? He didn\u2019t want to talk about art. He wanted to talk about amusement.<\/p>\n So it can be a lonely pursuit, this desire to discover movies that demand to be studied, to find films that I\u2019ll have to see many times to begin to understand and absorb what they have to offer. (My wife would rather read a good novel, and I don\u2019t blame her\u2026 I miss out on a lot of great reading because of my interest in movies.) But time is short, and if I have a good opportunity I want to savor an extravagant meal instead of settling for fast food. That\u2019s why I\u2019m grateful for reviewers like these, whose recommendations have been so rewarding, whose blog posts can send me across town just to see for myself what they\u2019re discussing. It may not be what my community wants to see and discuss, but it\u2019s the kind of artmaking that inspires me most.<\/p>\n So I\u2019m pre-ordering Morefield\u2019s book. And then I\u2019ll end up revising my Netflix request list.<\/p>\n Want to grow in your appreciation of film as an art form? Want to discover the best films you\u2019ve never seen? Here are a few places to start:<\/p>\n Ken Morefield<\/a><\/p>\n Errata<\/a><\/p>\n The Evening Class<\/a><\/p>\n Filmjourney<\/a><\/p>\n Flickerings<\/a><\/p>\n Framing Device<\/a><\/p>\n Girish<\/a><\/p>\n Green Cine Daily<\/a><\/p>\n The House Next Door<\/a><\/p>\n Long Pauses<\/a><\/p>\n Masters of Cinema<\/a><\/p>\n\n