Blue Like Jazz

I have never written a review on IMDb before but felt compelled to after watching this film.

Last night I was looking for a good independent film to watch and this flicked across the screen in my Netflix options. Never having heard of the book and not knowing a thing about what I was getting myself into, I went for it.

There were early hints that I had walked myself into a "Christianity is the bestest" type film, but I didn't know for sure until halfway through when the main love interest professes to the main character something along the lines of, "I can't explain it, I just love Jesus!". I recognized this tell-tale sign of propaganda but decided to suspend judgement. I sat through the rest of the film in hopes that there'd be surprise character or plot development in the second half. Unfortunately, there wasn't.

The plot is thin and predictable. I find it remarkable that others who have reviewed the film found it thought provoking. In my estimation, those who found it to be this way enjoyed the affirmation that the film provided. Can't fault anyone there: we all like a little positive reinforcement from Hollywood every now and then.

For those of us who aren't sold on Christianity, the underlying theme of Christianity being the "right" belief is obvious and more than a little off-putting. In order to be truly thought provoking (to those who aren't already on board with the concept), the message shouldn't have been so obvious and cheesy.

If the hope was that this movie would help put Christianity in a better light with non-Christians, the movie misses that mark too. None of the characters exhibited a need for Jesus/the church - at their core they were smart people with good consciouses, and were clearly capable of sorting themselves out without the church. I didn't see or hear any testimony as to why either required religious support to do this, in fact the movie highlighted several good reasons to stay away from the church: priest pedophilia and some mixed up relationships amongst church members. If a salesperson is trying to sell something, they need to talk about the benefits of the product they're pushing at least a little bit, right?

All in all, this is probably a great film if you are a "church-every-Sunday" kind of person - this may be just the thing to make you feel great about your beliefs (basing this not on personal experience but on other reviews). But if you are that person, please don't kid yourself that this will be the movie to convince your non-believer friends that they should worship with you.

For the non-believers, regardless of your non-believing status, this movie is skippable. The plot, characters, acting and writing is all pretty thin - not a whole lot of meat to chew on here.

If you were looking for a clean movie, Steve Taylor's film Blue Like Jazz is anything but. Make no mistake, there's no alter call, no stunning realization, there's no exhortation, or trumpets blaring, there's no rapture, or angels and even the manger is empty. If you were expecting a piece of "Christian" art you won't get it here.

Based on Donald Miller's bestselling memoir/essays of the same name it tells the story of Don Miller, a born and bread Christian kid from Texas who finds himself at Reed College in Oregon. There he shed's his clean cut ways and discovers that we all have to rebel sometimes.

Like an Evangelical Rumspringa Blue Like Jazz is full of objectionable PG-13 content that might make a church lady faint. Swearing, drinking, sexuality and drug use are all accounted for in this film and director Taylor uses it not to offend but disarm. This is a story about the search in everyones life for authentic faith in a secular world. Make no mistake the content in this film is not clean, but it's also not gratuitous. For this film to really work you have to believe that these college aged kids are real. To whitewash it is to destroy the very message trying to be conveyed. This is a film about the meeting of the sacred and the secular, and that never feels clean.

The screenplay tends to lose focus and a good amount of suspense is wasted because you can see a lot of Character motivations from a mile a way. One or two more passes at the screenplay may have fixed some of the meandering plot points, but overall there are moments of sweet serendipity, moments that are honest and real, unfortunately it makes the weaker, and sloppier points of characterization and plot stick out like a sore thumb.

For instance there is a love story buried in this tale and lead actors Marshall Allman and Claire Holt have a sweet and natural chemistry, but the screenplay has a secret it sits on and forces Holt's Character Penny into the background, and shift focus to a character that is funny, but not as compelling. Another pass on the screenplay may have brought this relationship to a higher place.

All in all though for the not easily offended Blue Like Jazz is gutsy, sweet, and pretty funny. Warts and all it presents a fairly realistic and quirky look into the nature of belief, finding truth, and gaining purpose when the world around us looks plastic and manufactured. I liked this movie, warts and all.

It's a film about faith, it's a film about life, and it's a film about how we all have to wake up one morning and decide if what we believe is true. It should spark some really nice dinner conversation, about the nature of faith, and the nature of God. It's about the melding of the sacred and spiritual, but more importantly it's about coming to the realization that we're all dirty, broken, and have rebelled, and yet God doesn't give up on us.

Now where do I get that Coltrane album.

My preconceptions about what a Christian movie would be like were happily proved wrong with this movie. I thought it would be another poorly acted, cheesy feel-good film of the us-versus-them variety like so many Christian films are. But it wasn't.

This story of a college student trying to escape his Bible Belt upbringing at a godless campus deals with universal themes that will appeal to people from many walks of life.

The actors gave solid performances, breathing humanity into the characters. The writers balanced the heavy soul searching with a sense of humor. The producer delivered a final product that rivals studio films with much greater budgets.

An entertaining film that makes you think.

When I heard Donald Miller's book was being made into a movie, I was half elated, half skeptical. While the book-- that sold over 1.2 Million Copies-- is one of my favorites, it doesn't really lend itself well to a movie screenplay.

Or so I thought.

The movie follows a young kid named Don as he grows up in a Southern Baptist church in Texas, the only child of a uber-religious single mother and absentee deadbeat dad he refers to as "the hobo." Don is about to graduate from High School and is headed to Bible College. He's then faced with a situation that shakes him to his core. He ends up at Reed College, a liberal college in Oregon. The stories that follow show us the author's real struggles with faith and how he comes to grips with his own spirituality aside from the oppressive, rigid religious home he was raised in.

In addition to the screenplay, the director of photography does an impeccable job bringing the characters to life. The characters in the book, though not completely identical to the ones in the movie, become so personally vulnerable and familiar through equal parts can't-look-away awkwardness and close, tight, clean camera work that by the end of the film I found myself angry at myself for not interpreting the characters in the book more accurately even though they were in fact the real people.

BLJ is a movie that is desperately needed in the Christian art scene. The stunning dialog surrounding the film and the idiotic, egocentric way it has been received by many evangelical groups and churches clearly illustrate how needed films like this are. It earns its PG13 ranking in earnest, and there's no Kirk Cameron anywhere to be found. People talk about loving Jesus while drinking a beer, and not everyone who professes to follow Christ walks about with a pious attitude praying out loud and thumbing their Bibles incessantly. They make mistakes, hurt each other, and even cuss! In other words, it's real.

Kudos to Miller, Taylor and company. BLJ has, if nothing else, made in-roads for other non-craptastic movies with a Christ-centered message.

Thank you, God.

It could have been a good film, but it almost seems as though those involved were too close to it to see how it fails to draw any kind of an emotional response or much sympathy for the main character until much later in the story. The pace is slow, nothing was all that funny to me, cartoonish devices were used inconsistently and unnecessarily, which made the first half feel disjointed, as though different sections were directed by different people. Actions that moved the plot forward were so subtle as to be easily missed. One of my least favorite devices is to show a progression of time with a montage and music playing over the voices.

Some scenes left me wondering 'why did they do that?' as there was no obvious metaphor (or perhaps it was so obvious as to be insulting) and no further reference given to, for instance, a worn costume. Once some of the relationships were established, the movie picks up momentum, and the ending rather saves it.

I'm sure it's very difficult to portray the complex themes from the book, which makes it such rich reading. Action flicks are much easier. Much had to change for a movie to be created out of it. But a good director knows how to accomplish this without confusing, boring, or trying the patience of his audience. Perhaps Mr. Taylor should stick to music unless he wants all his work to go straight to DVD or the Hallmark channel. Sure, compared to other "Christian" movies this one rises above, but shouldn't we hold all movies to a critical standard, regardless of the company that made it?