lewis-8

Watching this it's easy to believe it's an independent film, but I was surprised and impressed to learn it was also a first film for the producer, writer and director. The production values were very high, the casting was spot on, the direction was excellent, the music moved with the story, and the story telling was terrific. Hard to believe that the director couldn't legally drink at the post-production party because he was still under 21.

There are at least four major stories happening at once, each centered around one of four college friends who are back home in Palo Alto for Thanksgiving break. Other sub-plots and side-plots figure in, generally offering more meat than filler.

My only question was how these four guys actually came to be friends. High school tends not to be a very egalitarian environment, and it seemed to me that these four fellows might not have had enough in common in high school to be this close after a little college time.

Still, the individual stories were all true to life, not overly complex (which would have been inappropriate for the age of the characters), and interesting. Living in Palo Alto, part of me wishes the locale could have figured into the stories a tiny bit more, but that's a minor quibble. Not only do I recommend this (more of a guy flick than a chick flick), but I'll definitely watch it again. Well done, you first-timers!

I've been a Ben Stein fan for a long time, and this work of his only adds to my admiration of him for his intelligence, sense of humor, and willingness to deal with difficult topics. I don't always agree with Ben Stein, but I always wanted to win Ben Stein's money.

In "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Ben Stein plays the role of investigative reporter. It seems that a top level scientist, while working on (editing?) a publication for the Smithsonian Institution, included an article that included support for the possibility of an intelligent designer. Subsequently, this scientist lost his job. The link is made, somewhat tenuously, that the reason for the dismissal was the aforementioned article. Or was it?

Starting from that point, Stein investigates not so much the firing of this one man, but a seeming conspiracy in the scientific community to ostracize other scientists, journalists and academicians who openly "support" intelligent design.

He fairly quickly draws a conclusion about several such cases, based on apparently credible but mostly one-sided evidence, and once he has his conclusion he returns to the area of cause and effect.

And much of this documentary is about cause and effect, so that seems appropriate.

I saw this movie with my wife and three other friends, and among the five of us there are several different views about the questions this movie raised. All of us admitted to the others that we learned some things from watching this film, both about ID and about evolution. For that alone it is worth seeing.

I just returned from an "Entertainment and Media Summit" in Nashville and it was there that I first learned of this film. Two people in the entertainment business whose opinions I respect had nothing but praise for "Most," a movie which came up in our conversation because Bill Zabka, one of the writers, was scheduled to be at the summit. (Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute.) But I did discover an opportunity there to purchase a DVD from one of the other attendees, a young man whose own life was so changed by this movie that he buys multiple copies directly from the publisher and sells them at his cost wherever he goes "just so more lives can be touched." That was an even better recommendation than that of my friends and I quickly handed over the money.

Having now watched the movie I am tempted to join that young man in carrying copies with me. I have given away many books but have never (other than as a present for some occasion) given away a movie. This is one I will. The acting is outstanding, especially by the lead but also by the young man who plays the role of the son of the lead character. The production values are extraordinarily high for an independent film (for any film, actually), the music is simple but not simplistic, and that the film is in Czech makes it even better.

But of course the best thing is the story telling. The story is, I think, always the the thing, and while this story is not new it is told so powerfully, so beautifully, so movingly, that you become part of it.

Most is Czech for bridge, but after watching this movie both words mean so much more. This is an incredible movie which is entertaining and rewarding. See it if you can.