Mary (Jamie Bernadatte) and Matt (Armand Aucamp) are both newlyweds and competitive runners. For their next event, they are planning on entering the Furnace, an annual race that is held at Africa’s biggest game reserve. The race takes several days to complete and it is a challenge for even the most elite runners. The race is called The Furnace because of how hot the temperature gets and how much sweat and hard work it takes to complete the run. Their plans are ruined when, on Christmas Day!, their car is sideswiped by a truck. Matt is killed and Mary ends up bitter and on oxygen. She gives up on ever racing again but, a year later, she meets a man named Coffin (Luthuli Dlamini) who renews her faith in herself. Under his training, she prepares to finally enter the Furnace.
I really liked The Furnace. Coffin, who was a doctor in Africa but can only find work as a gravedigger in America, was an interesting character with an fascinating backstory. Helping Mary run the race race is not only about helping her honor the memory of her late husband but also finding redemption for himself. Once Mary enters the race, she has to deal with both the heat and the wild animals. She even gets stung by a scorpion! She has to do it all on her own while Coffin waits for her at the next rest stop and worries about whether or not he’s accidentally led Mary into a deathtrap. But, no matter how hard things get, Mary never gives up because The Furnace is not about winning but about having the courage to see things through to the end. The Furnace is an inspiring movie about people helping each other, never surrendering, and finding the faith to keep going even when everything seems to be lost.
I don’t care what all the other critics said when Father Stu was first released in April. It’s not that bad.
Now, of course, I should be upfront and mention that I come from a Catholic background. My father’s side of the family is Irish. My mother’s side is Italian/Spanish. Am I saying that you have to have been raised Catholic to appreciate Father Stu? Not at all. But it does help.
And when I say that Father Stu is not that bad, what I mean is that’s actually pretty good.
Based on a true story, Father Stu stars Mark Wahlberg as Stuart Long. When the movie opens, Stu is in a boxing ring, beating up his opponents while taking a lot of punishment himself. From that opening scene, we learn a few things about Stu. He’s a fighter. He’s determined. He’s willing to take a beating. And he really doesn’t know when to quit. We then meet his no-nonsense mother, Kathleen (Jacki Weaver), and his father, Bill (Mel Gibson). Bill is an alcoholic truck driver, the type who shouts at other drivers and who gets into an argument with a random child about who is the worse driver.
When Stu is informed that he could very well die if he continues to box, he decides that it’s time to pursue another profession. The 30-something Stu announces to his mother that he’s going to be an actor. He may not have any training but he has a lot of personality. Stu’s mother suggests that it might be a little late in life for Stu to pursue a career as a film star but Stu packs up and leaves for Montana for California.
He does manage to land one gig, a commercial for a mop. But Stu’s acting career never really takes off. Instead, he gets a job working in a deli. It’s there that he first spots Carmen (Teresa Ruiz), a Sunday school teacher. When Carmen tells Stu that she wouldn’t even consider dating a man who was not baptized, Stu begins RCIA at the local parish. Eventually, he’s baptized into the parish but it’s not until he’s nearly killed in a motorcycle accident and has a vision of Mary that he truly starts to believe. He also comes to feel that he’s been called to the priesthood, despite the fact that it means ending his relationship with Carmen. Stu enters the seminary, under the watchful eye of the initially skeptical but eventually supportive Monsignor Kelly (Malcolm McDowell). However, Stu soon finds himself facing his greatest challenge when he’s diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a disease that will eventually rob him of his ability to care for himself.
When Father Stu was first released in April, it received a lot of attention for being an R-rated film about faith. But the fact that the characters frequently (and colorfully) curse is actually one of the best things about Father Stu. People curse. Both the religious and the non-religious curse. Catholics especially curse. When you find out that you have an incurable disease that’s going to kill you by the time you turn 50, you’re going to curse regardless of how much faith you may or may not have. Far too many films about religion seem to take place in some strange world where the 50s never ended and people still say, “Darn,” when faced with the world’s problems. To its credit, Father Stu‘s characters never lose their edge.
Father Stu also received a lot of negative attention for the involvement of Mel Gibson. That’s understandable but, at the same time, there’s probably no contemporary actor who is more convincing as a self-destructive alcoholic than Mel Gibson. For better or worse, Gibson brings a certain authenticity to the role and that authenticity is what a film like Father Stu needs.
In the lead role, Mark Wahlberg brings a lot of sincerity to the role of Stu. When we’re first introduced to Stu, he’s earnest but he’s not particularly smart. He doesn’t think things through. He’s the type of guy who will work hard in his job without understanding that it’s still not a good idea to show up at work looking like you’ve spent the weekend fighting people in an alley for loose change. As a result of Wahlberg’s performance, it’s easy to see why everyone in Stu’s life is skeptical when he announces that he’s going to become a priest. However, it’s also due to his performance that Stu’s eventual transformation is undeniably moving. Wahlberg’s rough-edged sincerity keeps the film from becoming overly mawkish after Stu discovers that he’s ill. He remains a fighter from beginning to end and it’s hard not to want to see him win.
Father Stu is probably the epitome of the type of film that audiences love but critics hate. But you know what? Sometimes, the audiences are right and sometimes, critics try way too hard to be cynical. Father Stu is a touching movie, one that serves as an antidote to the God’s Not Dead-style of movies about religion. It’s a good movie that, like its protagonist, never stops fighting.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1983’s Uncommon Valor!
Gene Hackman, Patrick Swayze, Robert Stack, Tim Thomerson, Reb Brown, Randall “Tex” Cobb, and Fred Ward return to Vietnam to save the POWs who were left behind by the American government. This action film features a once-in-a-lifetime cast and it even features a bit of dancing from both Tim Thomerson and Tex Cobb!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
This Friday, at 10 pm, join FnF UNCOMMON VALOR! Check out this cast: Gene Hackman, Patrick Swayze, Fred Ward, Reb Brown, Robert Stack, Tim Thomerson, Randall "Tex" Cobb, and more! This film is available on Prime! pic.twitter.com/a1mKpIq6i7
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, TSL celebrates the 117th anniversary of the birth of Michael Powell, the British visionary who changed the face of cinema, both on his own and through his collaboration with Emeric Pressburger. It seems appropriate that we pay tribute to Powell on the day before October, as his 1960 film Peeping Tom is considered by many to be the first slasher film. (It’s not but it’s influence on the genre cannot be overstated.)
In honor of Michael Powell, TSL is proud to present….
4 Shots From 4 Michael Powell Films
I Know Where I’m Going (1945, dir by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, DP: Erwin Hillier)
Black Narcissus (1947, dir by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, DP: Jack Cardiff)
The Red Shoes (1948, dir by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, DP: Jack Cardiff)
Peeping Tom (1960, dir by Michael Powell, DP: Otto Heller)
Alex Madison (Paul Michael Robinson) goes to New Orleans on business and spots the beautiful and sexy Linda (Shauna O’Brien) having a fight with her boyfriend at a local bar. Alex introduces himself to Lind and offers to pay for her dinner. Later, directed Fred Olen Ray mixes shots of them making love with shots of Mardi Gras happening right outside the bedroom window.
Linda falls in love with Alex and becomes clingy but Alex has a wife and newborn at home. When Alex leaves Linda (and breaks up with her via a note) and returns home, Linda is heartbroken. When Linda’s ex finds out about the affair and shoots himself in the kitchen, Linda is outraged and decides to track Alex and his family down. When Alex’s wife, Maddy (Jenna Bodnar), announces that she’s ready to go back to work and says that they will have to hire a nanny to look after the baby, Linda applies for the job. Alex impresses Maddy by holding the baby and, more importantly, she doesn’t mention that she had a weekend affair with Maddy’s husband. Alex comes home from work and is shocked to discover that Linda not only lives in his house but she’s also now best friends with his wife! Linda is soon sexually blackmailing Alex while carrying on an affair with Linda’s horndog of a younger brother, Byron (Sid Farley). Linda wants revenge against all of them.
This is a pretty typical example of the type of films that Cinemax used to air once the sun went down. (There’s a reason why the network was once nicknamed Skinemax.) I think anyone who grew up in the 90s has at least a few memories of watching these movies with the sound turned down low enough to not run the risk of waking up the adults in the house. Fred Olen Ray was one of the main directors of these films and he certainly understood what his audience was expecting and, more often than not, he delivered.
That is certainly the case with Friend of the Family II, which is full of sex, violence, and not much else. (It is also a sequel in name only so don’t worry about not being able to follow the plot if you haven’t seen the first Friend of the Family.) As someone who casually cheats on his wife and is then shocked to discover that there are consequences for his actions, Alex is not exactly a likable or sympathetic protagonist but most people watching this movie will be watching Shauna O’Brien, who goes all out in the role of Linda. Linda is unhinged enough to demand sex from Alex while his wife is sleeping right next to him but also clever enough to worm her way into Alex’s family. Fortunately, O’Brien is convincing no matter what she’s doing and she also brings some vulnerability to the role so Linda is sympathetic no matter how much she tries to destroy everyone’s live.
Friend of the Family II is currently on Tubi, under the name Passionate Revenge. It will be best enjoyed by people who have nostalgic memories of late night Cinemax.
Last night, I watched the 1980 film, Urban Cowboy. This was a film that had been sitting on my DVR for over a year. For some reason, I had never actually gotten around to watching it. There were many times when I started to watch it but I always ended up stopping after a few minutes. I was never quite sure why as everything that I had heard about the film was positive. Having finally watched it last night, I think I hesitated because I instinctively knew that John Travolta would look silly wearing a cowboy hat.
And let’s just be honest. He does. I mean, Travolta actually gives a fairly good performance in Urban Cowboy. He plays Bud, a kid from West Texas who moves to Houston so that he can work on an oil rig with his uncle, Bob (Barry Corbin). At first, he only wants to stay in Houston long enough to raise the money to buy some land back home. But, he soon falls in love with the Houston nightlife and the local country-western bar. (He’s Travolta so, of course, he can dance.) He also falls in love with and eventually marries Sissy (Debra Winger).
Travolta is believable as an impulsive young adult who might not be particularly smart but who makes up for it with a lot of determination. And he even does an okay job when it comes to capturing the country accent of West Texas. But that said, whenever he puts on that cowboy hat, the viewer is immediately reminded that Travolta is actually from New Jersey and probably never even attended a rodeo until he was cast in Urban Cowboy. The hat feels like an affectation, an attempt by a city boy to be more country as opposed to a country boy trying to hold onto his identity in the city. Ironically, the term “urban cowboy” has come to mean someone who, despite having never left the city, dresses like they’re heading out to herd the cattle and rope some steers. However, in the film itself, the hat is meant to be a natural part of Bud’s persona but it never quite feels that way.
Far more credible as a cowboy is a youngish Scott Glenn, who plays Wes Hightower. After Bud’s chauvinistic and abusive behavior drives Sissy away, she ends up with Wes. Wes teaches Sissy how to ride a mechanical bull, which is something Bud tried to forbid her from doing. Wes is confident and dangerously sexy and he can even make the fact that he lives in a run-down trailer work for him. Unfortunately, Wes also turns out to be even more controlling and abusive than Bud. Even though Bud still loves Sissy and Sissy still loves him, Bud soon hooks up with Pam (Madolyn Smith), the daughter of a wealthy oilman.
Many more complications follow and, of course, there’s one big tragedy that causes Bud to reexamine his life. Not surprisingly, the film’s conclusion all comes down to who can stay on that mechanical bull for the longest….
The best thing that Urban Cowboy has going for it is not Travolta or Glenn but instead, it’s Debra Winger, who gives a believable and relatable performance as Sissy, playing her as someone who may not have much but who refuses to surrender her pride. She knows that she deserves better than both Bud and Wes, even if she is hopelessly in love with one of them. Winger has chemistry with both Travolta and Scott Glenn, which makes the film’s love triangle feel like something more than just a typical story about a girl who can’t resist a bad boy. She grounds the film in reality and, as such, there are real stakes to the film’s story. Thanks to Winger, Urban Cowboy becomes about something more than just a fight over a mechanical bull.
The second best thing that Urban Cowboy has going for it is that it does manage to capture the atmosphere of a good country-and-western bar. It’s place where people go to relax after a hard day’s work. Unlike the discotheques that Travolta frequented in Saturday Night Fever, the bars in Urban Cowboy eschew glamour and artifice. Instead, they’re all about proving yourself not on the dance floor but on the back of a mechanical bull. For Sissy, the bull symbolizes freedom. For men like Bud and Wes, it symbolizes survival. Myself, I’m not a drinker so my bar experience is limited. And, though I may be from Texas and I spent a lot of time in the country while I was growing up, I’ve never been a fan of country music. That said, I’ve danced to a few country songs and I’ve certainly stopped by a few bars, even if I was usually the one who annoyed my family and friends by just asking for a glass of water. I’ve been to the rodeo and I’ve seen people get trampled. I’ve also seen a few people get tossed off a mechanical bull. I’ve never been on a mechanical bull myself but I did buy one for my Sims. (They loved it but, sadly, I had to get rid of it because they spent so much time riding it, they kept missing work and getting fired.) From my limited experience, I can say that Urban Cowboy got most of the details right. Even though it was made 42 years ago, it still feels authentic.
That said, Travolta still looks odd wearing a cowboy hat.
In Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul, Sterling K. Brown plays Lee-Curtis Childs, a once-popular and powerful preacher who is looking to make a comeback after his career and his church were both hit by a scandal.
Regina Hall plays Trinitie Childs, Lee-Curtis’s wife and the “first lady” of Wander The Great Paths Church. She is just as determined as Lee-Curtis to make a comeback.
Together, they solve crimes!
Actually, they don’t. They really don’t do much of anything, beyond trying and usually failing to talk people into returning to their church. In archival footage, we see Lee-Curtis preaching the prosperity gospel and claiming that his faith in God is the reason why he not only has expensive clothes and a big house but that it is also the reason why he deserves them. We see footage of Lee-Curtis in the past, condemning homosexuality from the pulpit but, in the present, Lee-Curtis seems to hit on almost every man that he meets. Lee-Curtis is quick to smile and to speak of how he’s made his mistakes but he’s been forgiven by God. At the same time, he also always seems to be just one minute away from having a complete meltdown.
Trinitie spends her time trying to keep that meltdown from occurring. She is someone who knows how to play the loving wife. A meeting her mother establishes that being a loving wife is what Trinitie was raised to do. It’s only in private that Trinitie reveals how difficult it is to be married to Lee-Curtis. She wants the respect that comes from being married to a powerful man, enough so that she’ll even humiliate herself by standing on a street corner while holding a sign that requests for drivers to honk if they love Jesus. When others attack her over her husband’s infidelities, she smiles and argues with them until she eventually reaches a point where she can smile no longer.
Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown both give excellent performances, with Hall doing an especially good job of capturing Trinitie’s conflicting emotions over being the wife of Lee-Curtis Childs. As played by Hall, Trinitie is someone who knows that she deserves better but who has also become addicted to the lifestyle that comes from being the first lady of a megachurch. As such, she’ll do anything to help Lee-Curtis regain his former popularity. While Lee-Curtis practices vapid sermons and wallows in self-pity, Trinitie is the one who is left to talk to the people that Lee-Curtis victimized. Brown has the magnetism necessary to be credible as a man who could convince others that he was without sin. Hall has the determination necessary to be credible as the power behind the pulpit.
Unfortunately, as good as both Hall and Brown are, the rest of the film is a complete mess. It starts out as a mockumentary but then it includes scenes that are clearly not meant to have been filmed by the documentary film crew. Unfortunately, there’s rarely any indication whether we’re watching a mockumentary scene or a “behind the scenes” scene and it’s left to the audience to sort out which is which. Ultimately, the film’s main flaw is one that is shared by many films that have attempted to satirize the excesses of organized religion. Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. At this point, is anyone shocked to discover that some pastors are corrupt? Is anyone shocked to discover that religious people can also be hypocrites? None of the criticism is quite as groundbreaking or shocking as the film seems to think that it is. The movie feels like the equivalent of the atheist who thinks that he’s the first person to make the “But if God created everything, who created God?” argument. When it comes to making an argument one way or another about organized religion, Honk for Jesus is as shallow and predictable as the God’s Not Dead franchise. This wouldn’t matter, of course, if the film’s satire had any bite or was, at the very least, consistently humorous. Unfortunately, this is pretty much a one joke movie. It is, admittedly, funny the first time that Hall switches from yelling to smiling when she realizes that she’s on camera. But, at one hour and 40 minutes, a satire needs more than one good joke.
The film is partially redeemed by Hall and Brown but ultimately, there’s little here that hasn’t been done better before.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1975’s The Passenger, a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Antonioni was born 110 years ago today, in what was then the “Kingdom of Italy.”
In The Passenger, Jack Nicholson plays a journalist who, because he’s bored with his life, impulsively assumes the identity of a deceased American businessman. What he discovers is that the businessman was an arms dealer and that the people that the arms dealer were doing business with still expect to get their weapons. Despite the fact that he knows that it might cost him his life, Nicholson is still drawn to see just how far he can take his new existence.
The film’s enigmatic final scene, in which Nicholson goes to a hotel to wait as both the people who double-crossed and his wife search for him, is Antonioni at his best.
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 52nd birthday to Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn! Drivewas one of the first films to really be celebrated on this site, receiving reviews from several contributors. Personally, I preferred The Neon Demon.
In honor of of the man and his work, it’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Nicolas Winding Refn Films
Bronson (2008, dir by Nicolas Winding Refn, DP: Larry Smith)
Drive (2011, dir by Nicolas Winding Refn, DP: Newton Thomas Sigel)
Only God Forgives (2013,dir by Nicolas Winding Refn, DP: Larry Smith)
The Neon Demon (2016, dir by Nicolas Winding Refn, DP: Natasha Braier)
In the year 1897, an outlaw gang led by brothers Brett (Dale Robertson) and Gar (Lloyd Bridges) ride into the frontier town of Carson City, Nevada. Brett and Gar remember Carson City as being a sleepy town where not much happens but, when they arrive, they discover that a carnival-like atmosphere has broken out in the streets. A heavyweight fight between “Gentleman Jim” Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons is scheduled to take place in Carson City and the once sleepy little town has become the center of the old west.
Sheriff Bill Gifford (Hugh Sanders) already knows that he’s going to have his hands full with all of the people coming to town for the fight so he’s not happy to see that Brett and Gar have returned. When the notorious outlaw Johnny Ringo (Richard Boone) also shows up for the fight, Gifford realizes that he’s going to have to do something unheard of. He deputizes the three outlaws, assigning them to keep the peace.
Even as deputies, the outlaws scheme to steal the money that’s raised by the fight. However, Brett is actually more interested in getting back together with his former girlfriend, Linda (Jeanne Crain). When Gar and Ringo realize that Brett might be backing away from the plan, it leads to a climatic showdown in Carson City.
This B-western tells a semi-true story. Corbett and Fitzsimmons did fight a match in Carson City in 1897. The fight lasted for over 90 minutes and ended with an upset victory for Fitzsimmons. It was the first boxing match to be filmed and it was later released into cinemas as The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight. It was the first film to last over an hour and it is considered to be the first feature film. It’s also considered to be the first pay-per-view event because the film of the fight made the boxers more money than the fight itself. The rest of the film is pure fiction. (The infamous outlaw Johnny Ringo had been dead for five years by the time of the Corbett/Fitzsimmons fight.) But even if there wasn’t an attempt to rob the Corbett/Fitzsimmons Fight, the use of the actual fight and the publicity surrounding it serves to remind the audience that the modern world is coming to the frontier.
For most, the main appeal of this film will be to see Dale Robertson, Richard Boone, and Lloyd Bridges acting opposite each other. All three are well known to western fans. Boone would later star in Have GunWill Travel while Robertson appeared in Tales of Wells Fargo, Iron Horse, and Death Valley Days. Lloyd Bridges previously played the resentful deputy in High Noon. The three of them are in top form in City of Bad Men, with Bridges especially making an impression as the less honest of the two outlaw brothers. The three of them play outlaws who know that the era of the lawless west is coming to an end and all three of them have to decide whether they want to go straight or if they want to go out with a bang (some more literally than others). With the fast-paced script and a dedicated cast, City of Bad Men is a film that will be appreciated by anyone who likes a good western tale.
