The Thin Place

Alex McKee subs in for Todd to discuss whether or not one has to know the Entourage television show to like the movie. He and Ken also discuss the ethics of nudity and violence in film and whether Entourage satirizes or glorifies the Hollywood lifestyle. 

Todd and Ken discuss Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. Is the film compassionate towards its characters? Does it blame one generation more than the other for the deterioration of family? Does the film lament the breakdown of the extended family or merely document it? Ken questions whether there is an ideal organization of extended families and whether our expectations of them come from The Bible or our respective cultures. Also: what does any of this have to do with King Lear or Downton Abbey? Tune in and find out. 

On the road at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, Ken and Todd report back on the documentary The Jones Family Will Make a Way.The film chronicles the unlikely alliance between an African-American family of gospel singers and the white, secular rock critic who loves their music.Todd likes the Jones Family Singers but questions the film’s narrative frame (which seems to treat the mainstreaming of gospel music as a new phenomenon). Ken likes the way the film challenges our preconceived notions of what happens when Christian artists interact with secular counterparts. And they both think the music is terrific. Listen to the full podcast here.

Todd and Ken are back for the last podcast of the year, and they are looking at John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary. The film was recently honored by the 2014 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury as one of the ten best of the year, so why are the hosts a bit cooler towards it?The discussion examines issues such as corporate guilt and why no human character can ultimately be a satisfying “Christ” figure. Is the film an allegory? If so, of what? And does the film change its mind about whether or not Father James is an innocent victim?

Antoine Fuqua directs Denzel Washington in The Equalizer. Ken and co-host Todd Truffin examine the film and question whether violence, even in the service of justice, can ever be practiced without a psychic and spiritual toll. Is it okay to hate the wicked? To celebrate their downfall? If so, when? And what are the spiritual dangers of doing so?

Do you believe in karma? Why did Shep Gordon beg John Lennon to have his picture taken with Anne Murray? Who created the celebrity chef? What really happened the night Alice Cooper didn’t bite the head off of a chicken? And can *anyone* just drop in at Shep’s home in Maui? Ken and Todd discuss Mike Myers’s endearing (perhaps too endearing) portrait of the king of all the talent managers in a podcast about Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon.***Content Advisory*** This podcast contains some explicit language (a crude sexual term that Shep is wearing on a T-Shirt in one picture is described). 

Luc Besson’s Lucy stars Scarlett Johansson as a woman who is exposed to a new synthetic drug that allows her to access more and more of her brain. Does the drug give her godlike powers, or is the film suggesting that she actually becomes God? And what does Lucy’s transformation say about the way we conceive God? Lucy is a summer popcorn movie, to be sure. But when a movie has this much God symbolism, you can bet The Thin Place is going to ponder what it all is supposed to mean.

As the World Cup draws to a close, Ken and Todd discuss one of the best films ever made about our obsession with sports. What is the difference between enthusiasm and obsession? At what point does a central preoccupation become idolatrous? Is the film postmodern? And what does any of this have to do with the book of Ecclesiastes?

Back after a hiatus, Ken and Todd discuss Doug Liman’s sci-fi film, The Edge of Tomorrow. Why is the way violence is represented in the film particularly disturbing? Are we intended to laugh at it? And why does Todd say the movie reminded him of watching someone play a video game?

Just in time for the Academy Awards, Ken and Todd look at one of the nominees: Stephen Frears’s Philomena. How does the film depict its protagonist’s Roman Catholicism, and what can those outside that denomination learn from her example?