Sep 15, 2005

The summer's flown by. If this were high school i'd be quite disappointed by the way it's disappeared so suddenly. Haven't blogged much, but there's an assortment of photos from the summer on my flickr.

It's ironic that I'm on vacation and I haven't been this sleepy in ages. It's mostly because I haven't been able to fall asleep at a decent hour, and I've been waking up earlier than I do for work.

So far, aside from the fact that it's 30 degrees in September when I'm expecting it to be 15, Toronto's been great. I've enjoyed the familiarity of church here. I've missed the way everything's so accessible by subway and walking, the whole sense of bustling metropolitan liveliness.

On Sunday morning, I went to church service, then I went to a second service up the street, mainly to see some friends. After that I rushed and barely made it to my goddaughter's baptism. I wonder about the significance that Matt 22 appeared in both the sermons at the morning service and at the baptism.

I caught my first ever Toronto International Film Fest flick on Sunday night. "Mary", by Abel Ferrara was a thought provoking film, ultimately asking about the significance Of Jesus. The movie depicts Matthew Modine as an egomaniacal bad boy director who hopes the controversy generated by his movie of a gnostic Jesus would capitulate him to fame and fortune. Forrest Whittaker plays a TV talk show host with a series investigating the views of Jesus from people of various beliefs, and whose own beliefs, or lack thereof are challenged in the course of the film.

I enjoyed the way this movie presented a myriad of perspectives on Jesus. It's certainly not a Christian film, as it presents some very non Catholic views of what is commonly called the "historical Jesus" in some scenes. On the other hand, I also would not consider it an anti-Christian film; it argues strongly on the behalf of faith. The weakest part of the film was that it seemed to see Jesus as a significant figure, but could not recognize why.

This confusion, and the lack of any particular stance was reflected in the Q&A with Abel Ferrara, Matthew Modine, and the film's editor. Their different backgrounds came together to present a film about a contraversial film about Jesus (heh), but I think "Mary" will not raise much convtroversy in it's attempt to appeal to everyone's opinion.

2.5/5

Upcoming Reviews: "You Bet Your Life", "Bubble", "Everlasting Regret", "All the Invisible Children".