The Long Goodbye: The Kara Tippetts story

Documentary

88 min / 2019
Rating: 10/10

"I feel like I'm a little girl at a party whose Dad is asking her to leave early. And I'm throwing a fit. I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to go." – Kara Tippetts

*****

Kara Tippetts started her "mommy blog" Mundane Faithfulness as a way of encouraging moms to just love their littles and be there every day for them. But the blog became something very different when the young mother of four and pastor's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The blog went viral as Kara, bluntly and beautifully, explained her treatments, shared her doubts, and showed how their family was trying to treasure every moment. In posts that were read by tens of thousands, she explained:

"I want to be able to share this story that suffering isn't a mistake, and it isn't the absence of God's goodness...because He's present in pain."

In Psalm 90 the psalmist pleas with the Lord, "teach us to number our days" (Ps. 90:12) and with her diagnosis, Kara was confronted with a truth the rest of us most often evade: that our days are numbered. She showed us what we should all do: find joy in the moments where they can be found.

"Cancer was this gift that exposed to us what is important and what is valuable. Parenting with kindness. Loving your husband. Living well." 

And then, over the next two years as it became increasingly clear that a cure wasn't likely, Kara showed the world what it looks like to die to God's glory.

I gave this the highest rating I could because everyone should see it. Not only will Kara's story remind us to number our days, she teaches us to think through what our purpose is.*

The only caution I would offer is that I can't quite imagine what sort of viewing party would work best, as there are just so many scenes here that will have everyone bawling. It's the mix of brokenness, beauty, truth, and God's goodness that'll ensure no one in the room has a dry eye, so if you don't like bawling in public, you won't want to watch this with friends. But you do want to watch it with friends because it will prompt some fantastic discussions about what really matters. So maybe the best approach is to gather a group, turn the lights down low, distribute Kleenex boxes generously, and know that your tear-stained face won't stand out from anyone else's in the group.

"The Long Goodbye" can be purchased on DVD or streamed online for a few bucks at innumerable places around the Internet. Kara has also written a The Hardest Peace which I review here. After you've seen the film, you may want to check out this speech by Nate Wilson that makes the same points Kara does, but from a very different direction.

A

Jungle Beat - fun for the kids that will have the adults laughing too

Family / Animated
65 min
RATING: 10/10 

I'm always on the hunt for films or shows my kids will enjoy that I'll enjoy too. There aren't many that fit that bill, but Jungle Beat sure does. This is comic genius at its best!

The videos are all 5 minute stand alone pieces featuring one jungle creature. Our favorite is probably the giraffe, or the turtle, but the bee, monkey and hedgehog are popular too.

While the videos do have sound, they remind me of the very best silent film comedies from Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin, because they are entirely dialogue-free (after all, animals don't talk, right?) so all the humor is physical. Let me give you an idea of some of the scenarios:

• What's a poor turtle to do when it gets an itch, but its shell won't let it scratch? Maybe it should just slip off its shell? But like a pair of tight pants, his shell comes off easily, but doesn't go back on nearly so quickly. This leads to some hi-speed hijinks when the turtle has to surf on his shell to evade an eagle that wants to eat the now-exposed turtle.
• What's a poor firefly to do when it wants to catch some sleep, but its own light is keeping it awake?
• What's a poor giraffe to do when he accidentally head-butts the moon and knocks it to the ground, where it breaks to pieces?

Each of the stories has a creative set-up, and all come with a happy ending. I don't know if Jungle Beat's creators are Christian, but I suspect so, because they've gone to great lengths to make sure this is family-friendly. So far there are more than two dozen short videos in total, which amounts to more than two hours of viewing, so gather round the family - you are in for a treat!

SEASON ONE

The producers have collected all 13 Season One episodes into one 65-minute video that they've made available for free on YouTube (and which you can watch below). From our two-year-old on up to mom and dad we all love them. We just wished there were more...



SEASON TWO

...and now there are! A second season, of another 13 episodes has been produced, and also made available as a 65-minute compilation, here below.




SEASON THREE

A third season is also available, but not on YouTube yet. So far as I can tell, only Americans can access it online at Amazon.com by clicking here, where the season (mislabeled as Season One) can be purchased for $8.99 (or watched for free if you have Amazon Prime).

You can also check out some screen saver downloads, and a trailer for a very fun-looking Jungle Beat game app (I haven't played it, but think we might buy this one - it's just $2.99) at their website: www.junglebeat.tv

I can't say enough good things about this series. It is so very clever, and other than a few moments of peril, which might have our two-year-old a little nervous, it is entirely safe. Two thumbs very enthusiastically up – I give this a 10 out of 10!

Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels

Documentary

Rating: 10/10

I’ve watched this at least 5 times now, and many sections many more times than that. This is the best, most succinct, most content-dense, anti-evolution presentation I’ve ever seen.

That said, my first go-through didn’t leave me all that impressed. I was watching it while doing some paperwork, not giving it my full attention, and what I saw just seemed to be a bunch of interviews, lots of talking heads. It didn’t seem all that interesting.

But when I gave it another go and actually paid attention…. Whoah!

What the folks at Creation Ministries International have done here is, in one hour and a half presentation, boiled down all their very best arguments into the shortest possible form. That’s why I’ve watched it so many times already – I had to keep stopping, rewinding, and then listening to sections again, because so much of what these interviewees say in just a sentence or two is something that others have written articles and even whole books on.

For example, here’s a line from Dr. Donald Batten: “The survival of the fittest does not explain the arrival of the fittest.”

At first listen, this struck me as a great turn of a phrase, and it certainly is. But let’s hit the pause button and just think about all that’s being said here in just this one line. Survival of the fittest (AKA natural selection) is supposed to explain how species adapt and change: those with advantageous mutations will prosper, while those without will eventually die off. But survival of the fittest is a selective process – it picks the best out of the group. How then, does it work before there is a group to pick the best and brightest from? Natural selection is a key mechanism for evolution, but it doesn’t offer any explanation for how animals come to be in the first place! This one, short, ever so quotable line, points out a gigantic problem with evolutionary theory!

In addition to Dr. Batten,  the documentary features 14 other PhD scientists, and together they highlight, as the title puts it, Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels. They cover a wide range of problems, grouped under categories like the Fossil Record, Genetics, Natural Selection, Cosmology and Radiometric Dating. I really can’t say enough nice things about it: from beginning to end this is brilliant, and as good an introduction to the problems with Evolutionary theory as you will ever find. The Dove foundation said, “If we could award Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels more than five Doves, our best rating, we would!” and I echo the sentiment. You can buy it Amazon.com by clicking here.

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl

Documentary
51 minutes, 2011
Rating: 11/10

You are going to like this. I haven't met anyone yet who has seen this and hasn't been impacted by it.

Now at first look this might seem a pretty random collection of thoughts put to film with moments of poetry, philosophy, biography, musical artistry, and nature documentary.

But there is method to the seeming madness, and one clear overarching thought that unites all the chapters in this film - God is great!

That God is great is hardly a new thought, but getting excited about his greatness is a somewhat recent development. Martin Luther, for example, always knew God was great, but that was a fearsome thought for him in his early years. It was something that filled him with dread as he considered how great God was and what a wretched man he was. God’s greatness left Luther despairing of what he could do to ever earn a place before his Creator.

After the Reformation, when we relearned that faith was a gift, that our great, holy, awesome God, was also loving, merciful, and willing to humble Himself to become like us, to save us, well, his greatness is still fearsome, but now it is also something for us to explore – we can come near. He has invited us to enjoy Him forever.

In this film Nate Wilson teaches us to see again this greatness of God. Today we so often overlook the wonder around us - we think it unremarkable that we are sitting here, on a lump of spinning dirt, hurtling through space at an unimaginable rate of speed. Wilson, more in tune with the wonderous nature of our frentic journey round the Sun, will, on a semi-regular basis, fall to the ground and get a solid grip on the grass just to ensure he doesn't go hurtling off into space.

This film is about making us see the wonder that is really there, but which we have grown too cynical to see. Occasionally an "ordinary" miracles still impact us - parents, watching their child be born, will be awe-struck, even though this is an event much like has happened literally billions of times before in the history of Man. Our awe is rekindled. In Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl Wilson helps us understand - helps us feel again - the wonder of God's creative genius. God is great! And while trembling remains an appropriate response, wonder is certainly another.

What are others saying?

One reviewer compared this to Rob Bell’s Nooma videos as its "closest cousin in terms of genre" but noted that "there are more original insights in any given 90 seconds of Tilt-a-Whirl than in the entire Nooma series."

Casablanca

Drama
103 min; 1943
Rating: 10 out of 10

Why not start off a movie blog with a short review of one of the acknowledged best films of all time?

When Ilsa Lund hears that the Nazis have killed her husband she is inconsolable…until she meets Rick Blaine. They meet in Paris, a city on the brink of an invasion by German forces, and in the midst of this ongoing chaos the two quickly fall in love. But then, mysteriously, Ilsa runs away. She disappears from Paris without a word of explanation, and leaves Rick an embittered man. Three years later they bump into each other again, this time in the free French North African town of Casablanca, but Rick is stunned to find out that Ilsa is there with her very undead husband!

I am a fan of many World War II films, particularly those that were made at that time. What sets Casablanca apart (and above) the many other very good WWII movies is that it is not a movie about heroes doing heroic things. Rather it is about lonely, broken, and even wretched people in difficult conditions doing the right thing in the end. That might sound rather depressing, but it isn't. These are the sort of folk we can empathize with, so when they pick principle over pragmatism we're right there with them, cheering them on, and hoping that we would do the same.

For a very different (but equally enthused) review, check out Harma Mae Smit's thoughts here.

You can find Casablanca at Amazon.com here and Amazon.ca here.

 

And for a film professor's take on why Casablanca is great see below (but, warning, there are spoilers!).