Change Your Image
jscanlan
Reviews
Speak (2004)
Relationship to others, self, and life.
Kristen Stewart does one of the best jobs of acting I have seen in a long time. The casting and directing is also top notch.
A very good movie, great story, great acting, and well put together. The message is very important. Standing up for oneself is a hard lesson to learn. This is a story of consequences, of what happens when things go wrong. How do you find the courage to seek right action even if you fear what will happen when the truth is finally told. This is about taking care of yourself.
This is a movie that families of teenagers should see together. Consequences are examined for both young women and men. Maybe this story and book can get people to "Speak", their truths.
A movie of rare depth and insight.
The Search for Heaven (2005)
Asks The Question - then gives us standard Christian answer
This is a rehash of dramatized anecdotal "near death" stories. It has a brief flirt with pan-religious sensibilities with actual quotes from other spiritual texts. And an attempt at "being scientific", by saying that science is rigorous and must have reproducible results, and then dressing up the video with a lot of Science-drag (images that supposedly convey that the video is "being scientific") without really giving any proofs or research data. This "even handedness" is later contradicted by the inclusion of examples of "Scientific Authorities" being proved wrong about a number of pronouncements.
It has a very strong Intelligent Design component, with the usual cast of big names who are quoted for their "support", and the multitude of faith based thinkers who make various "learned pronouncements", some of the ones on the extras are pretty far out.
I am disappointed that this was almost purely a Christian faith based Intelligent Design propaganda piece and not a real discussion of what may be the biggest mystery in existence.