Smashbomb

"Growing up in a Southern Baptist home, I was hesitant to read a fictional account of Jesus’ adult life, his own family relations, and the introduction of a romantic relationship. I know the ending to this story, so what could I possibly learn? However, my curiosity got the best of me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved how the author humanized Jesus in a way I hadn’t seen him described before. I knew about his adoration for his mother, his intense sense of responsibility and his steadfast purpose, but I had never considered the down to earth humanity within those qualities: the love of laughter, warm interpersonal connections with siblings, and day-to-day decision-making. The other fascinating character was, of course, his love interest Ana. You see Jesus through this strong, feisty woman’s eyes and cannot help but weep with her when she loses her greatest love. As this historical moment that I had faithfully studied for all of my life unfolded, I was so involved in the story that I forgot everything aside from the passion, love and sacrifice these two figures shared. Sue Monk Kidd provides the ultimate gift that any writer has to offer their reader: the ability to climb inside the hearts and minds of her characters, feel their pain and celebrate their love. What an experience."

Source

Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Pan's Labyrinth (2006) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

Even though this isn't that good, the resounding acclaim still makes sense to me because this is pretty much exactly what normies would have wanted out of this movie - to a T. The grand, moving mythic-fantasy spectacle this could have been takes a backseat to like only 4 full-fledged fantasy scenes swept under the suffocating carpet of yet another trite war drama. I realize this is deeply personal to Del Toro, and I'm not trying to invalidate that - but I think somewhere in his love for the project he forgot to add actual... depth to the thing because to him, just this film existing was enough? Don't get me wrong, it's still fine as it is - when it actually decides to be a fantasy film instead of a generic parable for self sacrifice (yawn, plus hot damn the ending is shitty *and* problematic) I think this looks great even though it's color-coded like a sickly Eiffel 65 music video for some reason. Moment to moment this is okay, some scenes work more than others. But ultimately it boils down to another batch of empty cyphers and caricature villains in the orbit of a boring heroine from Del Toro - who seems to specialize in that. A mishmash of unsubtle things he thinks have nuance but don't, though worth it for the practical effects alone.