"saved" w/mandy moore, jena malone, etc.

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mixed feelings overall.

i was a bit disturbed by the way this film treated teen pregnancy, or rather, pregnancy period--fairly serious for a while, then suddenly a bit too sanguine (for my tastes). i treated it more like a plot device than an actual experience with consequences.

the physical appearances of the actors seemed to point to the way some alternate-universe teen cinema, which was nice (mandy moore excepted, and i thought her character was the weakest).

this film, after a sharp start (with some huge laughs), eventually just sort of made a progressive point using a host of teen-movie cliches, which was disappointing, though i understand the strategy. however: this opened in a psuedo-arthouse cinema here. so i guess the distributors have settled for preaching to the converted (pun not intended)--and there is, unfortunately, a bit of preaching at the end of the film.

so?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

that should be "saved!"

although in the opening credits the exclamation mark was crossed like a "t"...

the joke of which only occured to me just now.

duh.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to see this, but it isn't playing near me. I dunno if they're preaching to the converted with arthouse audiences - most of the Village Voice-type critics seem to dislike it for not being critical enough of fundamentalism.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 31 May 2004 02:28 (twenty-two years ago)

to me it looks like it suffers from the same unfortunate syndrome as Kevin Smith's DOGMA...being a little too self-apologistic for its own good. it's too "blasphemous" to reach the audience those points might actually enlighten, but not blasphemous enough to be as biting of a satire as it makes itself out to be.

― henry jones, jr, Monday, 31 May 2004 03:19 (twenty-two years ago)

most of the reviews i have read make christans out to be some sort of alien race.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:23 (twenty-two years ago)

They are. (I had a young fundie woman from Iowa once explain to me that Satan's minions were extra-planetary beings out to disrupt God's plan, etc. and that God/Jesus were extra-planetary, too. She was dead serious, but I was too weirded out to pay much attention to her dogma.)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:26 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't see them as alien, they are the home planet where i live.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 31 May 2004 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

most of the reviews i have read make christans out to be some sort of alien race.

so the people who made it weren't christians?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 31 May 2004 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

or are the reviewers not christians?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 31 May 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know the backgrounds of the people who wrote and directed the film. michael stipe produced.

which means i suspect the filmmakers were aiming, not for a satire meant to flatter a liberal audience, but for something more (in the fashionable term) "subversive," a sort of teen movie that would hit unsuspecting teens over the head with a lesson in tolerance (actually, more than tolerance: acceptance). i wonder if this is playing the shopping malls, or just the urban arthouses. if the latter i think it's a case of a film made for one audience and sold to another.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

i also can't vouch for its accuracy as i have no interaction with anyone from a christian fundamentalist milieu. until this film i didn't even know there was a such thing as *protestant* private high schools in america.
That's all that exist in the Bible belt. I only know of one Catholic high school in my area, but there are probably a dozen Christian high schools of various denominations.

i think one consequence of this film trying to shoehorn its politics--surely it's reason for being--into something resembling a traditional teen-film plot formula is that politics get reduced to the social, to something not much different from the routine degradations/humiliations that are a big part of so many teen films. the basic fact of american fundamentalism today--it's political efficacy, it's national goals--is not a part of this film.
That's somewhat realistic, though. The politics and national goals of GOP fundamentalist Christianity are irrelevant to (and occasionally opposed by) the teenagers I grew up with and encountered of that stripe. It's their religion because it's their family's beliefset.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 31 May 2004 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

oh also i don't want to ruin this but: the "christian rock band" playing _________ at the prom wtf?!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

*possible spoilers*

on reflection, this film really did disintegrate into moralizing--witness martin donovan's angry "the bible is black and white!" vs. malone's "no it's not! why did god make everyone different blah blah blah" argument at the end. i don't mind the sentiments, but their expression left a lot to be desired.

the best part in this film is almost thrown away: martin donovan as pastor skip doing a backflip!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The one bit of promo I read about this some months back indicated that at least some of the actors and filmmakers were a bit worried that their depiction of Christian teen revivals, modern American style, might be over the top, only to go to a number of such revivals for comparison and notice that if anything they were underplaying it. Which says nothing about the value of Christianity or religion, before anyone complains, but does say a lot about the conflation of high school public assembly/pep rally and ministering which marks said events.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 31 May 2004 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know if that aspect in particular is so objectionable. certainly "camp meetings" and enthusiastic varities of religion are as american as apple pie...

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Haven't seen it yet BUT a) Martin Donovan b) doing BACKFLIPS in the trailer ensures that it will be seen. By me. Almost immediately.

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

backflip.

singular.

:-(

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry I missed this w/you, Amateurist -- I was out of town. I'd like to see it soon, though.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 04:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Eh. It was kinda tepid. The acting was strong, but the rest was pretty lame. Martin Donovan rulez. On the "Saddest Music in the World" thread, people were talking about whether a movie needs to have a point or not, but "Saved!" might be the definition of a pointless movie, and not in a good way.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Only one backflip? Well, forget it, then.

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get: why was this movie made? Who is supposed to like it?

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The good people.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

IT SHOULD'VE BEEN A DOCUMENTARY!!!!!!(!#*!#)) (hahahahahahahahaha, no)

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

TURN OR BURN HEATHENS!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The absence of a comma seems appropriate.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought the title of the film was "Shaved" for a minute. I got all giddy.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Chris V's id is the best ever.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Saved! Sucked!

― ddb, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I came from a VERY fundamentalist southern Christian Protestant background. I grew up in the church pretty much. We were there almost every single day for something. I was taught Catholics were evil (you know, they worship Mary and idols...), anyone not Saved would go to hell (even if they had never ever heard about Jesus - that's why mission work is so important), and wasn't allowed to listen to the radio until I was 11 (except sometimes our cousins would tape a Christian rock radio station for us).

My relatives were (and still are) even more conservative. They believe in courtship, for example, and sent their kids to private protestant schools.

Growing up, I went to lots of Christian rock concerts, during which there would always be some type of sermon, a group prayer, and even an offering (often in the form of a big plastic bucket which you were supposed to put money in for missionaries or whatever the cause was that night).

My point is that this movie was very realistic in many ways based on my own experiance.

Bad points:
* I found the character of the jewish girl to be way too over the top and obnoxious. She did some funny things, but mostly just made the story less believeable.

* I feel like it tried to hard to have a happy ending. Would those kids really be allowed in the prom? I don't think they would. And, as someone has mentioned before, it's not like those 'bad' kids really had nowhere to go. Hello, public school, anyone?

* What amateurist said about the pregnancy...

It wasn't great, but it was a start.

</rant>

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

My point is that this movie was very realistic in many ways based on my own experiance.

This is sorta what I was figuring would be the case. I suspect for a lot of people it seems completely strange.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

the jewish character was the one who conformed most to the teen movie cliche of having teens who look and act like 20somethings. she wasn't really just sexually precocious, she was sexually confident and unselfconscious in a way few if any teenagers are, let alone one living in the bible belt.

i think the film suffers from cross-purposes maybe. or to put it another way, i'm not sure it knew what audience it wanted to address. or perhaps the conception of that intended audience changed at some point during the production or promotion. it was pitched--unsatisfactorily, for the most part-- somewhere in-between "welcome to the dollhouse" (gallows-humored art flick) and "can't hardly wait" (straight teen flick with hip affectations).

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

as for having a point: the movie had a "point," as in a moral lesson, something fierce. it just wasn't clear to me to whom that point was addressed, and whether it would serve to alter anyone's consciousness.

i guess, per sarah's email, i learned a bit about the fundamentalist milieu. oddly enough, i didn't find it that appalling.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't find it appalling either until I started to second-guess it all. Then I realized I was a total bitch to non-believers growing up and even just to strangers because I was so self-righteous.

Let's see, I yelled at a nurse that I'm a Christian when she tried to put the apron on me for an x-ray (because how could I be preggo if I were an unmarried Christian?).

I got upset when teachers would ask to spell my name because the Sara/Sarai in the bible was not a believer, but Sarah was.

But that has little to do with the movie, and a lot to do with being a kid.

Anyway,

RESURRECT! (get it? revive!)

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate to admit this, but the cast to this film is sort of a My-Fantasies Dream Team, to the point where I'm starting to think the whole thing was arranged by God just to shame me. I mean, Jena Malone and Mandy Moore together, that could coincidence. But throwing in Martin Donovan and even Mary-Louise Parker -- this is evidence of a conspiracy. Do Eve and Maura Tierney have cameos?

― not nabisco, Wednesday, 2 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

RESURRECT! (get it? revive!)

"revive" would've worked as a pun, too.

nabisco is into mandy moore??

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The MLP/Pastor subplot was pointless and wasted MLP completely. I liked how Pastor Skip is set up to be a really nice guy all along, but still remains an uptight fundie trying to 'fix' homosexuality.

I don't know why this got relegated to arthouse theaters - ridiculously inoffensive. Still nice and heartwarming, etc.. Par for a teen comedy. But I wish it hadn't tried to cram so much into one film (like the girl with the alkie father who has to work two jobs) and random character motivation shifts (Jewish girl baits baits baits Jena Malone until she trips up then they're BFF, Patrick Fugit being in love with a pregnant girl he's never actually dated). Really not a very good film when I think about it, but it was good while I was in the theater.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

does anyone know if this is actually getting released in the UK?

― kathryn m (kathryn m), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

It was entertaining.

I hope it doesn't **spoil** it for anyone:
RE: The Replacements songs at the prom...

I was wondering if Michael Stipe used that because for 20 years he may have been saying that the Replacements were the ultimate teen movie prom band. .. Or was it just that they were looking for some music and decided that "Inherit the Earth" was a good song to use. I'm choosing the former because they used "Skyway" also.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

* I found the character of the jewish girl to be way too over the top and obnoxious. She did some funny things, but mostly just made the story less believeable.

-- Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 18:19 (3 years ago) Link

Ha, she was the only one that I could think of real-life analog for! Based on my high school, she was way more realistic than the Jesus freaks. Re: what amateurist said upthread, I don't think she was supposed to be as sexually confident as she sounded, but she projected & exaggerated it because that was her thing (the rebellious, worldly girl in bibleland).

(obv. i just saw this the other night)

― Jordan, Thursday, 13 March 2008 17:08 (eighteen years ago)

IT SHOULD'VE BEEN A DOCUMENTARY!!!!!!(!#*!#)) (hahahahahahahahaha, no)

http://images.apple.com/moviesxml/s/magnolia/posters/jesuscamp_l200609011149.jpg

― jaymc, Thursday, 13 March 2008 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

i knew a girl in HS who definitely reminded me of mandy moore's character, not so much in terms of the underhandedness she exhibits in the movie but in both general demeanor/appearance and a kind of po-faced (but not totally humorless) piety - whenever anyone uttered "jesus" as an epithet in her presence, she would append "...saves!" she eventually ditched born-again-ism and now lives in egypt and is a practicing muslim, last i heard

― impudent harlot, Thursday, 13 March 2008 17:26 (eighteen years ago)

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