Sunday, February 27, 2022

Don’t Look Up: a theological film review

Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 165 plus films later, here is the review for February 2022.

Don’t Look Up
Reviewed by Steve Taylor

As the world is ending, a meal is enjoyed. With the table set, words of gratefulness are spoken, then those gathered are blessed by a simple prayer. It’s a compelling scene, a moment of slow and meditative grace, amid the biting political satire that is Don’t Look Up.

Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) a Ph.D. candidate in Michigan State’s astronomy department, discovers a comet. During the celebrations, her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), calculates that life on earth will end for all when the comet strikes in six months and fourteen days.

Some truth is hard to share, let alone like. In a world willing to amuse itself in death, news of a comet is spun, memed, then polarised for political purposes. Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), the CEO of fictional tech giant Bash Digital, markets innovative technologies at the expense of scientific collaboration. “Don’t Look Up” rallies are political tools to revive the scandal-ridden career of President Orlean (Meryl Streep). Much of Don’t Look Up runs as a smart, funny, yet depressing mirror on our world today.

Although never mentioned, the polarisations around climate change motivate the movie. Adam McKay wanted to direct a film about the impending climate apocalypse. Hence the challenging line by Randall “We really did have everything, didn’t we?” When set alongside the moving shots of whales, bees, and birds, it’s a poignant reminder of the beauty of creation humans are called to till and tend (Genesis 2:15).

Amid the ironic commentary on contemporary life, Don’t Look Up does significant theological work. The ending contemplates two futures. One is the hope of another planet, a second garden of Eden, in which new life can begin again. Peter Isherwell and President Orlean flee the comet on a spaceship, frozen in cryo chambers. The musical score is an original composition by composers Nicholas Britell and Bon Iver. Titled “Second Nature,” a new earth is sought, not as a refuge for all. Rather as an outworking of a Darwinian survival of the wealthiest.

A second future involves prayerful thanksgiving. Kate and Randall gather with those they love. There are echoes of thanksgiving in the meal and thankfulness, the North American tradition of gratitude for new and shared beginnings. In Don’t Look Up, thanksgiving becomes an ending. Waiting for their world to die, Kate’s boyfriend, Yule (Timothée Chalamet), asks to pray. Raised evangelical, finding an adult relationship with God, he speaks
“Dearest Father and almighty Creator,
We ask for your grace, despite our pride
Your forgiveness, despite our doubt
Most of all, Lord, we ask for your love to soothe us through these dark times
May we face whatever is to come in your divine will, with courage, in open hearts of acceptance. Amen.”

Don’t Look Up is a contemplation of endings. Do we try in the hope of a better world for an elite few somewhere else? Or do we gather, after we have tilled and tended the gift of this world, in quiet trust in God?

(Don’t Look Up is available on Netflix, rated M for mature audiences).

Rev Dr Steve Taylor is author of “First Expressions” (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.

Posted by steve at 01:01 PM

Friday, February 25, 2022

making endings visible

Part of my current life includes research projects for industry partners. Organisations have questions about their future and I set about finding ways to explore those questions. I conduct feasibility studies, undertake co-design or interview people for reviews. It’s the type of work I love – in rapidly changing times, finding creative ways to help organisations clarify their futures.

One of the realities of this work is that endings are fuzzy. Let me explain.

  • As a project ends, I write a report.
  • This is often sent to a key individual, for fact-checking. They need time to digest.
  • Often there is a follow-up meeting, for them to clarify the report.
  • Sometimes there are changes made.
  • Next the report is circulated to a group. They again need time to digest.
  • Often there is a meeting with that group, during which I present a brief summary and respond to questions.
  • After I leave, the meeting continues with decisions needing to be made. I often offer to conduct other work outside, in case they have a specific question. Sometimes this offer is accepted, other times not.
  • Sometimes I found out after the meeting what happened after, other times not.
  • Sometimes the decisions made include asking for more work from me, for example, conversations with those impacted by the review or preparing a public statement. Other times not.

So the endings are fuzzy. There is the adrenaline of the final draft, the finished report, the meeting. But when is the project ended? When do I actually celebrate a job I consider well done?

To help with fuzzy endings, I’ve taken to making the project personally visible in other ways. This involves going looking for an object, generally in a second-hand shop, that symbolises the project. It might be a pottery cup, a handmade brass jug, or a clay person. Ideally, it is cheap. Ideally, it is whimsical. Ideally, it captures something of the project. Here is a recent project symbol.

project symbol I like the unique handmadeness of this brass object. I like the slender fragility, how it was small in size, yet graceful in shape. The object is made for pouring and as I brought it, I prayed that the mission I was researching would indeed find ways to pour out grace and love for community.

I brought this around 3 February, the day I submitted a 23 page, 10,000-word review, to a funder. I scoped the project and wrote a brief in early October. The project was commissioned in mid-October, projected to require 11 days of work. Over the next 4 months, in between a range of other tasks, I interviewed 9 people, initiated an online participant survey and prepared an annotated bibliography summarising current best practices. I then spoke to the report on 24 February, responding for an hour to questions from the funding committee.

This object now sits on my desk. It reminds me of work done – the craft of interviewing, the skill of question selection, the creating of safe space in caring for participants, the organising of words to tell a story that is contextually located, the developing of recommendations to help sift future possibilities. It invites me to keep praying for the project. It feels good to make a project visible.

Posted by steve at 09:05 AM

Tuesday, February 08, 2022

the soul and the student experience

I was delighted last week, in my role as Director of AngelWings Ltd, to submit a missional review of a university campus church. This is the type of work that AngelWings Ltd loves to do – in rapidly changing times, helping organisations clarify their futures.

The initial request was to offer a missional vision for a campus church for the next season of their life. For me as a reviewer, it was a thrill to bring together a range of skills – gaining participant feedback, engaging key stakeholders, synthesising current research on the university student experience and generating future possibilities. This was about working ground up, listening local, in seeking to discern ways forward.

The review drew together interviews with 8 key stakeholders, an online survey of participants, a specialist conversation to clarify the feasibility of a specific recommendation, along with an annotated bibliography of current trends. This bibliography sets the local within wider trends and provides avenues for further reading and reflection.

The report was 24-pages in length, with 9 recommendations, submitted to the organisation that commissioned the research. The review even had some pictures, which I had commissioned specially for this project, summarising some of the data.

Posted by steve at 12:26 PM