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Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Chad Faust, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Martin Donovan, Elizabeth Thai, Eva Amurri, Keith Turton, Mary-Louise Parker |
Directed
by: Brian Dannelly
Written by: Brian Dannelly, Michael Urban
Produced by: Michael Stipe
Distributor: |
US:
28 MAY 2004
UK: 00/TBA/2004 |
Good girl" Mary (Jena Malone) and her popular, influential best friend, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), are starting their senior year at the top of the social structure at American Christian High School. But when Mary finds out she's pregnant, Hilary Faye and her devoted followers turn against Mary and the school labels her an outcast. It's as an outsider, however, that Mary finds true friends - other students the school doesn't quite know what to do with. In this sweetly subversive comedy, a group of strangers band together to navigate the treacherous halls of high school and make it to graduation, ultimately learning more about themselves and finding out what it truly means to be Saved!. |
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Imagine a "subversive" movie that denigrates, oh lets's say Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists. Shows them as a bunch of intolerant bigots who have to be mocked and made the butt of every lousy joke you can think of. Better still - how about dissecting a trendy liberal school. We could call in "Smug". How about a "subversive" movie that showed these kids and parents as the shallow, crass, lefty dumb-asses, so many of them are. How come we never get that point of view? Or how about a movie that shows militant Gays to be a bunch of intolerant fanatical bigots determined to foist their lifestyle on the rest of us. No chance. In Hollywood, there's only one group you can really rip into. Only one lifestyle you can mock to death. That would be Christians, in case you were wondering.
Lets get one thing straight - I am not a practicing Christian. I am not anti-Gay. Yes, I did see the pun. But I am a coming around to the belief that "Hollywood" as an single entity is actively conspiring to destroy what remains of Christianity as a force in the USA. You see - to be really "subversive" you have to set yourself up against the prevailing orthodoxy. So tell me this, what's the orthodoxy in Hollywood? Is it Christianity. Or is it a hedonistic lifestyle where just about anything goes? It's a rhetorical question. You know the answer - and that's why the only really subversive film about Christians made in the last decade was by Mel Gibson. Because that was about as far from Hollywood as you can get. That's real dissent - and it took real guts trying to get that movie made. Every Hollywood exec passed on "The Passion". And why? Because not one of them could imagine themseleves, their mates, or their families wanting to see a movie about some messiah dude who died 2000 years ago. Get that! They couldn't imagine who would go see such a movie. Doesn't that tell you something about the reactionaries running the place? Not that it's an organized conspiracy - but that you only get on there if you fit a particular mindset.
I am not compaining about the very existence of "Saved". The film maker is perfectly entitled to make any film he likes in a free society. I happen to believe in the free market, diversity of ideas. But it seems Hollywood deoesn't. Just like academia does not believe in diversity of political opinions in its hallowed halls. And "Saved" might even have its moments in an "Election" sort of mode. But please, I'm begging - let's not have any total crap about it being subversive, or brave or anything else that implies this is anything but another cliched, sterotyping piece of work that goes for all the easy targets. And not to belabor the point, but that easy target is flyover folks who happen to take their religion seriously and practise it on a daily basis. |
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"Hands up all those who think Hollywood really sucks big time!"
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