Tonight is a weird night. Totally strange mix of emotions in my heart. I went to go see Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State at Hollywood Theatres. Of course, Napoleon Dynamite was absolutely hilarious. You know how you watch a movie for the first time and if you wait long enough to watch it again, it's almost like you saw it for the first time again. I guess for me, that's about 4 months. :) Anywho... I think the thing that got me into my current mood was Garden State. It was a great movie I think: full of comedy but not shallow, thoughtful but it didn't make my head hurt. However, it has managed to make me pretty depressed and introverted tonight, which doesn't happen a lot. It's not like I come home from school and just sit think about everything in life that sucks, because I'd be a bit of a brain case then... oh wait, I am... well, anydangday... the movie was what I would describe as a "Breakfast Club"-ish, psycho-babble, find peace in the darkness, and why not get the girl too sort of movie. That doesn't quite sum it all up, because it really was a good movie about being real with yourself and others. Although the movie didn't end on a depressing note, it just stirred up memories and feelings inside me that can't be shut off just because he was yelling into the abyss or because he got Natalie Portman as a girlfriend. That's like busting a dam and trying to stop it with some superglue. So, much like "The Breakfast Club," everybody walks into the sunset and though life is still screwed up and we don't know where to go from here, we accomplished something by letting it all out. It made me feel a little cynical about the modern self-help movement, but I realize that isn't the point of the movie.
You see, this is my problem with one part of the movie's message... It is a classic outworking in my mind of modern psychology. It doesn't give any real answers to life except to say that what everybody really needs to do is just get in touch with their true self and that will be the empowerment they need to live as fully as possible. It's classic Carl Rogers stuff. In the end, that leaves me just as empty honestly. Now, I know that we can all see the sunday school answer coming out: "Jesus!" But here's the deal, I'm well aware that we as Christians still deal with the same things as anyone that doesn't have Christ, but it is a totally different ballgame still. With Christ, I still deal with the same pile of manure, but I have His strength, His Spirit, and His hope... That's a long way from Rogerian Psychotherapy and from the modern day self-help movement. Dr. Phil's got lots of good stuff to say, but empowering the self is not the whole story. It's a salv for a wound that is too big for it to handle. So, that's one annoyance I had with the movie (not that I expected them to pull the God card necessarily, but I'm just complaining about modern psychology and it's removal of God).
Aside from my criticism of the movie, it helps us all understand where people are coming from in this world. It's good to look into the past and deal with the pains that are buried there. It's good to accept others as they are. All things the movie was putting across. Good flick... you should watch it :)
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