Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

beorhouse I know there is a book. I own it, but haven't read it. But it is rarely fair to hold a film adaptation up to its original book. First of all, this film was directed by none other than Steve Taylor--one of the foremost Christian apophatic thinkers alive today, and always seemingly in a war with fundamentalist cataphatic theologians much as was Symeon the New Theologian during his era. Secondly, with all of the schlock film that appears which carries the label "Christian," this film, in my estimation, is the first to not be afraid to show the world as it really is, college as it really is, and the Liberal world of the Pacific Northwest as it really is. The acting is excellent, the humor and wit are funny and well-placed (and paced), and if you look closely, these are seasoned semi-famous stars, not Christian college thespian wannabe's. If you like the post-postmodern viewpoint, and hated Saved! on one end and God's Not Dead 1,2, and 3 on the other, then this film was made for you.

coyotecall-1 Frankly, when the "Previews" began prior to this movie running on DVD they seem to set the tone that what was to follow was going to be one of those "Christian" movies, the kind that are selling a particular religious point of view. My finger was on the "Off" button from the beginning and just about 80% through....but little by little I found myself relaxing about that "issue" and at the end was sold on this: this is a fine movie, well written, acted and directed and if the only message anyone takes away from this is one about compassion and empathy for fellow human beings, then that's all that has to be said. I guess at 78 I'm older than most of the people who come to this page, I don't even know what "IMDb" stands for....and it doesn't matter to me, but my age means that I go back quite a ways when considering the numbers of movies watched. With that in mind I'll use my time-in-grade to claim high ground for this one, it is one of the best....ever. I'd watch it again, and I do that very, very rarely.

lagudafuad Blue Like Jazz comes out strong, you start and you feel, "this is going to be great", but then it carries on, on weak acting by some of the cast and a very weak script that makes you want to get up and walk away, the movie message is good and it does preach commitment to Christ.The movie message can be easily related to, as a Christian I know of times (when I was new in the faith) that I concealed my identity of being a Christian just to blend in, the movie's message rides on that; it rides on a Christian trying to be part of the world, forgetting that we are but on a pilgrimage in this world and heaven is our final destination.Based on a book of the same name written by Donald Miller, it (the book) is a semi-autobiographical work, and on the cover the book is subtitled "Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality," I happen not to have ready the book, but from the movie I believe it is named such because of the protagonist father's love for Jazz, and the fact that he was the person that pointed the protagonist in the direction where doubt looms.The book and movie plot follows the life of Don, a nineteen-year-old sophomore at a Texas junior college. Don moves to Pacific Northwest, where he learns that being a Christian makes you an outcast, so in order to escape his Biblical background and Biblical way of life, Don does everything possible to make sure he is part of the cool kids, even denying his faith.Before watching I did a little research to know what I am getting in to, some people say the movie is a Christian movie, the director claims that it is not, just a regular movie with religious undertones. I have seen the movie and I wonder how people didn't see it in the same view as the director. Also the movie actually came to being from the contributions put together by fans of the book (and more) from the Kickstarter website. The names of the contributors can be seen at the end of the movie, in the credits.In conclusion, the movie message is great as I said before, but the implementation is just canny the director is trying to cover up a Christian film with a lot of worldly additions just to make the movie look secular. He added controversial things like cursing and homosexuality, knowing that many have different views concerning such. This movie could have been better, but since I have not read the book, I can't ascertain that the story in the movie has strayed from the original, but I can ascertain this though I didn't like this film.www.lagsreviews.com

jdesando Whether we like it or not, college is an existential odyssey landing us in more uncertain territory than we began. I attended liberal Georgetown University as an already well-trained Catholic boy. I left an agnostic happy in his dilemmas, uncertain as hell about God but ready to spend a life searching for truth and beauty, both of which I found thanks to that Jesuit education.Ratchet up that liberalism to arguably the most liberal college in the US, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, set the movie Blue Like Jazz square in the middle of that progressive world, and you have fertile ground for a young Baptist, Don (Marshall Allman), from conservative East Texas learn about ambiguity and find God in strange places. It's a gentle, counter culture film about secular extremism that actually leads Don to an understanding of religion transcending Christian moms and hypocritical pastors.Blue Like Jazz is successful showing the liberating nature of a college where the average student IQ is 138, classroom discussions pit cultures against each other to find common ground, and one is free to express to the delight and challenge of others. The film fails, however, to provide a coherent point of view because of its passion for discursive episodes not always linked by motif or theme. Just too many eccentrics and not enough time.The defining event of the search for godlessness leading to God is Renn Fayre, the annual selection of a "Pope," meant to be a mockery of exalted Catholicism that turns out to be a growth point in the intellectual journey of freshman Don. He turns out to be not unlike the Graduate's Benjamin, naïve but on his glacial way to enlightenment.Blue Like Jazz is a charming, incoherent coming-of-age film that made me nostalgic for the low-key anarchy of Georgetown, where I may have grown away from the orthodoxy of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in favor of the secular humanism of the Jesuits, but where even I have to admit uncertainty about the existence of God is a pleasant antidote to the uncompromising certainty of the Baltimore Catechism.