The Awesome God Project™®©

There are several accepted facts in my family.  Things that we all know, unquestionably, and are weaved into the family fabric.  A lot of these have to do with Star Trek, the unspoken show rankings, and that any TV show viewing can be pre-empted by a Star Trek episode of any series at any time (minus pre-beard Riker).  Two of these are less well known, but equally important in the collective consciousness: (1) Simon and Garfunkel is beloved by all and acceptable at any family function; (2) We know good organ music.  (2) is slightly tricky, none of us really know how to play the organ, or the mechanics of what makes a good organ player.  Intern/Music major Jordan has a better knowledge than most of us, but his specialty is the cello and properly bowing to an audience (see his twitter feed for critiques on the musicians bows at Traverse City Film Festival).  Nevertheless, we were exposed to good organ music early, the organist at our church played phenomenally as did the Musical Director.  After that, we instinctively knew what good organ playing should sound like, and that most churches don’t have it.  It’s an odd sixth sense, but once you know good organ music, you don’t settle for less.

Troubled Water combines the two accepted facts into one: an organ version of Bridge Over Troubled Waters.  And not a haphazardly arranged, slapped together version, but one perfectly designed for the strengths of the organ.  When Jan Thomas, the organist, plays Bridge for a group of touring school children in the church, the dynamics of the arrangements stunned me – I didn’t even know the organ could sound like that, and my unspoken rules knows what the organ should sound like.  The outstanding organ music didn’t stop (or even start) there, and neither did the stunned feeling.

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This is a light afternoon, but I squeaked in two films over the past 14 hours, so here’s a quick capsule review of how Paul Simon changed my life and The Lemon Tree  got a little sour (HEY-O! PUNNAGE!).

Troubled Waters: Norwegian director Erik Poppe managed to sucessfully incorporate an organ arrangement of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”, and a dual timeline narrative structure into a film about atonement and second chances.  When a subtitled film keeps you on the edge of your seat (literally) and tearing up, it’s usually thanks to the strong story but also all the nonverbal elements you learned in school: outstanding acting, amazing visuals, and incredible music.  This was the opening night film, and might’ve been a bad choice because nothing can live up to this film.  I’ve already pegged this film for a full review later on.

Lemon Tree: I’m not a big lemon fan, I try to avoid anything that advertises “With Lemon!”  On the first sip I’m always intrigued but future sips leave my disappointed and cursing my stupidity thinking I like it.  Same goes for The Lemon Tree, an Israeli film, the film focuses on a court battle between a Palestinian woman who’s lemon grove is to be chopped down by the Israeli military when the Israeli Defense Minister moves next door.  The film explores the ancient struggle between the Palestinian’s and Israeli’s and all the emotions that come with.  A compelling story is killed by the pacing in the second half of the film.

I have another film tonight, The Cove which was described by Peter Travers of The Rolling Stone as “A cross between ‘Flipper’ & ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’”, how can I say no?