Hey folks, Harry here with the lovely, entrancing and sassy Dorothy Parker, who is galavanting around SXSW getting to the short hairs on each and every film she sees! This film, SAVED!, sounds like a very funny trip and a welcome humorous aside from the current raw flank steak state of religion in film today. So once again, Dorothy Parker (one of my best friends and sometimes site contributor) is covering SXSW. You may remember her Interview with Crispin Glover or her script review of Neil Gaiman's HIGH COST OF LIVING! SOOOO- Once again, Here's Dorothy...
Dearest Harry,
I just got back from my first screening at SXSW, and I’m happy to report I’m off to a good start! Tonight I caught Brian Dannelly’s new teen comedy, SAVED!
This movie reminds me of a book my friends and I all were handed right around pre-puberty, Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. You, Harry, have probably been lucky enough to remain ignorant of this delightful confessional about what it’s like to get your period—a book mom’s hand their daughters still today, never mind that sanitary napkin belts went out with the dinosaurs and Dalcon shield… But I digress. The bigger conflict in the book has nothing to do with the red coats coming; it has to do with Margaret’s struggle with organized religion Vs her personal belief in God.
Okay so, take that idea, complete with first-person female narrator, update the setting, give it lots of clever and self-effacing humor and you have the flavor of "Saved!".
With out too many spoilers, we follow Mary, played by Jena Malone, who has been a born-again Christian for as long as she remembers. Just before her senior year at her Baptist high school, her boyfriend Dean confesses to her that he is gay. Although they have been saving themselves for marriage, Mary believes that Jesus, through a vision she has after smacking her head on a swimming pool ladder, has told her to cure him, and she immediately begins a regime of therapeutic fondling and kissing. When this is unsuccessful, she goes that extra mile for her faith and has sex with him, but only succeeds in shaking her belief in her relationship with God when Dean’s parents discover gay contraband in his room a whisk him off to a deprogramming center. Things just get more complicated from there. At school Mary also has to deal with club leader Hilary Faye, played by Mandy Moore, who has made it her personal goal to redeem the school’s one Jewish student, Cassandra. Also throw in the mix Hilary’s younger brother, Roland played by Macaulay Culkin, a born again Atheist after a childhood accident lands him in a wheelchair, and even worse, in the charge of his zealot sister.
As the film began, I was very leery that it would be either treacle, or an acidic satire of the silly campaigns of faith-based religion. It’s not that I have anything against satire, but on this kind of subject matter, I don’t think yet another What Would Jesus Do? joke could really be fresh or funny. I’d rather see something more challenging. Initially, as we’re introduced to the Baptist high school, Mary’s friends, the clubs and the cliques, the spoof jokes are coming fast and furious, and I was worried that my fear was confirmed. Okay, wait, I’ll admit that I did like the Christian gun range t-shirts promoting taking an eye for an eye… But the pleasant surprise for me was that these gags only last for about as long as they could be funny—once the characters are introduced, the film’s humor comes from their development and dialog. As a Martin Donovan fan, I loved his turn as the school’s pastor who asks his students if they are “ready to get their Jesus on” or if they are “down with G.O.D.”
So the big question is with all the pot shots at religious slogans and faith arguments going on in this, who’s it going to piss off? That ‘s the bizarre thing. While Brian Dannelly was saying that MGM’s been all worried about letting this one out, I’d be surprised if anyone, Christian, Atheist, Buddhist or Snake Handler would be offended by it. The jokes are made from human situations with well-developed characters that you find yourself liking and relating to, not stereotypes. Aiding that end, I’m also thrilled that this is the first teen comedy I’ve seen in forever that doesn’t have over-dressed kids with air brushed faces. This praise is not to say that the conflict and issues brought up in the movie are toothless or light, but they are handled in an intelligent way that should promote thought and discussion—another element sorely missing in the recent films aimed at teenagers.
On that note, I’ll say goodnight. It is late, but I wanted to send you this before seeing more movies tomorrow!
Your ever faithful,
Dorothy Parker
