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Sporadic photos and notes from a Psyche-midwife, cheerleader, anthropologist--aka clinical social worker in therapy practice. Photos are usually mine except for those of historical events/famous people. Music relevant to the daily topic is often included in a web video embedded below the blog. Click on highlighted links in the copy to get to source or supplemental material. For contact information, see my website @ janasvoboda.com or click on the button to the right below. Join in the conversation.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Cerebral Soulful Cinema: Captain Fantastic lives up to its name.



“You," he said, "are a terribly real thing in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much pain.” –Emilie Autumn




If you’re local-ish, head down to the quirky delight that is Albany, Oregon’s Pix Theatre for a showing of Captain Fantastic, and see what good movies are made of.


There’s lots of types of good movies.  Some tell a tiny story with gem-like detail.  Some create a wormhole for your mind to escape life for a couple of hours.  And brilliant ones like Captain Fantastic let you live deeply in another life, which might not look anything like yours on the surface but has all the essential ingredients of not just a good story but a real life:  realism in emotion, sometimes brutal honesty, true in-the-moment ecstatic joy and sorry and confusion and clear purpose and wisdom and big sticky messes.  “Oh, this life of mud and miracles”, sings Richard Bucknard.  “It’s just the prettiest little burden, isn’t it.”

There’s plenty of all of this bounty in one two hour movie about a family on the outside.  Cultures clash, there is dancing and love and hating and death and joy.  And there are ideals that cannot be manifested without smashing into opposing ideals.  It’s about family, and worlds we wish to create and the cost of being a creator.  It’s simply the closest capture to how things really are, even when it is pushing an extended metaphor as an explanation.

Go see it.  Let it stir up some values checks for you. Let it remind you of our common need and fear of connections. 

Playing this week at the Pix in Albany.

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