Blue Like Jazz

I loved Donald Miller’s BlueLike Jazz. And sadly I missed the movie when it hit theaters. But the DVDis out, so last night my hubby and I watched it.

Unlike the book, which is straight memoir, the film takesepisodes in the book and weaves a plot out of them.  When young Donald discovers his mom is havingan affair with his fundy Texas church’s youth pastor, Donald takes his likablepot-head dad up on his offer to leave and go to Reed College in Portland,Oregon. There Donald parties hard and tries to leave behind every shred of hisprevious sub-culture. And he’s dead-set on conforming to his new world by beinga non-conformist. But he discovers it’stougher than he thought to carve out a worldview devoid of any theologicalramifications.

The film is quirky. It shows Oregon (love that!—my oldstomping grounds), and it generally avoids stereotypes.  It’s the first Christian-produced film ofwhich I’m aware that portrays believers as really, really imperfect whileshowing unbelievers as totally likable characters. But ironically, in seekingto avoid stereotype, the filmmakers do show the fundy group as one a bigcaricature. I’m no fundy, but it still seemed to undermine some of the film’sauthenticity.  

  

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this film. It's genuinely funny.(Hilarious to see the real Donald Miller playing a bit part in the film as apatron of Powell’s Book Store.) And it deals with important themes. I once heard Steve Taylor, a driving force behind this movie, say that not every film with a Christian world view should be safe for the whole family. I agree. (Les Mis comes to mind.) And warning: this one definitely is not. 

Fourstars.