Windfall: Review

 

Windfall, directed by Charlie McDowell, is an Alfred Hitchcock style thriller that moves slow at first but picks up speed late and eventually loses control.

 It stars Jason Segel, Lily Collins and Jesse Plemons. Segal plays a thief who breaks into the vacation home of a tech billionaire (Plemons). In the course of looking for valuables in the house he hears the couple arriving and panics. Realizing he can’t get out without them knowing it, he takes them as hostages. He manages to hold them in a sauna with junk in front of the door while he bolts for his car. He spots a camera on the tree just as he is leaving and nervously goes back to the property and takes them hostage again.

The first thing I noticed was the look of the film. The opening shot shows an empty back porch with billowing curtains. The home is a 60’s ranch style that helps with the Hitchcock feel. Ominous music plays softly while the opening credits roll. The movie doesn’t assign any of the characters names, only positions. Plemons is known as CEO, Collins is Wife and Segel is just Nobody. This is the first clue that director Charlie McDowell was going for a kind of social commentary. Each person represents a class.

From the first scene it’s clear that Nobody intended to make a full day of robbing the estate. He’s seen sipping orange juice and staring off into the back property. He throws the glass when done and heads inside to rummage through the drawers. Nobody is a man enjoying the wealth all around him but despising it just the same, like an imposter. He’s also comfortable hanging out. He’s caught off guard by the arrival of the wealthy couple, which I interpreted as someone familiar with CEO’s schedule. He didn’t expect anyone to be home, but why?

Nobody’s diminishing sense of control matches the pace of the film. He’s on top of the world for a while but events quickly go beyond his reach.

 The first and second acts are slow moving and funny, a comedy of errors. The third act is quite tense as incidents threaten to turn the hostage situation into violence.

The best plan Nobody can come up with is to take enough money from the couple to disappear. CEO and Wife convince Nobody to take $500,000 because $150,000 isn’t enough to escape and start over. But they have to wait overnight for the money to arrive. This means they need to spend time together. Nobody can’t leave them alone or risk having them run off so he stays with them.

 Jason Segel is not suited for this role. He’s too likeable and boyish. He’s ill at ease with a gun and pouts when the couple doesn’t listen to him. He constantly reminds the couple that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone but he will if he has too. Somehow we just don’t believe it.

I have a few complaints about the movie but mostly praise. If this is social commentary we need a little more on why Nobody decided to break in and pretend to be a billionaire for at least a few hours. He’s presumable the main character and we have more questions about him than the other two characters. There is a gardener that makes an appearance for a short while helping to heighten the tension among the hostages. But primarily it’s only the 3. I didn’t feel much sympathy for Nobody and I kept wondering ‘Am I supposed to?’

CEO and wife play their parts brilliantly. We feel a tension between them that wasn’t initially there. As hostages we begin to see cracks in their ideal relationship. Given CEOs vast wealth and condescending attitude we don’t like him either. We’re sympathetic to Wife because of the way he treats her, telling her to ‘get close’ to Nobody to find out his plans. But it’s clear she traded whatever life she had for riches and fame. Her discomfort with CEO isn’t exactly a reason for us to root for her. Most marriages have elements of unhappiness.

Every character (or class) is out for their own self-interest, each one has a different idea of how to get there.

The transition from comedy to thriller seems to happen all at once, in the last 10 minutes. It’s too severe. I won’t call the finish a surprise as much as a jolt. The development of the characters doesn’t warrant it. Does McDowell want us to understand Nobody’s motivations even a little? If there is a hole in the story it’s Segel’s appropriately named Nobody. Maybe he isn’t the protagonist at all but the pretext to shake this marriage of convenience to its core.

I’m a sucker for simple stories about relationships. This one will work nicely as a play. It’s not Rear Window but it’s intriguing and holds interest on its own. I recommend.

Fit to Print: Anti-Christian Bias

 

Agenda Driven News

I think maybe I read too much of the news.

 It’s designed to depress so I do need to be careful with what I absorb. Sometimes I just think I’m not smart enough to absorb any of it. And if I was, would I even want to process it all? How much of what I’ve read is actually true? I think that’s the biggest realization I’ve come to. It probably seems dumb to start thinking about this right now. I’m in my early forties and just figuring out that maybe the news is a complete sham. I’m kind of embarrassed.

When I say sham I don’t mean that from the top to bottom the news is a lie. That would be too easy to disprove. But much of the top stories are stories that special interests care about. For instance, if I was a stakeholder in Moderna or Pfizer or any of the top drug manufacturers I’d be pushing a virus hard because we were about to develop a vaccine to fight it. It doesn’t even matter that the vaccine is crap and likely will lead to lawsuit hell in the next 10 years. My job is to raise the price of the stock.

 I know I know. Totally using a ridiculous example, it could never happen and all of that.

What Should I Think?

One tidbit I remember from my Communication class on Framing is this: ‘they can’t tell us what to think but they can tell us what to think about’. They in this case is the media. Whether TV, radio or the internet, the information spigots decide what to spew out and how to interpret it. I’m not one who thinks the local news shouldn’t report murders and robberies. I’ll call that straight news. Just tell us what happened.

But I don’t think we understand how much information we receive is agenda based. Elementary and Secondary education is practically a petri dish for social engineering.

The LGBT lobby pressures our schools to include sexually explicit images in the materials kids read. For the bullshit reason that gay and trans kids need a welcoming environment, nonsense. All LGBT excuses flow from the same lie. The real reason is to normalize same sex behavior at younger and younger ages. Why is there such a push to encourage boys to wear dresses? Gay is what you do not who you are. But the way media explains it, you’d think gays and lesbians were some racial ethnicity with a long sad history like the Jews. Remaking homosexuals into a victimized group has been an extremely successful campaign.

How has Information Changed?

In the past if you wanted the American people to know about your product or service you bought commercial air time. In some cases you might produce a documentary or try to go on a talk show and demonstrate. Even though Sunday morning infomercials you see before the football games are part of the same idea. But what if you can disseminate information through the very news people hear. If you are a global conglomerate that’s in league with other conglomerates and you want to push an idea of a humanistic world you do it through the news. Not directly but indirectly.

You fund important research into medicines and show doctors with their noses in microscopes desperately seeking the next cure. You would also fund government and economic schools that promote your humanistic agenda. Not to mention making sure that the best and brightest graduates saw the world the way you did. When you fund and promote programs that emphasize a particular world view you get graduates that trumpet your ideas. They go out into the world and change institutions in your likeness. They redefine traditional values, reject Creation and protect others just like them.

After a few decades you’ve got some solid bricks to build on. After a few more decades the institutions are remade and much of the traditional values crowd, Christians mostly, are outside looking in. You’ve also mostly squeezed any mention of Biblical truths, and those who support it, out of the public square. I had a Biology professor who was incredulous that one of his graduate level students believed in Biblical Creation. He ranted that anyone with ‘those views’ should stay out of his department.

Where to Now?

Even when we fight back it’s from a defensive position. We’ve been backed into a corner and the only decent response seems to be “I want the best for everyone honest!” Much of it is our fault of course. We believed the nonsense that wealth would create a more just future for our kids. And if only we just stopped banging on about abortion and gay marriage we could have been included in the great reordering.

I’m excited by what I see in Virginia and Florida and much of the parent/teacher throw downs over the Covid protocols. All parents need is a spark to start engaging again. It looks like the mask mandates have become that in many districts. With awareness comes change. We’ve ignored the kind of information that we’re consuming for too long and it’s become antagonistic toward truth. Education and media both demonstrate this. I can see a 20 year project for Christians to begin retaking institutions that are failing, like education, and making them sane again. 

One big market is the news business. Not every bit of information is colored by a world view or a corporate interest, but too much of is. The media landscape is due for an overhaul as well. We need to be discerning as snakes and as harmless as doves going forward or lose our ability to influence the future.

 

 

Ezra's Conviction for God's People

 

Lessons for Today: Ezra’s Conviction for his people

The essential question for the Christian believer is “Do I ever feel a sense of conviction for the things of God?” We can get too caught up in theological differences and esoteric reading of scripture. Certainly debate is important when dividing doctrine from heresy, truth from fable. But if scripture loses its ability to convict our hearts then it can’t work effectively bringing us into line with His will.

When we let the goodness of God lead us to repentance, we avoid much of the destruction that comes through disobedience.

The Decree

Ezra 9 and 10 focuses on the repentance for the collective, in this case exiled Hebrews.

Ezra was given a mandate from King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem with volunteers and begin executing the laws of God. Chapter 7 contains some language that puts Ezra squarely in charge of managing worship in and outside the temple. But more than that, he is to faithfully execute the law of Moses and follow the language of the letter.

“And you Ezra, according to your God-given wisdom, set magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are in the region beyond the River, all such as know the laws of you God and teach those who do not know them. Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgement be executed speedily on him, whether it be death, or banishment, or confiscations of goods, or imprisonment.” (verse 25-26)

Too Much Work

If you’ve ever started a job that turned out to me more than you bargained for you’ll sympathize with Ezra.

I had a two week job in high school counting inventory for a truck parts dealer. The only semi-fun part of the job was that I got to work with my friend Chris. We both were asked by the principal of our high school to work over Christmas break. His son was a salesman and needed help with their yearly inventory. The fact that they had a couple of high school kids count their parts told us both they didn’t care about perfect accuracy. 

Counting inventory is like toilet cleaning, best done by anyone else.

We were too young to work a regular job and needed the money. Every day we came home coughing up dirt and dust. The parts sat in old boxes with layers of dust that had built up over decades. Much of counting meant crawling into tight spaces on low shelving to read part numbers and lifting heavy engine components. We started early too; 6 am for a kid on Christmas break is brutal. We both agreed the job was more than we bargained for.

Tough Decisions

Ezra didn’t realize the extent to which the people had transgressed. For Ezra the job demanded dealing with the pagan intermarriages. Many of the Jews that had returned from the captivity had already transgressed the laws of Moses by intermarrying. You can see the problem here. The deed has already been done. What is Ezra to do now? That’s the thing about transgressions. God will get us back on the path but there is a price to pay and now it involved a spouse. In some cases it involved children as well.

We have a much better deal today. Everyone who accepts Christ is a new creature, even pagans raised in wickedness. But Ezra’s first real difficult decision is to send away the wives and children and turn the people back to God through covenant. To understand his deep shame for their sin we have to remember why the children of Israel were taken captive in the first place. It started the same way. Bringing in foreign gods and worshipping at alters that sacrificed babies, in a lot of cases. The Canaanites were particularly egregious with this.

Avoiding Calamity

God had warned them through so many prophets to turn from their evil ways, destroy the alters and stop marrying foreigners. They didn’t listen. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and took the court hostage. It was during this exile that leaders emerged who understood the importance of obedience to God and His law.

I can’t help thinking of how close this story tracks with us today. The United States at least is headed the way of Judah under King Zedekiah who led the last revolt before the temple was utterly destroyed. Babylonian captivity happened over the course of 3 separate invasions.  It doesn’t have to end with our nation’s destruction by a foreign power or a depression that ruins our global influence.

We don’t need to go through imprisonment and pray for mercy from the occupying force to rebuild our cities. God always provided favor with kings like Cyrus and Artaxerxes to make a way to rebuild. Today is different. Jesus gave us a mandate in the gospels to preach the good news. He equipped us with power and authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. The commission exists to bring the kingdom of God to earth and let the hearts of the people be turned to Him. (Luke 9:1-2).

Conclusion

Corruption and sexual perversion dominate in much of our centers of authority, yes the Church too. It causes a weakening in the structures like termites in an old Victorian mansion. If not caught and killed, the house collapses of its own weight.  Like Ezra, we need to let the conviction lead us back to redemption before we end up enslaved. If not for our individual sakes, then for the sake of the lost and broken. Because of Ezra's conviction, the people repented and avoided a second wave of imprisonment and death. It can be for us as well.

Growth and Renewal: Trust in the Gardener

 

Gardening for the Lazy

I noticed a tulip beginning its annual spring pop in my front yard.

I’d planted them last year on a whim. It wasn’t quite April when I went to Walmart looking for something tall to line up along the fence line. I settled on some bulbs (Gladiolus I think) that didn’t stand up right. They were too tall for their own good. Once the bud finally came out, they fell over of their own weight. Like an awkward skinny teenager they grew fast and fell over easy. I’m what you’d call an occasional gardener. I dig a hole in the yard once a year, toss in some bulbs and see what grows.

Despite my unsuccessful attempts at growing, tulips remain easy because they come up every year full of color. No matter how cold it is they always spring to life in mid March. Something about the growth through the snow reminded me that life pushes through despite the struggle of a tough winter. Put another way, God’s Creation is alive and bursting with purpose and intent even before we see the bloom.

Some plants are seasonal; when they are alive they cycle between growth and sleep.

 I’m not sure what the lifetime limit is on most flowers and plants. In this Oklahoma soil it can’t be very long. It’s sandy, nutrient-deprived and overcooks in the summer.

Learning to Grow

I’ve planted a number of lilies that come back bigger and better every year. But eventually their time (7 years maybe) runs out and no amount of water or miracle grow can bring them out of retirement. I don’t know a lot about plants but I’ve managed to grow a few and kill a few. For some reason I can’t keep evergreens around very long. The bagworms suck them dry. I only started spraying them a few years ago. I’m a little slow to catch on. The biggest problem for me is maintaining on the cheap, using as little water and effort as possible.

Not only do I not want to spend hours every week tending to the garden, I hate paying for the extra water. In my yard there is a simple rule for plants, if you can’t take the heat then wither on the vine. It’s a cruel reality for any plant unfortunate enough to be dug in around my property. 

Creative Genius

What was it about the tulip coming that the snow that made me think about God’s Creative genius? All creation reflects the image of its Creator. This is true in small and big ways. If you have a desk where you work it’s a reflection of your character, inspiration and interests. What pictures hang on the wall? Are they family pictures, sports teams, inspirational quotes, mountain vistas? Do you keep folders in neat stacks with different colors and tabs, or is does it look like the custodian rearranged it with a leaf blower? A work space resembles its creator in the most basic ways, as do cars and homes.

In a larger way our life reflects our creativity or destructive tendencies. Creativity is a gift from God while destruction is from Satan. Both forces compete for our legacy. Figuring out what grows best in a particular reminds me of George Washington Carver. If there was ever a creative genius whose left an outsize impact on agriculture it’s Carver. He’s known for introducing the peanut as a cash crop in the South and the multitude of uses for it. 

But he also showed poor farmers how to rotate crops, cotton being a nutrient hog, and get the most out of the land. A researcher and teacher at Tuskegee Institute, he raised the standard of living in much of the South. He thrived despite some obvious setbacks. Blacks had few options for school and despite his genius in a variety of subjects like art, botany and chemistry he left an outsized legacy on this country.

Rest in the Promise

Creativity brings joy and inspires the next generation, destruction brings harm and leaves bitterness in its wake. Both are easy to spot, both come from roots left in the ground from the past. Wars are the outgrowth of destructive tendencies. Think of the last century and the dictators who destroyed countless lives in pursuit of power or notions of “purity”. 

Plants are a small way to understand the creative genius of our God. Trees can outlive even the most active and healthy people. Other plants, like those sad flowers from last year, barely make a full summer before the heat crushes their spirit. Or before the one who is supposed to care for them, me, gets bored with it. But life in all its forms should inspire us to look to Him for our strength. Like those hardy tulips pushing through the snow, we should rest in the design of our Maker and not our own toughness.

It’s in His purpose that we thrive. Through cold, rain, wind, and even oppressive heat we spring to life in His perfect timing. It’s coded in our DNA, we grow for a time and then we wait. Trust in the gardener Who tends to our souls. His plan of growth and renewal is just right.

"Being confident of this, that he who begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6 (NIV) 

 

 

Russia Kicks Out Corporate Media

 

I had to laugh at this news story from yesterday. So Russia is going to punish disinformation (ake news) with a hefty fine? Naturally the BBC and CNN pulled their official journalists out. I wonder if they’re worried that the state could impose its own meaning of “disinformation”. Would a government actually tell reporters what's not allowed? ahem. Sort of like Biden and Harris threatening Facebook and Twitter for not being tough enough on news they don’t like. Already many Ukrainian officials have lied about Putin’s attack on Zaporizhzhia where a nuclear power station sits.

The United States ambassador to the UN said Russia was closing in on the nuclear reactor and the danger was “imminent”. Ukrainian government officials claimed the Russians were firing on all sides and radiation levels were up. All total nonsense as it turns out. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had to set the record straight that radiation levels were “normal”. So I guess Russia isn’t going to be lectured to about press freedoms from Western governments who gleefully shut down opposition at home. How many accounts has Facebook killed off? Twitter? And for putting out information about Covid from non-approved regime doctors?

Just when you start feeling bad for Ukraine, more Western lies get exposed and you start wondering who the good guys are in this whole war. Someone at work today mentioned how crazy Putin was for attacking a nearby country. She’d been watching the local stations and reading popular websites like Yahoo. I don’t blame her for thinking that. Vladimir Putin is a lot of things, few of them good, but he isn’t crazy. He wants control of what he sees as his sphere of influence. We’ve actually been in an information war for far longer than I even realized. I probably should have realized it sooner. The Russians stole the 2016 election, really?

The press keep getting away with lies like this. Even when they set the record straight years later, the damage is done. Too many Americans still think Putin conspired with Trump to steal an election.

The Democrat media complex is especially shameless on this front. Every bit of news that makes them look bad is Russian disinformation. The Hunter Biden laptop story where he is seen strung out on drugs was supposedly disinformation. Over 50 intelligence experts can’t be wrong goes the thinking. So interested in destroying the Biden campaign, are those sneaky Russians, that they cooked up this shameful ordeal to destroy the good name of a fine artist. Politico didn’t verify its authenticity; they just blasted it out there. Who needs to bother with the truth, just insinuate and carry the water for a while. When the election is over you can get your credibility back and explain how you never actually confirmed it.

Rush Limbaugh had a phrase for the main stream media, “Drive By Media”... Indeed.

Who can forget the “White Coat Summit” at the White House in July of 2020 where the frontline doctors promoted Hydroxychloroquine for Covid 19. They also took a few shots at Fauci if I remember correctly. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all restricted sharing of the video due to “false information”. I’m surprised big tech didn’t blame Russia for this too. Moscow takes a lot of arrows for doing what big tech invented. Not that the Russians don’t have their own war rooms full of hackers trying to break into Western governments, but at a certain point the lie stretches too far. 

They aren’t even that strong of a country. They’re an energy state with a declining population.

But they have a strong leader who doesn’t apologize for drilling oil and trying to recover a sphere of influence. He is legitimately worried about NATO expanding too close to his borders, which is part of his beef with Ukraine. Ukraine wants to be under the NATO defense umbrella. 

I don’t blame him for insisting Western media outlets be fined for reporting lies about military advances. We know full well how all-consuming the media can be, even working against their own side if the politics aren’t right. I understand how letting a president tell  reporters what to say is a gross violation of freedom of the press. But we are so far beyond an honest press that the argument feels out of date. There are bright spots here and there but corporate media is largely an arm of the deep state. If you’re a leader trying to conduct a military campaign and the press is actively working against you, how would you react?

I’d kick them out too.