Mormon Life - Movies tag

Just Asking: Interview with Movie Star Jon Heder

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by LDS Living
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Known for his breakout role in Napolean Dynomite, Jon Heder continues to find roles in comedic films, but manages to stay true to his Mormon values. LDS Living recently caught up with him.

You’ve played characters with a wide variety of talents including dancing, ice skating, and street magic. What skill was the most fun to learn for a role?

I’d say ice-skating was definitely the most fun I had preparing for a role. I actually broke my ankle a few weeks into training, but after some rescheduling I was still given enough time to heal and train for a month or so before filming the skating routines. I had skated only a few times growing up, so it was pretty new to me, but I took to it pretty quickly and truly enjoyed it. The only problem is, it’s not the easiest pastime sport to keep up and practice at. You need an ice rink, and once you find one you have to share it with all these other strangers who are way better than you and you get a little self-conscious around when you try to get your freestyle-groove on.

What steps do you take while deciding how to portray a character?

Well, I read the script a few times to try and really understand the character first. I talk with the director and/or writer and discuss their vision of the character in terms of the character’s life experience, past relationships, attributes, goals, etc. I then take those aspects and mix them with my own attributes and point-of-view, and try to come up with a character whose shoes I understand and can fit into. Its also very physical to me. How the character walks and talks and moves and runs…all that stuff is very important to me in creating a character.

How does being a father influence the roles you choose to take?

Being a father is a just a small part of everything that influences my decisions regarding my roles. Being a son, a husband, a father, a brother, a church member, a Scoutmaster, etc…everything I am influences my choices. Every job I take, I think about how it will affect my abilities to fulfill the duties required by each of these roles in my life.

What has been your favorite role thus far?

I think its expected, but Napoleon Dynamite has still been my favorite role and movie to be in. It was my first film, an absolute labor of love made with a lot of my college buddies who weren’t making it by Hollywood standards, and the world we created was and still is just so funny and endearing to me. I love those characters so much, and they are so similar to the environment I was raised in. Way before it ever broke out in popularity, we (everybody involved in the making of the film) KNEW this was a funny world with funny people. But I had no idea if it would ever see the light of day. I just cared about having a copy of it on DVD for myself so that I could show it to friends and family.

Napoleon Dynamite struggled to fit in in high school. What were you like in high school?

Almost the same. I certainly wasn’t smooth with the ladies, and I only hung out with my brother and a few other friends on weekends making videos and exploring forests instead of going to the football games and parties. But at least I was aware of how awkward I was, unlike Napoleon.

You have an identical twin. Have you ever tried to switch lives?

Maybe not lives. But classrooms, yes. In 6th grade we switched class for an entire day. His teacher was in on it, but my teacher was an older lady who was a little “off.” But we paid the price because my teacher gave the kids a quiz which my brother obviously wasn’t prepared for. But what did it matter to him? It was my records the poor scores were put onto.

What projects do you have in the works right now? Are you planning on doing another movie soon?

Well, I keep getting asked if I’m doing a Napoleon Dynamite 2…unfortunately no, but we ARE doing a Napoleon Dynamite animated series for Fox that premieres Jan. 8th, 2012. And we have the entire original cast doing the voices. I’m extremely proud of it and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

What are your favorite movies? What's funny to you?

Hmmm . . . I think I’m more like Napoleon here. I love fantasy and sci-fi, tragic humor, poignant comedies, Pixar, zombies, creepy alien abduction films, Japanese anime and samurai films, and lots and lots of stuff.

You studied animation in college, and you’ve provided the voice for several animated characters. Did you intend to end up in front of the camera or do you miss working in animation?

I do miss working in animation. I really loved the creative process and bringing characters to life. But acting is also bringing characters to life. I acted more as a hobby, but when that took off I really fell in love with it. However, I plan on getting behind the camera more in my career and hope to produce and direct more projects in the future, both animated and live-action. While still acting as long as I can.

Do you ever find your values as a member in conflict with aspects of your career? How do you reconcile them?

I definitely try to direct my career down a path that won’t conflict with my values, and it can be very hard sometimes, especially when it limits your options and field of comfort, but the values and standards that I try to live by have been a part of my life since I was born, and I believe I will always receive blessings as long as I stick to my guns.

What is it like as a celebrity trying to raise your family? Are there difficult aspects of being famous? How do you deal with them?

It doesn’t really affect how I raise my family. My kids really have no idea what’s going on yet, so they’re not bothered by it. In fact, they like jumping in the middle of a fan picture. I guess when I’m at Disneyland, I get approached a lot and that keeps my kids from getting on the Dumbo ride all the sooner, so I suppose that affects my family experience, right?

Who do you consider your hero?

My father, my wife, my church leaders, and my mission president.

How often do people ask you to do the Napoleon dance? Can you still do it?

All the time. And “can I still do it,” really isn’t the right question. I never learned it. It was all spur of the moment, made-up right there on the stage…lightning doesn’t strike twice!

The Delights and Dangers of Media

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:05:00 -0700

by Briana Stewart
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Oh, multimedia. We love you. We loathe you. We can’t imagine our thumbs without you. While this reality of modern life can leave us at a loss for controlling exposure, we can start by looking at the truth and consequences.

The average youth devotes nearly eight hours to media every day. (Why yes, that is more than a full-time job.) Forty-three percent of children ages 4 to 6 have a TV in their bedroom. Seventy percent of teens have their own video game console. And in 64 percent of American homes, the TV is on during mealtime. But whether our media T-shirt dons “I heart” or “I abhor,” the responsibility lies squarely with the “I.”

“The media is like any other tool. You can use it in a positive way or a negative one,” says Brad J. Bushman, a professor in the school of communication at Ohio State University. “Think of it like an ax. An ax can be used to chop wood for the fireplace to keep you warm for the winter—or it can be used to murder someone. It all comes down to the way we choose to use it.”

And we definitely do have choices: television, movies, computers, video games, tablets, books, iPods, magazines, smartphones, the Internet. Each has the capability of enhancing and entertaining our lives, and each can just as easily invite (and glorify) content that is violent, sexual, aggressive, or profane.

What you see is clearly what you get. “The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life,” said Elder Russell M. Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in a 2003 general conference address. “Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.”

Church Members and the Media

Samantha Murphey is a media maven.

As a child, she was an avid reader who wanted to be a newspaper reporter. She thought about the way stories were told in the programming she viewed, and although “it may sound silly,” she says watching programs like “Boy Meets World” and “Remember the Titans” helped her develop her own creative style.

Now, as a married woman in her 20s, she’s a journalist, blogger, and creator of the website “Scarlett, Called Scout,” which details “girly things, deep things, and girly deep things.”

“Media makes me feel connected to the world beyond my daily human interactions,” says Murphey, who currently resides in Georgia. “It’s a source of news, entertainment, education, and communication.”

But even as someone who’s keyed up by technology, she knows her limits.

“It can make me feel connected, engaged, and edified if I use it wisely—or sapped of energy and motivation if I abuse it,” she says. “The media can be a real timesucker if you’re not careful.”

That fluctuation between feeling edified and feeling sapped by the media is likely common for Latter-day Saints. But the “careful” component is where things get atypical.

“If you take a typical LDS neighborhood, families are pretty consistent with their standards when it comes to things like sex before marriage, drug use, cigarette use, etc.,” says Sarah Coyne, an assistant professor of family life at BYU. “But when it comes to media standards, we’re really all over the place. Some have extremely strict rules, others have no rules at all, and the rest are somewhere in between.”

Why the disconnect?

“A lot of people don’t believe in the studies. They think what they watch doesn’t affect them, so they watch what they want, when they want,” Coyne says. “None of us want to think we are susceptible.

In many ways, it’s convenient not to believe.”

“People tend to think they’re not affected when it comes to things that are harmful,” Bushman adds. “Whether that’s . . . driving fast or watching a TV show—people generally think they are immune. The truth is nobody can escape the consequences.”

Watch Out

So what should we be on the lookout for? The list is akin to the “Sunday School answers,” in that we already know (and know better). Namely, sexual content, violence, profanity, verbal aggression,

substance abuse, and negative body images, which are well known and well documented in their effects.

“When it comes to this kind of content, you’re really taking a gamble—you can desensitize yourself,” says Keven R. Downs, a licensed clinical social worker in Utah. “And that’s doubly true when it comes to

your kids. When they’re exposed to things they’re not developmentally ready for, there’s potential for great harm. You might not see the effects today, but it can come out later in life.”

Equally damaging is content that is subtler in nature.

“Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral,” Elder Ballard said in that same 2003 conference address. “Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families.”

And it’s something members are catching onto.

“I’m not most offended by a specific type of objectionable content, but by objectionable content that is subversive,” Murphey says. “Often writers or producers infuse harmful political or commercial messages into their works but do so subtly, so that viewers are influenced without even realizing it. It’s much more effective, and therefore much more dangerous, than overt offensive messages. Blatant offensive content can be scarring and can cause an erosion of spirituality, to be sure, but subtle offensive content can cause paradigm shifts that are deep-rooted and binding.”

What’s more, it’s not just the quality of programming we need to watch out for—it’s quantity. According to The Kaiser Family Foundation, 66 percent of American kids own a cell phone, and they spend more time watching TV on their phones (49 minutes a day) than actually talking on them (33 minutes a day). Almost 50 percent of kids use media while doing homework. And the Media Violence Resource Center reported that the video game industry made $20 billion in 2010 thanks to the 300 million video games that were sold.

“There’s such an addictive quality to the media,” Downs says. “And it can have some seriously powerful consequences.”

Chief among them? Being devoid of the Spirit. “The Spirit can’t dwell in homes corrupted by damaging media content,” Coyne says. “It just can’t.”

Not “Just” Violence

One area that should be singled out is violence—if for no other reason than it’s typically downplayed.

“Violence is everywhere—it’s in fictional TV shows, in our news programs, and even in our kids’ cartoons,” says Coyne, who has conducted numerous studies on the effects of media violence. “There’s a general desensitization going on. We’re not accustomed to seeing sexual content at a young age, so we tend to be more aware of that when we see it later in life. But when it comes to violence, we’re just used to it.”

And she’s not kidding. According to the Media Violence Resource Center, by the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school, he or she will have seen 8,000 murders on television. For every 10 minutes of playing video or computer games, boys between the ages of 8 and 18 will see between two and 124 acts of violence. In video games rated as Teen or Mature, players will see more than 180 violent acts every 40 minutes, or 5,400 violent acts per month.

“It’s unbelievable to me that people don’t see how harmful media violence is, especially when the research is far more clear than any other area,” says Bushman, who is well known for his research on the

effects of violence in the media. “It’s what I’m most concerned about.”

So how harmful is all this violence, really?

“It can increase our aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and even increase our blood pressure,” Bushman says. “It can also decrease feelings of empathy and compassion.”

“Some kids who have been exposed to horror films have shown the same symptoms of children who’ve been traumatized,” Downs adds.

Equally dangerous (and often confusing) is when even the media’s “heroes” are using violence as a way to solve problems.

“I really don’t like violence because it is so glamorized in the media,” says Natalie Hollingshead, a Utah mother of two. “Even the so-called good guys on TV or in movies use a lot of violence, and I think it’s gradually numbing viewers. The violence is so elaborate that it is ‘cool,’ which really worries me as a parent.”

And it’s not just physical violence, either. Relational aggression can have similarly damaging effects.

“The media is overflowing with awful examples of how to speak to and treat other people,” says Coyne, who conducted a study on the effects of the aggression we witness in reality TV. “We need to be careful of every program we bring into our homes.”

To read the full article and get expert advice on setting boundaries for the media in your home, check out the full article in LDS Living's January/February 2012 issue. Click here to subscribe.

'Unitards' Official Movie Trailer

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:31:00 -0700

source: youtube.com

A lot of readers have expressed concern over the film's title and message. Scott Featherstone (who produced the film) has publicly apologized on Facebook for the misunderstanding. You can read it here.

'Singles Ward' actor Will Swenson engaged to actress, singer Audra McDonald

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:20:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: He's the main character, Jonathan, in "Singles Ward."

Audra McDonald, of ABC’s “Private Practice,” is engaged to Broadway star and "Singles Ward" actor Will Swenson. According to PlayBill.com, the couple became engaged on New Year’s Day.

{A&E} Ultimate Guide: Finding Clean Movies

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:05:00 -0600

by Kaela Worthen
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: In my quest to resolve my love of movies with my frustration at spending money on something not worthwhile, I found the following sites that help me screen movie content for sex, violence, and other things beforehand.

I love movies. A lot. But what I don’t love is the extraneous sex and gore often thrown in, in base attempts to appeal to the masses.

We, a peculiar people, are not the masses, which means a lot of times this doesn’t appeal to us, and we get stuck in sticky situations. It’s easy to turn off the TV or close out of Netflix when you’re at home watching something on your own. But what about when you’re with other people? What about when you’ve paid 10 bucks to go to the theater? Do you cover your eyes? Walk out? Or laugh along?

I often find myself wishing I could know exactly what was going to be in a movie I’m thinking about seeing as far as questionable content is concerned. Some things I would rather not see at all, some I would watch with my best friend but not my parents, and some are only a problem when very little children are around.

But how am I to know? There is actually a wealth of resources on the web to help screen your movie choices for you. Since I recently watched The Help in theaters when some family members came to visit, I decided to use the movie as a method of comparison on some of the top sites I found.

Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org)
This site has a great balance of features when it comes to movie content review sites. Using ratings on a scale of 1 to 5, it evaluates positive messages; positive role models; violence; sex; language; consumerism; and drinking, drugs, and smoking. Each rating has a paragraph explaining the rating it received, as well as an overall “What parents need to know” introductory paragraph. I love the age ratings: They have a chart starting at age 2 and continuing to 17: red means they shouldn’t see it, green means it should be a good fit, and yellow means it depends on the kid. The Help was acceptable to any kid age 12 and up, according to this site, while 10-year-olds fell in the yellow category. One of the best features is that it brings up questions that you may want to discuss with your children after the movie.

Kids in Mind (kids-in-mind.com)
This site does not have the breadth of Common Sense Media, using a scale of 1 to 10 to rate questionable material in only three categories: sex & nudity, violence & gore, and profanity. But if you want to know exactly what to expect, this site is the place to go. It details an extremely comprehensive list of all the instances of such content in each category. You can be sure nothing will be missed as it catches all the fine details: Point number seven in the list of 21 instances of violence in The Help says that “A woman has a bloody cut on her swollen eyebrow and another woman implies that she knows that a man had harmed her; the woman winces in pain as the other woman cleans her wound.”

Deseret News Family Media Guide (deseretnews.com/familymedia)
This site, in its beta stage, uses content descriptions and 1 to 10 scales from Kids in Mind, but it has a couple interesting and unique features. The most interesting is the "What do you think this movie should be rated?" feature, which allows you to see how viewers would rate the movie (and, in turn, how the 1 to 10 scales match up with viewers' sensitivity). Most movies are on par with the MPAA's rating, but you'll ocassionally come across a movie that viewers think was rated too leniently. There's also a "worth your time" scale, which isn't super novel, but is still helpful for recommendations. For our example, most people think The Help is accurately rated as PG-13, skewing toward PG, and it has a 94% "worth your time" rating.

Movie Mom (blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom)
Originally Nell Minow started the “Movie Mom” column on Yahoo! movies, and my family used her reviews all the time to decide if we would go see a movie (or we would even call home from the video store—when those still existed—to have someone check the site before we rented one). The age ratings always seem pretty on target to me: while The Help was acceptable for middle school students according to Movie Mom, some other PG-13 movies were only for “mature high school students.” She addresses the same basic categories as many other sites but also writes a full review of the movie that incorporates those issues, something many other similar sites lack. At the end, she covers family discussion topics and suggestions for similar movies if you like the one you’re currently reading about. Unfortunately, the site is extremely hard to navigate, so it may take some work to find the review of the specific movie you’re looking for if it’s not recent enough to already be on the home page.

Parent Previews (parentpreviews.com)
This site ties with Common Sense Media for the best overall balance of breadth and depth, in my opinion. Each movie is signed an overall grade (just like in school), as well as a grade in four classes: violence, sexual content, language, and drugs/alcohol. You can click through the tabs to see an overview of the film, detailed review, content review (elaborating on the ratings for questionable content), a “talk it over” section with discussion questions, suggestions for other films to watch, reader comments, video trailers/clips, and even ratings in other locations (The Help is PG-13 in the U.S. but only PG in Canada; in Quebec it’s just G).

How do you decide which movies to watch? Do you have other websites you use? Let us know in the comments below.

— 

Kaela Worthen is the associate editor at LDS Living. A self-titled “ultimate grammar nerd,” she also battles serious addictions to news and food websites and a compulsion to dance to the radio while driving.

{A&E} Favorite LDS Film Contest Winners

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:03:00 -0600

by Kate Ensign-Lewis
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Announcing the best LDS films in Comedy and Drama categories . . . Not like the winners are any big secret -- you could easily take a jaunt over to our most recent poll and see the results. But we think it's fun to announce the winners officially. (Of interest: three of the four movies that earned the title of winner or runner up are about missionaries.)

Best Comedy:

The Singles Ward (2002)

With 45% of the votes, the top comedy goes to one of the most quoted LDS movies. No surprises here, really, considering this was the genesis of Mormon comedy films. It was the first of the corny, satirical flicks, and as such, earns its stripes among the most memorable of LDS films.

Facts about The Singles Ward:

Autobiographical about stand up comedian John Moyer and his experiences as a single Mormon

Grossed $1.2 million -- impressive for such a culture-specific film
Steve Young's official character name in the movie is "Bro. Niner"

Runner up, Best Comedy:
The R.M. (2003)

This movie got 26% of the votes for comedies. I was a bit surprised that this got second place -- I'm not going to lie. Kirby is a fun guy and entertaining actor, but the only time I saw the movie, I had a hard time watching. There are so many painfully uncomfortable situations! But it's classic in its continued, endearing satire of LDS culture.

Facts about The R.M.:

According to IMDb, the set for the room main character Jared shares with Humu was built in a prison. (I wonder what the full story behind that is.)

Look closely at the door of the Phelps home -- it changes from pink to green.

With these two comedy winners, it shows that we enjoy laughing at ourselves -- a good trait, I think.

Best Drama:
The Other Side of Heaven (2001)

The popularity for drama movies was not nearly as clear-cut as the comedies were, and this movie won with only 29% of votes (beating out the runner up by only 3%). Since this was made by Disney, it is perhaps the best produced of the films in the competition. The source material for the movie was Elder Groberg's popular autobiographical In the Eye of the Storm, detailing incredible, sometimes humorous, and sometimes inspirational stories of being a Mormon missionary in Tonga. The film is unique for its focus on the universal themes of the Mormon missionary experience, so it appeals to a broader audience than some of the other Mormon films. (On a side note: it's startling to think that the sweet character of the would-be Sister Groberg is played by a woman who will be Catwoman in the next of the Batman movies.)

Facts:

The director, producer, and many of the film crew were LDS; this is one reason Deseret Book was comfortable selling rights of Elder Groberg's book

The soles of Elder Groberg's feet really were eaten by rats as he slept, as depicted in the movie; the treatment for the injuries -- searing the soles of his feet with the sun -- later caused skin cancer on the bottom of his feet, a condition that initially perplexed his doctor

Runner up, Best Drama:
The Best Two Years (2004)

Our drama runner up also describes the Mormon missionary experience, although this one does it with a little more of the spiritual than The Other Side of Heaven. I originally thought of this as a comedy, and apparently camps are split on whether it's comedy or drama -- it has elements of both. The movie is noted for its favorable critical reception, and it has the highest critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes (73%) of all the movies mentioned here. One critic from Filmcritic.com even said, "If you see one Mormon movie in your life . . . this is the one to see."

Facts about The Best Two Years:

Is based on a stage play, The Best Two Years of My Life, by Scott Anderson (who considers it a comedy)

Many of Elder Van Pelt's Dutch grammatical corrections are, in fact, incorrect
The movie's soundtrack was put together by beloved LDS musician Michael McLean
Gordon Jump, known as Chief of Police Tinkler in Soap and the Maytag Repairman, was originally cast as the mission president, but withdrew at the last moment due to health problems. He died only a few months later.

There you have it. What do you think?