An Interview With God

2018 | 97 Minutes | Starring Brenton Thwaites and David Strathairn

Spoilers obv.

I liked this movie.
Let me start by saying I’m not religious. Spiritual maybe.
But I find religion and faith interesting none the less even though I don’t practice anything personally so I went into this movie with an open mind and found it engaging and enjoyable.
I came across it because I’m a fan of Brenton Thwaites, having watched him in ‘Titans’ as Dick Grayson (Yes, Robin as in Batman).
So the film is about a guy who has a literal interview (actually 3) with God himself. Why he is called to interview God and what the purpose of the interviews is becomes clear as the film goes on.
Big spoiler. The ending is telegraphed pretty clearly when God mentions the unforgivable sin. As I said, I’m not religious but even I know what that means (watching Constantine may also have helped). Yes, our intrepid reporter is planning to commit suicide and God is holding a personal intervention to stop it from happening.

(Sidenote – if you are the asshole rolling their eyes right now thinking, ‘Suicide! What a waste! Only selfish idiots do shit like that.’ Well Fuck You. Just be glad you’ve never had to deal with anything so emotionally or mentally overwhelming that it seems like the only way out. Rant over.)

Both leads are great. Thwaites carries the role of the reporter dealing with a number of issues such as PTSD from a tour of Afghanistan and his wife’s infidelity really well and Strathairn plays the Almighty with a good mix of humour and earnestness. The script is intellectually stimulating and I didn’t feel it was preaching which is a difficult thing to accomplish when discussing religion. Even though Thwaites reporter was defined as a practising Christian from the start of the movie, I was able to identify with his character despite the fact I don’t share those beliefs. The interaction between the characters is always interesting and also serves to highlight some of the ideas that can cause confusion in different religious scriptures.

The only bit that soured it a little for me was the ending. Thwaites character goes from someone planning to kill themselves to someone who is happy and smiley like all is right with the world. Now I suppose if I personally met my Deity and had my whole belief system affirmed by them then I might act the same way but it seemed a bit of a stretch. But hey its only a movie and other than that its a good one. I recommend it.

Jungle Cruise 2021

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this film when I sat down to watch it. I knew nothing about it other than the actors starring in it. So let’s talk about them first.

I like Dwayne Johnson and I’ve watched a ton of his movies and if you don’t like him you’re probably not going to like the movie anyway but this role fits him well and even though he is the big draw it’s also a more nuanced part for him.

I’m slightly biased when it comes to Emily Blunt as I’ve had a major crush on her ever since The Devil Wears Prada. So objectively she is great in this, it’s a nice strong part for her and it’s a role with lots of variety.

Jessie Plemons hams it up as the baddie and does a good job.

So the movie itself is hard to describe. It feels a little like an old 1950s/60s adventure film crossed with Indiana Jones with a little Pirates of the Caribbean thrown in. It flows well with plenty of action and comedy. There is an extended section near the start which is just full of puns, it’s dad joke heaven!

Not so good is some of the CGI and character design is not great. I’m guessing it was to make things less scary for younger audiences but the Conquestedors didn’t quite work and pulled me out of the movie a little and the pet Leopard looked a little bit too cutesy but again I can understand why that was done. Overall they are tiny flaws which didn’t affect the movie too much.

So in conclusion, I really liked this movie. It was a nice couple of hours spent with some engaging characters and an interesting story. Go see it!