DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Award Films Need More Hope. It’s Christmas!
© NaimaLett.com/blog

© Oscar Nomination Voting started Monday

Boy, we’ve seen some films!

In the last 30 days, I’ve screened almost 20 of this season’s award-seeking films.
That’s 1/3 of the total contenders listed in The Hollywood Reporter’s online Voter’s Guide.

Of what I screened, I reviewed 8 for you:

Denzel Washington’s “Flight” Takes Off
Les Misérables: Best Musical, Full of Faith
Rise of the Guardians: Two Thumbs Up
Django Unchained: Blame Game?
ARGO: Political Thriller, Dose of Fun
Silver Linings Playbook: Funny Spin on Illness
Middle of Nowhere: My Friends’ Film
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Fantasies Come True

How do you choose?

My oldest brother asked me this morning, “How do you choose which films to write about?”

Great question!

I wrote about the films that either:
1) you specifically asked me about,
2) had lots of Hollywood buzz, and/or
3) had hope.

We need more hope.

I could’ve reviewed Zero Dark Thirty, The Master, Anna Karenina, Celeste & Jesse Forever, Rust and Bone, Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Sessions, The Dark Knight Rises, The Intouchables and This is 40, but I really would’ve been saying the same thing over and over:

“Where’s the hope?”

If I left the movie theatre in a sad funk, I figured you wouldn’t want to do the same. And I saw screenings for free. I assume you don’t want to pay $13.50 per ticket for a downer.

At the end of Zero Dark Thirty, I asked my husband, “Why was this movie made?”

I had no desire to write about it whatsoever, which is really disappointing because I usually make it a point to support female filmmakers.

The film Quartet was actually refreshing, and the final 2 films I have to see are Lincoln and The Hobbit. Folks seem to really love what Steven Spielberg did with Lincoln, so I look forward to it. Maybe it’ll have more hope.

But much of what I have seen of our award films are deep explorations of how dark, twisted and hopeless we are as human beings. We torture one another. We commit suicide. We’re perverted in really sick ways. We hurt each other. We kill each other. We exploit our women. We hate each other. We fight and do really bad things. On and on and on.

I could probably digest one or two such dark films per month, but not a dozen or so back to back. After awhile, it’s like enough already. I get it. We’re really messed up. Geezzz!!!!

There’s hope!

I’m beginning to understand more and more why Kevin and I, along with a wonderful young team of dream chasers and dream makers, have been called to plant H0PE IN THE HILLS in Beverly Hills, the Mecca of Hollywood’s decisions.

We have hope! We know that things will get better. And we know that even though we, as human beings, are really messed up and we live in a dark, angry world, we have a Messiah and “…In his name, the nations will put their hope.” (Matthew 12:15-21 & Isaiah 42:1-4)

Christmas Hope!

One of our Christmas classics, O Holy Night, puts it this way:

“A thrill of hope! The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…”

Do you remember it? I can still hear my Uncle Hawthorne’s clear tenor soaring each year:
A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was Born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

We have hope that came the night when Christ was born.

It’s Christmas, doggone it!
And I’m going to celebrate.
Join me, why don’t you?
Naima

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A thrill of hope! The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
-O Holy Night

© 2012 Naima Lett. All Rights Reserved