January reviews

Print Article Email to a Friend

FILM REVIEWS
Invictus (PG-13), Clint Eastwood’s latest film, shows newly elected Nelson Mandela’s support of the South African rugby team to bring unity to the country. The examples of Mandela’s leadership and the exciting rugby scenes are powerful; otherwise the film settles into an above average sports movie. It gets off to a slow start and misses opportunities throughout to explain the transformation of the rugby captain.—Anna Groff

An Education (PG-13) is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age. The script is smart and the acting outstanding, particularly Carey Mulligan as the girl. The story's turnabout is no surprise but well played. The film raises a good question: What is education for?—gh

DVD REVIEW
Goodbye Solo (unrated) tells a simple story that resonates on many levels. Solo, a Senegalese man living in Winston-Salem, N.C., picks up William, an older white Southerner who wants to pay him hundreds of dollars to take him to a spot in the mountains. Solo is relentlessly optimistic and friendly and tries to talk William out of what appears to be a suicide wish. A mysterious grace pervades this film.—gh

BOOK REVIEW
The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See by Richard Rohr (Crossroad, 2009, $19.95) explores the mystical traditions of Christianity that most Christians have lost sight of. Rohr draws on Scripture to prod readers into "a nondualistic way of seeing the moment," both-and rather than either-or. "How you love,” he writes, “is how you have accessed Love."—gh

Current Stories

Articles

• Our new executive director
• Mutual impact
• Far from home
• Twists and turns
• Five reasons for Mennonite education
• Five ways to help Mennonite education
• Celebrating Sabbath in a busy world
• How affluenza affects the church
• Poem: At either end of the web

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

• From classroom, students converse with mission workers in Kosovo and Colombia
• Goshen College will play national anthem before sporting events
• If Obama's right, MLK was wrong
• Compassion more widespread than violence in Haiti
• Haiti updates from Franconia Conference
• MCC responding to Haiti earthquake, welcomes donations
• MCC staff on the ground, waiting for larger relief efforts to begin
• Mennonite work team and MCC staff safe in Haiti
• Mennonites agonize over Bolivian rape victims
• Mennonite Brethren Olympian on coin
• Hyattsville church denied ACC membership
• Peter J. Dyck leaves legacy of service
• Anglo Anabaptist congregations in the cities are growing
• Greensboro massacre survivors confront pain
• SOOPers, staff lend a hand for harvest
• Mother of MVSers says empty nest matured family
• Scholarship for Mennonite high school graduates
• MDS fixes forgotten homes
• Interview with Mennonite World Conference's leader
• Forgiveness in the Balkans
• Living in a world of war and injustice
• ¡Bienvenidos al Meno Acontecer de febrero, 2010!
• Meno Acontecer, para imprimir
• Domingo de la Educación Menonita
• IBA entrena tutores en Miami
• Haití en la mira
• Violaciones de derechos ¡Alerta!
• Una meditación bíblica
• Reflexiones Pastorales - 10ª Parte
• De nuestros lectores y colaboradores ... SUFRIMIENTO PSICOSOMATICO
• Sitios Hispanos Menonitas en el internet - Abril

Columns

• Extremists for love and justice
• Continuing education
• Turning the page
• January reviews
• Faith and fiction in Dostoevsky
• We can make music
• Blemished lambs at the altar
• Places of transformation
• Where faith and culture intersect

Readers Say

• How to read the Bible
• Between 'scholarly' and 'personal'
• Newest members will lead us
• Dismayed at listing of names
• Don't waste a crisis
• Great choice for cover