Author: Fungai Peta

Moments in life that paralyze us with pain to a point of getting stuck; all of us in some way or another know this reality. The Shack is a movie where we can all place our selves in Mackenzie Phillips’ (Sam Worthington) position and change the story to meet our own set of circumstances. Directed by Stuart Hazeldine, this movie gives a new perspective on how to view God and the simple truth of his love and forgiveness.

A brief look back at Mack’s life as a child sets the stage for the deeper meaning on forgiveness. A church-goer with a loving wife, three children and good neighbors, Mack has a seemingly perfect life. He also has a secret that haunts him—a secret that has a way of coming to the surface after tragedy unfolds.

“A great sadness” falls upon the family when his youngest goes missing on a family camping trip. Dad is powerless against the evil, and the eldest daughter feels the guilt for horse playing at the wrong time. There seems to be no getting past the events that camping weekend left behind until God, or Papa, as Mack’s wife Nan (Radha Mitchell) has nicknamed him, steps in. Mack finds a short but sweet note left in his mailbox at the most inopportune time—during a snow storm with no visible tracks.

The note requests a visit from Mack the next weekend to “The Shack” the very place Mack would never want to go, its signed “Papa.” Even though he is certain it is a request from the evil that took his baby girl, he has no choice but to oblige. He sets forth on the journey that would forever change his life.

Armed with a gun and his painful memories, he returns to The Shack to find the same cold and empty place he left it. Shame, guilt, and anger nearly over power him when an intervention stops him. Heading back to the truck for home an intervention you hope for steps into his path, Jesus (Avraham aviv Alush).

In disbelief, Mack follows Jesus back to The Shack only to discover it isn’t at all how he had just left it. It has transformed into the most beautiful, amazing site. Mack can’t believe his eyes, he then meets Papa (Octavia Spencer) and Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara). He must be dead; he doesn’t feel dead. A painstaking journey of highs and lows —the movie-goer can tell this journey is not going to be easy.

No one is immune to evil in this world, according to the movie. It’s God who turns the evil into healing and good, even if it’s just in the individual who is stuck in their pain. Angry as anyone would be in this pain the many questions surfaced. Sin has its own way of punishing.

The sin carries the broken, the stuck, the angry through generation after generation only adding to the new generation’s sins starting from the beginning with Adam. Then if God knew all of this would happen then it must be God’s fault…. right? No, he never intended it to be a world of sin and judgment. If we sit in judgment of every person’s flaws and sin when we judge as God does what happens when it’s time to judge someone you love, will you be able to judge to heaven or hell? Mack finds out the hard way just what this means.

Mack begins to understand that every breathing soul is loved by Papa and is worthy of forgiveness if sincerely asking for forgiveness.

In my opinion, this is a miraculous story of love shown through the eyes of the Trinity. In the beautiful garden of life that looks like a chaotic mess, Sarayu shows Mack the bigger picture, a breathtaking view of good that only God can create out of bad. Believing God is working for your good and never letting go or losing sight of that is what keeps us joyful and happy in a world full of evil and sin, allowing love in and love to win.

Many people have expressed anger over the portrayal of God as a black woman, but they are missing the deeper meaning. It’s not about the color of skin, male or female; it’s about God knowing his child. By keeping things gentle, it was easier for Mack to accept what was about to take place.

The twist in the end lets you decide for yourself how to perceive Mack’s story. Whether to believe or not is up to you. I loved this movie and its underlying message was remarkable. God’s love, forgiveness, redemption and purification brings hope.

Before anything else, I have to tell you this: Logan deserves a second viewing, at least, before you can fully grasp the magnitude of the film.

Logan, directed by James Mangold and starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and newcomer Dafne Keen, doesn’t feel like a superhero movie, at least, not in the blockbuster, “Marvel Cinematic Universe” sense that many of us have come to expect from this genre of film. There’s little levity in the story that’s told, and in the times that it is present, it is often ripped away violently. This isn’t like last year’s Deadpool, where the action and comedy intermingle constantly and drive the story forward. This is a finale for a character most of us grew up with, and the nature of said character necessitates a somber look at the universe he came into and grew up in.

Logan, to put it simply, is dying. The adamantium that made him the Wolverine is poisoning him from the inside, and the healing factor he’s been sporting around for years is virtually non-existent. In one scene early in the film, the audience watches as he has to forcefully pull out one of his claws, by hand, before bandaging the now-gouged hand. For a man who has lived for nearly a century and a half, Logan’s age is catching up to him.

In the same way, Stewart’s Xavier, in his nineties, is a shell of his former self, stricken by a neurodegenerative brain disease and forced to be constantly medicated to suppress his now-dangerous mind. Even while he brings some humor to the film, like spouting off random advertisements while refusing to take his medicine, you can’t help but feel some sort of sadness for the character. Neither Logan nor Xavier are what they once were, and the bitterness of that loss forms an interesting dynamic between the two, almost akin to a father and son’s relationship to each other.

This concept of age, and the following inevitability of death, is one of the main themes of Logan: nearly every character that Logan and company come across ends up dying, oftentimes directly because of them. Heads roll, literally. The violence shouldn’t come as a surprise to avid readers of the character’s comic book history; in fact, it, along with the foul language and overall cynicism underlying Jackman’s character, is a necessity in order to do the Wolverine justice.

But, even as the gore flies, there is still a small bit of hope present throughout the film, personified by Keen’s Laura, who, without saying much, communicates just as well as Logan through simple eye contact and grunts. She’s not innocent; after all, that first head that rolled? She cut it off. But all the same,    you can get a sense of the character through simply watching her interactions with the world, be it staring wide-eyed at a casino in Oklahoma, or silently asking for a kid’s iPod. She’s the one with the most innocence throughout the film, and the relationships she forges with Logan and, to a smaller extent, Xavier, are what drive the film forward.

It’s hard for me to explain all that happens in Logan without delving into spoilers, so I’ll make it brief: Logan, at its core, is about family, and the effects of loss and gain within the family. Logan, Laura, and Xavier have all lost something, but in the end, what they obtain through each other make up at least a small part of the regrowth they each go through by the end of the film.

The Netflix Original Documentary “13,” is an in-depth look of the 13th Amendment to present day. The 13th Amendment is the abolishment of slavery in the United States. Even though the act of slavery is gone in reality, through policies it has reinvented itself in different forms since the passing and ratification of the bill on Dec. 6, 1865.

Director Ava DuVernay explores a relationship between the abolishment of slavery to the mass incarceration of the prison population today.  History needs to be discussed before a person fully understands how the problem exists today.

Slavery ended with the 13^th Amendment to the United States Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865).  The law has a huge loophole that has exploited many Americans over the years. Per the law “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duty convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Slaves were used in the South from an economic standpoint. The South needed to find a way to help them after the law was passed.  No one could be a slave or be in servitude unless they were a criminal.

Over 150 years have passed since that law has been put into effect, but some can wonder, “have we gotten into a new form of it?” This new form is not just targeting African-Americans, but people of all colors including white Americans. It became an issue of “Can you afford to stay out of jail?” The Netflix documentary “13“ focuses on this problem.

DuVernay worked over two years to get interviews with various people. She shows both sides of the argument without making the documentary seem like a biased one. She interviews activists, liberal and conservative law makers and scholars. DuVernay doesn’t just tackle abolishment of slavery, mass incarcerations and racial inequality, she explores the different terms that are given to colored people through the years of history.

In the documentary, the viewer sees interviews along with film footage taken over the years showing each progression of history where slavery ended to “convict leasing,” when it faded, the Jim Crowe system; when African Americans become a permanent second class status.  During the Civil Rights era and the collapse of Jim Crowe system, a new title now began to emerge: criminals.

As each U.S. President comes into power, laws are passed to handle the criminals and the reform of the prison system.  There is not a problem with being tough on crime, the problem is how once the criminal is locked up, they are forgotten. The treatment of prisoners is what needs to be investigated. Daily beatings and companies have prisoners make their products for pennies on the dollar compared to paying a minimum wage worker in the United States. In 2003, according to Prisoner Policy Website the maximum wage paid to prisons in Texas and Georgia is $0. The corporations are making millions and paying nothing for labor. This is a new form of slavery. There is an incentive to keep people in the prison system, and it’s all legal.

DuVernay explores the Alec Group which benefits off prison reform. This group consists of companies and law makers who pass laws in their best interest. In the documentary, it is explained how this group operates. This is not widely known to the American people, but it affects them daily with bills being voted into laws in our country.

DuVernay’s film also discusses the violence in America, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

People may think they have an idea about the prison system, but after watching the movie “13th” a person will be enlightened and realize they may not have a clue. Before I watched this documentary, I had some idea about the end of slavery and the prison system, but when I finished I learned so much more than I originally thought. It opens your eyes — the way it is laid out, to see how DuVernay can connect the end of slavery to mass incarceration, while using the laws which gave freedom has been exploited and it’s all legal.