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In the non-naturalistic The Leftovers (2011), Tom Perrotta’s new novel, millions of people have disappeared from the earth in a Rapture-like phenomenon, and a great many were not Christians.  It was a “random harvest” and most of Perrotta’s attention is fixed on what has ensued in the U.S. suburbs now that this inexplicable tragedy has occurred.  At bottom the Sudden Departure, as it is called, is simply the next bad thing to happen after such events as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese tsunami, etc.; the novel subtly presents it as such.

A spellbinding fact is that sundry religious cults have arisen, winning such converts as the wife (Laurie) and son (Tom) of Kevin Garvey, the mayor of a town called Mapleton.  The cult that has lured in Laurie is the Guilty Remnant, a bizarre religion whose adherents wear white, almost never speak, and routinely smoke cigarettes.  Perrotta’s point here may well be this:  To slightly alter something G.K. Chesterton said, when people stop believing in the traditional God, they start believing in anything.  False gods are ubiquitous, notwithstanding there is in the book a ruined minister, Max Jamison, who does not even turn to a false god.  He fails to accept that a non-traditional event like the random (but was it random?) Sudden Departure could have come from the true Deity.

One might suspect The Leftovers of being depressing, but it isn’t.  It’s merely serious as well as lively, wry and humane.  Though it’s been called satirical, for the most part that isn’t true.

The photo is of Tom Perrotta.  

The screenplay for 50/50 was penned by one Will Reiser and is based on Reiser’s own bout with spinal cancer.  A tragic comedy as opposed to a comic tragedy, it stars Joseph Gordon-Leavitt as the young, dutiful suburbanite with a tumor on his spine.

The most interesting thing about the film is how it exhibits the ways in which people react to and deal with Adam’s (Gordon-Leavitt’s) cancer.  His girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) starts behaving disgracefully.  Adam’s close buddy Kyle (Seth Rogen) wants Adam to get laid–and also uses him to attract women.  But, in addition, he always sticks by him.  Adam himself reacts to the disease by smoking marijuana.  Welcome to the Western world and its young people.

Directed by Jonathan Levine, 50/50 is mildly funny–I don’t consider it hilarious, as some have claimed–and occasionally packs a punch (as when Adam begins to act irrationally behind the wheel of Kyle’s car).  It’s also rather slight, though.  Really, it’s a little less enjoyable than some of today’s lauded TV series such as Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Big Love and Sons of Anarchy.  TV writers are giving motion picture writers a run for their money, notwithstanding 50/50 IS perfectly watchable.

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In Joe Johnston’s comic-book movie, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), a brave but physically puny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) becomes, via a serum, a stunningly strong Captain America, eager to defeat a powerful Third Reich psychopath with a red skull (Hugo Weaving).  The time is the 1940s.

There is little chemistry between Evans and British actress Haley Atwell, and the film doesn’t have the guts to be more American than international (it is meant for an international audience), but it’s a captivating, sometimes witty, adventure-fantasy all the same.  It’s visually better than anything George Lucas did–the retro production design can be transporting but is never overdone–and the action can be imaginative.  On the other hand, to me the action eventually gets tiresome in a way it doesn’t in 2010’s Kick-Ass. 

Not great, this picture, but still fun.  And, yes, it is patriotic, despite the international dramatis personae.   

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Religious holiday fare from December 2007,  Noelle presents an American Catholic priest with a guilty secret.  He needs, and receives, the same spiritual consolation the parish padre in Bernanos’ novel Diary of a Country Priest receives.  A small-town Catholicism now dying, now given new life, makes for some palatable material, but almost nothing in David Wall’s script is easy to swallow.  I like his acting (he plays the priest) and directing, but not the bogus writing. 

Cover of Spy Kids

Spy Kids (2002) is yet another action flick–a nutty and charming one.  I’m talking genuine charm, not Hollywood charm, thanks to director-writer Robert Rodriguez.  He patently believes in what he’s doing, he can be funny, and he venerates marriage and family.  (In this movie he does; I don’t know about real life:  in 2006 Rodriguez left his wife and kids for actress Rose McGowan.)  Even his infrequent scatology makes prepubescent sense; prepubescent is what Carmen and Juni, the spy kids, are.

Adequate Alexa Vega provides Carmen with no more and no less than what she should.  Though too soft-spoken, Daryl Sabara (Juni) is sweet and facially expressive.  The stronger actors are Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino as the spy kids’ spy parents.  Holding the reins of it all is a talented man whose screenplay is original, not an adaptation of a children’s book.  Let’s hear it for Latino heroism!  (In America.)