It’s won 30 festival awards from all across the country, and critics have lauded it. Mira Sorvino and Barry Pepper, the leads, deliver phenomenal performances in a story that doesn’t shy away from tough topics: alcoholism, spouse abuse, and child endangerment.

It’s a modern-day parable. Check out the trailer and see if it doesn’t change your mind about films from Christians.

I did not go see “Couples Retreat” because the previews made it appear to just be crude sexual jokes. I rented the movie with a Christian friend and watched and it was hilarious with a great marriage counseling story and great ending.

Hollywood missed a LOT of Box Office dollars by not marketing it to a conservative audience and most Christian couples could have used the story to counsel their own marriages. Major faux pas in the industry!

Marketing to 2 different audiences is not a bad thing. Know your audience and know how to reach them in your marketing.

Very chilling, but true.

Lets be honest with ourselves, many Old Testament stories would be MA or R rated if put to film.

What I found really interesting in the article was that the author’s real life story is possibly more compelling than the story that he made into a movie. That to me seems to be the article’s main point, that we choose to tell a certain type of story where sin and salvation all fit in nicely and tidily. I think perhaps we are more concerned that people might miss the gospel content in the story than that the story connects with the world out there.

Taking shortcuts to presenting real stories, in a non-offensive (read: Stepford) way, to please Christian advertisers, is a real enemy to art, story, AND message.

As an artist and writer, I’m worn out from the litmus tests I hear Christian organizations putting out as far as content, language, etc. We need to GET OVER THE BUBBLE.

I remember doing a cartoon for a major Christian magazine, and the editors called me laughing and said they loved it, but they were afraid it would offend a major advertiser, so they couldn’t print it. And that scenario is repeated over and over, for much bigger projects than my little cartoon, every single day in The Bubble. Is the goal to entertain the Bubble? Then, hey, have at it.

If it’s to reach people in say, “the highways and the hedges,” the Christian community, and the money behind the “art” we put out, need to grow some cojones.