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This week’s film roundup from Past the Popcorn:

It’s niche-marketing time this week with a light release schedule of medium to small-sized films. Of broadest interest is the small-town-baseball flick The Final Season, courtesy of director David Mickey Evans and Executive Producer (and star) Sean Astin. It tells the true story of the Norway, Texas Tigers, whose high school team won 20 state championships in 25 years, including their final season — conducted under the shadow of a closing school. As a movie, the PG-rated film is not all that good, says Greg Wright, but adds that he has “a strong, strong hunch that this film’s target audience — folks from small towns that really do revolve around the success of their sports teams — would be best off completely ignoring critical opinion” and heading out to see it anyway.

In bigger releases, Cate Blanchett reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth in The Golden Age (PG-13), which Michael Brunk calls “a visual treat” featuring a “captivating” central performance — even if the film’s reach is overly ambitious and at times overwrought. And clocking in at an R rating is the latest from alt-film wonderboy Wes Anderson, The Darjeeling Limited. Greg Wright says that the film is, oddly, “the closet thing we’ve seen to a Beatles film since The Beatles.” In the final analysis, says Greg, “those who struggle with their own baggage and long to throw it off will probably enjoy the college-literature intelligence of Anderson’s film, as will those whose spiritual journey has only recently embarked. More jaded spiritual and cinematic travelers will likely be less impressed.”

But the strongest recommendation this week is for a film that few people will likely have a chance to see in the theaters: Outsourced, a romantic comedy about an American worker whose job is sent to India. Mike Gunn says that this PG-13 independent film is “one of the more delightful, original, and funny movies that any company has put out in over a year.” Look for it soon on DVD.

The week before Michael Clayton opened in Seattle, Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright had the chance to participate in a small roundtable interview with writer/director Tony Gilroy. Roundtables are sometimes hit-and-miss — Gilroy even asked the three journalists present what they thought of the format — but Gilroy made the process very smooth with honest and engaging responses to the questions asked. Greg did manage to get in a couple of focused exchanges with Gilroy, though, about his new film.

Michael Clayton is the tale of a man who gets himself way too deep into the inner workings of a top-flight NYC legal firm — and into the ethical problems of one of the corporation’s agricultural-products manufacturer clients: U/North. It’s a fictional corporation with fictional woes — but that never stops real-life lawyers from getting involved. And since the film is about the legal business, it seemed natural to Greg to start off asking Gilroy about the film’s legal process. From there, the conversation gravitated to the film’s artistic choices.

How should we approach the daunting task of studying the Bible? Why is it important in the first place? In a recent series of sermons at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jim Samra is walking through the basics of Bible reading and Bible study. The first three sermons in the series are available in audio format for free online listening or download, so if you’d like to deepen your reading of the Bible, stop by and give the sermons a listen!

Yesterday, tragedy struck in the form of yet another fatal school shooting–this time in a Cleveland, Ohio high school. Dale Fincher of the Soulation ministry talks about the religious and spiritual elements of the shooting, and wonders how Christians can do a better job of reaching spiritually troubled individuals–like this shooter–before they act out destructively.

Despite daily news of conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hotspots, we don’t hear much about the chaplains serving with the troops. What’s it like being a chaplain on the frontlines today? How do chaplains cope with the awfulness of war, without losing their faith? What advice would they give to soldiers heading out to war… or who are being deployed for the second or third time?

It’s Chaplain Appreciation Month over at the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, and they’ve put these and many other questions to chaplain Mark Fairbrother. If you or a loved one is heading out to the frontlines soon, or if you just want to get a glimpse at what a chaplain’s life is like, read the interview.

Have you ever heard the oft-repeated piece of conventional wisdom that if somebody does not come to the Christian faith by the time they turn 18, they likely never will? It’s a scary statistic, and it puts a lot of pressure on parents and youth workers to see their kids come to Christ before they turn 18 and are presumably lost forever. But a recent post at Intersect‘s AlreadyNotYet blog argues that parents and youth pastors shouldn’t be so quick to use that phrase. Faith, the post says, isn’t quite as black-and-white as the phrase suggests–and there’s nothing magical about turning 18 that will keep somebody from developing faith in Christ later in life.

So don’t despair if you aren’t seeing mature faith in every 18-year-old kid in the youth group–and don’t think that “saving” somebody before age 18 will spare them spiritual difficulty later in life! Read the full post for more.

Ever noticed that an awful lot of Christian books, websites, and music is targeted… at Christians?

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with writing material meant for Christians to read or use — but if you glance around the Christian internet or the local Christian bookstore, it’s clear that there’s an imbalance. If Christians are supposed to be sharing the Good News with the entire world, shouldn’t more of our energy be spent talking to people who aren’t already Christians?

In a thorough article about this phenomenon, the Internet Evangelism Guide calls this the “99% Problem” — as in, 99% of Christian material seems to be written for Christians, and only 1% of it is of much use to non-Christians. If you do any sort of Christian writing, online or offline, ask yourself who you’re writing for, and if there’s a way to make your writing more meaningful to non-Christian readers!

Has Christianity lost the “culture war”? Our society’s moral values have been on a steady decline for decades, and despite our best efforts, Christians seem unable to stem the tide. If Christians are losing the war of ideas, maybe it’s time for a new battle plan. A reflection from the Delve Into Jesus ministry suggests a better way to win back the hearts and minds of our culture–by following the example of the early Christians, who conquered the mighty Roman empire with their faith and ideas.

Today’s film roundup from Past the Popcorn:

The big stories this week are The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Michael Clayton — and both are from first-time directors. What’s more, both of them will probably be up for some award nominations, at least in the technical departments and probably for acting, too.

Assassination, directed by writer Andrew Dominick, is more of a straight character study than a Western, really, and its focus is on Bob Ford, not on Jesse James. Greg Wright calls it “a compelling genre piece, … a competent character study, … pretty darned entertaining (if slow),” and “one of the most artistically accomplished pieces of cinema since last Christmas.” Still, he warns, “you’re looking for genre conventions, wild gunfights, rousing chase sequences, or cut-and-dried answers, though, you’re bound to be disappointed.”

Michael Clayton, written and directed by Tony Gilroy (who also wrote the Bourne movies, among many others) is a George Clooney vehicle that burns rubber in slo-mo. Clooney plays a hotshot legal fixer who’s run into a Mack truck of a broken case. Wright says that very early into the film “you’ll know that, at the very least, you’re in for a visual treat”and something of a mystery.” He concludes by calling the film “one of the most intelligent and artful films of the year so far.” Two in one week!

In the kids’ department, Greg finds The Seeker a part of “the recent trend of films that respect the intelligence of younger audiences,” calling the film “another good step in that direction.” It’s got its flaws, but is still pretty solid nonetheless.

Also out this week is Ira and Abby, an R-rated comedy that champions domestic partnerships instead of marriage, and The Heartbreak Kid, the latest entry in a series of R-rated date movies that include nearly soft-porn sequences.

A few weeks ago, just prior to the theatrical release of The Treatment, Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright talked over the phone with Daniel Housman, the film’s screenwriter. Seattle publicists were eager to promote Housman’s local connection: Housman worked for several years as a journalist with The Stranger, one of the city’s primary alternative weeklies.

Housman’s film is an adaptation from a novel, and tells the very direct story of a New York City school teacher’s struggle to find a meaningful adult relationship. His therapist has tried for years to help him get past his arrested development — and abruptly decides to “end the treatment.” But Jake Singer’s treatment really isn’t over.

The film is being released on DVD October 9.

Wright talked with Housman about the differences between Seattle and New York, and about how the screenwriter played middle-man between a book author and director with very different ideas about the world.