The Rabbit Room

One Minute Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Because Django Unchained wasn't controversial enough, Fr. Thomas McKenzie reviews Zero Dark Thirty. It won a Golden Globe, is it worth your time and money? Also check out reviews for Gangster Squad and Broken City at www.OneMinuteReview.com One Minute Review: Zero Dark Thirty from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Growing Up with Charlie Peacock

Charlie Peacock released his new record, No Man’s Land, this past fall. Charlie and I have been friends for close to twenty years, and I was a huge fan for years before that so I asked him for an early copy to review here. He was gracious enough to oblige. I imagined I’d listen to the record, mention a few key high points and invite you to pick up a copy. That was a few months ago. Yes, life has been busy. But the reason I’m so late in getting to this “review” is because I’ve been spending a lot of time with the record, and it’s stirring things in me that have not so much to do with the record itself (which is, in my estimation, his best work---and for me, that’s saying a lot) as with how a great artist's work works on those who invest in it over the span of time. Consider Paul Simon. It was only a few years ago when I discovered Paul Simon. Sure, I knew who he was. I’d heard a bunch of his songs. I even knew I was supposed to say yes if anyone asked if I thought Graceland was one of the best records ever made. I knew all that.

One Minute Review: Skyfall

The latest James Bond movie has hit theaters. Should you expect a Goldfinger triumph, or a Moonraker train wreck? Thomas McKenzie of the One Minute Review knows for sure.

One Minute Review: Skyfall from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

One Minute Review: Cloud Atlas

Six stories, six groups of six characters, all forming a tapestry that interweaves across time and space. A triumph, or a tragic six car pile up? Thomas McKenzie knows for sure.

One Minute Review: Cloud Atlas from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

A Good Scare: the Redemptive Ghost Stories of Russell Kirk

Since we’re fast approaching Halloween, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to write about one of my favorite books of the last few years: Russell Kirk’s Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales. I’m not typically a reader of scary books or ghost tales, but my wife Taya and I read a review of this book (in some intelligent faith-based magazine whose title escapes me now) prompting me to give it to her as a birthday gift. She gushed about it after reading it and told me I HAD to read it right away. Reluctant at first, I finally got around to it this summer and was immediately hooked.

A Few Thoughts About Thoughts To Make Your Heart Sing That Might Cause Hearty Singing in Your Thoughts

It delights me to think that my daughter will be spending time with her attention focused on Sally Lloyd-Jones’ new book, Thoughts To Make Your Heart Sing. Why? I'll tell you why. I'm getting ready to tell you why in just a minute. First, there needs to be a dramatic barrier to overcome. Sally Lloyd-Jones has been impacting my family through her wonderful writing for quite a while now. We are big fans. But I was not so sure at first. I was skeptical about The Jesus Storybook Bible before I read it, even after hearing that so many people I respected were using and loving it. My skepticism had two branches, like a double-branched tree (which isn't that many, really). One concern was that I had seen so many Children’s Bible storybooks distort, or even dramatically subvert, the primary messages of the Bible. I’ve seen kids trained into deeper and deeper self-reliance and moralism, believing that if they would just, “be brave like Daniel,” or “fight the giants in their life like David,” or (horribly) “not lie and deceive like Jacob,” then they will be heroes of the faith. This trains kids to embrace a “do, do, do, so” religion, when Christianity is a “done” religion. The work is done by Christ, who is the climax of the Bible, the hero of the story, and the happy, holy center of all this Book has for the people of God. Most “Children’s Bibles” I had seen did more than fail our side on this crucial front, they actually seemed to me to fight for the other side. No!

Hutchmoot 2012 Sound Off

Whew. The floors have been swept, the trash collected, the lights dimmed, and the doors locked. The Moot has adjourned for the year. I'm finally home and sitting on my couch, and I'm more than a little wonderstruck by it all. I'm so tired, but I'm so, so full of gratitude and satisfaction. Everything went just about as well as one could hope, and more often than not it went one better. I look forward to sharing the sessions in the form of posts and podcasts so that those who couldn't attend can get a taste of what went on. But for right now, we'd like to hear from all of you. If you write a blog post of your own about your experience at Hutchmoot 2012, please link it in the comments here. If you aren't a blogger, we still want to hear from you. So I'll ask again what Stephen Trafton asked at the end of his Encountering Philippians performance on Sunday: You know you have been changed. How?

Book Release (and Review): The Terrible Speed of Mercy

I first encountered Flannery O'Connor's fiction in a modern American literature course I took in college. Wise Blood, O'Connor's first novel, was on the syllabus that semester, and I gave the book a week of dutiful attention. I found some of it funny and some of it trashy. The rest of it, I'm sorry to say, was simply lost on me.

The course's professor was our university's writer-in-residence, a gruff old poet who translated Greek myths and snarled his way through lectures. (I am not kidding. To this day, whenever I think about Wise Blood, I see his twisted lip and bared teeth.) His delivery aside, those lectures on Wise Blood were some of the first bites of solid food I tasted as a reader. Among other things, he covered several of the themes in O'Connor's writing that other Rabbit Room articles have explored: her faith, her understanding of grace, the purpose of violence in her fiction, and her fascination with what she called "the grotesque." His lectures helped me begin to read O'Connor's work with open eyes. I've been hooked ever since.

Rain for Roots

Children have a strong sense of humility about themselves. It enables them to believe that there is someone big out there that can help them Gina Bria---The Art of Family

When I heard about Rain for Roots, a new children’s music CD from Sandra McCracken, Katy Bowser, Ellie Holcomb, and Flo Paris, I was inspired. Before I heard a single song, even before they released any music, hope bloomed in my heart. These are fantastically talented women and mothers, and the words "Rain for Roots"---a powerful metaphor---made me think of Emily Dickinson and how the right words, strung together, can make magic.

Thankfully, blessedly, even magically, Rain for Roots was worth hoping for. The songwriters collaborated with celebrated children's author Sally Lloyd-Jones, and the result is a gift, like a ladybug, or a robin’s nest, simple and perfect. I am a huge fan of Sally Lloyd-Jones, both as a gifted artist and storyteller and as a champion for children, and with lyrics pulled from the pages of Lloyd-Jones’s Hug-a-Bible, Rain for Roots brilliantly succeeds at the formidable task of speaking the language of children.

One Minute Review: Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson's newest movie has been given lot of advertising but is still mainly showing in "art house" theaters. Thomas knows how to get to one of these places, and he saw Moonrise Kingdom. The One Minute Review is now available. Is it quirky? Find out. And if you haven't seen The Amazing Spiderman yet, the One Minute Review of that little film may be found right here: The One Minute Review