The Seattle PI has an interesting (if short) Q-and-A session with director Brian Dannelly, the man behind one movie that’s been high on my radar for a few weeks now — Saved!
“Saved!” — Brian Dannelly’s first feature — is a high school comedy with a twist: It’s set in an evangelical school. It’s a world he knows well, having been educated in a Catholic elementary school and a Baptist high school (with holidays at a Jewish summer camp). His affectionate satire stars Jena Malone as a passionately Christian teen who gets pregnant after trying to “cure” her gay boyfriend and Mandy Moore as a popular student whose uses public demonstrations of devotion as social currency. The film won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and played to a sold-out gala presentation at the Seattle International Film Festival. It opens a regular theatrical run tomorrow in Seattle.
“Saved!” also has been polarizing viewers and critics in the Christian community. While many, young and old alike, have embraced the film’s loving approach to acceptance and diversity, it was condemned by Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission, as “a sad, bigoted, anti-Christian movie that mocks the Christian faith.” Dannelly knows he’s courting controversy, but he believes passionately about his message.
Saved! opens tomorrow, and I think that it’s definitely on my list of things to do this weekend.
iTunes: “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” by Cruise, Julee from the album Until the End of the World (1991, 2:37).