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Wednesday, December 18, 2024 |
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Wednesday, December 18, 2024 |
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| Saved! |  |
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Brian Dannelly 
Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Eva Amurri, Chad Faust, Elizabeth Thai, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker 
2004 
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In a rare double play, "Saved!" has the trappings of the typical alienated teen/coming of age comedy, yet it manages to be a deftly performed, fairly amusing satire of the genre that offers jolly slams at hypocritical religious zealots. The heroine of director/co-writer Brian Dannelly's tongue-in-cheeky passion play is Mary (the wonderful Jena Malone), a pious, good-natured student at a Christian high school where sex education must not be on the curriculum. Mary is shocked to discover she's pregnant after bedding her boyfriend to save him from the sin of homosexuality. Learning of Mary's condition, her best friend Hilary Faye (a dementedly wholesome Mandy Moore) turns on her. Prayerful campus leader Hilary Faye believes she's doing Jesus' will, even when she ostracizes her cynical, wheelchair-bound brother Roland (a bemused Macaulay Culkin) and rebellious Cassandra (Eva Amurri), the school's sole Jewish student. Even Patrick (Patrick Fugit), the cute, cool son of the pastor (Martin Donovan), has a hard time meeting Hilary Faye's standards. There's perversity at play in "Saved!", but it never denigrates the Christian values of kindness and compassion. Instead, it targets selfish, cruel, petty "believers" who spout meaningless platitudes and hide behind a false show of devotion. With Mary-Louise Parker as Mary's self-deluding mom. | |||
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I'm Not There / Love In The Time Of Cholera / Gone Baby Gone / Delirious / 2 Days In Paris / more... |
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