Blue Like Jazz (2012)

             This is a film version of a memoir of the same title that was published in 2003, was a NY Times best seller, and popular among young adults, so-called post moderns, and the emergent church crowd. Don Miller (b. 1971) is the author of the book, co-writer of the movie, and the main characer in the movie, which roughly follows his real life. Miller grew up in Texas, then moved to Portland and audited classes at the famously godless Reed College, which experiences formed the basis of both the book and the movie. In the movie, Miller flees his Texas Baptistic background, a hobo dad, and a kooky-Christian mom who gets pregnant by the youth pastor. The film follows his personal crisis at Reed College where, as one classmate told him, his Christianity represented "a whole new level of despicable." Reed doesn't get a free pass, though, and is the object of some good satire about its own "prestige pyramid." The plot is very simple, and the characters are earnest stereotypes, but the movie could still provoke good discussions about important questions about just what it means to be authentically Christian.