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Same Kind of Different as Me

Same Kind of Different as Me is a movie clearly made with a lot of love, but not a lot of skill. It's based on the true story of the friendship between Ron Hall, a wealthy Texas art dealer, and Denver Moore, a homeless black man. The two have traveled the country, and, according to the credits sequence, raised more than $85 million to help the homeless, so I'd assume they know how to tell a powerful, moving story. Unfortunately, director Michael Carney doesn't really know how to bring that story to the screen in a way that feels distinctive or even believable. It takes more than good intentions to create good cinema.

When Hall (played by Greg Kinnear) is forced to tell his wife Deborah (Renee Zellweger) that he's had an affair, she insists that, in order to save their marriage, he come volunteer with her at a homeless shelter. There they meet Denver, who is going by the moniker, Suicide. He is violent and unpredictable. Djimon Hounsou plays his first few scenes with Shakespearean intensity, which is what he's best at. But Hounsou has never been able to shed his West African accent. Here, he adds a Louisiana swamp drawl to the mix, and the result is at times unintelligible. He has so much presence and intensity, but he's not doing the work he needs to do to succeed here.

Because his wife insists, Hall starts hauling Denver around with him everywhere he goes, probably because he says amusing things. Denver doesn't understand white guy pastimes like sport fishing ("catch and release makes me angry"), tennis ("any game you need a reservation for isn't a game for me") or skeet shooting ("when I shoot a gun, it isn't a game, it's business"). In turn, Denver tells Hall about his rough childhood, including the death of his grandmother in a fire and a stint in prison.

And then Deborah gets cancer and dies, which feels very much like a plot device; it almost seems to happen just so that Denver can give the big speech at the funeral and all the homeless people can show their appreciation by laying flowers on her coffin.

There's no end to the syrup and misty-eyed good intention of Same Kind of Different As Me. The score is sentimental and overbearing, constantly telling us, from scene to scene, what we should be feeling. If you like movies that preach at you, you'll like this one.

Movie Info

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 120 min

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jon Voight,

Olivia Holt, Greg Kinnear

Genre: Drama

Sami Blood

In Sami Blood, Lene Cecilia Sparrok plays Elle Marja, a Sami (the Indigenous people of Sweden) teenager who, with her younger sister Njenna (Mia Erika Sparrok, the two are real-life sisters), is sent to a state-run boarding school. Elle Marja is a good student and develops a bit of a crush on her strict but kind teacher. She realizes in a flash that when she changes out of her traditional clothes and speaks Swedish, the local boys invite her to parties and dances, and strangers don't give her dirty looks when she walks past them. The allure of acceptance, especially for a teenager in a strange place, is intoxicating.

Sparrok plays Elle Marja as a quiet, observant girl with a stubborn streak. It is heartbreaking to see her tear herself away from her own family and culture in order to be part of the dominant society; not in the least because her curiosity and desire to experience more than a life of herding reindeer is genuine, and it is a tragedy that she feels she must choose so starkly between education and tradition.

Perhaps what sets this story apart from other boarding school movies (like Rabbit Proof Fence) is the director's talent for quietly devastating scenes. There is very little violence in Sami Blood; there is also very little weeping, screaming, crying or falling apart. But there are a couple of scenes-one in which Elle-Marja is poked and prodded at by doctors who barely speak to her, and another where she is asked to sing at a birthday party-that are powerful demonstrations of the quotidian degradations and humiliations from which she is so determined to escape, despite the heartbreaking cost it will take.

Director Amanda Kernell, who has Sami roots herself, masters her material. It is such a powerful and quiet story that I caught myself holding my breath more than once. Because it is slow at times and so quiet, it is also a demanding film, but I found it utterly engaging and emotionally devastating. This is the best thing I've seen in Native and Indigenous cinema in quite a while; I highly recommend it.

Movie Info

Rated: NR (strong language)

Runtime: 110 min

Director: Amanda Kernell

Genre: Drama

Will Krishchke and his wife work with InterVarsity in Durango, Colorado, where his wife directs Native Ministries for InterVarsity.