{"id":3740,"date":"2012-01-22T21:30:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T04:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2012-01-22T22:49:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T05:49:17","slug":"quick-review-dark-of-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3740","title":{"rendered":"Quick Review: “Dark of Moon”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a Pagan watching Dark of Moon<\/em><\/a>, you probably will be thinking “I know her<\/em>! I’ve met them<\/em>! I’ve been there<\/em>!” \u2014 even if, of course, you have not.<\/p>\n

You will probably be so pleased to watch a feature-length film that treats Wicca and Druidry as normal rather than as scary or exotic that you will overlook the technical glitches and occasionally wooden dialog.<\/p>\n

To me, skill in lighting separates the pros from the wannabes. The movie’s lighting was occasionally flat and harsh. M. is more conscious of dialog and kept saying that the first half of the movie was “propagandistic.”<\/p>\n

And why all the door and window moldings have been removed from the Gardnerian covenstead must be a third-degree secret. It is odd, considering that the protagonists enter expecting something fancier than their own shared house, only to find quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

At the center of the movie<\/strong> is an ensemble of Wiccan housemates, friends since college, each one single, members of the Coven of Mystic Light \u2014 and all on the threshold of “real life,” or as Beth says, “Woo-hoo, I’m an adult. What do I want from my life?”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 zaftig<\/em> Sammi (Angelia DeLuca) bubbles\u00a0 her lines, most of which have to do with how much she enjoys various aspects of sex.<\/p>\n

Like Samantha in Sex and the City<\/em>, is she a gay man written as a female character? There is a lot of risqu\u00e9 humor in Dark of Moon<\/em>, most of it about as subtle as a wet towel to the face.<\/p>\n

Drew (Roger Conners), the actual gay housemate, is the only one with a back story\u2014he is a would-be graphic artist waiting tables to pay the bills<\/p>\n

The slacker-ish Miller (DJ Remark) seems to have wandered in from Clerks<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zeke (Brad Arner), the tall, dark, and handsome one, works in \u2014\u00a0 wait for it \u2014 an occult-supply shop.<\/p>\n

And in contrast to the conventional wisdom that says once a woman says “let’s just be friends,” any chance of romance is dead, Zeke’s long-time friend Beth (Kelly Rogers) genuinely wants him. With mobile features that register every emotional twinge, Rogers may have the most acting talent of the cast.<\/p>\n

When Zeke leaves his old covenmates to join a Gardnerian group, the plot is set in motion.<\/p>\n

The setting is northern Ohio,<\/strong> and the Gardnerian HPS is named Lady Circe. That may be an inside joke;<\/strong> if so, I did not find it all that funny. But maybe there was more than one Lady Circe in Ohio.<\/p>\n

Or maybe we are in Cleveland, in which case The Drew Carey Show<\/em><\/a>-with-pentagrams is still better than Charmed<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in the end , each covener finds true love, or at least true lust, all in a setting where “Pagan” is the default setting \u2014 and that’s refreshing.<\/p>\n

Order DVDs, read cast bios, view trailers and all the rest at the official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a Pagan watching Dark of Moon, you probably will be thinking “I know her! I’ve met them! I’ve been there!” \u2014 even if, of course, you have not. You will probably be so pleased to watch a feature-length film that treats Wicca and Druidry as normal rather than as scary or exotic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,6],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-movies","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Yk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2331,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2331","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":0},"title":"How to Convert a Witch","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"DC to AC? Fahrenheit to Celsius? PC to Mac? No, silly rabbit. Change their religion. But first, And if you bump into a witch in a bar or coffee shop, the book adds, it's important to recognize that \"Wiccans are on a genuine spiritual quest,\" providing \"the starting point for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10422,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10422","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":1},"title":"A Festschrift for Ronald Hutton","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic and Witchery: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of 'The Triumph of the Moon' will be published in September by Palgrave Macmillan. I love rolling the word Festschrift around, and if you are not used to it, this is what it means: \"In academia, a Festschrift\u00a0 (plural Festschriften) is a book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/magic-and-witchery-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13198,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13198","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":2},"title":"The First Wiccan Book Published in India","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A little more than twenty years ago, in the preference to his landmark study of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft, The Triumph of the Moon, the historian Ronald Hutton wrote that \"the unique significance of pagan [sic] witchcraft to history is that it is the only religion which England has even given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"India\"","block_context":{"text":"India","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=india"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/ANI-20221216115613-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7405,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7405","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":3},"title":"The Blue Moon Made Me Do It","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A northern Florida sheriff speculates that the deaths of a family were \"ritualistic\" murders. \"The time of death on Tuesday also coincides with what's referred to as a blue moon, which occurs every three years.\" According to the Associated Press version, linked above,\u00a0 which \"faith or religion\" the sheriff had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2195,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2195","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":4},"title":"On Misreading ‘Triumph of the Moon’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"An earlier post of mine about writings on Wicca that lacked authority generated some responses around the Pagan blogosphere. Some bloggers, however, simply do not understand scholarly writing. For instance, this: For over a decade, Professor Ronald Hutton's study on the history of Wicca, Triumph of the Moon, has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/triumph.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1152,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1152","url_meta":{"origin":3740,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry with Confusion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The latest weird search query to bring a visitor to this blog: \"Is New Mexico a polytheistic, monotheistic, or animistic religion?\" Hello? New Mexico is a state. No wonder that for years New Mexico Magazine has had a standing column on geographical confusion called \"One of Our 50 is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gnosticism\"","block_context":{"text":"Gnosticism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=gnosticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0934223955","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3746,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions\/3746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}