Taglines: Everybody belongs somewhere.
Disenchanted by the church and his devout Christian mother, 19 year-old Donald escapes Texas for the liberal Northwest and attends Reed College at the urging of his secular father. At Reed College, Don finds that his classmates, from all walks of life, are more anti-religious and anti-everything than he was prepared for. In an attempt to fit in, and more importantly, in an attempt to find himself, Don joins an activist group which forces him to question what he really believes in.
Blue Like Jazz is a 2012 American comedy-drama film based on Donald Miller’s semi-autobiographical book of the same name, directed by Steve Taylor. Miller, Taylor, and Ben Pearson co-wrote the screenplay. The film stars Marshall Allman, Claire Holt, Tania Raymonde, Justin Welborn, Eric Lange, Jason Marsden, William McKinney, Jenny Littleton, David Alford, Jeff Obafemi Carr and Matt Godfrey.
The film had its world premiere as an official selection of the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2012. It was released in theaters on April 13, 2012 through Roadside Attractions. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 7, 2012 in the United States and Canada.
Film Review for Blue Like Jazz
An earnest, sometimes awkward comedy about college and faith, “Blue Like Jazz” takes a Baptist boy from Texas and drops him into a hotbed of aggressive individualism, Reed College in Oregon. “Greetings, virgin,” says a fellow student who’s dressed like the pope, as he hands Don Miller (Marshall Allman) a condom or 10 during his first days on campus.
Don may be a Christian, but he’s not anti-sex (not that he gets any, or that the film shows any) or anti-progressive or judgmental. His new best friend is a lesbian, whom he meets cute in the coed bathrooms when she stands next to him at the urinals. At Reed, Don learns, anything goes.
Well, almost anything. It’s easier to be a Jew for Jihad there than a Christian. That’s more or less O.K. by Don, who wants to escape the hypocrisy he found in his church back home.
Directed with the occasional imaginative (if unnecessary) flourish by Steve Taylor, “Blue Like Jazz” was adapted from a book by Donald Miller, and much of it feels as if it were drawn from real experience. Sincere and literary in its presentation of themes — “Animal House” it ain’t — the movie aims for quirky comedy but mostly settles for broad.
Through it all Mr. Allman, who played the skeevy Tommy on “True Blood,” is a pleasant presence but blank. And Don’s crisis of faith, which should be the movie’s core and engine, is never really convincing. It’s spelled out but dramatically inert, lost among the yuks of the Reed kookiness. A brass band in diapers? Oh, you crazy kids!
Blue Like Jazz (2012)
Directed by: Steve Taylor
Starring: Marshall Allman, Claire Holt, Tania Raymonde, Justin Welborn, Eric Lange, Jason Marsden, William McKinney, Jenny Littleton, David Alford, Jeff Obafemi Carr, Matt Godfrey
Screenplay by: Donald Miller
Production Design by: Cyndi Williams
Cinematography by: Ben Pearson
Film Editing by: Matthew Sterling
Costume Design by: Amy Patterson
Art Direction by: Jamey DiDomenico, David Hewlette
Music by: Danny Seim
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexuality, drug and alcohol content, and some language.
Distributed by: Roadside Attractions
Release Date: April 13, 2012
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