We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.īut you know what? We change lives. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.” My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. “Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for sexual content, suggestive dancing, some heavy drinking, and language.)Ībout a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”: Warning: If you have an allergic reaction to songs like “Take Me Home Tonight” and “I Want to Know What Love Is,” do not venture within 10 miles of this movie. Paul Giamatti, as Jaxx’s sleazoid manager, does his utmost to give a real performance amid all the retro ridiculousness.
Cruise is always at his best when he’s playing against type (in this case, against his own movie-star glam image). (We’re supposed to think he deserves better.) What little scenery there is to steal is pilfered by Alec Baldwin as a Sunset Strip rock club owner and Tom Cruise as the strung-out rock idol Stacee Jaxx. Set in 1987, it features two leads of surpassing blandness, Julianne Hough’s Sherrie, newly arrived from Tulsa, Okla., to make it in Hollywood as a singer, and Diego Boneta’s Drew, an aspiring rocker who, all too fittingly, ends up in a boy band. However you play up this material – as camp, melodrama, anthem, or goof – it sags under the weight of its lightweight pretensions. The hard-rock, heavy-metal retro musical “Rock of Ages” might seem like a movie natural, but Adam Shankman (whose “ Hairspray” was a delight) never locates the right tone.
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