Obi Wan takes a turn as Jesus

CINEMA: A Holy Ewan McGregor Wanders a Desert of the Mind (ALAN SCHERSTUHL, LA Weekly). The reviewer seems very impressed by Jesus laughing when another guy farts. (I'm pretty sure that's not in the Bible. Or the New Testament Apocrypha.)

That Rabelaisian laugh cuts against the grain of the film's welcome seriousness. Last Days [in the Desert] is weighty and somber, familiar and strange, in the way of Bible stories but not of contemporary faith-based filmmaking, which eschews mystery and paradox for homily. The story, a consistent surprise, becomes domestic apocrypha, after opening with Jesus — known here as “Holy Man,” “rabbi” and “Yeshua” — wandering sun-blasted vistas en route to Jerusalem.

If this review is any indication, Last Days in the Desert doesn't have much to do with past traditions about Jesus, inside or outside the canon. Cross-file under (Modern) New Testament Apocrypha Watch.