If you need an introduction to Rob Reiner, it's likely that you haven't seen very many films. The multitalented Director, Actor, and Activist has been making films for years, most of which are prime examples of their respective genre's. He essentially invented the "mockumentary" with "This Is Spinal Tap," made the perfect drama in "A Few Good Men," the ultimate fantasy film with "The Princess Bride," the brilliant coming of age film "Stand By Me," and too many others to count.

Reiner was kind enough to sit down with ConversantLife for a 1 on 1 interview to talk about his newest film "Flipped," family systems, and the importance of connecting with others.

Christopher Faris: I like to think about how film and therapy can inter-connect.  This is a great film for that, especially with communication, other perspectives, etc.

Madeline Carroll is the star of Rob Reiner’s newest film “Flipped” which has been out since the beginning of August.  In addition to “Flipped” she has also starred in “The Spy Next Door” with Jackie Chan and “Swing Vote” with Kevin Costner.  Carroll is as endearing in person as she is on screen, quick with jokes, humor, and kindness.  Below you can read her thoughts on working with Rob Reiner, horror films, and how she is involved in justice related issues.

Christopher Faris: What was it about “Flipped” that drew you to it initially?

Madeline Carroll: Just the script basically. The script kind of spoke for itself. The people who were telling me about it were so excited about it, and I was wondering why they were so excited about it?  Then I read it and I was like, I get why they are so excited about it.  I just loved it, I thought it was so nice.  It was really a breath of fresh air because everything I had been getting was either too dirty, or too this or too that.  It was really cool to be able to play Juli Baker.  I just loved the script!  I went and I auditioned for Rob Reiner and I think I was the first girl that they saw.  Later on that day I had found out that I had gotten it, and it was a dream come true.

It had been at least 10 years since I walked into the Family Christian bookstore around the corner from where I went to high school in Costa Mesa. I used to go there on weekdays in the lull between the end of the school day and the start of theater practice. I went there for music, and Tooth and Nail records was all the rage. With the exception of Wish For Eden and Everdown, I bought nearly everything that had the labels name on it, and Family was my Christian music dispensary of choice. Half the store was CD’s, and the rest of it could have been stocked with groceries for all I cared. It was my music place.

Revisiting Family Christian bookstore 10 years later was sort of disheartening. What used to be rows of CD’s was a sparse collection of music comprised of worship leaders and things they play on KFSH. Taking its place was the hot new Christian media – the DVD. Several aisles of colorful DVD’s, sitting right next to a DVD player that would censor out the naughty bits of whatever you were watching, which was certainly nothing carried on the shelves. In fact, they even have 30 dollar versions of your favorite secular movies, without any of the aforementioned corruptible content.

I watched the movie Fireproof recently for the first time.  I know I'm coming late to the party, and as I understand, the movie has its fair share of critics who say Christian art often doesn’t compare in quality to its secular counterpart.  And the movie has its fair share of proponents who say that movies like this stand to redeem art from our evil culture.

Whoever is right is less important to me right now; I’m simply glad the team that made this movie did so.  I found parts of it to be compelling, other parts to be cheesy, and other parts to be a myopic index of standard hot topics for many modern Evangelicals.

But I loved the movie—and here’s why:  the story reminded me, in tear-filled fashion, that Jesus changes lives.  He shines brightly into darkness.  He renders the impossible possible by the power of His Word and His love.  He breaks people, and in doing so, makes them whole.

Here is the Part 2 of a two-part interview I recently conducted with Zac Heath, director of "The River Within," which is now available in DVD. Zax candidly opened up about the difficult process of making films independently, his influences, and some of the lessons learned along the way.

At the conclusion of our interview, Zac graciously offered to give three DVD copies of his film to the ConversantLife audience. Here's how the DVD giveaway is going to work. I will choose three of the most insightful comments posted at the conclusion of either Part 1 or Part 2 of my Zac Heath interview.

Now, here's Part 2 of my interview with Zac:

CF: So, no film school experience.

ZH: Nope.

Is this your first time you’ve written a script?

Making movies is something many of us dream of doing, and today's technical age has made this prospect more accessible than ever.  However, there are big questions to resolve about getting a film made: How do you make a script work?  How will you get the right technical aspects together with cameras, audio devices, and editing?  What about assembling a crew who will be on time, directing actors, and finishing within a decent shooting schedule?  What if your budget is miniscule?  What if you’ve never been to film school?

Zac Heath, who recently directed his first feature film, “The River Within” (www.theriverwithinmovie.com, now available on DVD) is passionate about being creative and making movies that matter.  Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Zac where he candidly opened up about the difficult process of making films independently, his influences, and some of the lessons learned along the way. Here is the first part of a two part interview:

Together with Grace Hill Media, ConversantLife is giving away three DVD copies of the inspirational and moving family film, Letters to God.

Letters to God is the heartfelt and inspiring story of what happens when one boy's journey touches the lives of his family, friends, and community. Hope is contagious in this uplifting new DVD, arriving on August 10 from Possibility Pictures and Vivendi Entertainment.

An intimate, moving and often funny story, the film follows thepath of a young child with a terminal illness who through his battle becomes a warrior for hope and a champion to everyone around him. Surrounded by a loving family and community, the young boy takes comfort in prayers written as letters to God. These letters find their way to a conflicted postman who is at a crossroads in his life, searching for meaning.

Coming of age films are a favorite of mine.  There is a certain quality to this genre that reaches me unlike any other.   Children know blunt emotion at its simplest and most raw – happy, sad, angry, nervous – while adults attach more convoluted subcategories to these feelings.  Seeing kids experience these feelings on screen takes us back to our own childhoods to when we first felt them.  A good coming age film will remind us and make us feel those feelings again.

In Rob Reiner’s latest film “Flipped” (adapted from the book of the same name), Juli Baker and Bryce Loski describe their journey to and from first love with one another.  The uniqueness of the film is that each section of is replayed so that each character narrates their male and female point of view of the same scenario.  The effect provides an original take on the traditional romantic film.  What one character saw as love, the other was narrating as annoyance. When one character describes passion, the other sees crazy.

If Christopher Nolan isn't a Christian, he should be. Watching the summer's best movie corrupt my pea-sized brain was incredible. That is, until I was its next captive.

Someone planted a thought in my brain.

Last night. I. Broke. Down. For whatever reason I couldn't tolerate my living situation anymore. Full time writer = parents pad. Doesn't sound so cool when you're 28 and single. Yeah, I'm a published author, yada yada yada...but the sting of losing my independence is still fresh in the brain. 

So who planted the thought? (This is the worst) *Only continue reading if you enjoy brutal honesty about the single life.

When I'm lonely I go online more.

When I go online more I browse guys profiles.

When I browse guys profiles I tend to remember old flings.

Summer movies have been a huge disappointment so far.  Not merely in quality, but also in selection.  I haven’t been eager to see any films outside of the annual Pixar voyage demanded every summer.  Not so with “Inception” – a thrilling, psychological, science fiction, heist flick blend that had me glued from the first frame.

The story is this – a team of mental ninja’s (led by Leonardo DiCaprio) are commissioned to go into the minds of others and extract information.  In addition to extraction is inception, a nigh impossible technique where said team of ninja’s go in and implant ideas into the mind’s of others.  I don’t want to say more – the less known the better.

Let’s talk the good, firstly being the structure of the story.  If you are going to introduce new rules of reality, make sure the audience gets it, and we get it.  I have never seen a film like this before, but Nolan and company do an excellent job of setting up the parameters, the rules, and show us how they work in the first hour or so.  The second half or more of the film is the team of mental con artists playing by the rules.  In terms of genre I have a positive bias towards heist flicks, especially the “one last job” noir style tragi-drama.  “Inception” is a great heist flick.