Review of I'm Not Ashamed (2016) by Skeptic303 — 21 Nov 2016

I'm Not Ashamed is another faith-based movie about the first victim of the Columbine High School shooting...mostly taking place BEFORE the shooting.

That sums up most of how this movie is sloppy on many levels. I can't think of any good character moments that occurred during this film because almost everything here acts more like time filler or is resolved in the next five minutes. Instead, the movie clings onto its encyclopedia of faith-based movie clichés, whether they are for character conflicts or resorting to hasty generalizations about things like Darwin's theory of evolution and survival of the fittest...which I have no choice but to make very clear.

The phrase, "survival of the fittest," was said by Darwin, granted, but in its context, it was talking about animals' success with reproduction. In its context, it can NEVER justify mass genocide or murder as the movie tries the lead viewers to believe. Another concept this movie never gets right is about atheism. Sure, the shooters made clear that they were atheists, but they also made clear that they were seriously hypocritical and they don't mind. My personal problem is that a belief regarding religion is mostly distinctive from political beliefs(except for a theocracy). Nazi Germany was mostly Christian (99%), but they were okay with mass genocide and adopting some far-right political policies. One can clearly tell through their journals that not only were the shooters of Columbine adoptive of neo-Nazi beliefs and policies, but they were found to be psychopaths (especially Eric Harris).

I may have spent the majority of this review debunking some of the ideas the movie tries to jab at the viewer, but that was part of the shortlist of things wrong with this movie. Unfortunately for this movie, Rachel Joy Scott was not a good focus for it. My suggestion as someone into psychology, the two shooters would have may much better focuses (my approach would be similar to that of Nightcrawler (2014) where the main character is nasty and hateful, but he does share something or another that people can sympathize with). This and other missed opportunities combined with a lack of meaningful substance make this movie an expendable candidate.