“The Brooklyn Bothers Beat the Best” is a film to put on your list for September if you like quirky characters (Jim and Alex,) road story genres, catchy though offbeat music, and don’t have “virgin ears.” The Story is about two down on their luck and life musicians, Jim and Alex, who have the universal dream of musicians, to be successful as determined by big audiences and paydays. Their following of their dreams deliver decidedly more modest results as the duo literally play anywhere and everywhere, from a street corner in front of their out of gas car, to a non-paying gig at the Theta, Beta, Potato fraternity. As with all journey films, the characters grow as they travel down the road touching the lives of others and visa versa. While the major theme is to follow your dreams, there is a twist; follow your dreams AND be content to where they take you.

It may have been “Easter after effects,” (I saw this the week after Easter) but I saw elements of a certain road trip 2000 years ago. As with the journey of the Brooklyn Brothers, the Disciples had great visions of Israel, under the leadership of Jesus, taking their home back from Rome, and Israel winning its true autonomy. As with Jesus and the disciples, this group travels the back roads, communing with ordinary and marginalized people. As Jim points out to Alex, “this may be it,” that maybe they are not to hit it big. Maybe they are just to play their music and whoever likes it, likes it, and they should not let the fact that their dream life is not their life take away from the fact that they ARE living their dream. In essence, Jim is asking that perhaps they should be content rather than frustrated when their expectations are not met. This was of course a major component of why Jesus was crucified, the peoples’ expectations verses the true essence of Jesus as the Messiah. And it always threatens to detract, if not derail, our dreams and purpose if we see fulfillment ONLY in achieving or living out the dream just as we imagine.