<em>The Godfather</em>&rsquo;s two endings: Lighting a candle and the wrong side of the door ARTICLE

The Godfather’s two endings: Lighting a candle and the wrong side of the door

Now half a century old, Francis Ford Coppola’s revered New Hollywood masterpiece has one of the best-known final shots in film history — but it almost had a much more Catholic ending.

Mother knows best: <em>Turning Red</em>, <em>Encanto</em>, and Disney/Pixar&rsquo;s new overbearing moms ARTICLE

Mother knows best: Turning Red, Encanto, and Disney/Pixar’s new overbearing moms

The familiar animation trope of the domineering dad and the (sometimes) supportive mom gets an update in recent films from the Mouse House.

Caped crusaders and the common good ARTICLE

Caped crusaders and the common good

Questions around how what people need and deserve and how they should be governed are of course recurring themes in the saga of Zorro’s more famous heir, Batman … We don’t look to superhero movies to answer these questions for us, but their varying answers tell us something about ourselves and the times in which they were made.

Cyrano REVIEW

Cyrano (2021)

Dinklage swaggers and glowers magnificently and sings decently, but he’s at his best in quiet, intimate moments, especially with Roxanne and with his confidante Le Bret, the only one who sees his pain.

2021: The year in reviews ARTICLE

2021: The year in reviews

What kind of year was it for movies? I’ve heard some folks complain that 2021 wasn’t a great movie year, but I’ve come to the point where I believe there are no good or bad movie years, just years in which people have or haven’t watched enough movies.

Spider-Man: No Way Home REVIEW

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Not so long ago, a movie like John Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home would definitely have prompted me to open my review by dubbing it, if not the best Spider-Man movie ever, at any rate the most Spider-Man movie ever.

SDG says farewell to the National Catholic Register ARTICLE

SDG says farewell to the National Catholic Register

I have, as I suppose most anyone would, complex, mixed feelings about leaving an institution that’s been such a big part of my life for so long a time, but I have no regrets regarding my decisions nor doubts about how God is leading me.

The Tragedy of Macbeth REVIEW

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Fog and mist, translucent pavilion sidewalls, blowing curtains, dark water, shadows, reflections: the film is full of motifs evoking the murkiness in which Macbeth’s last days play out.

King Richard REVIEW

King Richard (2021)

As rousing sports films and inspirational biopics go, while King Richard is far from a pitiless, warts-and-all inquiry, it has a particular kind of truthfulness, analogous to the truthfulness of a family scrapbook or stories recounted at family reunions.

Dune: Part One REVIEW

Dune: Part One (2021)

Watching Dune drove home to me the extent to which no one in 2021 can really go into an adaptation of Dune completely cold.