<em>Elio</em> is a space adventure that <em>Toy Story</em>’s Andy would actually enjoy ARTICLE

Elio is a space adventure that Toy Story’s Andy would actually enjoy

Pixar’s Elio is the kind of movie that Lightyear should have been.

<em>The Life of Chuck</em>: Stephen King and Mike Flanagan on life, death, and the end of the world ARTICLE

The Life of Chuck: Stephen King and Mike Flanagan on life, death, and the end of the world

“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.” That saying from the Talmud — popularized as a tagline for Schindler’s List, in which Ben Kingsley’s Itzak Stern quotes the line — is not used in The Life of Chuck, but in my mind it might as well be.

<em>Paddington in Peru</em> is pleasant, underachieving nonsense ARTICLE

Paddington in Peru is pleasant, underachieving nonsense

The decency and goofy sweetness of the King films continue in Paddington in Peru, though the broader moral and social themes are lost in the quest adventure plot.

SDG’s Top 10 Christmas movies list! POST

SDG’s Top 10 Christmas movies list!

I do hope to get back to more regular movie writing in 2025. For now, I hope you enjoy my latest “quick win,” a tongue-in-cheek Christmas movies list I published at All Things SDG.

The Wild Robot REVIEW

The Wild Robot (2024)

Watching Chris Sanders’s The Wild Robot, I felt things I haven’t felt in a very long time watching a Hollywood animated movie outside the Spider-Verse: wonder, discovery, joy.

Crisis of meaning, part 3: What lies beyond the Spider-Verse? ARTICLE

Crisis of meaning, part 3: What lies beyond the Spider-Verse?

A question worth asking of a story, then, is: “Is there room for God in this story, in this world?”

Crisis of meaning, part 2: The lie at the end of the MCU multiverse ARTICLE

Crisis of meaning, part 2: The lie at the end of the MCU multiverse

Sometimes it seems like the universe is sending you a message. In the MCU, the calls are coming from inside the house.

Crisis of Meaning on Infinite Earths, part 1: The multiverse and superhero movies ARTICLE

Crisis of Meaning on Infinite Earths, part 1: The multiverse and superhero movies

Is it possible to tell meaningful stories in a multiverse premise? Or does the multiverse idea tend toward nihilism?

Two things I wish George Miller had done differently in <em>Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga</em> POST

Two things I wish George Miller had done differently in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The Fury Road prequel is a satisfying return to the world of the demented 2015 film—but there were two missed opportunities, relating to Immortan Joe’s Wives and Furiosa’s revenge.

<em>Furiosa</em> tells the story of a world (almost) without hope ARTICLE

Furiosa tells the story of a world (almost) without hope

Is there no hope? This desperate question hangs over the previous film in the saga, Miller’s 2015 extravaganza Mad Max: Fury Road. Now, the same question haunts Furiosa, an epic origin-story prequel for Fury Road’s stealth protagonist, Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa.