Articles
In search of true confession in the movies
Of the seven sacraments at the heart of the Church’s life, from the very beginning perhaps the most intriguing to filmmakers has been, ironically, the least visually impressive — a hidden rite involving only the minister and the recipient.
Sight & Sound Theatre’s Jesus: An Evangelical Gospel story
“Where the Bible comes to life” is the slogan of Sight & Sound Theatres, headquartered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish country.
Coronavirus Quarantine Streaming Options for Lent and Easter (and More)
In the last few weeks, articles about movies to stream while sheltering in place during your coronavirus quarantine have proliferated across the internet almost as fast as the virus has spread around the world. What makes this article different?
2019: The year in reviews
An exquisite art-house film about a beatified martyr. The triumphant arrival of a belated documentary of a celebrated gospel concert. A fact-based drama about an alliance of devout and unbelieving survivors of clerical sex abuse calling for justice. These are just a few of an unusually large crop of notable films that tackled religious and spiritual themes in 2019.
Faith and Ferocity: Interview With Harriet Producer Debra Martin Chase
Harriet’s appeal is multifaceted, appealing to three demographics underserved by mainstream Hollywood fare: women, people of color and people of faith. Producer Debra Martin Chase knows something about these three demographics.
Of grief and ghosts: Interview with Light from Light witer-director Paul Harrill
Silence, reflection, the search for meaning, the interior life: These are among the hallmarks of Paul Harrill’s work.
‘Conquerors of the moon’: Documentaries commemorating the Apollo project
“Honor, greetings and blessings to you, conquerors of the moon, pale lamp of our nights and our dreams!” Paul VI exclaimed in his July 21 message to the astronauts on the day after the lunar landing. “Bring to it, with your living presence, the voice of the spirit, the hymn to God, our Creator and our Father.”
Franco Zeffirelli’s complicated, Catholic life: What does it mean for his art?
For Catholics and other Christians, the contradiction between Zeffirelli’s faith and the themes of his religious films on the one hand and his openly homosexual lifestyle on the other raise perennial questions about the mysterious relationship of art and the artist.
Emanuel: Racial violence and Christian forgiveness
Forgiveness in the face of murderous violence is a radical act that remains as shocking and controversial today as it was when a Second Temple–era Palestinian prophet commanded his disciples to love and to pray for those who persecuted them and ended his mortal life praying for divine forgiveness for his own executioners.
The secular apocalypse: Irreligion, pop culture, and the end of the world
All art — even pop art, even bad or offensive art — is in some way a mirror to the soul of the culture that created it. Whether we embrace them, condemn them, or are indifferent to them, these secular apocalypses reveal something about who we are as a culture.
‘The Redemption Project’: Convicts, Victims, Confrontation and Forgiveness
The prison setting and the word “redemption” in the Ludlumesque title are vaguely evocative of the most popular prison movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. A prison sentence, though, is seldom a redemptive experience for anyone.
Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and The Divine Plan: Filmmaker Robert Orlando (Interview)
Anyone who directs a movie about the converging efforts of Pope St. John Paul II and Ronald Reagan to take on the Soviet Union is someone I’m interested in talking to. But Robert Orlando isn’t just anyone to me.
Fathers know best? Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s surprising animated dads
Particularly striking to me, and even moving, is a theme connecting Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (though not The Lego Movie): how themes of father–son conflict ubiquitous in other cartoons play out with unexpectedly insightful, consequential fathers.
2018: The year in reviews
2018 was a remarkable movie year — for family films, films with religious themes, and documentaries — but it was also a year of family men who weren’t there for their families.
The Dark Knight trilogy: The inconclusive battle for Gotham’s soul
I’m struck by the extent to which Christopher Nolan’s celebrated Dark Knight trilogy (of which the monumental second chapter, The Dark Knight, was released 10 years ago this week), watched back-to-back, can be fruitfully considered as an extended comic-book riff on the story of Abraham and God’s judgment on Sodom in the Book of Genesis.
“God saved my life”: The Rider star Brady Jandreau
Brady Jandreau is a young Lakota Sioux rodeo star who met filmmaker Chloé Zhao while she was filming at a South Dakota ranch.… Zhao wanted her next film to be about Jandreau’s world and way of life. While she was searching for a way into the story, Jandreau’s career came to an abrupt end when a bronco threw him and then stomped on his head, shattering his skull.
Interview: Paul, Apostle of Christ Writer–Director Andrew Hyatt
The Full of Grace filmmaker talks about the challenges of bringing Scripture to life and the problems with many faith-based films.
The seductive distortions of Call Me By Your Name (2017)
If you didn’t know that the Best Picture–nominated Call Me By Your Name is an uncritically rapturous celebration of a same-sex relationship between an inexperienced youth played by Timothée Chalamet and an experienced man played by Armie Hammer, you might almost guess it from the opening titles, an arty overture for the film that follows.
2017: The year in reviews
American moviegoers aren’t necessarily the most demanding viewers in the world, but it seems we have our limits, if dire movie-ticket sales for 2017 are any indication.
Interview: Catholic filmmaker Timothy Reckart, director of The Star
Timothy Reckart is the talented creator of one of the most original and memorable animated shorts in recent years, the 2012 Oscar-nominated stop-motion gem “Head Over Heels.” He is also a devout Catholic working in Hollywood.
Recent
- Ethan Hunt’s second act and Tom Cruise’s third: The unending impossible mission
- Indiana Jones movies and Raiders of the Lost Ark: Why the original still stands alone
- The Lourdes Effect: The Miracle Club director Thaddeus O’Sullivan on Irish trauma and miracles
- An Elemental misstep: Does Pixar still need — or benefit from — anthropomorphic fantasy?
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an incomplete triumph
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