Film

Believe in the Latest Faith-Based Film

Do You Believe? is now in movie theaters across America. Released on March 20, it has done well at the box office—debuting on the weekend chart at number six. So what? Well, it is also a film about Christians, made by Christians and being watched by Christians in droves. But do we believe it’s any … Read more

A Korean Pastor Inspires Us to Love Without Limits

The Drop Box is a heart wrenching, yet, inspirational documentary about a selflessly heroic South Korean pastor, Lee Jong-rak, who is consumed by a compelling desire to love unconditionally abandoned and helpless newborn babies. The film opened at a limited number of Canadian theaters in early March. Yet, due to its popularity, movie goers in the United … Read more

Old Fashioned—A Flawed Alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey

While the Christian world and its religious allies cry in the wilderness that sex is sacred; the rest of the world is rushing to see Fifty Shades of Grey. Over Saint Valentine’s Day weekend, the bacchanal film set a box-office record for an R-rated movie opening in the month of February—and thus the record set … Read more

A Film Worth Viewing About Clergy Sexual Abuse

Calvary starring Brendan Gleeson and directed by John Michael McDonagh is a movie serious Catholics must see. Largely overlooked when it was released in North America in August 2014, moviegoers who missed it in the theater now have a chance to see it on DVD. The confessional is the tomb, and the confessed sinner, pushing … Read more

Unbroken: Gold Medal or Also-Ran?

It was always going to be hard. The New York Times bestseller Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption touched millions with a tale that would be unbelievable if it weren’t true. Yes, it was going to be a tough call for any filmmaker. So when a relatively inexperienced director comes … Read more

Exodus Movie: Promised Land or Golden Bull?

Hollywood, still wet from the soaking it took from Noah, has headed for the desert with Moses in the new movie Exodus: Gods and Kings. Surely this time we have a foolproof crowd pleaser filled only with milk and honey? Or, instead, is it going to be a lot of grumbling at bitter herbs? The … Read more

Eucharistic Symbolism in the Hunger Games

When we go to the cinema or rent a DVD, our motives are usually fairly simplistic: we seek to be entertained, and most likely we choose a movie because we are specifically in the mood for passive entertainment which requires little or no mental effort on our part. If you are like me, though, you … Read more

Interstellar: Lost in Space

Interstellar has blasted onto movie screens across the globe, and is going into orbit at the box office—$300, 000, 000, and counting. In addition, its critical acclaim seems to suggest that the movie event of the year has just landed. But, is it any good? Well, before we splash down, let’s look at the background. … Read more

New Film Reveals Genius of Obscure Photographer

Vivian Maier died in penniless obscurity five years ago; today she is fast becoming a phenomenon. On both sides of the Atlantic an award-winning film about her life and work has been released to critical acclaim. Entitled Finding Vivian Maier, it is as much a tale of detection as the story of an artist. As … Read more

The True Gift of The Giver

More than two decades ago—long before we all were transfixed by the rebelliousness demonstrated by Katniss Everdeen in the dystopian society presented in the Hunger Games, or Tris Prior in the dystopian Divergent—Newberry Medal-winning novelist, Lois Lowry published The Giver, a novel designed for a young-adult audience, which described a totalitarian society in which no … Read more

Out-of-Date Message Movies

I haven’t seen Philomena but I’ve noticed it’s been getting a lot of attention: many TV ads, awards nominations, numerous interviews with the stars, with the book’s author, and with the real-life Philomena Lee. Then I read some reviews of the film and realized why the media was giving it so much play. It’s about … Read more

The Desolation of Peter Jackson

There must be something about New Zealand that brings out the megalomania in movie makers. It recently was announced that James Cameron, that titan of trite who brought us the “morality tale” of Titanic (with rich people falsely portrayed as scrambling for other people’s places on life boats, as if to say all rich people, … Read more

How Modern Post-Christian Liberals Watch Movies

As Christianity became less and less a cultural force over the last several decades, one of the great losses is our ability to make art that appeals to our common humanity, largely because a common humanity no longer seems to exist. While this may be a disappointment for the traditionalists among us who can no … Read more

The Lord of the World

In 2001, St. Augustine’s Press published a new edition of Robert Hugh Benson’s 1907 novel, The Lord of the World. A friend of mine in Vermont recently urged me to read it, and I did. Ralph McInerny, in a brief introduction, writes: “The novel wonderfully conveys the flatness and boredom of a world without God. … Read more

Prometheus

Set twenty-seven years before the events of Ridley Scott’s 1979 iconic sci-fi thriller, Alien, Prometheus sees a team of scientists, employed by the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation; accept an ancient invitation from a mysterious star map which appears to promise the answers to some of mankind’s most profound questions. In search of the origins of man, … Read more

For Greater Glory…For Christ the King

Imagine needing the grace of the confessional yet unable to find a priest.  Imagine being unable to find a priest to baptize your baby or to witness your marriage.  Imagine a country without confirmations or ordinations.    Imagine longing to receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but having no Mass at which to assist.  Indeed, … Read more

For Greater Glory: Relevance Beyond Mexico

For Greater Glory, a romanticized movie about Mexico’s Cristero War in the 1920s, will appeal to Catholics. And to lovers of freedom to worship. And to Americans who cherish the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, for it portrays precisely the sort of situation our Founding Fathers feared. For all these reasons For Greater Glory … Read more

The Cristeros and Us

Most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea that a quasi-Stalinist, violently anti-Catholic regime once existed on our southern borders. Those who don’t know how bad Mexico was in the late 1920s are about to learn, though: at least those who see For Greater Glory, a recently-released movie about the Cristero War, a passionate (and bloody) defense … Read more

The Avengers…From a Theological Perspective

The Avengers, who some are saying is the best “Super-Hero” movie of all time, shattered the box-office on its opening weekend.  It is a highly entertaining, action packed, funny movie that brings together some hi-profile actors and some legendary comic-book characters. The movies premise, as with most “Super-Hero” films, is global domination by a dark … Read more

Never Respectable: An Interview with Jason Jones

GK Chesterton once wrote of the Catholic Church as a “wild” and “untamed” force and warned against falling into the “foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe.” He wrote about orthodoxy in a time rife with heresies. He wrote about the human person as created in the image and likeness … Read more

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