Posts Tagged ‘film’
A Conversation with Scott Derrickson, Part 1
December 14, 2016
Scott Derrickson is a director whose films include The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us From Evil. His most recent film, Marvel’s Doctor Strange, is in theaters now. I had the chance to chat with Scott for Christianity Today in the summer of 2014, when news had just broke that he was Marvel’s choice. In this…
Read MoreIn the Company of Women, Part II
August 25, 2016
Continued from yesterday. “You’re the sort of man who can’t know anyone intimately, least of all a woman.” That may be the most stinging, hurtful reprimand I’ve ever heard. Thank God it wasn’t aimed at me: Those words were spoken by Miss Lucy Honeychurch to her fiancé, Mr. Cesil Vyse, in 1985’s A Room With…
Read MoreIn the Company of Women, Part I
August 24, 2016
In late July of 1992, Batman Returns ruled the box office. I bought a ticket for something else: A film about two married women and a grumpy widow who take a holiday and, as The Seattle Times put it, “rediscover their sensuality on the sunny Mediterranean.” Strange, I know. But there I was, a twenty-one-year-old…
Read MoreBetter Call Saul
March 23, 2016
Better Call Saul, a prequel to AMC’s milestone series, Breaking Bad, further establishes co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould to be among the most intricate moral thinkers working in the dramatic arts. Whereas the first series rendered the ethical decline of a dying man who makes something of a noble bargain with his conscience—attempting to…
Read MoreThe Coen Brothers, Plato, and the Imagination
February 15, 2016
Note: This review contains mild spoilers. Hail, Caesar!, the Coen Brothers’ latest offering, tells the story of a pious hero on a religious quest, and by all appearances is a movie that asks to be interpreted in a theological way. A quasi-parable set in a big studio during the Golden Era of Hollywood, the film…
Read MoreBrooklyn: A Drama of Discernment
February 5, 2016
One of the hardest things in life is having two good choices that are completely exclusive of each other. It’s not a matter of picking a major in college, regretting it, and changing to another track; not a matter of taking a job at the wrong place and eventually finding your way to another one.…
Read MoreWinners: Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury Film Awards for 2015, Part 2
January 13, 2016
Continued from yesterday. Read Part 1 here. Coninuing yesterday’s list of films, here are five other films (ranked) the 2015 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury recommended for Christian audiences, plus a list of honorable mentions (unranked): 5) Love & Mercy—Bill Pohlad Love & Mercy—about the struggle of the Beach Boys’ anchor Brian Wilson to…
Read MoreWinners: Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury Film Awards for 2015, Part 1
January 12, 2016
The 2015 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury Film Awards had a decidedly international flavor. Six of ten films recognized by the Image-sponsored discussion forum were foreign-language films, including the top three entrants. Perhaps because of that international flavor, this year’s list of films specifically recommended for Christian audiences looked beyond representations of Christianity and included…
Read MoreRepression, Oppression, Suppression: A Life of Domestic Routine
December 23, 2015
Somewhere in the middle of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, the eponymous Jeanne eats a sandwich in her kitchen. We have, by that point in the film, seen quite a lot of Jeanne’s kitchen. We’ve watched Ms. Dielman cook in that kitchen, peel potatoes, wash dishes (shot from behind her back so…
Read MoreA Good Fight: Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night)
October 26, 2015
If a pair of writer/directors exists that can rival Joel and Ethan Coen for a body of work with profound depictions of humanity, it is another set of brothers. The films of the Dardennes, Jean-Pierre and Luc, have consistently been among the best of modern offerings and were a main feature in an essay I…
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