The movie Wendy hasn’t been as warmly received as director Benh Zeitlin’s breakout film, 2012’s magically weird Beasts of the Southern Wild. Its Rotten Tomatoes rating hovers below 50% right now, and when I asked a fellow film critic how he liked the film, he made a face like I’d forced him to eat chocolate broccoli. I get that. Wendy is a strange tale—a revisionist take on J.M. Barrie’s classic story of Peter Pan that strips out some of its... Read more
I’m no scientist, but I do like science. I’m no pastor, but I do love God. And while I’m no young earth creationist, the Ark Encounter still looks pretty neat. This is not to say the museum/proselytizing center/theme park doesn’t have its share of issues. This full-size ark in Williamstown, Kentucky, is filled with animatronic animals, people and dinosaurs, and naturally it’s packed with controversies, too: The documentary We Believe in Dinosaurs, airing on PBS Monday, Feb. 17, examines most... Read more
The trailer for David Lowery’s intriguing-looking The Green Knight just dropped. Color me excited … and maybe just a bit nervous, too. The movie is based on one of the most famous poems of the late Medieval age, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Hero Sir Gawain—played by Dev Patel—is a knight from King Arthur’s famed Round Table, on par with Lancelot and Galahad. In the poem, the mysterious Green Knight shows up at King Arthur’s castle on Christmas: He... Read more
It’s awards season, of course. The Golden Globes were handed out this weekend, and Oscar nominations will be named on Monday. Plenty of film critics’ associations around the country are doling out their own selected honors, too, including one that I belong to–the Denver Film Critics Society. What follows are the DFCS slate of nominees (in no particular order), along with a few comments of my own: It’ll name the winners next Monday. Best Picture “Little Women” “Jojo Rabbit” “Once... Read more
It’s never easy to piece together these “best of” lists, but I especially struggled this year. First, there’s the funky criteria that Watching God tries to adhere to: cinematic, storytelling excellence coupled with strong, often spiritually resonant messages. Then there’s the perennial difficulty of pitting very different movies against one another. (Can you really say that a difficult, moving drama like Waves is better than this year’s clever retelling of Little Women, for instance?) But this year, for the first... Read more
Hollywood and heaven have never been next-door neighbors. Look, most movie studios want to encourage as many people as possible to see their films, and religion is inherently controversial. Unless a movie maker makes up his or her own religion (say, like George Lucas did with the Force), it makes financial sense to just steer clear of the subject. Maybe that’s why some evangelical Christians have taken matters into their own hands and make their own faith-based movies. Lots of... Read more
The environmental docudrama Dark Waters pits attorney Robert Bilott, one-time defender of the country’s mighty chemical companies, against the mightiest of them all: DuPont. On one hand, the film simply, dramatically documents a case of corporate malfeasance and the man (played by Mark Ruffalo) who was instrumental in exposing it. But I think even more so, it’s the journey of the man himself: He traded an easy path for a righteous one, and what that trade cost him. And it,... Read more
I’ve got a friend who’s prone to make lists, and he recently gave me one of the 20 happiest moments of his life. It made for a pretty fascinating read: Some I remembered (we’ve been friends since childhood), some I didn’t. And after I read it, I started thinking what would make my own list. I noticed something funny after writing a few entries, though: How often the memories I most treasured were also deeply painful. Talking with my grandmother... Read more
Joker makes fine October viewing, what with Halloween around the corner and all. With all due respect to Annabelle, La Llorona and Pennywise from IT: Chapter Two, Joker is the scariest monster I’ve seen this year. And he should be. Historically, no fictional character better embodies the squishy concept of evil better than he. It wasn’t always so. The Clown Prince of Crime has, like his mortal nemesis, Batman, morphed plenty over the years, and in Batman’s campiest days he... Read more
The R-rated IT: Chapter Two doesn’t skimp on blood. Indeed, gallon for gallon, it might be one of the bloodiest ever. Want more details about the movie’s high quotient of issues? You can check out my Plugged In review. But get into the (ahem) guts of Chapter Two (based, of course, on Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT), and you’ll find more at work than just an evil, toothy clown. (Warning: Spoilers lurk ahead.) That clown, called Pennywise, is the most... Read more
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