Danny Boyle won the Oscar in 2009 for “Slumdog Millionaire,” an exhilarating romance that ranks high on my list of best movies of the decade. Three years later, Boyle got another Oscar nomination for “127 Hours,” which, while not quite on the level of breathless greatness that “Millionaire” is on, is still a remarkable film. Upon rewatching it, I was impressed with James Franco. I tend to see Franco as somewhat overrated in Hollywood, due to his James Dean-looks and... Read more
posted by W Bradford Wilcox (@WilcoxNMP) Read more
Work is like old age: the worst thing in the world, except for the alternative. Downton Abbey Read more
Arthur Chu, a 29 year old compliance analyst from Ohio, might be the most dominant player in Jeopardy! history. In only 8 days of competitions (or 4 hours of TV broadcast time), Chu has won over $250,000. Many of his victories have been ridiculously lop sided: He won $50,000 on February 27th’s episode, beating out the second place winner by almost $40,000. Chu still has a long way to go to catch all time Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings (who won... Read more
Coming this holiday season, “A Christmas Story.” In white suburbia, a young boy hopes of realizing his aspirations of becoming a singer. His only wish for “the holidays” is a brand new karaoke machine, filled with his favorite pop songs. These wishes clash, however, with the wishes of his father, an unfeeling corporate executive who wants his son to have a Red Ryder BB gun. Torn between his dreams and the desire to please his demanding father, the son almost... Read more
Liberal theologian Tony Jones is urging a total “schism,” between churches that ordain female ministers and those that “subjugate women” (exact quote). That means: If you attend a church that does not let women preach or hold positions of ecclesial authority, you need to leave that church. If you work for a ministry that does not affirm women in ecclesial leadership, you need to leave that ministry. If you write for a publishing house that also prints books by... Read more
I’m not particularly a fan of the Hunger Games series. I find the story too often revels in the savagery it portrays. However, I did find the newest film Catching Fire a marked improvement over the first movie. In addition to what I believe is a greater coherence and development within the plot, Catching Fire actually manages to be somewhat poignant, a quality the first film tried but failed to achieve. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character has a conversation with main... Read more
Samuel D. James
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