Earlier this week, I reviewed The Fits, which I felt was remarkable for its mix of aesthetic (European) and subject matter (African American teenagers in Cincinnati). Another standout here at the festival is Morris from America, which takes a similar hybrid approach, setting a young African American teenager’s coming of age story in Europe. (more…) Read more
“Faith is twenty-four hours of doubt with a minute of hope.” –Sister Maria Scandal, doubt, and brokenness cloud Agnus Dei, the new film from French director Anne Fontaine, but hope ultimately and miraculously shines through in authentic, hard-won ways. (more…) Read more
Monday at Sundance felt like a completely different festival. With shorter lines and smaller audiences and crowds at theaters and bars, Park City felt like a ghost town compared to just the night before. So the two small films that I saw felt like a fitting choice before the cinematic three-a-days begin tomorrow. Though radically different in genre, tone, and subject matter Anna Rose Holmer’s The Fits and Q’s Brahman Naman both ask us to look at identity and belonging... Read more
A day and a half into my first Sundance Film Festival, and I’ve already had my first big surprise, Whit Stillman’s delightful film, Love and Friendship, based on Lady Susan, an unpublished novella by Jane Austen. It’ll likely hang around as one of my favorite films of the festival and will be one to look out for later this year when Roadside Attractions distributes. (more…) Read more
In his list of the best TV series of 2015, Tim Goodman, TV critic for The Hollywood Reporter, listed The Leftovers as the second best series behind Fargo. On a standard Top 10 list, this would have been a lofty rating, but with 46 shows (!) on his list, it’s even higher praise. That Goodman confesses to leaving 15 shows off the list is further proof that we’re in, as he calls it, the platinum age of television. Like Goodman,... Read more
Better late than never, Richard and I finally get around to discussing last year’s best blockbuster…and probably the best blockbuster of 2016, Star Wars: the Force Awakens. (more…) Read more
I recently reviewed Terry Lindvall’s latest book, God Mocks, a central theme of which is that if we want to hear the prophetic word of God, we better look and listen in the most unlikely of places. Last month’s release of the first issue of The Goddamned by Jason Aaron and r. m. Guéra bore this out as well. The second issue , “The Beasts of the Field,” only raises the bar. (more…) Read more
Back in 2010, I reviewed the graphic novel, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a beautiful and challenging recounting of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on that city. I sad that the graphic novel might be the most fitting medium through which to examine those events because it lets us linger on and contemplate at greater length the images of loss and brokenness, while news, film, or television footage rushes over them. In that similar vein, graphic novels might be... Read more
The last episode of Nat Geo’s Breakthrough aired last night, and, well, it’s a cause for concern. Tony Jones and I discuss the water crisis and the possibilities of drinking poop water. (more…) Read more
The latest mass shooting in San Bernadino has given me a feeling of despair I have not experienced from the evening news in some time. Like many of you, I am absolutely sick at the continuing cycle of gun violence in this country, and the seeming lack of ability for our political leaders to do anything about it. I’ve had numerous arguments with friends and relatives over social media this past week. This has not made me feel any better.... Read more
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