Pop Theology
Pop Theology contributor Steve Sudeth attended Monday night’s red carpet premier of the new Hunger Games film, Catching Fire. Read on for his review of the night. Check back later this week for our review of the film. (more…) Read more
Pop Theology contributor Steve Sudeth attended Monday night’s red carpet premier of the new Hunger Games film, Catching Fire. Read on for his review of the night. Check back later this week for our review of the film. (more…) Read more
In my chapter for Donald Boisvert and Jay Johnson’s book Queer Religion, “God, Sex, and Popular Culture: the Evil Demon of Images and the Precession of Lady Gaga,” I predicted that just as Lady Gaga is a simulacrum of previous pop stars like Madonna, other pop stars would follow Gaga and become a simulacrum of her. That day has come. Gaga revived the big-budget narrative music video for the Internet age and put the provocation back in pop music. The... Read more
Editor’s note: Another great post from Benjamin Griffin, lover of all things musically creative and Master of Spirituality. (Really, that’s his degree.) Here, he reflects on the blurring of lines between “religious” and “secular” music in the latest release from Vampire Weekend, “Modern Vampires of the City.” By Benjamin Griffin I grew up adoring alternative Christian music. While I began with traditional CCM, I quickly found that there were artists in all genres, from ska to metal, singing praise, filling... Read more
I’ve gotten into countless discussions (read: arguments) about the inherent nihilism of Cormac McCarthy’s work. I try to give the greatest living American writer (detect the bias) the benefit of the doubt. Though he stares squarely at the evil and brokenness of the human experience, I detect faint flickers of hope in books like The Road and No Country for Old Men and the cinematic adaptations of them. His most recent film, The Counselor, is an indefensible mess that might... Read more
One of the joys of living with a partner who was born and raised in another country is seeing American pop culture again for the first time through his eyes. One night, Fred and I were watching Another Gay Movie, Todd Stephens’ bawdy gay male take on teen sex comedies. Determined to train Fred in the subtle art of camp, I carefully explained the film’s references to Mommie Dearest and Airport 1975. At one point in the movie, there’s an... Read more
With work and moving taking up so much of my time these past few weeks, I’ve neglected my Halloween season of horror movie watching. Thankfully, a couple of shows are filling the void, FOX’s Sleepy Hollow and FX’s American Horror Story: Coven. I’ve written about the former here. After last week’s episode of American Horror Story, I felt compelled to say a few words about why I like this season and why it could be the series’ best. (more…) Read more
The Set-Up: It’s Halloween at the Duck Commander headquarters Hilarity Ensues: As with many of the situations on Duck Dynasty, this episode’s conflict and comedy comes from the boys’ relationships with their wives. When Korie suggests that they turn the warehouse into a haunted house for the local kids, this leaves Willie, Jase, and Jep arguing over how a “real man” should approach Halloween. Jase’s position is the most masculinist, insisting that real men don’t wear costumes. As he says,... Read more
The Set-Up: Si discovers YouTube and wants to put up instructional videos. John Luke destroys Willie’s truck in an accident. Hilarity Ensues: Si decides most of the stuff on YouTube isn’t much good, even though he quotes YouTube favorites like “Charlie Bit Me” and “Double Rainbow,” and decides to do a series of golfing instructional videos. The Duck Dynasty boys, ever looking for distraction from their “work,” decide to act as Si’s film crew. Si appears dressed as a backwoods... Read more
If you pay attention to film reviews or watch SNL, you’ve seen that scientists have taken shots at the logistics of Gravity. Captain Richard Phillips’ crew members have pointed to inaccuracies in the film that bears his name. These criticisms embody something of the “little t”/”capital T” truth debates in which religious and theology folk often participate. Are these films (or stories in scripture) factually true? Who cares. Are they True? You bet. Captain Phillips, though boasting a nerve-wracking action plot, is... Read more
Editor’s Note: Rev. Philip Tanner is a committed ‘Gleek,’ and was, like all the fans and admirers of the show, devastated by the death of Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, the quarterback-turned-glee club singer at the center of the show. Finn Hudson’s death was written into the show, and “The Quarterback,” which aired on Thursday, October 10, was a tribute both to Monteith and the character he created. Review of “The Quarterback,” By Rev. Philip Tanner... Read more
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