It’s a good thing for American filmmakers nominated for Best Picture this year that the award can only go to American films. If nominations were opened up globally, they all would have surely fallen behind the Best Foreign Film winner, A Separation. This Iranian film is both a beautiful work of art and an important (potentially) diplomatic voice. (more…) Read more
If, like me, you believe that the Dude abides, then you’ll immediately recognize the quote from which I drew the title of this post. Walter’s (John Goodman) assertion to Donny (Steve Buscemi) in The Big Lebowski is one of the funniest uses of/send ups of nihilism in pop culture. A comedic ingredient in the Coen brothers‘ most delicious dish, it no doubt would have deserved a place in Thomas S. Hibbs’ new book, Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture,... Read more
My good friend Andrew Daugherty, Minister of Faith Formation at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, shares his sermon from the first Sunday of Lent last weekend. It’s a beautiful message that is uplifting, encouraging, and an important reminder of who we are and how we might move through this season of Lent. Please take a few minutes to read it or to listen to it by following the link after the jump. Blessings. (more…) Read more
In a recent bracket of favorite Jesus movies over at The Huffington Post, the final two “combatants” were Jesus Christ Superstar and Life of Brian. Go figure. Richard Lindsay shares his thoughts on the concept album that preceded one of the most famous Jesus musicals of all time. (more…) Read more
Richard Lindsay with a few thoughts on The Help‘s Oscar campaign and the work of its two stars, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, off the screen. (more…) Read more
Like all great films, Jeff Nichols‘ latest film, Take Shelter, speaks to the times in which we live. It powerfully reveals the destructive hold that irrational fear can exert on an individual and a community and is, as such, a deeply spiritual film. It’s also one of the biggest Oscar snubs of this awards season as Michael Shannon‘s captivating performance was left un-nominated. Nichols himself is slowly emerging as a most important writer/director in American cinema. In the end, Take... Read more
Few contemporary scholars are offering up work that is as interdisciplinary, informative, and entertaining as that of W. Scott Poole. His work brilliantly blends American religious, pop culture, and political histories and is, ultimately, indispensable for an accurate study of any of these fields. I am a huge fan of his latest book, Monsters in America and, upon completing it, quickly sought out his earlier work, Satan in America: The Devil We Know. Once again, he reveals that we have... Read more
In one of his recent film articles for the Baptist Press, Phil Boatwright bemoaned the overwhelming number of curse words in The Grey. He counted something like 200 of them. One wonders how he managed to keep track of all those F-words while adequately paying attention to everything else in the film. He ultimately argued that it is a blasphemous, hopeless mess (I saw the film and strongly disagree). By his criteria, I doubt he enjoyed The Descendants all that... Read more
Ryan here. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be departing on a world tour of sorts (more on that in a later post). While I will still be posting on all things religious and pop cultural, Richard Lindsay, formerly unofficial but now official co-editor of Pop Theology, will take a more direct role in content creation on the site. If you have any thoughts for posts he should write or contributions you’d like to make, you can contact him at... Read more
The “liberalism” of Hollywood has long been a point of discussion for cultural critics, film historians, and “conscientious objectors.” All of this has to do with the films’ depiction of violence, drug/alcohol use, religion, and, of course, sex. At the same time, the behavior of the “Hollywood elite” has also been a point of contention for outside observers. Yet as a significant audience was scandalized by offensive behavior, just as many flocked to it. In his book, Hollywood Bohemians: Transgressive... Read more
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