(No) Shelter from the Storm

September 27, 2011 By bradleyherling

“…[C]onsider…thunderclouds piling up in the sky and moving about accompanied by lightning and thunderclaps…hurricanes with all the devastation they leave behind, the boundless ocean heaved up…and so on. Compared to the might of any of these, our ability to resist becomes an insignificant trifle. Yet the sight of them becomes all the more attractive the more fearful it is, provided we are in a safe place. And we like to call these objects sublime because they raise the soul’s fortitude... Read more

Critique of Just Reason

September 23, 2011 By martynoliver

They must’ve handed out bonuses recently at the New Yorker, because Mssrs. Denby and Lane have been working against form lately (particularly the later) and seem to be actually enjoying the movies. That’s apropos of nothing in particular except to note that one ought not ignore “Contagion,” given a nearly rapturous review by David Denby. “Contagion” is directed by Steven Soderbergh, who returned to the phase in his artistic cycle that reads “time to make a good, serious film.” Part... Read more

“Dolphin Tale” and Angels Unawares

September 22, 2011 By Patton Dodd

Charles Martin Smith’s Dolphin Tale is not the kind of film that will invite aesthetic scrutiny or critical assessments. It’s a family film, pure and simple. Boy meets dolphin. Boy loses dolphin. Boy saves dolphin. Kids cry, dads roll their eyes, moms punch dads in the shoulder. But should you take your young kids—and you should, because they’ll love it—and watch closely, you’ll notice that the film is up to something a bit more. I don’t mean that it has... Read more

Vera Farmiga’s Fundamentalism

September 19, 2011 By Patton Dodd

As I stepped into the lobby of Denver’s Esquire Theater last weekend, I overheard a couple of middle-aged women talking about the movie I was going to see, Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, Higher Ground. One of the ladies was fuming: “I almost walked out after the first 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe all that Jesus stuff. Why did they need to do all that?” Her interlocutor—a stranger to her, I gathered—answered that, well, the Jesus stuff is precisely what the... Read more

Omar likes “The Night of the Hunter”

August 14, 2011 By Patton Dodd

It’s all in the game: Read more

Video Essay: Justice, Vengeance, and Empty Retribution in Public Enemies

August 12, 2011 By michaelpollard

The full text of this video essay’s narration follows the video. In Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (2009), we see a clear expression of American desire for justice and retribution, cleverly hidden in the cloak of a depression-era true-crime story. As J. Edgar Hoover announces the FBI’s “War on Crime,” we cannot help but connect the idea to our current war on terror. Johnny Depp plays Public Enemy Number One John Dillinger, shooting up banks, using the press to his advantage, and keeping out... Read more

Don’t Touch Me, Captain America

August 4, 2011 By joshuapederson

Noli me tangere, gripes Jesus to Mary Magdalene as she reaches out for him shortly after his resurrection in John 20. From the Latin, “Don’t touch me!” Now, I’m sometimes grumpy when I wake up in the morning, but Christ’s reply to his dearest female disciple has always struck me as unnecessarily testy. Then again, he has been dead for three days. In the next verse, he explains why he’s so crotchety: “I have not yet ascended to the father.” ... Read more

This Fall in Religion and Film…

August 2, 2011 By Patton Dodd

…is filled with promise, as some of the films with explicit religious themes that played at Sundance in January start making their way into theaters and homes. As a couple of the trailers below show, however, some promises are made to be broken. (Not all, though–Vera Farmiga, in particular, appears to have made something special.) Here’s the religion and film landscape ahead: HIGHER GROUND MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE RED STATE SENNA THE LEDGE SALVATION BOULEVARD Read more

The Real Question of “The Tree of Life”: Are We Alone?

August 2, 2011 By dougcunningham

Much has been written in the press regarding the overtly Christian elements of Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life. (Kent Jones offers up the most beautiful of these assessments in the July/August issue of Film Comment.) Interestingly, however, the film seems not so much “Christian” as inquisitive and desperately hopeful about the possibility of a divine shaper–a human angst hardly exclusive to Christianity. I suspect, in fact, that many in the Christian community might take issue with Malick’s portrayal of... Read more

Is “The Tree of Life” a Christian Film?

August 1, 2011 By Patton Dodd

This weekend, the inimitable filmmaker and essayist Matt Zoller Seitz asked via Twitter what I took to be a strange question: “How Christian is The Tree of Life”? Strange, because I’ve been thinking of the film as unusually biblical and indeed Christian in its whole sense of itself, from its title forward. It’s made by a Christian, with Christian imagery and themes, Christian language, prayer scenes, and visions of creation and, arguably, an afterlife. Asking how “Christian” it is seemed... Read more