Flying off the gigantic success of its 2009 online video game “Angry Birds,” Rovio Entertainment of Finland commissioned a script from animation film and television writer John Vitti (“The Simpsons,” “King of the Hill,” “Ice Age”) for a feature film about the birds that fly via slingshot. Joined by animators Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly in their directorial debut, “The Angry Birds” is an ornithological and porcine potpourri of every bird and pig pun you’ve ever seen or heard and... Read more
After more than six decades of life, I am still startled by the profound empathy for humanity often revealed in stories told through sight and sound. Cinema, and increasingly episodic stories on television and the Internet, brings the human face of my brother or sister up close and personal so that I experience the joy and pain of all human living and make a difference in the world. The fact is cinema has a sacramental quality, outward signs of inner... Read more
One of the best-kept secrets of the Catholic Church is that we have a beautiful tradition of teaching about communication and media that goes back to the 1930s and continues through today. This teaching covers speaking with one another in the family, parish and community, to evangelization, to all the means of communication including radio, television, movies, social media and the culture they create. Back in 1963 one of the Second Vatican Council documents issued by Pope Paul VI... Read more
My ears perked up back in March when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defended his wife, Heidi, after Donald Trump threatened to “spill the beans” about her. Cruz came back with a threat of his own that sounded like it was straight out of the 1995 film “The American President” when President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) stood up for his girlfriend (Annette Bening) to his opponent Sen. Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) who had defamed her: “You want a character debate, Bob?... Read more
At the Venice Film Festival last September, the SIGNIS (Catholic) Jury placed filmmaker Amos Gitai’s “Rabin: The Last Day” on our short list for the SIGNIS Prize as soon as we saw it. The film is a captivating docudrama form of a political essay that explores the last day in the life of the famed peace-seeking Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922 – 1995) who was assassinated during a peace rally on November 4, 1995. Integrating actual... Read more
This Sunday, May 8, 2016, the NatGeo Channel will conclude it’s beautiful inspiring and informative series on “The Story of God.” The final episode is “The Power of Miracles.” The series host, Morgan Freeman, begins this “journey to discover the power of miracles” by interviewing Alcides Moreno, a window washer in Manhattan who plunged 47 stories to the ground in 2007 and survived. Alcido’s younger brother, Edgar, perished. Freeman and Moreno speak about the miracle that saved him, as well... Read more
The DVD is now available! The film RISEN, that I reviewed in February as a “moving contribution to the canon of biblical movies” will be distributed on digital on May 10 and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ & DVD May 24 with Bonus Materials that will include deleted scenes and three behind-the-scenes featurettes & commentary. And today, for the first time, you can watch and listen to the moving responses of actors Joseph Fiennes and Maria Botto as well as the co-producers,... Read more
If you are a film buff and like classic films from every era, don’t miss the upcoming TCM Film Festival April 28 – May 1st. What’s really cool is that I will be introducing “The Song of Bernadette” on Saturday evening, April 30 and “The King of Kings” on Sunday, May 1 (this year marks the film’s 55th anniversary.) There are a few more of my favorite films playing such as “The Keys of the Kingdom.” It’s an excellent slate... Read more
In the early 1950s, Christina Noble (Gloria Cramer Curtis), a young girl from a poor part of Dublin, Ireland, aspires to be a singer when she grows up. She prays and lights candles to Our Lady to care for her sick mother. When she dies, her father, Thomas (Liam Cunningham), an alcoholic, loses custody of the children, and the courts send them to separate institutions. At 17, Christina finishes school, but more hardships follow when she is raped. Friends bring... Read more
I am so pleased to announce the publication of a superb article at the University of Nebraska’s online Journal for Religion and Film about how movies about nuns influenced many young women in their discernment and decision to enter religious life. The article,” Seeing the Light, Hearing the Call: Women Religious as Spectators and Subjects of Popular Nun Films” is by Professor Maureen Sabine of the University of Hong Kong. It follows her 2013 book: VEILED DESIRES: INTIMATE PORTRAYALS OF NUNS IN... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In