Alien and Godlessness

April 16, 2024 By Zachary Miller

I knew that writing about this film through a religious perspective was going to be difficult, but I wanted to try. While popular film seldom dares to invoke religion or religiosity directly, there’s very little about Ridely Scott’s Alien that lends itself to an easy spiritual reading. No clear Christ-insert, no symbolic death and resurrection, not much to say about repentance or ministering. Even the aesthetics of the film read as dark, inorganic, and sterile. This feels a world beyond... Read more

Onward and Love

April 9, 2024 By Zachary Miller

One of the most human of feelings is missing something that you can never have, and maybe never had to begin with. Something that has been forever lost. That lost something could be a world that embraces magic–not just for all the fireworks and dragons, but for the gallantry and adventure. That something could be the hand on your shoulder that can only come from a dad you never met. But everyone aches over something that feels like it can... Read more

Ikiru and Heaven

April 2, 2024 By Zachary Miller

I consider myself relatively lucky in the way of work. Overall, I have been fortunate enough to spend my working hours in pursuits that maybe aren’t always glamorous, the kinds of things you brag about during the class reunions, but they at least fulfill some societal need and leave the world a better place. That said, I definitely have a penchant for media that exposes the corroding force of the workplace and the way that the societal drive to excel... Read more

Silver Linings Playbook and Empathy

March 26, 2024 By Zachary Miller

The relationship between accepting yourself as you are and striving to live as your best self can feel somewhat contradictory. I bring this up here because I have observed some who cite this supposed opposition as reason for not believing in God or not participating in a church. If I were to distill all these arguments into one single statement, it might read something like, “If God created me, why can’t others accept me as I am?” Or just... Read more

My Best Friend’s Wedding and Selfishness

March 5, 2024 By Zachary Miller

The thing you have to know about My Best Friend’s Wedding, arguably Julia Roberts’ defining role, is that (this is absolutely a spoiler!!!!) it is one of those rare rom-coms where the heroine does NOT get the guy, and it is frankly that much better for it. The film follows Jules discovering that her best friend, Michael, with whom she had a brief romantic fling years ago, is getting married. News of this triggers a panic in her as she... Read more

Casablanca and Selflessness

February 27, 2024 By Zachary Miller

Someone let me know: were airports even locales of such sweeping romance before 1942? Before Michael Curtiz made Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart turn them into these ancestral temples of elemental amour? This altar for confessions of love of the deepest degree? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the 1942 masterpiece Casablanca sees Rick Blaine as a night club owner in Casablanca–the thriving city in Morocco, and the last stop for those fleeing the Nazi spread across the... Read more

Avatar the Last Airbender and Sacrifice

February 13, 2024 By Zachary Miller

Drawing out the spiritual application of any given text is always an interesting endeavor because there are always so many layers to the development of any given film, book, or other piece of media. Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example, is famously derived from Asian cultures and mythologies, but there’s a lot here to be seen from a Christian eye. This makes sense. Even if the series is using eastern iconography, it is still being told from the western lens... Read more

The Greatest Showman and Worth

January 9, 2024 By Zachary Miller

I’ve actually wanted to write about this film in this space for a while, but I’ve had a difficult time doing so. This is in part because I have struggled to find the right lens through which to spiritually discuss the movie. There are a number of ways to read this film that are directly applicable to the idea of spiritual living: the relationship between faith and truth, the corrupting power of wealth, the sheer heavenly quality of the film’s... Read more

Klaus and Goodness

December 23, 2023 By Zachary Miller

Well, folks. It’s that time of year again. And by “that time of year,” I of course mean, that time in which we all just stress and strain at how on earth Toy Story 4 won The Academy award for Best Animated Feature. It’s not like there weren’t better alternatives, including Disney’s own Frozen II which was not even nominated that year. Unlike Toy Story 4, Frozen II didn’t completely contradict the ethos of its predecessor. But there were also... Read more

Butterflies Are Free and True Liberation

October 17, 2023 By Zachary Miller

“I could love you if you’d let me.” So sings Don Baker, one of the protagonists of 1972’s Butterflies are Free. Despite flying mostly under the radar, the film has a lot going for it. Like a lot of films adapted from stage plays, the narrative is very dialogue driven, which makes for a lot of really sharp, entertaining banter. There are maybe three locations and four or five speaking roles, with a healthy majority of the dialogue seated between... Read more