This blog is about looking for God in entertainment, so it’s only right we mention here the biggest entertainment event of all: The Super Bowl. Admittedly, I doubt very much whether God cares who wins. But whoever wins, there are plenty of players who care about God. One of those players is Peyton Manning. Some Christians might be surprised at that, given their reaction when he came to town and supplanted one of the most popular players in Denver Broncos... Read more
The Birth of a Nation won the top two honors at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday evening: the U.S. Grand Jury award—previously pocketed by such critical darlings as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone and Whiplash—and the Audience Award. Chances are good we’ll be hearing much more about this film when the Oscars roll around next year. While I haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s reportedly steeped in Christian themes. Named after D.W. Griffith’s seminal and horrifically racist 1915... Read more
Much has been written about the greatness of The X-Files—how the original series revolutionized television, laying the foundation on which much of today’s prestige TV is built. It was, also, a deeply spiritual show—probing belief, faith and the supernatural in ways really unheard of on television at the time. And when Fox announced that it was going to bring Mulder and Scully back to the small screen for a six-episode season, I was pretty excited. I was underwhelmed with the... Read more
If I was king of the Oscars, the competition for best actor this year would be a two-man race between Michael Fassbender and Will Smith. If I’d been in charge of handing out awards last year, I would’ve given them all to Selma. The fact that David Oyelowo wasn’t even nominated for his superlative embodiment of Martin Luther King Jr. is, honestly, a little nuts. But do those sorts of omissions qualify for a boycott? Smith (who should’ve been nominated for his... Read more
John Fitzgerald says that God is a squirrel. That’s what a buddy told him, at any rate. When his friend was cold and alone and at the edge of death, he prayed. For maybe the first time in a long time, he prayed. “He told me he found God,” says Fitz (played in The Revenant by the Oscar-nominated Tom Hardy). And he pauses for the punchline. “Turns out, he’s a squirrel. Big ol’ meaty one.” And his friend “shot and... Read more
John “Tig” Tiegen came home mad. He was disgusted by how his fallen comrades were treated after the 13-hour “Battle of Benghazi” on Sept. 11 and 12, 2012. The partisan aftermath frustrated him, too. The politicians “hijacked” the story, he says, and he watched as this real-world struggle in the deserts of Libya became a game of political football on Capitol Hill. Few people seemed to be interested in uncovering the truth, he says. And as a Christian, that bothered... Read more
The Oscar nominations came out this morning. And religion, believe it or not, was everywhere. OK, so it’s not like War Room made the cut. Faith-based films may be getting better, but they’re not ready to climb the stage at the Dolby Theatre just yet. But when you look at the best picture nominees, you’ll see that many of them contain religious elements. At least one front-running film is explicitly about faith—even as it illustrates how that faith can be... Read more
Faith comes easier when everything else is hard. Mark “Oz” Geist, Kris “Tanto” Paronto and John “Tig” Tiegen get it. As three of the real life “secret soldiers” portrayed in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (coming out this Friday), they know what it’s like to sit on a roof and wonder whether your next hour will be your last. They’ve felt the precious, delicate gift of life in a way that few of us have. “People say ‘I... Read more
The United States is getting more secular all the time, we’re told. And yet religion has never been so big—at least on screen. Forget about 2014, the so-called “Year of the Christian Movie.” This year will feature several promising Christian flicks with recognizable, borderline A-list stars, and a number of Hollywood’s buzziest secular offerings have a pretty explicit faith angle, too—be it a silly spin or seriously theological. What follows is not a complete rundown, but it gives you an idea of... Read more
Quentin Tarantino frustrates the snot out of me. He is, unquestionably, a master craftsman. He has an eye for breathtaking visuals, an ear for mesmerizing, often gorgeous dialogue. But he has a taste for blood, too—so much so that his movies require a separate budget for it. And it often spoils his movies. I know, I know. The blood is all for show, I’m told. It’s meant to look fake and stylized and, in some strange way, pull us out... Read more
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