Oscar Goes to Church: Spiritual Themes Flourish in Best Picture Nominees

Last updated on: March 25, 2022 at 9:36 am By Paul Asay

Some Christian critics of the entertainment industry would say that Hollywood is positively godless. But you wouldn’t know it from this year’s crop of Oscars nominees. Admittedly, not all the religion we see on screen is positive. Still, faith is a force in many a nominee. Let’s take at some applicable Best Picture hopefuls. Belfast: The movie takes place during the Northern Irish City’s 1960s-era Troubles, which were predicated on the divisions between Catholics and Protestants. Nine-year-old Buddy and his... Read more

William Hurt Was in a Christian Movie … and It Was Pretty Good

Last updated on: March 14, 2022 at 9:53 am By Paul Asay

Oscar-winning actor William Hurt died yesterday at the age of 71. “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes,” a statement read. Hurt was probably best known for his work in the 1980s, when he was both a bona fide movie star and one of the age’s leading actors. He was nominated for three consecutive Best Actor Oscars for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). He won... Read more

Yes, The Batman is Grim. But Not as Grim as You Might Think.

Last updated on: March 3, 2022 at 1:47 pm By Paul Asay

Sometimes, you have to wonder why anyone lives in Gotham City. Oh, it wasn’t always so bleak. Back in the 1960s, when Adam West’s version of Batman was patrolling the streets, the place looked kind of fun. But ever since, it seems, the city’s gotten bleaker and more dismal with each passing decade. Criminal lowlifes have grown more violent. Costumed kingpins have grown more unhinged. It’s a town where night seems to last 22 hours; where it’s always Halloween. The... Read more

In Cyrano, Great Love Meets the Greatest Sin: Pride.

Last updated on: February 28, 2022 at 11:09 am By Paul Asay

Cyrano, the musical based on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, is predicated on one of literature’s greatest, most unusual love stories: That of Cyrano for his beautiful best friend, Roxanne. And in many respects, that love manifests in what would seem to be a great deal of selflessness by the vertically challenged Cyrano: Allowing another suitor to claim Cyrano’s beautiful words as his own to woo the beauty. But the musical’s poignant final words (and yes, we’re going... Read more

In The Cursed, the Monsters Aren’t Just the Ones With Fangs

Last updated on: February 21, 2022 at 10:42 am By Paul Asay

The Cursed, which rolled out to theaters this weekend, is a bloody movie. Really bloody. In my review at Plugged In, I said that the film’s reliance on gore undercut its more thoughtful, sophisticated elements. And that’s true. But at the same time, as I think about it, maybe all that blood actually underscores what I think the movie’s all about: The war between the flesh-and-blood animals we are and the better beings God designed us to be. Full Moon... Read more

Death on the Screen: What Murder Mysteries Like Death on the Nile Say About Faith

Last updated on: February 16, 2022 at 4:26 pm By Paul Asay

Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle is hosting a honeymoon cruise up the Nile for all her closest friends. She can afford it, of course: She’s rich, beautiful and deliriously in love. Too bad most of her guests might want to kill her. Tops on the list: Jacqueline de Bellefort, former lover of Linnet’s new husband. Linnet (Gal Gadot) snatched Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) away from Jacqueline just six weeks before. Perhaps no one should be surprised that the betrayal still stings, but Jacqueline... Read more

Watching God’s Top 10 Movies for 2021

Last updated on: December 28, 2021 at 5:13 pm By Paul Asay

The movie industry didn’t return to “normal” in 2021, but it at least looked a little more familiar. Theaters started opening their doors again after being shuttered for most of 2020. People started buying tickets again—especially for Spider-Man: No Way Home. And it felt like moviemakers gave us a nice assortment of films to choose from—traditional blockbusters, artsy indie fare, thrillers, musicals and some dynamite animated flicks. And a lot of those movies ruminate quite a bit about faith, too.... Read more

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Spins a Web of Second Chances

Last updated on: December 20, 2021 at 10:45 am By Paul Asay

Spider-Man: No Way Home snared a staggering $253 million in its sticky North American web this weekend—an unheard-of amount in the age of COVID. At a time when roughly half of us are still uncomfortable going to a theater, Spider-Man was just the ticket to drag us back to our friendly neighborhood cinema. If you ask me, it’s worth the trip. No Way Home is a curious blend of past and present, as well as a high-flying introduction to... Read more

Mass Effect: What the Movie Mass Says About Grief and Forgiveness

Last updated on: October 22, 2021 at 10:07 am By Paul Asay

Mass, opening nationally Oct. 22, isn’t always easy to watch. But then again, few worthwhile things are easy. Mass takes place almost entirely in the confines of a church—just one room in that church, in fact. Four people spend an afternoon talking about an unimaginable tragedy: Gail and Jay (played by Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs) lost their son in a school shooting. Linda and Richard (Ann Dowd and Reed Birney) raised the killer. The film, directed by first-time director... Read more

In No Time to Die, James Bond Finds Time to Care

Last updated on: October 8, 2021 at 8:53 am By Paul Asay

James Bond is not, by tradition, a particularly loving man. Oh, he certainly is an expert at sex. He’s had more pairings than a communal gym sock. But love? That’s different. Outside an all-too-short marriage in 1969 (terminated by an assassin in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and a tender tryst with the turncoat Vesper Lynd (who promptly died in 2006’s Casino Royale), Bond’s relationships rarely last longer than ground beef does at room temperature. Outside his banter with Moneypenny,... Read more