–By Sam Hendrian– Contains Minor Spoilers The greatest value of art is that it offers us a window into another human person, if only for a fleeting moment. More often than not, this window becomes a mirror, and we realize that no matter who we each are and where we come from, our similarities outweigh our differences. Amazon Prime’s original …
God and the Problem of Hope in ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’
–By Sam Hendrian– Contains Spoilers It is safe to say that after staying up to 2:30 AM watching I’m Thinking of Ending Things for a second time within 48 hours, I have never been so profoundly haunted and baffled by a cinematic experience. This new Netflix film from writer/director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich) …
Searching for the Miraculous in ‘Fatima’
– By Maria Andress – After two postponements due to Covid-19, the feature film Fatima finally released this past weekend. With many theaters still in shutdown and the film primarily released on streaming, Marco Pontecorvo’s new film in the faith genre (and first film in English) won’t be garnering huge box office success. However, its 87% Audience Rating on Rotten …
A Saint for the Sick: Damien of Molokaʻi
By Matthew Sawczyn “Dear Lord, you died at thirty-three. I begin my life at thirty-three.” Thus prays Fr. Damien upon landing at Molokaʻi, the island where “no patient leaves except in a coffin.” The year is 1873. The terrifying, still mysterious scourge of leprosy ravages the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and the island of Molokaʻi has been designated as a quarantine …
Femininity and Masculinity in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’
– By Marielle Cuccinelli – Contains spoilers for all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender I was skeptical the first time I started watching Avatar: the Last Airbender. There was only one girl in the main cast, after all, which is one of the top tropes out there – the Token Female Character, who not only is fated to …
Filling the God-Shaped Hole in ‘Ramy: Season 2’
–By Sam Hendrian– “I feel like I have this hole inside me that’s always been there. Like this emptiness. I’m always trying to fill it with something… I’ve tried to fill it with God. I have. But I… I just don’t know how.” These words spoken by a deeply lost young Muslim man named Ramy (comedian Ramy Youssef) to a …
Why ‘Dark’ Is the Show That 2020 Needs
By James Powers I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid and having my mind blown when, at the end, the four Pevensie siblings return to 1940’s England and find themselves children again after having already grown to adulthood in Narnia. What a weird experience that must be, I thought, to go back to childhood …
Cool, Christian, Korean: How ‘Kim’s Convenience’ Celebrates Family and Culture in the Everyday
By Matthew Sawczyn There’s a conversation in the pilot of Kim’s Convenience between Mrs. Kim (affectionately called ‘Umma’) and her daughter Janet, a back and forth about why Janet is not married yet. It’s a familiar family scenario, made even more hilarious when Umma pulls the church directory out to show Janet all the available boys Umma’s found for her. …
You have no choice but to read this analysis of FX’s ‘Devs’… right?
By James Powers “The universe is deterministic. It’s godless and neutral, and defined only by physical laws. The life we lead, with all its apparent chaos, is actually a life on tramlines.” In the first episode of FX’s new miniseries Devs, an enigmatic tech CEO gives this matter-of-fact explanation to one of his terrified employees who has just been caught …
Growing ‘Til We Die: Lessons in Virtue from ‘Star Trek: Picard’
By Sam Hendrian Editor’s Note: Some spoilers below for Season 1 of Picard DAHJ: “Have you ever been a stranger to yourself?” PICARD: “Many times.” This dialogue exchange from the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, a new sci-fi series on CBS All-Access that serves as a follow-up to the hit ‘80s/’90s TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, profoundly …