– By Sam Hendrian – Hollywood is not-too-fondly renowned for its glorification of terrible things, especially war. Violence has the dangerous ability to entertain rather than disgust, undermining our instinctive understanding of human dignity. Yet despite this unfortunate trend, there are countless examples that do just the opposite, including Sam Mendes’s recently-released, critically-acclaimed World War I film 1917. With the …
Why We Still Need Little Women
– By Sam Hendrian – As someone who enjoyed reading Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel Little Women, and as an admirer of Greta Gerwig’s directorial talents, I went to see the latest cinematic adaptation of the classic story and enjoyed it immensely. Of course, when people are constantly questioning whether Hollywood still has a bone of originality left in …
Netflix’s ‘Messiah’ Offers a Surprisingly Thoughtful – and Tense – Exploration of Faith
By James Powers One of the more persistent (and annoying) labels given to Jesus is that of political revolutionary. Especially lately, it’s trendy to claim that his primary purpose was to knock down tyrants and give power to the disenfranchised masses; that he was a member of the same club that includes Gandhi and Che and the barricade boys from …
Uniting the World Through Entertainment: The Imagineering Story
– By Sam Hendrian – “What we are selling is not escapism, but reassurance.” This quote from legendary Disney imagineer John Hench captures Disney’s core mission perfectly, even if the multibillion-dollar company does not always live up to it. Escapism is predominantly commerical and maybe a little psychological; reassurance is profoundly spiritual. In The Imagineering Story, a six-part documentary …
‘Honey Boy’: A Lesson on Masculinity from an Unlikely Source
By James Powers Lately, one doesn’t have to look far to find a lot of movies that are deeply concerned with the female experience, but nonetheless directed by men. Assassination Nation, Unsane, Widows, Suspiria, Tully and the upcoming Bombshell, to name just a few. Not that there’s anything wrong with male directors making films about female protagonists – “write what …
Marriage Story: Finding Life in Suffering
– By Matthew Sawczyn – Religious or not, a broken marriage may be one of life’s most painful tragedies. Each circumstance is different of course, but actor William Shatner might not have been far off when he said, “Divorce is probably as painful as death.” You will find a sea of quotes on the topic, if you go searching: inspirational …
The Liberty of Forgiveness in ‘Waves’
– By Sam Hendrian – *Contains spoilers Waves is one of the most powerful movies I have seen in a long time. It is complicatedly simple, heartbreakingly inspiring, and many other perplexing paradoxes. While tough to watch at times, it had me spontaneously praying, “Oh God, this is beautiful!” on multiple occasions, and if that is not a sign of …
Controlling Happiness in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
– By Sam Hendrian – “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” These relatable words spoken by Charlie Brown to Linus at the beginning of the 1965 TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas perfectly capture the numbness that the commercialization of Christmas has brought over time. It’s the most wonderful time …
Conversational Commitment and Unconditional Love in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’
– By Sam Hendrian – “Do you know what the most important thing is to me right now? Talking to Lloyd Vogel.” The renowned children’s television host Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) speaks these words to the emotionally-wounded journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) in an early scene of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a new, true story-inspired film that is …
Knives Out: Rethinking The Classic Whodunnit
– By Joe Campbell – [Editor’s Note: This review is free of any major spoilers] It’s almost impossible to surprise the audience with a murder mystery these days. What do you do when every conceivable angle has been covered? What if the murderer is the obvious suspect? Maybe it’s the unsuspecting hero? Maybe everybody is in on it. Maybe nobody …