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 …
How the Modern ‘Emma’ Lacks Jane Austen
– By Maria Andress – This new “Emma” film is, in a word, strange. Strange and more overtly sexual in a coquettish and suggestive manner than any other Jane Austen film released to date. From a character standpoint, this is a retelling where the viewer really hates Emma and her proud meddling at the beginning. It is not until the …
‘The Chosen’: A Fresh Take on the Life of Christ
By Matthew Sawczyn If you’ve ever been blessed to visit the Holy Land, or have spoken with someone who has, a common description is that the Gospels suddenly felt real. Seeing the dirt, the water, the sky under which Jesus walked… there is an indescribable tangibility to the Faith that hits the pilgrim. Jesus really existed (I mean, really existed); …
Invisible Men: How H. G. Wells’ Famous Novel Has Been Adapted with the Times
– By Joe Campbell – (The following article contains spoilers). As a Universal monster, the Invisible Man has always fascinated me. Unlike Dracula, the Wolf Man, or The Mummy, there isn’t anything seemingly monstrous about him from the outset. He’s just a regular man who disappears. Yet he continues to hold a steady place alongside Universal’s other monsters. One would …
Looking for the Good Place
– By Joe Campbell – (The following contains spoilers for all four seasons of The Good Place, including the series finale). Last week saw the end of the beloved fantasy comedy show The Good Place. The hour-long series finale was a bittersweet culmination of four seasons and multiple interconnected character arcs. There were tearful goodbyes and mature growth. It has …
‘1917’: No Greater Love
– By Matthew Sawczyn – Among the gorgeous visuals and bombastic explosions, there’s one brief moment in director Sam Mendes’ 1917 that truly encapsulates this tale’s theme of brotherhood and sacrifice. It’s a “blink and you miss it” line, an offhand act, subtle but powerful. The movie begins with two soldiers resting underneath a tree: Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) …
The Impractical Nature of Dreams in ‘Rudy’
By Sam Hendrian This article is part of our Classic Film Throwback Series. “Well, you know what my dad always says: Having dreams is what makes life tolerable.” Technically speaking, the word “dream” is synonymous with “hope,” “goal,” “aspiration,” and several other abstract nouns. Yet it seems to operate on a whole level of its own, transcending any concrete definition …
‘The Aeronauts’: A Glimpse at the Birth of Weather Exploration
– By Maria Andress – Released worldwide on Amazon Prime, The Aeronauts may look like an unlikely film to garner high praise; However, it is doing just that. Based on the book “Falling Upward: How We Took to the Air” by Richard Holmes and starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, this film is an excellent example of a period of …
‘1917’, WWI Cinema, and the Horrors of War
– 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 …