I recently wrote a piece for Transpositions on the genre of parable as it relates to Darren Aronofsky’s recent horror allegory, mother!, as well as the Dardennes’ The Unknown Girl: In film critic circles—particularly film critics of a religious persuasion—the term ‘parable’ will be tossed out in a review to describe a film. A film […]
When Leo McCarey won an Academy Award for directing The Awful Truth, he began his acceptance speech with the following: “I want to thank the Academy for this wonderful award, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture.” That same year also saw the release of one McCarey’s saddest, and perhaps most significant […]
If you asked me about my top 10 favorite films of all-time, Casablanca would be on the list. It’s romantic, witty, adventurous. It is both ahead of its time and incredibly timely. The doomed romance between Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) is evocative, complex, and fulfilling. What gets me about Casablanca […]
The second essay in The Year in Liturgical Cinema was posted at Christianity Today. (You can read the first essay on Epiphany here). This is a series exploring the theological themes of the Christian liturgical calendar and finding those themes within films. I explored Ash Wednesday and Lent, looking at films regarding human mortality and […]
I’ve begun a new series at Christianity Today called A Liturgical Year in Cinema (or, The Year in Liturgical Cinema). I’m exploring the themes of each feast and season throughout the Christian liturgical calendar and writing a theological reflection about those themes as I see them in films. While the beginning of Advent technically kicks off the liturgical […]