Reel Spirituality

Stone weaves a story that artfully depicts a journey of personal change. The Edward Snowden portrayed early in the film likely would not have chosen to reveal government secrets. A catalyst of Snowden’s transformation is girlfriend Lindsay Mills.

The Vessel is more plot-heavy than any of Malick’s recent films, but it is also concerned with “spiritual” matters, deeply rooted in a “real” context, sprinkled over with narration, and shot in that now-characteristic floating steady-cam style making use of natural light.

Wood and her crew have crafted a modern fairy tale that manages to weave together complex social themes into a world where each moment constantly resets perceptions. Wood isn’t misanthropic. In fact, she clearly has compassion and empathy for every one of these characters.

The question becomes, then, is this a story this generation needs to hear? Is the story worth retelling? To me, a story about retributive justice seems out of place today, or it should. At the very least it’s calloused, in light of the world we actually live in.

Between the multiple shots of a plane burning and crashing into buildings and the skyline views of New York City, Eastwood likely intends to evoke the horrors of 9/11. There are several scenes where New York citizens, petrified and mouths agape, witness the plane descend toward the Hudson.

Kubo and the Two Strings is an innovative, original, imaginative, hand-crafted (literally), morally-compelling film with a narrative arc that is truly redemptive in the theologically-rich, Christian sense of the word.

I enjoyed Don’t Think Twice, and I’m surprised to say that, because I don’t typically like movies in which personal ambition and innate competency are key themes. Imposter Syndrome is real, and I don’t like seeing it fictional characters any more than I like seeing it in the mirror staring back at me.

The difference between Lo and Behold and Herzog’s earlier works is so great that I wonder how seriously to take him. These people enthuse about sending a colony to Mars and robots playing soccer, but maybe Herzog intends to make fun of them?

Greater certainly tries to baptize its kind of faith in the Christian faith. I mean that literally – an opening scene in the film shows Brandon being baptized; his most prized possession is his copy of Pilgrim’s Progress; “I’ll Fly Away” dominates the soundtrack.

Southside With You is a gently fictionalized recounting of Michelle and Barack Obama’s first date back in 1989 when they were working together for the summer at a Chicago law firm. She was a junior associate. He was an intern from Harvard. They walk and talk and fall in love.

Westward Expansion has long since ended. Now we’re facing Western Recession.

Under the Shadow is pregnant with thematic material. It touches on women’s struggles to form identities in Iran, the special horror of a never-ending war, the place of traditions in contemporary society, and what obligations, if any, neighbors have to one another. But the film is only pregnant with these themes. It never births them fully.

Suicide Squad does give us a story of a very diverse group of people whose lives do not orbit around doing bad and getting caught by the “good” guy.

The United States government is up to their old tricks (again) crafting black ops programs. When Bourne blips on their omnipresent screens, they get worried, thinking he’s out to expose them (again), so they try to chase him down and catch or kill him (again).