Ultimately, though, just as the marimba leitmotiv signifies the characters’ aesthetic impulses, the transformation of this leitmotiv signifies a reorientation of their basic understanding concerning the good, the true, and ultimately, the beautiful…
+ MoreThe movie seems appropriate for grade-school-age children who have been adopted cross-culturally and who are starting to have questions about their culture of origin, their place in their current culture, and the relationship between the two. The movie could be used as a way to begin a series of discussions with a child about culture, both the culture of their birth family and the culture of their new family…
+ MoreJourney with us through time as we talk about adolescents as depicted in Back to the Future and The 400 Blows.
+ MoreIn a previous post, I wrote abut how my goal is to point to the beauty that I see in the world. One walks out of Looper thinking, “Wow. That was such a clever movie! I’s smart too because I understand it!” One walks out of Seven Psychopaths thinking, “Wow. Non-violence is radical and beautiful. How can I have more of it in my life?”
+ MoreWhen I headed to the Toronto International Film Festival this year, I was excited, as I always am, to see some films that I may never get a chance to see somewhere else, but I must admit that the ticket I was most excited about was Cloud Atlas…
+ MoreMy desire is to see more beauty (wholeness, goodness, completeness) in the world. Sometimes seeing more beauty means looking in places I used to be afraid to look and applauding the beauty shining there. Sometimes seeing more beauty means creating beauty where I don’t see any. I believe the world is moving toward the Beautiful, that Beauty is overtaking everything. It is my humble pleasure to see it and join in…
+ MoreAt the heart of Seven Psychopaths, are questions about violence, our complicity in continued violence as both story-tellers, story-takers, and actors in our own stories, and the place of movies in propagating certain ideas about violence. It’s the most entertaining consideration of these questions that I’ve seen in a long time…
+ MoreThe Dark Knight is still rising, the debates about guns and movies and killing are still waiting to be had, families in Colorado are still grieving. So if we’re going to take cinema seriously – which, if you believe in the power of art to interweave with autobiography, is indivisible from taking life seriously – we’re going to have to keep talking about Batman’s bad summer…
+ More“Faith in a better way, a better life, in overwhelming goodness, it changes the tone of the projects that I’m working on. It helps me accept my own limitations and flaws, which are legion, and be humbled by them.” – Matthew Schuler
+ MoreReel Spirituality Co-Director Rob Johnston considers whether or not the movies are a legitimate place to encounter God.
+ MoreOne tells of the fitful test of faith that fell to Joan of Arc. The other tells of the attempted forced servitude of the Looney Tunes. We consider both in this week’s podcast.
+ More“Everything that I write comes from my theological training – even if it’s something like Home Alone 5.” – David Moore
+ MoreWe can’t simply care deeply about cities. We are going to have to be involved in them. Love is not an emotion. Love is action. Love is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, nursing the ill, and rehabilitating the criminals. Love is being good citizens…
+ MoreReel Spirituality Co-Director Elijah Davidson and guest host Richard Goodwin consider Crash and Bicycle Thieves and what, if anything, they have to offer an increasingly urbanized world.
+ More“I hope that the films I create will unite people by sharing stories from around the world that demonstrate our similarities and celebrate our differences while exposing injustices when necessary. These are all values that I believe Jesus embodied and taught.” – Rob Bethke
+ MoreThe Master, self-assured writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, is a mystery, not in genre, but in the truest sense of the word. Watching the movie is an experience like watching a sunset. There is a great deal of beauty there, and it is profoundly affecting in moments, but in the end there is only darkness, silence, and stillness…
+ MoreA descant is a melody sung higher than the “main” melody. A descant is complementary to the main melody, enhancing its beauty and its effectiveness. I believe that Fuller Seminary, the Brehm Center, and Reel Spirituality provide God’s descant in harmony with the finer melodies of the mainstream movie, television, and music industries…
+ MoreDo Die Hard and The General have anything more to offer than stunts and explosions? Are they worthy of their passionate audiences’ devotion? Listen in to find out.
+ MoreWhen Marty gets sucked back in time in the now-famous DeLorean, he and his mentor Doc Brown, have a sense that although their lives are imperfect back in the present, it’s best not to mess with the true unfolding of events in time. This is an illustration of humans having eternity ‘set in their hearts’ so to speak, looking at the imperfections of life, but somehow knowing there is a sacred narrative being played out amidst all the incongruity…
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