Reel Spirituality

Though some dogma is clear in the Bible, many issues cannot be seen as black and white. God gave us each a story and as we tell it, complexities and intricacies come up that cause us to move away from our thoughtless ideas and positions. With all my heart I believe the Word of God is God breathed and accurate front to back, but I also believe that God left room for interpretation, room where He can continue to reveal himself over time…

When it comes to doctrinal answers like predestination, homosexuality, women in the church and other complex issues, our theology becomes so much more intricate. Being at the Sundance Film Festival has given me a new lens, one that sees deeper into the gray of Christian doctrine. Though this can be a complicated frontier to explore, it is a lens that also reveals to me that the God I serve is complex…

Poverty in American cinema looks similar to poverty in films from parts of the world. The poor eat unhealthy, unorthodox food to survive. The poor have contentious relationships with any governmental authorities. The poor also live surrounded by violence, but it is not the violence of crime or combat. The poor are plagued by domestic violence in American films…

Anderson’s films remind us that community isn’t really formed until folks have struggled together and endured. Not that this endurance is a solution. Struggle will come again, but the binds will be stronger the next time…

Why are we so superhero obsessed? Why are six of the top ten opening weekend grossing films of all time superhero films? It’s not just nostalgia mixed with big explosions that are filling the seats of theaters. If that were the case, Battleship wouldn’t have made less money on its opening weekend than my neighbor kids’ lemonade stand. We, as humans, are infatuated with the idea of a savior…

How does one beat the devil at the game he invented? Arthur suggests burning down the forest where the devil lays his head at night, because for some men a sinister motivation doesn’t satisfy their hunger, it only creates a desire for more evil and violence. The answer for Bruce Wayne is to become the monster that so easily kills without prejudice. Batman, a creature of the night anyway, becomes now ‘the dark knight…’

Certified Copy begins with the writer delivering a lecture on the notion of originality in the arts: What constitutes an original artwork? Is not the original itself a reflection, and therefore a copy, of the subject that the artist had attempted to depict in the first place? If a copy is no less affecting to a spectator, what intrinsic value does the original hold? In what ways should we privilege it, if at all?

As Midnight in Paris ends, Gil has broken up with Inez, whose shallow quest for pleasure and material wealth seems almost a caricature of the first chapters of Ecclesiastes. Gil cannot give himself to the mindless pursuit of pleasure and riches that his upcoming marriage projects. Instead, Gil has met a possible soul mate in the clerk at an antique music stall…

Prometheus, the new prequel to 1979’s Alien, has a MacGuffin too, and it’s God. Though the movie’s predecessor was an unassuming horror flick, Prometheus has ambitions worthy of its title: it doesn’t want to be a thrill ride but rather a piece of deep-think sci-fi. And so what better way to do that than raise questions of creation, faith and eternal life?

Carolyn Briggs, screenwriter of higher Ground, discusses her film and her life with Dr. Mark Labberton.

What are our online personas, our electronic alter-egos? While they may not be the outward embodiments of our ideals and dreams, nor Tom Ripley-level deviance, they are toned-down, rated PG modules of the yearning things that lie within. What else would drive a person to photograph their dinner plate as if it’s newsworthy?