Into the Wild creates common language and a common ground for our culture to stand on when speaking about relationships and community. By encountering the story, I learned a reason why freedom should not be the ultimate objective in life…
At times, it would seem that there are simply no words to describe what music is doing with us, for us, and perhaps even to us. For, in the context of filmgoing, music is not simply meaningful; it is also powerful. It is somehow capable of accessing the inner recesses of our basic humanity. A telling example of film music’s mysterious, meaning-making capacity is found in Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent film, There Will Be Blood…
In 1996, I was a blonde haired, blue eyed, Northern California daughter of a banker father and a stay at home mother. Mike, my boyfriend and star football player and I, a dancer with my high school squad, set out on a typical Saturday evening date-night. Not telling my parents goodbye, I hurried out of the house and into Mike’s Mustang. Our movie started in 15 minutes…
What might both the French and American church learn from a children’s movie?
There may be no artistic medium that more directly engages story than film. And among the film genres, none move their chips more fully onto story than documentary films…
The Dark Knight helped me understand the sacrifice of Jesus in a new way, and allowed me to wrap my head around it in a manner that became more real…
In just about every seminary across the country, there is the similar recognition that unless we adopt new measures and new metrics, unless we change the way we go about projecting our endeavors, we will no longer be effective in serving the church. We might not even long be in business. The same sense of a changing scenario holds true for those running hospitals. Even the very best stand-alone hospital knows that within ten years, it will be out of business if it doesn’t reinvent its business model. Does the same go for the church? I think it does…
Straight’s family was initially concerned that their father would be turned into a laughingstock by the movie, particularly when they learned that the film would be directed by the edgy, four-time Academy Award nominee David Lynch. But they had no need to fear…
Most clergy representatives on film are not suave mainline clerics, beloved Irish-American priests, or wan and thin play-it-safe rabbis. Today, with the rise of presumably Protestant born-again studs, manipulators of people, and takers of the law into their own hands types, we see images of law-breakers with macho swagger…
“Chick flicks don’t have to suck!” boasts the movie poster for the 2011 film Bridemaids. Somehow the hype about the film seemed to be condensed to shock about its surprising, actual hilarity. Its actual hilarity is surprising, of course, for two reasons: the film’s genre and the writers’ gender…
But like all road movies, Up is more about the relationship that develops, than the adventures on the road. The two lead characters meet up with packs of dogs, dangerous cliffs and frightening weather, not to mention an embittered explorer, Charles Muntz, who chases after them. But adrenalin is not the heart of the movie. Rather, Up is about love and friendship.
Is visual media the best antidote to an atrophied imagination? That’s what got us there in the first place. At its core, visual media is projected light on a flat screen. How could telling simple community stories on a flat screen be deep or rich?
Some have called Cars Pixar’s greatest achievement, while others have considered it their worst effort (but even those critics admit that every other animation studio only wishes they could make such a “clunker”). But $5 billion in merchandising sales alone since Cars came out five years ago, and a growing enthusiasm for Cars 2 which will was released this summer suggest that Lasseter’s quirky story about a menagerie of cars has already proven an endearing addition to the animation lexicon.
Released just weeks apart to US theaters, two films usher viewers into vastly different but equally inspiring journeys of faith. The two films? Soul Surfer (2011, d. McNamara) and Of God’s and Men (2010, d. Beauvois)…
Jeffrey Overstreet explores the power of storytelling.
An interview with film director Randall Wallace, famed for such films as Braveheart, The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor and Secretariat
Reassessing Our Attitude Towards Movies
Reassessing Our Attitude Towards Movies
Reassessing Our Attitude Towards the Movies
Nonetheless, this is not the time to be cynical. Rather, we have all the more reason to forge ahead with perseverance and innovation, and to recognize and celebrate achievements whenever praise is due. Of all the films I saw in 2010, the following are my favorites…
