Reel Spirituality

More Resources for a Deeply Formed Spiritual Life

Detroit

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Detroit, director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal’s latest film, is tragically uneven. In trying to be all things to all people, it becomes nothing to anyone.

Logan Lucky

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Director Steven Soderbergh has called his film, Logan Lucky, “Ocean’s 11’s inbred cousin.”

Good Time

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Good Time depends greatly on Robert Pattinson’s performance. He is electric, the fire in his eyes like the gas in the many neon tubes that light each scene.

The 2017 Locarno Film Festival

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As it has done each year since 1973, SIGNIS and INTERFILM joined together to appoint an ecumenical jury to choose that film in the festival’s competition that best portrayed “human experience that is in harmony with the gospel” or best sensitized “viewers to spiritual, human or social questions and values.” I was privileged to be part of the Ecumenical Jury this year.

Game of Thrones – S7, E5 – Tenuous Trust

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Though the episode was clearly about trust, when we offer it and to whom, there is one giant allusion the writers are hinting at throughout…

Annabelle: Creation – Panel Discussion

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On Wednesday, August 9, we were happy to host a panel discussion preceding a screening of Annabelle: Creation, entitled “In Defense of Evil.”

Annabelle: Creation

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In light of my current research on the horror genre, I am increasingly convinced that the reason we continue to see so many horror films in the twenty-first century is because they are providing the broader culture with a much-needed avenue for navigating the various traumas that seem to define much of contemporary life.

Game of Thrones – S7, E4 – The No Longer Plodding Plot

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What can we take away from this week, besides a rollercoaster of intense emotions? While the plot is narrowing to a handful of stories, it is the unexpected that continues to play a primary role.

Brigsby Bear

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This film reminded me of my faith community and our initial reluctance to accept the other, especially if we see the other as strange or peculiar (or sinful?!). Fear reigns in many parts of the American church, especially when a character like James enters and challenges the status quo.

Game of Thrones – S7, E3 – What We Think We Know

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When we are confronted with new information, we must decide to either accept or reject it.

Wind River

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Wind River is a compelling film. It’s like Beowulf or Njal’s Saga. I mean that in the most complimentary sense possible.

Step

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Step is inspiring because it shows one of America’s core myths in action – if you work hard and get a good education, you can rise from the station you were born in to a higher station.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

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I’ve long defended director Luc Besson’s work. His movies revel in the idea of being movies. He handles genre material with evident glee, and his directorial hand is sure.

Game of Thrones – S7, E2 – Risks Without Rewards

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This week, Game of Thrones explored how trusting our instincts is almost always a risk.

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 – Final Reflections

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After seeing the hope, goodness, and justice Comic-Con can cultivate in the social imagination, I say with Jacob from Genesis, “Surely God is here and I did not know it.”

Chris Lopez

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 – Complexities

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Luckily there’s so much more going on at Comic-Con besides the video presentations and the full cast panels, so I improvised and went to check out the other stuff.

Dunkirk

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Dunkirk is, on one level, a straightforward recapitulation of the rescue of over three hundred thousand English troops off the shores of France by private, English fishing and pleasure vessels in the early days of World War II.

War for the Planet of the Apes

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Caesar was our “Caesar” in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Now he’s our “Moses.”

Chris Lopez

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 – Hall H

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When it came time for The Defenders panel, the flood gates opened and the room was buzzing with anticipation. Everyone was excited for a new panel, but no one, including the panel moderator, was ready for what was to come.

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 – Line Buddies

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The benefit of having line buddies at Comic-Con is that you can take turns holding the group’s place in line so each person can get to the many other panels and events held throughout today.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

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Refreshingly, Homecoming’s real “home” is in the high school portions of this movie, which work so well that the audience is left wishing that this weren’t even a superhero movie but just a high-school comedy.