Author: Jonathan Butrin

  • Poll: How Excited Are You For Ghostbusters?

    Poll: How Excited Are You For Ghostbusters?

    Every year for the last decade seemed to bring new talks of a third Ghostbusters movie. Dan Aykroyd worked tirelessly to get the movie off the ground. Several scripts were floated, but the consistent hold-up was Bill Murray. When Harold Ramis died in 2014, the project seemed all but dead. Then later that year, the…

  • Last Days in the Desert

    Last Days in the Desert

    On June 20th, Cinema Faith had the pleasure of hosting an exclusive showing of Last Days in the Desert. The film stars Ewan McGregor as both Jesus and Satan and features cinematography by three-time Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezki. Christian movies have a checkered past, but writer/director Rodrigo García breathes new life into the genre. This is…

  • The Lobster

    The Lobster

    If you could be any animal, what would you be? That’s the question that will be zinging around your brain as you watch The Lobster. Perhaps it’s the first time you’ve given it serious thought. Not so for the inhabitants of this dystopian universe. In the world of The Lobster, society is so obsessed with…

  • Poll: Ryan Gosling or Russell Crowe?

    Poll: Ryan Gosling or Russell Crowe?

    Jon and Tim shared their thoughts on Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in their review of The Nice Guys. Now it’s your turn. If you had to choose one, who would you rather watch in a movie? Ryan Gosling may seem like the obvious choice with his character-driven turns in Half-Nelson, Lars and the Real…

  • The Nice Guys

    The Nice Guys

    Shane Black is the king of buddy action movies. He sold the screenplay to Lethal Weapon at age 22. In 1996, Black scored a then-record-breaking payday of $4 million for The Long Kiss Goodnight. The sale made him enemies, and he disappeared from Hollywood for nine years. Then in 2005, Black returned not just as…

  • Green Room

    Green Room

    Green Room arrives in theaters on a tidal wave of hype. It killed on the festival circuit. It killed with audiences. And it really killed with the critics. The film is sitting pretty on Rotten Tomatoes at a slick 90%. I just have one question: What movie were they watching? Maybe I walked into the…

  • Is Indiana Jones a Hero?

    Is Indiana Jones a Hero?

    There were three fictional characters I wanted to be when I was young: Fox Mulder, Han Solo, and Indiana Jones. They were everything I wasn’t — cool and confident, always up for adventure, and irresistible to the ladies. Mulder and Solo faded with time, but Jones stuck with me. He wasn’t an outcast like Mulder…

  • The Gospel According to Batman v Superman

    The Gospel According to Batman v Superman

    Liking Batman v Superman wasn’t part of the plan. I saw the film out of duty, not pleasure. The trailers were soulless, and the critics had already panned it as a debacle. Still, I couldn’t ignore the biggest release of the year so far, so I went to check it off my list. I spent…

  • Everybody Wants Some!!

    Everybody Wants Some!!

    Two years after Boyhood, Richard Linklater is back with Everybody Wants Some!! – a “spiritual sequel” to the 1993 classic Dazed and Confused. Linklater has always defied traditional approaches to storytelling. Instead of a plot and three acts, Linklater films are driven by music, characters, and authenticity. Tune in to this month’s podcast as we…

  • Midnight Special

    Midnight Special

    Film has always been a director’s medium. I grew up on Steven Spielberg movies. That name meant something. I could trust it. As I dived deeper into film, other names entered my circle of trust: David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, and Christopher Nolan to name a few. I’m not interested in a perfect track record. Every…