Category: Essay

  • True/False Film Festival 2017 Day 1

    True/False Film Festival 2017 Day 1

    Unfortunately, my first day of True/False 2017 wasn’t as long as I’d have hoped. In past years, I was a student at the University of Missouri, and the only boundaries between the delights of True/False and I were classes and homework. They could always be pushed to the side for my favorite weekend of the…

  • True/False Film Festival 2017 Preview

    True/False Film Festival 2017 Preview

    If you’ve never had the pleasure of attending the annual True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo., I truly feel for you. Film festivals can assume an almost mythical air to movie lovers: we all dream of attending Sundance, TIFF or Cannes. But in the past decade, True/False has clawed its way into the collective conscious…

  • Oscars 2017 – Who Should Win? (Part Two)

    Oscars 2017 – Who Should Win? (Part Two)

    Welcome to part two of our Oscar picks! Here’s part one if you missed it: Oscars 2017 – Who Should Win? (Part One). Remember, these aren’t the movies that will win, these are the movies that should win. Here are our picks for the most coveted categories of the night…   Best Supporting Actress  …

  • Oscars 2017 – Who Should Win? (Part One)

    Oscars 2017 – Who Should Win? (Part One)

    The calendar may say we’re in a new year, but 2016 is alive and well for movie lovers. Our calendar runs March to March, because the year in film doesn’t end until Oscar night. The Oscars are our Super Bowl. Everything leads to the one night where movie fans across the world gather together to…

  • Mahatma Ghandi and the Christian Call to Social Justice

    Mahatma Ghandi and the Christian Call to Social Justice

    Just yesterday I told my daughter that I loved history in high school, but that I also did terrible in it. I would forget what I studied faster than I could pull out my pencil to write a test. But one thing I will never forget: learning about the Hindu caste system when in the…

  • Terrence Malick and the Three Greatest Christian Movies Ever Made

    Terrence Malick and the Three Greatest Christian Movies Ever Made

    What if I told you that the three most recent movies from Terrence Malick are the greatest Christian movies ever made? Well, first, you’d probably ask me, “Who is Terrence Malick?” And even if you know who Malick is, your next thought would probably be along the lines of: “Are you serious!??” Granted, Malick films…

  • The Day I Became A Kid From Stand By Me

    The Day I Became A Kid From Stand By Me

    Anyone who has had the joy of watching the great 80’s classic Stand By Me has also had the shock, disgust, sorrow and other mixed emotions of the scene involving the corpse of a young man. I hadn’t even seen one in real life when I saw this movie as a 14-year-old. It would end…

  • Oil, Blood, and Daniel Plainview’s Journey to Isolation

    Oil, Blood, and Daniel Plainview’s Journey to Isolation

    There’s a moment in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 epic There Will Be Blood where Daniel Plainview abandons control. The moments are sparse throughout the film, and one could even argue there aren’t any. But among the posturing and work and struggle, only once does Daniel Plainview betray his intentions in life, in work, in oil.…

  • The Cowgirl Story That Broke Our Hearts

    The Cowgirl Story That Broke Our Hearts

    Of all three Toy Story movies, the second one touches me the most emotionally, and it’s mainly because of Jessie. In fact, she and her character arc in Toy Story 2 can almost be described as having a transforming moment for computer animated movies. No one can bring rich sadness to an animated screen like…

  • Wes Anderson and the Either/Or

    Wes Anderson and the Either/Or

    Blake wrote of the marriage of Heaven and Hell. If I have written of their Divorce, this is not because I think of myself as a fit antagonist for so great a genius, nor even because I feel at all sure that I know what he meant. But in some sense or other the attempt…