Category: Review

  • Unsane

    Unsane

    In my mind, one of the calling cards of all great movies is the way they stay with an audience well after the credits have rolled. Stunning visuals, great dialogue, actors at the height of their powers — these things are all fine. But there’s an indefinable quality that the best filmmakers seem to be…

  • Annihilation

    Annihilation

    Our podcast this month was originally on A Wrinkle in Time. Then we saw the movie… Tune in to the beginning for Jon’s epic rant, and then stay for a discussion of a movie that’s actually worth talking about: Annihilation. Alex Garland is a prolific writer, ranging from novels (The Beach) to screenplays (28 Days…

  • I Can Only Imagine

    I Can Only Imagine

    For the approximately six of you who have read my previous, somewhat (mostly?) pretentious, overly-hyperlinked reviews here, you’ll recall my contention that if Christians should prevail at any sort of filmmaking, it will be documentaries. That’s because we Christians have stories to tell, and documentaries are about story first. Cinematography is a nice to have,…

  • Klute

    Klute

    Early in Klute, Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda) returns home from an afternoon appointment with a John, has a bath, lights some candles, pours a glass of wine and sits at her kitchen table, smoking a joint with a clip. After a few drags she begins singing in a husky alto: We gather together to ask…

  • Loving Vincent

    Loving Vincent

    It seems like every few years there is an animated movie that knocks me off my theater seat. In my life a few of those that astounded me — due to an unusual subject, a new perspective, or an innovative methodology — are Fantasia (1940 — okay I was not alive then but I first…

  • Black Panther

    Black Panther

    I didn’t expect to feel tears stream down my face so shortly into Black Panther, but within the first few minutes of the film, I was already impacted heavily. In this reflection, I would like to touch on a theme of the movie that is presented within the first few minutes of the film. By…

  • Darkest Hour

    Darkest Hour

    In America none of us ever feared that our country would be invaded and we would be subjugated to the will of a foreign country. Even in WWII we were confident that our foreign opponents could and would be overcome, and even if they were not totally defeated, they would not invade the American continent.…

  • Phantom Thread

    Phantom Thread

    This may be a bit of a spoiler alert, but there’s a moment in ​Phantom Thread​ where Reynolds Woodcock sees a ghost. It’s not particularly frightening, though you could be forgiven for finding it unsettling. And while it may be startling and feel out of place at first, truthfully the scene fits thematically in Paul…

  • Novitiate / Hostiles / Call Me by Your Name

    Novitiate / Hostiles / Call Me by Your Name

    Welcome to another edition of Mini-Review Roundup where we present smaller reviews of several movies at once. Up this month: Novitiate, Hostiles, and Call Me by Your Name.   Novitiate   Nothing scares me more than a movie about faith. I’ll take a tank full of sharks over watching the foundation of my life butchered…

  • Mudbound

    Mudbound

    As a child, like many others, I loved to play in the mud. We had a “sandpile” next to our barn that was about 25% sand with the rest dirt, which is to say it was mud as it was in the north shadow of our big, old, red barn. I would spend hours playing…