Category: Streaming

  • Roma

    Roma

    It’s that time of the year again. Lights are glowing. Music is going. Food is flowing. That’s right — it’s Oscar season! The festive holiday where we live in movie theaters because all the best films of the year appear over the course of three months. However, Netflix might be changing that. The platform that…

  • Hold the Dark

    Hold the Dark

    When critics of all stripes – film, TV, video games, music – write about art that is hard to pin down aesthetically, you’ll often see them use a specific word: dreamlike. Nightmarish if it skews darker. Dreams are an especially apt grounding point for movies because of the way they’re both constructed. There’s a separation…

  • To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

    To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

    While the rest of cinematic world rolls on, consumed with thoughts of superheroes, popular film Oscars, and who’s directing the next James Bond, Netflix has quietly been revolutionizing its library of content. Ahead of an award season slate featuring the likes of ​Alfonso Cuarón, David Mackenzie, and Jeremy Saulnier, the booming streaming company has enjoyed…

  • 6 Balloons

    6 Balloons

    In these times, hardly a family is untouched in some way by the opiate epidemic. As leaders of our church’s youth group, when my wife and I told the teens they could come to us with any issues — even when older and no longer a “youth” — little did we realize we would be…

  • Mute

    Mute

    When I stumbled across Mute on Netflix, I was fairly excited. Duncan Jones, the man who brought us Moon and Source Code, directed it. Surely it would be an excellent sci-fi noir piece…Right? Silence vs. Loudness Mute centers around an Amish man named Leo (Alexander Skarsgård) who had a terrible accident when he was young…

  • 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…

  • The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

    The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

    Holiday movies are often based around the importance of family and the simple truth that family is often more dysfunctional than we’d like. Consider A Christmas Story or It’s a Wonderful Life and the discontent drawn from family relationships therein. Or if you prefer, look no further than a more modern offering such as Christmas…

  • First They Killed My Father

    First They Killed My Father

    Most people living today have only a vague memory of the Vietnam War, or none at all.  As a teenager growing up in a very conservative area my memories were taken from Walter Cronkite’s TV reports, my local paper, and a few radio broadcasts. We were told America was sending soldiers to Southeast Asia to…

  • To the Bone

    To the Bone

    Anorexia nervosa (AN) is one of a group of associated eating disorders which remain controversial in terms of cause and treatment. The general public sees these disorders as bizarre and puzzling. Many treatments have been attempted with limited success. Anorexia nervosa, and its associated illnesses, is a primarily psychiatric illness with a disturbingly high death…

  • I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

    I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

    For just a second, I want you to think back on the last time you were out in public and felt annoyed by a total stranger. Didn’t take long, did it? We all know these aren’t isolated experiences, but sometimes it feels like the world goes out of its way to send especially obnoxious people…