Tag: Love

  • Wonder Woman

    Wonder Woman

    I should start this piece by admitting something: I’m firmly entrenched as a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan. I loved watching the Spiderman and X-Men movies as a young teenager, and I’ve enjoyed seeing the rise of Marvel as a movie powerhouse. There aren’t too many smart and fun blockbusters out there, and the MCU has…

  • Is the Theology of ‘The Shack’ Heretical?

    Is the Theology of ‘The Shack’ Heretical?

    Heresy. Is there any word more feared among Christians? No one who takes their faith seriously wants to be accused of teaching false doctrine and leading others astray. Scripture takes false teaching seriously. Second Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their…

  • Brief Encounter

    Brief Encounter

    The first film review I ever wrote was of Brief Encounter, for a Wisconsin Lutheran college newspaper. The review is, mercifully, lost to us, and so I find myself writing another, having seen and lived a lot more in the time between. Yet even now, as then, if someone asks what my favorite film is,…

  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    No one writes movies like Charlie Kaufman. Who else would make his feature screenwriting debut about a portal inside the brain of John Malkovich as he did in Being John Malkovich? Who else would turn his angst of trying to adapt a book into a meta-story of himself trying to adapt a book as he…

  • Remember the Night

    Remember the Night

    Anyone who tries to write comedies for the screen will inevitably spend some amount of time hating Preston Sturges. The man was actually a hen who squeezed out golden eggs with enviable regularity: Sullivan’s Travels, Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Unfaithfully Yours. “You can’t replace someone like Sturges,” reminisced director, writer, and…

  • La La Land

    La La Land

    At the end of 2016, we need a movie like La La Land. Musicals offer an alternate universe where people don’t sit around mad at each other, they get out on the freeway and sing together. The film is a throwback to the classic era of old-school Hollywood, while still managing to be relevant and…

  • Loving

    Loving

    When I was reared in rural Indiana in the 1950’s, I never saw living (as opposed to pictures) people of color other than on those rare occasions my brothers, sisters, and I piled into our (usually beaten up) car and made the annual (or in a good year, semi-annual) trek into Fort Wayne (50 miles…

  • 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…

  • Couples Retreat

    Couples Retreat

    Here I sit, again, watching Couples Retreat. I returned to this movie many times because it is funny and I am thoroughly entertained. But on this occasion (perhaps the 5th time?) I have realized a deeper level of truth for my love of this movie. IMBd only rates this movie 3 stars, scoring a mediocre…

  • A Child Is Waiting

    A Child Is Waiting

    The opening title sequence of A Child Is Waiting is a series of striking children’s drawings, primal and observant, done with the pencil pressed hard. At the end of it, the camera pushes in on a picture of a black cloud, not unlike the shape of a brain, that dissolves into a close up of…