Elmer Gantry
Dear Elmer Gantry, meet me at the revival meeting. Do not sit in the preacher’s seat and do not sit in the front row where everyone can see you. Try to be as invisible as you can, and try not to say anything. Try instead Read More …
Author: Arts & Faith
Heat
At the most basic level, Heat deserves its place on a “Crime and Punishment” list as a cop and robber heist film, told through a riveting cat-and-mouse chase by director Michael Mann. On a much more fascinating level, the importance of its inclusion here reflects a broader Read More …
Minority Report
“The way we work, changing destiny and all…we’re more like clergy than cops.” Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report explores a future where “Precrime” technology (enabled by psychics with precognitive powers) allows law enforcement to arrest individuals before they commit crimes. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) Read More …
Anatomy of a Murder
There’s no shortage of qualities to praise about Anatomy of a Murder. The slick jazz score by Duke Ellington lends an element of timeless cool, while the cackle-worthy screenplay easily makes this one of the most entertaining legal dramas of all time, if not one Read More …
Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can follows the semi-true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a teenage con artist who stole millions of dollars over the course of six years, posing as an airplane pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, before ultimately being arrested and Read More …
The Godfather
The Godfather has provoked so much nostalgia that it is easy to forget or overlook the fact that Michael Corleone’s recitation of the “offer he can’t refuse” story is met with horrified disgust from his girlfriend. “That’s my family, Kay, not me,” he insists. By Read More …
The Starling Girl
Our personal faith is a beautiful thing — no matter where that may lie for each of us. It sings in the babbling brooks, dances in the rustling leaves, and, for Jen Starling who is played brilliantly by Eliza Scanlen, is intertwined with a deep, Read More …
The Mission
In my twenties, I spent two summers in Asia and Europe, documenting the work of Christian missionaries abroad. My idealism soon gave way to bone-crunching realism. Most of the missionaries I filmed expressed a carefulness to their approach, talking at length about their ministry being Read More …
Asteroid City
“I still don’t understand the play.” So muses Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) multiple times through Wes Anderson’s story of a televised production of a fictitious play about death, grief, acting, “brainiac” children, alien invasion, military oversight, first romances, seasoned affairs, art, and storytelling itself. Prior Read More …
The Boy and the Heron
“How do you live?” is the fundamental question posed by Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. It’s the question posed to Mahito Maki, the angry 12-year-old boy at the film’s centre. Having recently lost his mother in a fire in Tokyo during World War II, Read More …