Christ calls his followers not only from something but also to something: both abundant life (John 10:10) and self-denial in taking up the cross (Matthew 16:24). Christian faith offers us the paradox of saving our lives by losing our lives for Christ’s sake (Matthew 16:25)—a Read More …
This annual Arts & Faith project enters its second decade this year, making it an apt time to summarize its purpose and methodology. The jury attempts to identify ten films released or distributed in the previous year that it recommends to Christian audiences. The reasons Read More …
What makes Solomon Northrup a painfully effective avatar through which the modern viewer can experience slavery is that, like almost all of us, he was not born into it. A free man of color living in New York, he takes a job as a musician Read More …
There is a single concept that drove The Wild Robot author Peter Brown, inspired the filmmakers adapting the story, and even guided the titular character within the film: kindness can be a survival skill. The Wild Robot stars Roz, a housekeeping robot marooned on an Read More …
Imagine this: you hold the keys that could set a murder suspect free. Yet, in unlockingthat door, you risk placing your own life and future in chains — a life you’ve tirelesslyrebuilt from the ashes. This moral dilemma lies at the heart of Clint Eastwood’s Read More …
Polite conversation dictates that we avoid the topics of religion and politics. Conclave dives head first into both. When the current pope unexpectedly dies, Ralph Fiennes’ Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with managing the ensuing papal conclave. The intrigue, vote buying, backstabbing, and machinations—both political and Read More …
A plot description makes Flow sound like a high-concept kiddie film. Animated animals on a boat attempt to survive a surging flood. To do so a cat and a dog and a bird and a capybara must learn to check their instinctual animal enmity for Read More …
Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge sees a stranger entering a foreign land and immediatelyencountering hostility, prejudice, and violence. Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is aMarine veteran whose service and sacrifice to a thankless society knows no bounds. Heis his brother’s keeper, but his humanity is consistently denied Read More …
In 2022, I wrote that Dune takes the prompt of Luke 4:5-6 where the devil tempts Jesus and imagines a scenario in which a young prince might accept the devil’s temptation rather than reject it. This description is even more true of Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s magnificent Read More …
I too am dreaming about the light and shadows on the wall, the ones that dance as the leaves sway in the wind. I am dreaming of them the way this film dreams of them. Not stopping there, I am also dreaming about the God Read More …