The Irishman, titled onscreen I Heard You Paint Houses from the title of the book it is based on, is a staggering portrayal of one man on the margins of twentieth century American history. The film follows Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (Robert De Niro) in his journey Read More …
Filmmaker Terrence Malick is one of the most significant (and, of late, prolific) living Christian artists, of any medium. That alone makes any new Malick film worthy of a Christian’s attention. But his latest film, A Hidden Life—the true WWII story of Franz Jägerstätter’s stand against Read More …
When we close our eyes to suffering beyond self and are so insulated in our own world, we may fail to see the needs of others. Our self-centeredness blinds us to a world of hurt that exceeds our own sight line. When we ignore the Read More …
Amidst the wash of imagery and sound in Terrence Malick’s film is a portrayal of humanity’s search for meaning and grace. The parallels between the journey of Christian Bale’s Rick through the bacchanalia of contemporary America and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress are stated quite clearly, but Read More …
The Assassin is a difficult film to summarize, but not because the plot is unclear. Characters constantly fill each other in on where exactly they stand. Roughly, the movie concerns an assassin (Shu Qi) who, having failed in an assignment, is sent to kill her cousin, Read More …
What do you worship? Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog never asks this question explicitly, but it does examine it through its provocative riff on the Western. For cowboy Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), it’s clear what he worships: manhood. He’s fashioned himself as the ultimate masculine Read More …
Myths and legends abound with humble blokes who endure the hero’s journey, overcoming the odds and coming out strong on the other side. They accomplish this due to their inherent goodness, honesty, and strength of character. The Green Knight takes place in a Camelot that Read More …
The walls are immense. We quiver just to look at them. When we imagine scaling their heights, we tremble all the more because we know that to fall from them would be our death. This is us, the audience, at the start of Asghar Farhadi’s Read More …
The first time I wrote about Annette I compared it to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Mulholland Drive. I still think that is one of the most apt comparisons to describe Leos Carax’s hypnotic and meta musical. In my appreciation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Read More …
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story begins with what looks like a shot from the director’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The camera hovers over a crumbling city, swooping past a wrecking ball as it haunts the remains of a once bustling neighborhood. Eventually, Read More …