This year, the Oscars honored three films that are poignant meditations on a person's agency in falling and staying in love.
On Media
Kathryn Reklis reviews film, TV, and more
Nearly 15 years ago, the Boston Globe broke the story of the priest-pedophilia and bishop-cover-up crimes. The film Spotlight, which chronicles the investigative reporting behind the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage, is now up for a Best Picture Academy Award. While this new film shines a light on what happened then, watching it now reveals how the Catholic landscape has changed (and not changed) since the story broke in 2002. While the reporters depicted in Spotlight initially pursue the stories of particular priest-pedophiles, the editors see the bigger picture: the bureaucratic system, the hierarchy, and the mindset that allowed these priests to be moved from parish to parish without legal intervention.
In Jessica Jones, the superhero villain's control over people is chilling because we recognize it. It plays out in ordinary abusive relationships.
One might expect Spotlight to be fascinating because of the victims' stories. But it's the focus on clerical and legal institutions that grabs the viewer.
Rectify is unlike any series I've watched. Its slow burn reveals the viewer as well as the characters in the story.
"What was the point of that movie?" my son asked, without hostility. He knew that what he'd seen was about more than what he'd seen.
Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street uses a combination of magic and realism that depicts real life far better than any other family television show I've seen.
The documentary Chaplains raises a fundamental issue for Christian chaplaincy: what is its relationship to the church?
It could have been any academic conference—except that Catwoman was on my left and a fully dressed hobbit was on my right.
I just got back from Disney World with my kids. The trip set me thinking about how stories get told and passed on.
Promo for Mars
NASA is, to say the least, enthusiastic about The Martian. The film is a really, really good commercial for a future budgetary request.
It's hard to watch Straight Outta Compton and not think of #BlackLivesMatter. But this is not explicitly a movie about politics or race.
Theology and advertising share the same root.
A screen in a sanctuary used to be a signal that a congregation had taken a side in the worship wars. Now it's just a sign that a church is open and functioning.
Religious satire on Broadway
Religious satire was once an edgy form of humor celebrated by rebellious teens. Now it’s attracting adults who buy theater tickets.
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