Best pictures
On the second anniversary of our media column, we asked several of our writers to reflect on their favorite theological films.
On Media
Kathryn Reklis reviews film, TV, and more
The Coen brothers’ sense of humor is not for everyone, but anyone with any sympathy for slackerdom can find a place in his heart for The Big Lebowski. I consider it a near-perfect illustration of the ancient Christian virtue of apatheia.
I’ve never seen a film that translates grace to the screen like Babette’s Feast. As one of the rare films that focuses on the lined and battered faces of real people Babette’s Feast challenges viewers to love real life. The film embraces God’s love for the embodied, the ordinary and the value of the extraordinary, and a love that wastes nothing.
The Giver’s temptations
If ever a movie with a teenage protagonist was tailor-made for sermon illustrations, it is this one.
Experiments in time
Every story is a story about time. Boyhood's power is not the perimeters of its story as much as the immersion into it.
Priest under threat
Calvary is a masterpiece of religious filmmaking. Its greatest achievement is to convey the impact of a community's near-collapse of faith.
This summer, the most common theme being played out at the movies is this: No matter who you are, you are the same as everyone else.
Those left behind
The focused uncertainty of The Leftovers is a parable for our own more diffuse reality. This could make it a deeply theological show.
I have always watched TV in community. In many ways these communities of shared stories have shaped the stories I tell about my life.
After centuries of Westerners going to Africa to teach, documentary filmmaker James Ault goes to learn.
Several times a day, my Facebook feed invites me to cry, laugh, or feel amazed. I click almost every time.
Lights, camera, teach
In adapting my course for video, I had to learn to bridge the distance between me and students I couldn't imagine, let alone see.
Never off the clock
The lead character of Wallander is a cop relentlessly pursuing justice. He knows he should leave work at the office, but he can't.
Poems, novels, and short stories have all influenced Christian ways of telling our sacred stories. What about a miniseries?
Divergent puts age-old questions of belonging in a new setting: a postapocalyptic society with the motto “factions before blood.”
Pages
Feed for "On Media"
