As part of the class I teach on theology and popular culture, we watched Clint Eastwood’s Oscar award-winning 2004 film Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood is a director whose films have gotten better as he aged, and Million Dollar Baby is…
As part of the class I teach on theology and popular culture, we watched Clint Eastwood’s Oscar award-winning 2004 film Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood is a director whose films have gotten better as he aged, and Million Dollar Baby is…
I’m certainly not the first disabled person to celebrate the X-Men franchise for its positive representation of disability. The central character, Xavier, is a wheelchair free cripple, and while I might wish that they’d used a disabled actor to play…
It’s hard for me to convey how much I hate Jojo Moyes’ supposedly romantic novel Me Before You, and dread the movie that is due out later this year. It is the story of a romance between a wealthy play…
The Sessions is a magnificent film, although my attempt to describe it to others has met with underwhelming response. My son, Jeremy, went as far as to comment, “where do you find these weird films, dad?” It tells the true…
**POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT** (although the film itself gives away its end in the beginning, concerning itself with character over suspense) First, a little pedantry; the term “Intouchables” is not a spelling error but the French equivalent of “Untouchables” [and yes,…
One of the interesting things to contemplate in the study of film is the creative contributions of the various participants. Who exactly is the author of a film? The screenwriter? The Director? The Actor? The Editor? Inception, however, contains the…
It is easy for those of us watching the Godfather series on DVD to forget that Part III was released almost two decades after the phenomenally successful Parts I & II (in 1990). Apart from Hollywoood’s usual goal of wringing every…
The Godfather Part II is widely acknowledged as being that rare sequel that equals (perhaps betters) the original, a deserving winner of its six Oscars, including Best Picture. Those setting themselves to the watching would be well advised to start…
My wife and I have decided to watch some of the films that top the charts of best ever movies on lists such as meta-critic and IMDB. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy tops almost every list but (I am ashamed to…