It’s hard to tell what lesson(s) the makers of Meet the Robinsons are trying to bestow on their audiences, but I imagine each of the seven screenwriters had their own intentions. This Disney release lacks all the humor and originality of more successful recent animated installments like the Toy Story or Shrek series. I went [...]
I can only imagine that the race for best foreign language film in this year’s Oscars was down to the wire. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth took home three Oscars for makeup, art direction, and cinematography, but failed to take home best foreign language picture. This went to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of [...]
~Reviewed by Mary M. Dalton The documentary feature Jesus Camp generated a lot of buzz in some festival circles last year and won the top prize at SILVERDOCS: AFI-Discovery Channel Documentary Festival 2006 (one of the most highly regarded documentary festivals in the world). It was an auspicious launch for an unpretentious film, which went [...]
Oprah has made her newest selection for her book club. You can read the details here: Oprah’s latest book pick: gloomy ‘The Road.’ This is one of the greatest books that I have ever read and certainly one of last year’s best. I felt the same way about McCarthy’s ‘No Country for Old Men’ when [...]
~Reviewed by Daniel Skidmore “God helps those who help themselves.” Although not a biblical saying and, in fact, can be seen as opposing a Judea-Christian theology, this statement has merit. With this idea of working with God to bring about a better future for the world and for ourselves, I want to re-examine the movie [...]
~Reviewed by Wendy Arce “Just like a bird without a feather – I am lost without your love.” In spite of advice received to the contrary, I saw Craig Brewer’s latest film, which is no doubt as controversial as his first. In both Hustle and Flow and Black Snake Moan, my inner feminist cringed at [...]
~by Alan Ackridge For most of the latter half of the 20th Century, a significant portion of the Christian church opposed popular culture. However, beginning in the 1980′s, politically paralleled with the rise of the “moral majority,” Christians have stopped shunning culture and have again attempted to shape it. Some of this effort has yielded [...]
I believe we have yet to see the best of or the end of what could be called 9/11 art. The passing of time creates the distance necessary for some artists to reflect creatively on this tragic event. This is not to say that good 9/11 art does not already exist. Certainly, visual artists, whether [...]
Muted in the popularity (or controversy) of other films released in 2005 like Brokeback Mountain, Crash, or Hustle and Flow, a simple western film showed audiences the difficulty and power of forgiveness. Directed by Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada proved his worth both behind the camera and in front of it [...]
In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Groning wrote to La Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps to get permission to make a documentary of the Carthusian monks there. Sixteen years later, they contacted him and told him they were ready. Groning shot for six months without a crew or any artificial lighting, and the result [...]
