He’s Baaaack…
January 29, 2009
Annual Pop Theology contributor Ernest Myers graces us with his presence once again with his Top 10 Television Shows of 2008. It might be an easy way out, but I like the ending… [Read more]
Top 10 Spiritually Significant Films of 2008
January 21, 2009
Before 2009 gets any older, I thought I’d better look back over the films that I saw in 2008 (or that were released in 2008) to construct my top 10 list of spiritually significant films. You’ll notice some potential glaring absences: I assume that Doubt and Revolutionary Road might have made the list, but at this point, I have been unable to make it to the theaters to see them. This isn’t necessarily a list of my favorite films of the year or ones that I felt were the best, although a few of those are on here. Rather, again, this is a list of films ripe with spiritual, theological, or religious implications. Let the debate begin! [Read more]
Sign of the Times…
January 14, 2009
A couple of months ago, film scholar and critic David Thomson spoke on NPR during the height of the Presidential election. He and the host could not ignore the troubling times in which we live, and Thomson speculated that filmmakers would not turn their cameras away either. He cited the, ironically, positive effects that such difficult times can have on filmmaking, looking back at the wealth of lasting films created during the Great Depression or in the late 60s and early 70s. The problem, I fear, is that while I totally agree with Thomson, the unfortunate reality is that larger audiences will most likely not see these films. Such honest films will often be relegated to art houses while big studios will fill large cineplexes with films like Paul Blart: Mall Cop (which I do want to see). One film that deserves a much larger audience than it will receive is Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy. [Read more]
Who Says Christmas Is Over…
January 14, 2009
We just can’t let go of the holiday spirit here at Pop Theology. Wendy Arce provides a belated review of two of the bigger holiday films and offers some interesting thoughts on the use of stereotypes in each. [Read more]
Go On, Get Happy!
January 12, 2009
Yesterday morning, I heard a homily in which the priest talked about partaking of the Eucharist and how he (we) often do so daintily as he mimicked a timid partaking of the cup. He countered this image by reflecting on the large stained glass window in the sanctuary which depicts Jesus’ baptism. As John baptizes Jesus, rays of light beam down from a dove at the top of the window and flow over Jesus’ head, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The priest concluded that, while we daintily partake of the Eucharist, God wants to drown us in the Holy Spirit so that we literally reek of it. This is an interesting thought…reeking of the Holy Spirit. What would it look like? What would it smell like? In scripture (Galatians 5:22-23), we find a description of what this might look like…a list of the fruits of the spirit. These include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Very rarely do we find characters in film that reek of the fruits of the Spirit as much as Poppy does in Mike Leigh’s latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky. [Read more]
Jesus at the Movies: A Review
January 7, 2009
In her book, Jesus of Hollywood, Adele Reinhartz claimed that Jesus films often tell us more about the socio-cultural locations of their filmmakers than they do about the character whose story they purport to tell. W. Barnes Tatum, in his equally fascinating book on Jesus films, Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years, would perhaps agree. At least his in-depth research reveals such a reality. [Read more]
Little Britain USA: A Review
January 6, 2009
Richard Lindsay takes a break from holiday revelry to provide a great review of the HBO sketch comedy series, Little Britain USA. [Read more]
Theology and Film: A Conversation
January 5, 2009
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Marjorie Suchocki, a process theologian and Professor Emerita at the Claremont School of Theology, about her work in theology and film and the upcoming Whitehead International Film Festival, of which she is the chair. Follow the link after the jump to listen (my interview is just below the two YouTube clips), and check out the featured video here in which Marjorie discusses her upcoming book on sin and cinema. [Read more]
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