notes on christianity, belief, and art
Godzilla (2014) – Legendary Pictures
After I watched Monsters—director Gareth Edwards’ first feature-length film—I couldn’t stop gushing over it. “Have you seen Monsters?” I would ask a friend.
“When I was seven, I thought I saw one hiding under my bed,” was usually their reply.
“No, the movie Monsters.”
“The one with Mike and Sulley?” Continue Reading…
The X-Men film franchise begins at a rain-soaked Nazi concentration camp during World War II. In the midst of a large crowd walks a young Jewish boy. His dark coat bears the Star of David, the badge’s yellow color contrasting against the dreary hues of the compound. As the boy is torn from his parents, he mysteriously emits a powerful magnetic force, bending the camp gate. The chaotic moment reaches a breaking point when the child, later known as Magneto, is knocked unconscious.
This introductory scene—expanded in X-Men: First Class—encapsulates the thematic mood of the entire franchise. At its core, the X-Men cinematic universe is more than a slab of blockbuster meat to a slew of hungry consumers. It’s a probing commentary on social subjugation, equality, and discrimination…READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.
A year ago this week, I was told to look for another job. The Christian school where I taught saw an enrollment drop and couldn’t afford to keep me on staff.
Days after the news, the tips of my fingers still tingled with numbness when I thought about finances. I didn’t know if there would be any money left to scrape out of our bank account in the next few months. If this news wasn’t enough, we had just moved into our first home and my wife was seven months pregnant. Continue Reading…
There’s an iconic scene at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Luke and Han are in the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. They are on the verge of being thrown into a deadly Sarlacc pit. Sarlaccs are highly evolved organisms who digest their prey over thousands of years. Its victims are mysteriously kept alive during the entire ordeal, left to die a slow, painful death.
Group text messages are the Sarlaccs of the 21st century. No one ever intends to stumble into a group text message, but once they do, they will never be the same. Continue Reading…
As a child, I remember the first time I saw a mountain. The rugged peek ascended to the sky above; a tip of white capping the crescendo. My South Texas mind realized, as a looked up at the Appalachians, that there is more to this world than my home. Continue Reading…
While summer cinema is usually judged by popcorn—not philosophical—consumption, this year’s upcoming releases look to pose a number of questions that just might get our brains turning. From issues like equality, supernaturalism, and human progress, these next few months at tinseltown have the potential to instigate a slew of conversations about faith and culture. Continue Reading…
Easter is this Sunday and we’re bound to be talking about at least one of two people: Jesus and/or the Easter Bunny.
Staying in line with the season—and a recent late night host’s retirement announcement—I felt like it would be appropriate to write a David Letterman-esque post about why Jesus is better than the Easter Bunny. Because here on the site, we only report the material that people are talking about. Hope you enjoy this as much as I fought to stay appropriate. Enjoy some Easter LOLz everyone. Continue Reading…
Heaven is for Real – Sony Pictures
Heaven is for Real, the story of a boy who allegedly visited heaven and lived to tell the tale, is getting a big Hollywood treatment this week. Continue Reading…
The clean version of an Eminem song gave me the feels three weeks ago.
Most people think I’m a huge fan of rap, but that’s just them playing off of stereotypes. Even so, when I heard Eminem’s new song “Headlights” on the radio, I lost myself in the music, the moment.
I owned it. Continue Reading…
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Marvel Studios
In junior high, good guys finish last.
It’s not too much different in the film world.
A well-rounded plot must possess more than a heightened sense of external conflict to be engrossing. An internal transformation—taken by the main character(s)—which parallels external stimuli makes a story worth telling. There must be demons inside and out. John McClane is fighting to save his wife and his marriage in Die Hard. Clint Eastwood is battling more than a gang in Gran Torino, he’s coming to terms with his own personal concave of racism. Continue Reading…
