Beautiful Dreamers: A Documentary Asks “What is God”?
Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results. Turns out the question—“What is God?”—reveals more than a person’s faith.
Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens
A new documentary called <i>Collision</i> follows the collegial debate between new atheist Christopher Hitchens and conservative evangelical Doug Wilson. Spoiler alert: Neither budges and both gloat to the respective choirs they’d been preaching to. Is this the best we can do?
Jennifer’s Body and Why I Like Buffy’s Body Better
Has a hotly anticipated new horror film about a murderous cheerleader subverted the mythos of woman as the source of evil or just the opposite?
Afghan Idol: Can a Talent Competition Save a Nation?
An interview with the director of Afghan Star, a documentary that follows a tense but cathartic talent competition.
What does it mean when a movie series infiltrates our daily lives, and infuses our summer nights with “magic”?
The Rage Behind Outrage
The director of a new documentary talks about Dick Cheney’s daughter, the arrogance of power, and the days when Republicans weren’t anti-gay.
Star Trek: Politics Anti-Matters
The Star Trek franchise was famous for its utopian social vision, going boldly where no popular entertainment had gone before. But the new movie takes us back in time, to an age when political divisions were in stark black and white.
Church and State in Japan: The Case of the Yasukuni Shrine
Japan, in the throes of political and financial turmoil, is still dealing with the long-running controversy over a national shrine for WWII dead.
Outrage Outs Closeted Pols Opposed to Gay Rights
Documentarian Kirby Dick maintains that his new film isn’t merely righteous mimicry of tabloid journalism.
God Makes an Independent Film
When an inexperienced Pentecostal pastor gets called by God to make a $50 million epic science-fiction film, is he a visionary, a prophet, or just another box office grifter? A new documentary tells the tale.
Pop-Eye: Global Jesus on Film
In this invitation to inter-cinematic dialogue, S. Brent Plate offers a Lenten season roundup of Jesus films from all across the world, and not a blue-eyed protagonist among them.
Catholic magazine in Spain has its own set of movie awards. "Juno" tops the list. Guess why.
What Kind of A Church Can Prevent a Holocaust?
At a time when spokesmen for the church were asserting that Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was a ‘gift of God,’ a courageous woman tried to get her fellow Christians to act to save the Jews. A new film, Elisabeth of Berlin, tells her story through the voices of church leaders, historians, and those who knew her.
While the Oscar-nominated hit portrays very little religion, the underlying framework reveals a distinctly Hindu and Indian perspective.
Obamunism? The Traditional Values Coalition Coins a Term
Plus: Anti-abortion groups march on; Tony Perkins’ advice to Obama; Focus on the Family sets Newsweek straight; CPAC rides again; a boom in Christian films; and Training against the death penalty.
Not Easily Broken, Not Easily Viewed
Dallas preacher T.D. Jakes' latest foray into film features staid sermonizing, rigid gender constructs, and a whopper of a racial subtext.
Doubt v. Predator: A Vatican II Parable
The film adaptation of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play, set in the midst of Vatican II, pits the age-old male hierarchy against the secrecy of the recent molestation scandals. And the winner is...
Journalists should look more to the example of the Times, which recognizes the loaded arguments of dedicated culture warriors like the creators of Demographic Winter...
The Zohan and Restless are significant as indicators of the current state of Zionism, but without engaging Jewish tradition and regional politics, they remain celluloid fantasies of sex and the city.
The Zohan and Restless are significant as indicators of the current state of Zionism, but without engaging Jewish tradition and regional politics, they remain celluloid fantasies of sex and the city.
Until the World Laughs with God
Mike Myers's latest movie, plagued by interfaith protests, bad reviews, and a poor showing at the box office, makes us ask, once again, whether religion is allowed to be funny …
"The Happening" and the Gospel of Bruce Springsteen
M. Night Shyamalan's much-maligned new movie sounds much more interesting now that I know it can be read as an extended argument for religious faith in general and intelligent design specifically...
Can Expelled Teach Us a Thing or Two?
Comedian Ben Stein’s new documentary on the persecution of Intelligent Design advocates in schools is rife with errors and distortions, but there’s much to learn about the failure of science teaching.
1925, 1955, 2005 and now, Ben Stein; It refuses to die because “the debate about evolution is not about evolution at all.”
Get ready for more of the hoary old “raving evangelicals” vs. “atheist scientists” cant. Note to scientists: This is no time for smugness.