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Religious Music and Entertainment

2026-08-14T11:57:26-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Perfect Blue: Cult Hit Meditation

Last updated on: August 14, 2026 at 11:57 am By Chase Padusniak

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Perfect Blue (1997) has attained cult status. Perhaps more importantly, it is a certain kind of cult film, one that has transformed since its first release. Witness its Wikipedia page. Note the reviews, at least the English-languages ones. How many come from before 2017? Not many, not many. Why? I’m not sure any but the most intense cinephiles and anime-heads had any reason to know about it before then. Miyazaki had broken through before—certainly among children—but I suspect it took... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-08-07T12:09:48-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

American Movie: The Beauty of the Chuds

Last updated on: August 7, 2026 at 12:09 pm By Chase Padusniak

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American Movie (1999) makes me wistful. There are multiple sad ways to view and discuss the film. Most cynically, some see Chris Smith and Sarah Price’s documentary as exploitative. Their camera tracks the quixotic dream of would-be filmmaker, deadbeat dad, and drunk Mark Borchardt. Smith and Price have gone onto more-or-less serious careers while Borchardt and his buddy Mike Schenk have not. They sound like Fargo (1996) extra rejects. They watch the Packers. Gaze ye coastal elites and mock. Look... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-08-01T13:42:21-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Maddie’s Secret: Scylla and Charybdis

Last updated on: August 1, 2026 at 1:42 pm By Chase Padusniak

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Maddie’s Secret (2025) announces something well know but few say: “woke is dead; long live woke!” What I mean is that the political environment has changed markedly since the heyday of Democrats in kente cloth and carefully balanced representational Netflix slop. As annoying as some of the more cynical aspects of “high woke” were, however, it’s hard not to miss some of it in this moment of vicious repression. Maddie’s Secret could not have been made in 2018. But it... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-07-25T13:23:14-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The King of Comedy: Scorsese, Scorsese, Where Art Thou?

Last updated on: July 25, 2026 at 1:23 pm By Chase Padusniak

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Rupert Pupkin. What a perfect name for a fame-obsessed stalker and everyman. “Rupert” has a proper, almost British air. It’s the name of a prince or an old man who spends all day sucking black licorice cough drops. And “Pupkin”? Both “pup” and “kin” mark something as diminutive, as small. Rupert Pupkin is a tiny, pathetic aristocrat, a bleating fool in a pompous suit. His suit, in particular, is powder blue. For those who have not seen Scorsese’s The King... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-07-18T11:59:26-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Love Streams: What Film is For

Last updated on: July 18, 2026 at 11:59 am By Chase Padusniak

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In a TV documentary about the production of Love Streams (1984), writer-director John Cassavetes says most movies bore him. He has, he confesses, no interest in entertainment, in being pacified. A one-off about “pizzazz” and “adding more to keep the audience interested” briefly turned my mind to “second-screen writing” now so common for streaming services. Cassavetes would hate what film has become (and hated what it was then). Love Streams, probably his last great work, demonstrates this disdain admirably. I... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-07-15T08:23:25-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Drunken Angel: In the Shadow of the A-Bomb

Last updated on: July 15, 2026 at 8:23 am By Chase Padusniak

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Akira Kurosawa is best known for his historical epics and Shakespeare adaptations, less so for his portraits of death and destruction in the aftermath of World War II. If you’ve seen Red Beard (1965), the subject matter of Drunken Angel (1948) will not surprise you. Helping people ain’t easy. Here, Kurosawa concerns himself with an alcoholic doctor making do in the ruins of shattered Tokyo. His most stubborn patient Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune) refuses to acknowledge that he has tuberculosis, privileging... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-06-23T17:07:11-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thunderball: Hide the Nukes!

Last updated on: June 23, 2026 at 5:07 pm By Chase Padusniak

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Thunderball (1965) is bloated. Let’s get that out of the way. It’s overlong, has unnecessary (and perplexing) sexual assault sequences, and gets a bit sloppy with its menagerie of characters. Still, I think it’s quite good. I bother saying that because I took a beating, both online and in real life, for saying I thought From Russia with Love (1963) is the worst of the first three Bond films. Unfortunately for me, I believe that also applies within the first... Read more

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Reviews

From Russia with Love

2026-06-23T17:08:38-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Soldier’s Prayer: All Good Things

Last updated on: June 23, 2026 at 5:08 pm By Chase Padusniak

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And so, we have the third entry in The Human Condition trilogy (1959-1961). This is, by far, the most soul crushing entry, because it looks at the effects of war straight on. It benefits, I think, from not sensationalizing. Not that bravery and horror are foreign to war (they absolutely are not). But the grim reality is that war and its aftermath are grinding and harsh, rooted in unsexy facts like famine, disease, isolation, and fear. This is, Kobayashi seems... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-06-20T14:50:26-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Road to Eternity: War, Endless War

Last updated on: June 20, 2026 at 2:50 pm By Chase Padusniak

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I continue to make my way through Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth The Human Condition trilogy (1959-1961), based on the as-yet-untranslated novel by Junpei Gomikawa. Here, I will focus on the second part, which brings us to a theme we human beings seem never to learn about: war. In the first film, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) worked as mining labor supervisor in Manchuria, navigating endless ethical dilemmas to avoid being drafted. Of course, for all his work he gets the ultimate reward. Now,... Read more

Catholic

Religious Art

2026-06-16T16:46:44-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

200 Cigarettes: Why Bother?

Last updated on: June 16, 2026 at 4:46 pm By Chase Padusniak

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200 Cigarettes (1999) taught me a very important lesson. If a movie’s cast lists more than five actors you know well, but you’ve never seen the movie, it’s probably dreck. Case in point: 200 Cigarettes boasts Dave Chapelle, Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Elvis Costello, Christina Ricci, Janeane Garofalo, and Kate Hudson. Some of that manage to be a little funny, especially Chapelle. But only days after watching this thing, I remember almost nothing except that it ends with a party.... Read more

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