Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

REELigion

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment

Uncategorized

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011

April 2012

April 11, 2012

Dinner with Strangers: An Interview with Nathan Clarke

Nathan Clarke is one of the most impressive documentarians working on religious subjects today. I...

March 2012

March 16, 2012

The Best Film I Saw at South by Southwest

I attended SXSW last week mostly for things on the Interactive side of the festival--digital...

March 10, 2012

Fear, Disgust, and “The Cabin in the Woods”

Last night at South by Southwest, I attended the premiere of The Cabin in the...

March 10, 2012

Go Ye Therefore Into Casinos

Bryan Storkel's documentary Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card-Counting Christians captures a basic feature...

December 2011

December 21, 2011

Melancholia: Armageddon, Danish-Style

Your family is criminally dysfunctional. You're a manic depressive. Human life is irreparably evil. Mankind...

November 2011

November 24, 2011

I believe in the Muppets

I wrote a few weeks ago that not only do we find faith in the...

November 11, 2011

The Journey and Repairing the World

I had really hoped that I might write this week about Emilio Estevez' spiritual-journey film...

November 11, 2011

Rapture Ready

I've paid only the scantest attention to the Harold Camping news this year, because mostly,...

November 01, 2011

The “Catholic Fantastic”: Religion in Horror Films

I've long wanted to attempt a book-length project on the amount of religion that shows...

October 2011

October 27, 2011

Snow-Day Matinee

There's something magical about a snow day. I'm not talking about a snowy day, but...

October 24, 2011

Aronofsky’s Noah Comes to Life

Thanks to (Patheos' own) Joseph Susanka for alerting me to the available pages of a...

October 22, 2011

The Redemption of General Butt Naked: or, Why South Park got it Right

A hulking man lumbers through a Ghanaian refugee camp, full of Liberians who have fled...

October 17, 2011

George Clooney, the godless politician

I begin today with a REELigion quiz. And for the impatient, worry not: it's only...

October 15, 2011

“Finding your Bliss” in Joseph Campbell

I sometimes teach a class called “Modern Mythology” which is (let’s be honest here) just...

October 12, 2011

Hello, I Love You…Won’t You Tell Me Your Name

Last week I had the good fortune to join a panel discussion on Bertolt Brecht’s...

October 08, 2011

Missing Marpa

I’ve uncharacteristically been spending a lot of time on YouTube lately (no, really, I can...

October 04, 2011

Roman Polanski and “the dead certainty of doubt”

The phrase in quotes comes from Jim Emerson, the Chicago Sun-Times film critic and blogger...

October 03, 2011

Guess who is directing the new Noah movie?

Without Googling, try to guess which well known filmmaker said the following: Since I was...

October 03, 2011

“Moneyball” and Religion, or Finding God in Brad Pitt’s Triceps

It has become a truism—especially in religious studies classes—to note that baseball is like religion. ...

September 2011

September 28, 2011

The Kuleshov Effect and The Godfather

Last week in my film studies class, I showed portions of The Cutting Edge: The...

September 27, 2011

(No) Shelter from the Storm

“…[C]onsider…thunderclouds piling up in the sky and moving about accompanied by lightning and thunderclaps…hurricanes with...

September 23, 2011

Critique of Just Reason

They must’ve handed out bonuses recently at the New Yorker, because Mssrs. Denby and Lane...

September 22, 2011

“Dolphin Tale” and Angels Unawares

Charles Martin Smith’s Dolphin Tale is not the kind of film that will invite aesthetic...

September 19, 2011

Vera Farmiga’s Fundamentalism

As I stepped into the lobby of Denver’s Esquire Theater last weekend, I overheard a...

August 2011

August 14, 2011

Omar likes “The Night of the Hunter”

It's all in the game:

August 12, 2011

Video Essay: Justice, Vengeance, and Empty Retribution in Public Enemies

The full text of this video essay's narration follows the video. In Michael Mann’s Public Enemies...

August 04, 2011

Don’t Touch Me, Captain America

Noli me tangere, gripes Jesus to Mary Magdalene as she reaches out for him shortly...

August 02, 2011

This Fall in Religion and Film…

...is filled with promise, as some of the films with explicit religious themes that played...

August 02, 2011

The Real Question of “The Tree of Life”: Are We Alone?

Much has been written in the press regarding the overtly Christian elements of Terence Malick's...

August 01, 2011

Is “The Tree of Life” a Christian Film?

This weekend, the inimitable filmmaker and essayist Matt Zoller Seitz asked via Twitter what I...