Reading Time: 6 minutes Since losing my son Josh in 2021, I look for a handful of traits in art that helps me grieve. Pressured to pretend my life is back to normal, I want words, images, and music that bear witness, that affirm my loss is bottomless, that yes, it is as bad as it feels. At the […]
Film/TV
Exploring the world of film and television from a secular perspective.
Posted inComedy
The five worst Irish accents in movie history
Reading Time: 2 minutes Many of the Best Actor nominations for the Oscars this Sunday are Irish. St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. What better way to celebrate than an authoritative ranking of the five worst Irish accents in movie history? The Irish accent is consistently voted one of the most attractive in the world. But for […]
Posted inFilm/TV
‘The Good Lord Bird’: Dark satire with a white-hot moral core
Reading Time: 4 minutes What kind of white man puts his life on the line to fight slavery? James McBride’s irreverent portrait of James Brown offers an answer.
Posted inFilm/TV
Yes, I am digging a pit to find the love of my life #LastOfUs
Reading Time: 2 minutes After watching the third episode of the video game-based HBO show The Last of Us, I am digging several pits to find the love of my life. It’s only a matter of time before I find my soul mate at the bottom of one of my 10-foot-deep holes in the ground. As you are probably […]
Posted inFilm/TV
‘His Dark Materials’ is faithful to Philip Pullman’s humanist vision
Reading Time: 5 minutes Surprisingly, the creators didn’t flinch from depicting the books’ overarching plot: a war against God in the name of human freedom.
Posted inFilm/TV
True cosmic horror: Three bleak stories search for meaning in the void of space
Reading Time: 7 minutes Some of the best science fiction illuminates our stark reality: We are here now, in this present moment, and we have a choice to live, and grow, and learn, and love. Or to give up on all that and destroy ourselves and each other. The scenario is not great, but the choice seems obvious.
Posted inFilm/TV
‘Hilda’ captures the magic and wonder of childhood
Reading Time: 3 minutes The rare kids’ show that hits the trifecta: it’s gorgeous but has rich depths of story, imaginative yet grounded, and handles heavy themes deftly.
Posted inPsychology
Peter Weir’s ‘Fearless’: Grief, the superpower nobody wants
Reading Time: 5 minutes Jamie Raskin’s got it. Nick Cave, too. I’ve got it. And in Peter Weir’s 1993 classic, Fearless, Max Klein has it. Thanks to trauma and loss, we are, like the movie title says, fearless. But we’d relinquish this superpower in a heartbeat, if our lives could rewind. When US Representative Jamie Raskin was in the […]
Posted inNews
Mel Gibson gets fired
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mel Gibson was fired Sunday night. The noted actor and antisemite was scheduled to be one of the grand marshals of one of the yearly Mardi Gras parades. And the fact that he was even slated to be one of the two grand marshals will strike many of you odd because, well, Mel Gibson is […]
Posted inFilm/TV
An ESPN analyst’s gratuitous on-air prayers won’t help Damar Hamlin
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the days since Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a football game and had to be taken to a hospital in Cincinnati, some people have used his near-fatal injury as a vessel to spread their particular flavor of Christianity via prayers, distracting from more pressing issues and denying credit from the medical personnel […]