This was an unexpected nice little popcorn flick on my Netflix account. A David vs. Goliath storyline, a bit unfortunate maybe that it's a strong whamen leading the rebels against an evil patriarchal empire, and there are anti-nationalist bits here and there, but not too egregiously done. It's a long movie, and there is a second part already out, with 4 more parts planned (or so I hear). The villain...
David S. Brown, Paradise Lost: A Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harvard University Press, 397 pp. Given the proliferating monographs and biographies that have been published on F. Scott Fitzgerald,...
personal film miscellaneous While I don’t usually write on pop culture topics or movies, I am making one of my rare exceptions with this post. I saw the first available screening of Wonder Woman...
Decline and Fall Education Weimar America Social Justice WarriorsHate OrganizationsCommunity LoveThe Greater GoodHot FuzzBSObergefell The Evergreen State University in Olympia, Wash., promotes itself...
Pop Culture Charlie Camosy asks on his Facebook page what it was like to experience Star Wars in 1977. He was two years old, and (obviously) has no memory of it. I was 10, and I do. I had been hearing...
The Rock On the season finale of Saturday Night Live this past weekend, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson faux-announced that he would run for president in 2020, with actor Tom Hanks as his running...
Who Killed Laura Palmer?MTV CopsFonzieIndie Film It’s an irony of our times that in today’s era of new-as-the-Internet technologies like Netflix, Amazon, Redbox, ITunes, and OnDemand, when...
I've seen Twin Peaks more than 30 timesBOBLog Lady Every year, North Bend, Wash., a 6,500-strong town located 30 miles outside of Seattle, adds about 300 people to its population for three days. Though...
Last Thursday was Star Wars Day: May the Fourth be with you! It is a good time to reflect on the intersection between nerd culture and politics. In particular, two questions come to mind. First, how...
In December 1964, a Silver Age of American liberalism, to rival the Golden Age of FDR and the New Deal, seemed to be upon us. Barry Goldwater had been crushed in a 44-state landslide and the GOP reduced...
The Imitation Game “How can you not be for more diversity?” a friend recently asked me when I was explaining my opposition to the #OscarsSoWhite movement that exploded over the last...
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it –Jeremiah 17:9, KJV Tucked away as a footnote in Philip Eade’s recent biography of Evelyn Waugh lies...
There’s something monstrous about living without responsibilities to others. That’s the clearest theme of Colossal, the new film starring Anne Hathaway as Gloria, an alcoholic piecing her...
After the Storm, the latest film from writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda (Maborosi, Nobody Knows), opens with a discussion of the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, where U.S. figure skater Janet Lynn...
The World War II film Hacksaw Ridge is in contention for multiple Oscars, and I hope it wins a gaggle of them. It is a fine, well-made film, and a rare attempt in mainstream cinema to portray the heroism...
Despite its ominously evocative title, HBO’s Beware the Slenderman is not a horror movie. It’s contemporary tragedy. And it wears its sadness on its sleeve. The documentary, directed...
Pop Culture All Things TrumpThe West WingAmerican SniperThe Last ShipMiss Sloane You might want to read Todd Purdum’s long, well-reported story from Politico, about how Hollywood is freaking out...
LGBT Broken Windows MomentsN I just got a phone call from an old friend in north Texas. She does a lot of work with law enforcement, especially in the area of domestic violence counseling and response....
TrainwreckWithnailSharing “There will never be an American AbFab.” This was the first thought in my mind as I left the theater after seeing “Trainwreck,” the new Judd Apatow/Amy...
Art & Architecture Christianity Pop Culture DanteChristianForgotten Man Alissa Wilkinson, the chief film critic for Christianity Today, pens a smart piece for The Atlantic about bad God movies and...
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