The ”Bad Guys” films ask, how do we determine who the “bad guys” are? And if you’re marked as “bad” from the start, can you ever make good?
John Dougherty
John Dougherty is the director of mission and ministry at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, Pa.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Catholic Movie Club: St. Paul on the road to Damascus—but make it sci-fi
In Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” an ordinary electrician has a transcendent encounter—with U.F.O.s, not God.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
The new ‘Superman’ is best when it’s most human
The first time we see the titular hero of James Gunn’s new film “Superman,” he doesn’t descend from the heavens. He plummets.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
‘Stand By Me’: a film about losing childhood innocence—and discovering what is truly good
Being a kid in the summer is all about existing in an eternal present moment, a feeling of freedom and potential that it will never go away.
Posted inArts & Culture
‘Elio’ and Pixar’s struggle to define its future
Pixar’s best films understand that kids are capable of profound emotional intelligence. As they try to regain their former success, I think that is what they should focus on.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Catholic Movie Club: An Iranian film that humanizes ‘the enemy’
In ‘Where is the Friend’s House?,’ we see the faces of the Iranian people captured with sensitivity and detail.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
‘How to Train Your Dragon’ tells the oldest story in human history
You might think an Obama-era film would lose some relevance. But, tragically, “Us vs. Them” is evergreen.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Is ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Wes Anderson’s most Christian film?
‘The Phoenician Scheme‘ centers on sin and redemption, the frail but fundamental hope that anyone can be saved, if they sincerely repent.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Review: In ‘The Life of Chuck,’ every person contains a universe
How much does any one individual person matter, considered against the grand sweep of history and the cosmos? That’s the question that writer-director Mike Flanagan considers in his new film “The Life of Chuck.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Lessons on the Francis papacy from ‘The Flowers of St. Francis’
We should seek to live simply, to take only what we need and share what we have, to see ourselves in kinship with all of creation.