Film

I once had a homiletics professor who said not to worry too much if it appears that members of the congregation are daydreaming during your homily. A homily, he pointed out, is not an act of persuasion. You’re not up there trying to prove some point. (Or if you are, God help the people.) A goo

Is it blasphemous to say that the problem with “Noah” is the story? That it may not be substantial enough to float a star-driven, effects-laden, $125-million movie? Or that director Darren Aronofsky’s attempt to hang flesh, blood, human logic and nautical mechanics on a tale that b

Wes Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

The most important news photographer of the 20th century was a Russian-Jewish immigrant clothing manufacturer from Dallas, Tex., who almost left his camera home on the day his life went crazy. Abraham Zapruder, whose half-minute film has fueled a half-century of conspiracy theories, recorded a presi

The “Son of God” will probably enjoy box-office success. But does that justify portraying the Son of God as a blockbuster movie hero?

Jim McDermott, S.J., reviews the big, bad “Wolf of Wall Street,” up for five Oscars at this Sunday’s Academy Awards.

The big screen has a strange relationship with abortion. The oft-made claim that Hollywood advances a liberal social agenda doesn’t hold much water when it comes to the prochoice cause. While sex, drugs and alternative lifestyles abound, when it comes to unplanned pregnancies, more often

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that makes him impure; it is what comes out of his mouth” (15:2). Violet Weston, the central character in the film August: Osage County has been popping a huge amount of pills into her mouth for

John Anderson reviews “American Hustle,” nominated for best picture in the weekend’s Academy Awards.

Looking for the spirit of Langston Hughes in ‘Black Nativity’