Nosferatu Paints a Dark Picture That Points to the Light

January 30, 2025 By Paul Asay

We’ve seen sexy vampires, sparkly vampires, atheistic vampires who might take their morning showers in holy water without ill effect. It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen a real vampire vampire—a monster smelling of blood and brimstone, an unholy creature at home in, at least, the upper reaches of hell. Not a misunderstood antihero or an occult superhero, but something altogether evil. Enter Count Orlok, the refreshingly old-fashioned villain from the latest Nosferatu movie. And his dark... Read more

Watching God’s Best Movies of 2024

December 29, 2024 By Paul Asay

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Yep, people still go to the movies. Some people wondered whether that was so earlier this year. After The Fall Guy fell, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga crashed and Argylle triggered ever-so-many confused looks, some wondered whether streaming and strikes and COVID really had changed the movie industry. But in the second half of the year, everything changed. And by the time the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, 2024 will have seen eight films make more than $200 million... Read more

We Have to Talk About ‘The Acolyte’

July 19, 2024 By Paul Asay

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Let’s not draw this out: The Acolyte failed. The first season of Star Wars’ latest series (now on Disney+) did not fail just because of its Force-powered witches. It did not fail just because a couple of those witches were, well, a couple. Those elements might’ve earned the show scorn from both Star Wars purists and conservative viewers (many of whom voiced their displeasure before the show even aired). But its biggest issue—simmering throughout the series—truly crashed the ship in... Read more

Inside Out 2 Tackles Belief in a Pixar Perfect Way

June 17, 2024 By Paul Asay

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Inside Out 2 is great. While not quite peak Pixar (which hit its artistic zenith with WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3 in the late 2000’s), it’s awfully close. Moreover, the movie is all about belief: Not belief in God, exactly, or what we believe happens when we die, but what we believe about ourselves. But don’t fool yourself into believing that Inside Out 2 isn’t spiritual. In its own way, it’s deeply so. As the Disney/Pixar film opens, we... Read more

‘Sight’ Reminds Us That We Can All Be Blind

June 6, 2024 By Paul Asay

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The movie Sight came out a couple of weeks ago. It was released alongside the more heralded Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie. Directed by Andrew Hyatt and coming with a subtle-but-powerful foundation of faith, Sight, based on a true story, is a gently inspiring, smartly crafted film. And honestly, it has stuck with me longer than I expected—thanks to Flannery O’Conner. Sight’s narrative come in two parts: One focused on a young, bright aspiring doctor named... Read more

‘We Grown Now’ Explores, Beautifully, a Childlike Faith

May 13, 2024 By Paul Asay

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The summer blockbuster movie season is here, and Hollywood’s “biggest” films are making their way to theaters. But after you’ve gotten your fill of Fall Guys and power-hungry apes and, this weekend, imaginary friends, you might want to check out something on a smaller scale: The poignant, powerful We Grown Now. The film, directed by Minhal Baig and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, focuses on two kids—Malik and Eric—growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, circa 1992. Seen through their... Read more

‘The Omen’ Works. ‘The First Omen’ Fails. Here’s Why.

April 26, 2024 By Paul Asay

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When The First Omen crawled into theaters this month, it arguably scared up more press than people. Perhaps it could’ve learned a thing or two from its nearly 50-year-old forebear. Critics have been kind to The First Omen (giving it an 81% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and it earned a level of notoriety for a disturbing birthing sequence that nearly garnered it an NC-17 rating. But despite the praise and some fine performances (especially from Nell Tiger Free, who... Read more

‘Dune: Part Two’ Asks Explosive Questions About Religion

March 1, 2024 By Paul Asay

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Dune: Part Two is out in theaters today, and it’s pretty spectacular. Sure, the film as its content issues (which you can read about in my review), but if you can keep up with Dune’s dense, detailed story, you’ll be rewarded with the sort of grand cinematic saga I’ve not seen since The Lord of the Rings films. And the film has a lot of interesting spiritual folds to it. Indeed, the saga of Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides is inescapably tangled... Read more

Suncoast: Coming-of-Age Dramedy With Heart—and Faith

February 8, 2024 By Paul Asay

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I really liked Suncoast, a quirky coming-of-age dramedy hitting Hulu tomorrow. This semi-autobiographical dramedy from writer/director Laura Chinn, has some great performances and real heart behind it. And I especially liked how it dealt with two oft-entangling issues: cultural warfare and quiet faith. And it uses one of the biggest flashpoints of America’s so-called culture wars as its anchor. [Warning: The following contains some minor spoilers.] ‘Every Life is Precious’ Right off the bat, Suncoast introduces us to Doris (Nico... Read more

C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud Talk God in ‘Freud’s Last Session’

January 22, 2024 By Paul Asay

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In a quiet week at the box office, an unassuming film called Freud’s Last Session might’ve made its way to a theater near you. It’s likely not going to be a blockbuster. But just because people haven’t seen it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. For anyone interested in faith, Freud’s Last Session might be a must-see. Freud’s Last Session, based on a play that was, in turn, based on Armand Nicholi’s book The Question of God, takes us into Sigmund Freud’s... Read more