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In my intro to this series, I posited that the Christian movie industry exists in part to give American Christians something they don’t often get from Hollywood: the dignity of being taken seriously. Movies like Shape of Water and Citizen Ruth paint churchgoing Christians as brainwashed hypocrites. They have ulterior motives for attending church, reading […]

The Holy Ghost haunts no one like the 20th century English writer. This robust literary tradition has given us J. R. R. Tolkein (Catholic), Evelyn Waugh (even more Catholic), Graham Greene (self-described “Catholic agnostic “), E. M. Forster (irreligious), Philip Pullman (atheist), and C. S. Lewis (atheist-turned-Anglican). Even among the nonbelievers, a streak of Christian […]

I’m going to kick things off with Chariots of Fire. The reason is simple. This film not only clearly demonstrates a muscular, unwavering faith, it also stands at a crossroads in time. The years after 1981, when Chariots of Fire opened, have been referred to as the “post-Christian age.” Before 1981, Christianity in the U.S. […]

Lone Star is the Great American Movie. Oh, I know I nominated a number of films for this title (It’s a Wonderful Life, Sullivan’s Travels, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Citizen Kane, Ben Hur, Oppenheimer, October Sky, Malcolm X, Daughters of the Dust, and Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored—and believe me, there are more), […]

The Celebration (Festen is its original Danish title) encapsulates the dizzying innovation and creativity the 1990s afforded the independent filmmaker. Thomas Vinterberg and his crew shot the feature on the emerging medium of digital video, using a tiny handheld camcorder. This is also the first Dogme 95 movie, which meant it adhered to a set […]