“It’s Massive in There”: The Inhuman Hell of Backrooms
Kane Parsons’ horror hit exposes the fundamental inhumanity inherent in the modern American experience.
Finding God in Our Art: A Review of Carey Wallace’s The Discipline of Inspiration
Wallace presents various insights scattered like seeds throughout the book, though perhaps not as many sustained analyses as one might hope.
Alien vs. Predator Day, The Consolation of Philosophy, and a Certain Election
I write this primarily as one for whom mourning was always going to be the inevitable result of this cycle’s campaign season.
When You Wish upon an Empty Star
Wish presents a fundamentally materialist Marxist world.
Don’t Lose the Arc of Indiana Jones
We see a gradual but discernible arc in the character of Indiana Jones, from self-seeking adventurer to self-sacrificial friend and family man.
“A Wonder of the Age”: Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Now 250 years old, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral shows off Phillis Wheatley’s skill as a writer as well as her Christian faith.
“I’ve Never Been So Happy to See So Many Wrinkles”: How Star Trek: Picard Aged Gracefully
Star Trek: Picard emphasizes the value and wisdom that only age and experience can provide.
“We Have Something That Needs to Be Told”: An Interview with Stephen Atherholt, Lead Actor in I Heard the Bells
Stephen Atherholt plays poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the film I Heard the Bells.
“It’s an Old Song, and We’re Gonna Sing It Again”: Hadestown, Sir Orfeo, and Music for the End of Time
There is indeed an affinity to the classical pagan tale in Hadestown, one that tells us much about our own day—especially when compared to the medieval poem Sir Orfeo.
How Nichelle Nichols Made Uhura the Life of the Party
Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura was a generous person, a hospitable person, one who extended the hand of fellowship to those around her.
100 Years Later, Nosferatu Still Casts a Long Shadow
Nosferatu is a relic of a day when people were not afraid to make moral judgments and make their monsters monstrous.
Spider-Man: Not Just a Man, but a Just Man
Spider-Man: No Way Home is about a boy becoming a man — and a just one at that.
Don’t Throw Away Your Nativity Sets: Why Jesus May Not Have Been Born in a “Lower Room”
Jesus’s birth is a breach of human hospitality, not an example of it.
Shang-Chi and the Porous Self
Shang-Chi moved away from the modern “buffered” self toward a recognition of the enchanted “porous” self.
The Mysterious Benedict Society Recap: You Are Seen (Episode 8)
In a variety of ways, The Mysterious Benedict Society series is more emotive and less disciplined than its print counterpart.
The Mysterious Benedict Society Recap: Go! (Episode 7)
In The Mysterious Benedict Society,“going” isn’t intrinsically good or bad: it depends on how you are going…and whom you are going with.
