By playing to the canon in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, while at once forging their own trail, the Coens manage to both nod to and question the orthodoxy of what we’ve been told about the grand ‘ole world of outlaws and guns and rickety wagons.
As Leave No Trace teaches us, we’ve all been given lenses tinted by unhealthy fears because we live in a broken world that inflicts varying degrees of trauma on everyone.
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel reveals the importance of intact families—wherever we might find them.
While Phantom Thread works as a metaphor for the difficulty of relationships (and the conclusion is not to be taken literally), it also provides a picture of spiritual pursuit.
When we were just children, Mister Rogers gave us the tools we would need to combat the loneliness and isolation we would face as adults in the digital era.
The real success of the Jurassic Park franchise lies not in a desire to see dinosaurs run amuck again and again, but in our desire to be shaken out of our lethargy and see something indescribably greater than ourselves.
In RBG, West and Cohen offer a welcome salve for our society’s wounds, a celebration of Ginsburg as Ginsburg, irreducible to any political stance.
In Hereditary, guilt is grief’s demonic cousin, and it often makes an unwelcome entrance in the midst of tragedy.
Solo: A Star Wars Story edifies not only the existing Star Wars canon, but it injects new meaning into the life and storyline of Han Solo.
So as we nod our heads, bounce our shoulders, and rap with Childish Gambino in “This is America,” we need not disregard the America he and many others perceive, nor dilute it down to sensationalized art.
Instead of viewing each other as only possessing weaknesses to be overcome, in A Quiet Place the Abbott family reminds us that our weaknesses can make each other stronger, and the strength of community is only possible because of its vulnerability.
With DAMN. and its accompanying Pulitzer, Kendrick Lamar has crossed a milestone, has set a precedent—has established a fresh tradition; hip-hop has entered a new phase.
In Roseanne, the Conners’ current state of fragmentation, political and social, is like holding a mirror up to our society. It ain’t pretty, but it’s us.
Like in this year’s Tomb Raider, we deserve portrayals of female heroes who stand on equal ground with the best male action heroes—not tethered to objectifications of our sexual prowess.
It’s a far cry from the “redeeming blood” spoken about in scriptures, but the crimson founts in ‘Kill Bill’ are redemptive in the way they represent purifying the world of misogyny, which is still one of our undeniable dominant cultural attitudes.
Although ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ makes no mention of God, it demonstrates how pure intellect devoid of faith is also devoid of love and of hope.
