Category: Film Reviews

Film Reviews, ISSUE #48 | MAR 2025

“Don’t You Forget About Me”: A Review of the Unforgettable Classic The Breakfast Club

By Julia Leonard The powerful opening chords of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” welcome the viewer to a world of New Wave music, fingerless gloves, and John Hughes teen films. This is a world in which a silent Saturday detention is a form of discipline for high school students, shouting can shatter glass, and a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, … Continue reading “Don’t You Forget About Me”: A Review of the Unforgettable Classic The Breakfast Club

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #47 | DEC 2024

The Twisting of Tolkien: A Rings of Power Season 2 Review

by Henry Ahrabi, Anna Jackson, Jonah Murray, and Jonathan Rolfe Two years ago, out of our great love of Tolkien, we decided to begin watching Amazon’s new Rings of Power. It was a delightful time, holed up cozily in Koon (then, as now, a women’s dorm), watching it, offering a running commentary with our friends. We did not expect much faithfulness to Tolkien, and so, … Continue reading The Twisting of Tolkien: A Rings of Power Season 2 Review

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #42 | OCT 2023

How the “Barbie” Movie Subverts Expectations

From the droves of young people flocking to the theaters decked head to toe in pink, to the gushy movie critics, to the conservatives who thought it was based, to the conservatives who thought it was garbage, everyone who watched it has been reacting powerfully to the film Barbie. Such an uproar is a sign that the movie touches something deep in the zeitgeist—but what … Continue reading How the “Barbie” Movie Subverts Expectations

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023

What it Means to Reconcile: Lady Bird, Columbus, and Coming-of-Age in a World of Change

The year 2017 was a time of flourishing for the indie movie scene, and while the top charts were still dominated by the usual suspects—Marvel superheroes, Star Wars, Stephen King horror— a handful of indie movies reached them as well. A common topic for the indie movies that year was coming-of-age, which was explored particularly well by the high-grossing-hit Lady Bird directed by Greta Gerwig, … Continue reading What it Means to Reconcile: Lady Bird, Columbus, and Coming-of-Age in a World of Change

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023

Sweet, True Fantasy: How Free Guy Reflects Eternity

When I sat down to watch Free Guy, I was expecting some kind of imitation of the movie Ready Player One, where characters from within and without a video game must save it from being commandeered by a greedy tyrant, a pleb rises to prominence, and cheesy comedy and cringey romance abound. What I got instead was a stunningly clever film that tackles some of … Continue reading Sweet, True Fantasy: How Free Guy Reflects Eternity

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Film Reviews

Stoic Perseverance and Horizon Zero Dawn

Guerilla Game’s 2017 action-adventure game Horizon Zero Dawn tells a dual narrative. Story A is set in the game’s past, the later half of the 21st century, while Story B shows the events that happen to the player character, Aloy, in 3040. The two stories parallel each other: in each, a remarkable woman rallies disparate people to defeat some great threat to humanity. HZD‘s gameplay … Continue reading Stoic Perseverance and Horizon Zero Dawn

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021

Revisiting Daredevil

“Our lived reality often conflicts with theological principles in ways that cannot be resolved easily, or even at all.” In the first season of Marvel’s Netflix show Daredevil, Matthew Murdock has a frank discussion with his priest about personal vocation. A lawyer by day and masked vigilante by night, Matthew walks a fine line of hypocrisy. He regularly steps outside the bounds of the justice … Continue reading Revisiting Daredevil

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021

Escaping Escapism

“The problem with escapism, then, does not lie in escapist stories. It lies in readers who try to build a home inside them.” Reeling from a particularly vicious head cold this midterm season, I set myself up in bed with Tylenol, Kleenex, popcorn, and a movie my roommate had recommended. As the opening credits began to play and the cold medication began to kick in, … Continue reading Escaping Escapism

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #31 | DEC 2020

Baby Driver and the Art of Letting Go

Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver first and foremost delivers on sheer entertainment value; it cannot help but be fun. The premise of a getaway driver who obsesses over music and synchronizes his driving and actions to the music delivers all the satisfaction of a well-choreographed dance while retaining all of the fun and intensity of high-speed car chases. With these two combined in such an incredibly … Continue reading Baby Driver and the Art of Letting Go

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #28 | MAR 2020

Love and Attention: The Films of Greta Gerwig

In a scene near the beginning of Lady Bird, the heroine argues with her mother on the drive home from visiting colleges. Frustrated by the mundanity of life in 2002 Sacramento, she protests, “I wish I could live through something.” The mother, irritated, replies, “Aren’t you?” The conversation swiftly devolves, ending with Lady Bird throwing herself out of the moving car in dramatic frustration. But … Continue reading Love and Attention: The Films of Greta Gerwig

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