Category: Reviews

Book Reviews, ISSUE #30 | OCT 2020

The Flame of Civilization: Fahrenheit 451 and the Preservation of Western Culture

“Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light a such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”  An old woman strikes a match and drops it on her kerosene-soaked books while the firemen stare in horror.  This is the America promised us in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, where the printed book is banned because it … Continue reading The Flame of Civilization: Fahrenheit 451 and the Preservation of Western Culture

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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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Film Reviews, ISSUE #28 | MAR 2020

A Hidden Life

As the Nazi guards beat him, Franz Jägerstätter smiles. It’s a moment that’s unexpected and almost lost among successive scenes of violence, but one that briefly shines the light of Christ within the cracked, water-stained walls of the Nazi prison.  In director Terrence Malick’s newest film, A Hidden Life, Franz Jägerstätter and his wife Fani live with their three young daughters in the Austrian village … Continue reading A Hidden Life

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #28 | MAR 2020

Star Wars

Star Wars closes out its newest trilogy and the entire Skywalker saga, delivering an enjoyable adventure with loads of nostalgia.   We enter the story not long after Last Jedi left off as the Resistance rallies on a jungle planet. Rey, under Leia’s guidance, grows stronger in the Force despite lingering uncertainties about her identity. The brooding Kylo Ren returns, this time with a red-streaked helmet … Continue reading Star Wars

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ISSUE #27 | DEC 2019, Music Reviews

Music Review: Brittany Howard, Jaime

In late September, Brittany Howard released her first solo album and embarked on a two-month international tour. The album, Jaime, takes its name from the older sister who taught Howard to play the piano and who died of cancer as a teenager. A short half-hour and eleven tracks long, Jaime artfully unfolds its maker’s history: her loves, perspective, anxieties and wounds.  To work on this … Continue reading Music Review: Brittany Howard, Jaime

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018

Holiday Inn (1942)

Though cars, planes, and trains contrive to bring all your holiday guests around the table, circumstance doesn’t necessitate community. The black and white 1942 Holiday Inn understands this all too well. When the holiday performance trio of Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire), and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) collapses into a love triangle, Jim heads for the country to escape the hectic pace … Continue reading Holiday Inn (1942)

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018

The Root of Everything: Witnessing Divine Love in “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

In that last week of clammy August malaise that inevitably precedes the start of the semester, my family and I often go to the “second-hand” theater a couple of blocks away in search of discounted entertainment and free air-conditioning. This past summer, our feature of choice was Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Neville’s documentary sketches the life of Fred Rogers, whose unique careers … Continue reading The Root of Everything: Witnessing Divine Love in “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” —Clarence Ah, It’s a Wonderful Life. The film that has graced many a cozy living room since 1946. It is a much beloved and familiar tale. George Bailey grows up dreaming of his future away from the sleepy old town of Bedford Falls. … Continue reading It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #22 | OCT 2018

Antman and the Wasp

Ant Man and the Wasp rejects the high stakes of Infinity War to tell a playful, good-hearted, family story. Scott Lang/Ant Man (Paul Rudd) enjoys fathering his young daughter, though under house arrest due to fallout from the events of Captain America: Civil War. He is starting his own company and is anxious to stay on the right side of the law. This proves more … Continue reading Antman and the Wasp

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