“Facing the Muzak—A Punishing Ordeal”
[…] to listen to the worst music imaginable—at least, to the ears of a rap-loving teenager. One recent batch of scofflaws was shut up with the sound of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans warbling ‘Happy Trails to You.’ They suffered through Disney tunes, bagpipe music, and songs by Wayne Newton and Barry Manilow. But the […]
The Apostle (1997)
[…] and, as well, from murder, but Sonny knows he has arrived at a “true” place. And things do not change, though Sonny’s fortunes only drastically worsen, as a post-credit postscript shows. Sonny’s journey has been one the hardest of all, from regard for self to reverence for the very ”least of these.” by Roy Anker
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – 2
[…] confessed, washed away, he then heads to a kind of paradise on the Pacific, and there, finally, he will again greet his dear friend Red. And there we glimpse exactly what life might and should be, in these days after the Fall: confessed, washed clean, made new, and full of welcome. written by Roy Anker
The Mission (1986)
[…] even game. He will have had enough of the life of death. Rarely does one see pictured so very fully and splendorously a melding of both spiritual and moral redemption—not just conversion of mind but full-blown redemption of the whole of the soul, a searing remaking of the whole infernal self. written by Roy Anker
The Color of Paradise (1999)
[…] and not only upon the water. It also makes its way into Hashem’s hitherto darkened soul, for the grace of love and pity have done their thing, for him and even, perhaps, as the film leaves ambiguous, for his newly dear son. Love, of all sorts, divine and human, does happen. written by Roy Anker
American Beauty (1999) – 1
[…] joy “flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life,” a recognition, he assures the audience, that they will come to know deep-down “someday.” Inscribe that on the pulpit. And the dance of wonder goes on, and on. Amen. written by Roy Anker
American Beauty (1999) – 2
[…] ever glimpse. In the beauty of Beauty, or the lilies (One and the same), Christ was born, and they neither toil nor spin. Thank God the Maker, and thank Ricky (and screenwriter Alan Ball). For such revel is that for which God made the world in the first and last places. written by Roy Anker
The Tree of Life (2011) – 1
[…] the far reaches of the ever-strange, ungraspable reality of being alive. For Malick, and for viewers, this becomes a full-throated tale of the wildness of the love that infuses the whole of the biblical story, especially in its emphasis on wonder, beauty, and love as pathways into profound delight and shalom. written by Roy Anker
The Tree of Life (2011) – 2
[…] perching of a butterfly on her hand). The church has long neglected an emphasis that glows in the Old and New Testaments, and in theologians from Calvin to Edwards, poets from Emily Dickinson to Mary Oliver, and novelists from Herman Melville (“the visible spheres were formed in love”) to Marilynne Robinson. written by Roy Anker
The Innocents (2016)
[…] at least as much as it possibly can upon this ragged, tear-sodden earth. Unimaginably, out of dire darkness has come “love’s pure light” in ways plausible and exultant, for which we all yearn, as does that healer-pilgrim who carries with her always that photographic glimpse of quiet but exultant divine light. written by Roy Anker
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