Séraphine (2008)
Séraphine (2008). Written by Marc Abdelnour and Martin Provost. Directed by Martin Provost. Starring Yolande Moreau and Ulich Tukur. 125 mins. Unrated. Rotten Tomatoes 89%; Metacritic 84%. She certainly seems not to be the sort from whom one would expect religious wisdom of any sort, and that is true enough, at least at first glimpse. In…
John Adams (2008)
John Adams (2008). HBO Mini-series. Episode VII: “Peacefield.” Directed by Tom Hooper. Starring Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti. 71 mins. Rated TV-14. Sometimes preaching choices are easy. In this instance, skip the sermon to play the following three times. Or maybe four. Old John Adams (Paul Giamatti) is pushing 90. Despite his distinguished career from…
Tender Mercies (1983) – 1
Tender Mercies (1983). Written by Horton Foote. Directed by Bruce Beresford. Starring Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, and Wilfred Brimley. 92 Mins. Rated PG. He’s not necessarily a fellow one wants to hang out with, or even meet. Robert Duvall’s Mac Sledge, a role for which Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor, is an…
The Apostle (1997)
Written by Robert Duvall. 134 minutes. PG-13. Starring Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, June Carter Cash, and Billy Bob Thornton. Forty years a preacher, an apostle full of brimstone and sweet Jesus, and Euliss “Sonny” Dewey still doesn’t get it, specifically the nature of the “Holy Ghost power” he has relished and exalted his whole long…
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – 1
Story by Stephen King, screenplay by Frank Darabont. 142 minutes, rated R. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The first question of The Shawshank Redemption (1994) asks how in the world could this film—full of blasphemy, rancor, obscenity, and violence, though most of the last occurs off-screen—ever find its way onto a list of religiously…
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – 2
Story by Stephen King, screenplay by Frank Darabont. 142 minutes, rated R. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. As for baptism, there is probably no better representation of what it signals than the most spectacular scene in a film full of stunning sequences. Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), wrongly convicted of killing his wife, and consequently…
The Mission (1986)
Written by Robert Bolt, Cinematography by Chris Menges, Music by Ennio Morricone, Starring Jeremy Irons, Robert De Niro, and Ray McAnally. 125 mins. Rated PG. There, finally, at the top of the spectacular Iguaza Falls, after days of treacherous, barefoot climbing up and up water-slick sides of rock and mud, arrives Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De…
The Color of Paradise (1999)
Written and directed by Majid Majidi. Starring Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani, and Salmeh Feyzi. 90 mins. Rated PG. Hashem is not an easy fellow to like. In the lush mountains of Iran, a realm of streams, birds, meadows, and storms, he sees and relishes none of it, unlike his young blind son. A widower mired…
American Beauty (1999) – 1
Written by Alan Ball. Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, and Chris Cooper. 122 mins. Rated R (graphic language and sexual situations). So mid-life Lester (Kevin Spacey) has got himself into a horrible, very bad fix. Though a husband and father, he has fallen, as through a trap-door, into a state of…
American Beauty (1999) – 2
Written by Alan Ball. Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, and Chris Cooper. 122 mins. Rated R (graphic language and sexual situations). In the film, American Beauty, though most of the focus is on Kevin Spacey’s Lester, we also meet Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), the weird boy next door and perhaps the…
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