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7 movies to watch for in 2024

The marquee of the Los Feliz Theatre features the films "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," on July 28 in Los Angeles. The films both premiered the same weekend. (AP/Chris Pizzello, file) 

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As 2023 comes to a close, moviegoers are reflecting on their most exciting cinema experiences of the year, despite the complications of the SAG-AFTRA strike. " Barbie '' smashed box offices and women's hearts as stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) journeyed from Barbieland into the real world. Spiderman enthusiasts enjoyed another adventure in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' as teenage Miles Morales teamed up with Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy. Faith-based movies surprised many people, as " Jesus Revolution " and " Sound of Freedom " exceeded expectations at the box office, proving that faith-based films are just as wanted in theaters as secular movies.

The new year will bring more anticipated movies filled with joy, laughter, endurance, conversational topics and the light of God. If you're wondering what to watch in 2024, we have you covered. 

Anthony Hopkins plays Sigmund Freud and Matthew Goode portrays C.S. Lewis in "Freud's Last Session." (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics/Sabrina Lantos) 

" Freud's Last Session "

End the year by witnessing two great minds debate the existence of God and human nature. The film depicts a fictional debate set in 1939 between Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode). "Freud's Last Session" was originally a play by Mark St. Germain. The film is directed by Matt Brown, known for "London Town," "Ropewalk" and "The Man Who Knew Infinity."

"Freud's Last Session" is an undeniably serious film, but thoughtful moviegoers will appreciate the father of psychoanalysis debating the nature of God with the author of The Chronicles of Narnia . The film debuted on Oct. 27 at the 2023 AFI Film Festival.

" The Book Of Clarence "

"The Book Of Clarence" is certain to be a topic of conversation among Christians and secular people alike this January. This fictional period piece is set during the time of Jesus' ministry and follows Clarence, a down-on-his-luck Jerusalemite who attempts to profit from the Messiah's fame and power. His journey takes him down an unexpected road of faith and self-discovery.

The movie is directed by Jeynes Samuel, who also directed the smash 2021 hit " The Harder They Fall ." Clarence is played by LaKeith Stanfield, who recently acted in Disney's "Haunted Mansion." Other cast members include Teyana Taylor, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Omar Sy and RJ Cyler.

Director Samuel has always believed that great stories can be told around biblical times.

"I've always loved those things where they kind of take a bit of liberty with the Bible because the story runs alongside it," Samuel said in a Deadline Q&A . "A man trying to prove he's a nobody, a man that believes he can do anything. And this belief gets him in trouble with the neighborhood terrorists, so to speak. Then he ends up on a path of self-discovery, redemption, and awakening. I know I could tell a great story like that, but set in a biblical era, it would just be something to marvel at."

The film will be released in theaters Jan. 12.

Kingsley Ben-Adir plays Bob Marley in Paramount Pictures' "Bob Marley: One Love," set for release Feb. 14. (NCR screenshot/Paramount Pictures) 

" Bob Marley: One Love "

The story of the King of Reggae is coming to the big screen. "Bob Marley: One Love" will cover the legendary singer's life from 1976 to 1978, celebrating, as Paramount Pictures puts it, "the iconic artistic work that has inspired love and unity for generations."

Reinaldo Marcus Green directs the movie. Kingsley Ben-Adir ("Barbie," "Secret Invasion") plays Bob Marley. Lashana Lynch, who held roles in "The Woman King" and "The Marvels,"

plays Rita Marley, the wife of Bob Marley. This movie is a family affair; the film's producers include members of the Marley family: wife Rita Marley, son Ziggy Marley and daughter Cedella Marley all contributed to the film.

"We talk all the time. Every step of the way, the script, the casting, the hair, the makeup," Green   said in an interview. "I want this to be for people who know and love Bob and who can still find out things about his life that they didn't know, as well as introducing him to a new generation."

The film is set to be released in theaters on Feb. 14.

Alan Ritchson portrays Ed Schmitt in "Ordinary Angels," which tells the story of the Schmitt family's struggle to find a liver transplant for their youngest daughter. (Lionsgate/Allen Fraser) 

" Ordinary Angels "

Sometimes, ordinary people do extraordinary acts of good. The film "Ordinary Angels" depicts the true story of the Schmitt family's struggle to find a liver transplant for their youngest daughter with the help of a passionate and determined hairdresser, Sharon Stevens.

Oscar-winner Hilary Swank plays Sharon Stevens. The Schmitt patriarch is played by Alan Ritchson, who plays the lead in the hit Amazon Prime show "Reacher." Jon Gunn directed the film.

Kevin Downes, a producer on the film, told the Washington Examiner that he hopes the film inspires people to "not just talk about how we can love our neighbor, but actually show how we can love our neighbor in ways that put others in front."

Even the actors feel the hope radiating from the film.

"I was drawn to this beautiful true story because it's such a powerful reminder that angels reside everywhere among us," Swank said in a statement to today.com . "And that faith, hope, grit, and positivity are all powerful fuel for miracles."

This story will inspire hope and remind people that God still uses everyday people for extraordinary miracles.

"Ordinary Angels" will hit theaters on Feb. 23. 

Simu Lu and Mark Wahlberg appear in "Arthur the King." (Courtesy of Lionsgate/Carlos Rodriguez) 

" Arthur the King "

"Arthur The King" tells a story of endurance and a great friendship between a man and his dog. Michael (Mark Wahlberg) prepares for a tough race across the Dominican Republic with his team of adventure athletes. During the grueling race, Michael runs into the same stray dogs he had met hundreds of miles prior.

"Arthur the King" is based on the true story of Mikael Lindnord, told in his 2017 book Arthur: The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home . Lindnord was captain of the Swedish team Peak Performance in the 2014 Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador, where he met Arthur. Lindnord later adopted Arthur and took him back to Sweden.

The cast includes Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman and Paul Guilfoyle. Simon Cellan Jones directs the film.

Arthur has since passed away, but will never be forgotten by his family.

"Arthur's beautiful soul touched many people; for us in the family, he was the best family member you could dream about," Lindnord said in a statement. "He was like a guardian angel to our kids."

Moviegoers can catch this inspiring story in theaters on March 22. 

" Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire " 

Ghostbusters are back to fight off a chilling new ghost. Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard have reprised their roles from 2021's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." The original cast also joined in the fight against this icy new ghost. Stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts are seen in the trailer. Gil Kenan directs the film.

"It's an absolute honor to pick up the proton pack and step behind the camera for the next chapter of the Spengler family saga," writer and exec producer Gil Kenan told Deadline . "I just wish I could go back to 1984 and tell the kid in the sixth row of the Mann Valley West that one day he was going to get to direct a 'Ghostbusters' film."

Fans of the Ghostbusters franchise can enjoy the newest installment in theaters on March 29.

" Beetlejuice 2 "

Fans have been saying his name since 1988. Now, the wait is over. He's back!  "Beetlejuice 2" will star Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega. Tim Burton will direct the film.

Keaton, who plays Beetlejuice, is excited to keep aspects of the movie similar to the original.

"We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time," Keaton said of his discussions about the sequel with Burton. "Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff, like people creating things with their hands and building something."

Fans will be able to see the lovable and funny poltergeist again on Sept. 6.

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Movie review: The Magnificent Seven

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Posted September 23, 2016

NEW YORK (CNS) — A chivalrous parable that showcases self-sacrificing heroism, “The Magnificent Seven” (Columbia) can be read as illustrating, in microcosm, Catholic theology’s theory of a just war.

Essentially, that teaching holds that, just as an individual has the right to self-defense, so too a community or a nation is justified in using the minimal amount of force necessary to repel unwarranted aggression.

Yet, if director Antoine Fuqua jaunty Western is a tale about righting an egregious wrong, it’s also an exercise in unrestrained and creative death-dealing. As such, its steady stream of mayhem will undercut its pretentions to morality in the eyes of at least some grown moviegoers.

Set in 1879, Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk’s script loses little time in introducing us to a villain we can love to hate or in felling his first innocent victims.

Ruthless gold-mining mogul Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) has decided he wants the land on which the frontier town of Rose Creek stands for his own. So, with his private army of thugs at his back, he breaks into the local church — where the citizenry busily debates what to do about him — and the killing in cold blood soon commences. Once it ends, he threatens the survivors with a similar fate unless they sell out to him for a pittance.

Though most of the burgh’s inhabitants see no choice but to buckle under, plucky Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), the widow of one of Bogue’s victims, is having none of it. Instead, she hires roving lawman Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) to organize resistance. The result is a motley band of skilled gunmen — Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke are its other most prominent figures — and an extended shoot-’em-up showdown.

The titular grouping is marked not only by the shared outsider status of its members but by their varied ethnicities and backgrounds, despite which, in the ideal American manner, they manage to bond through mutual admiration.

Thus, although he’s an ex-Confederate soldier famed for his exploits at Antietam, Hawke’s character, Goodnight Robicheaux, is also an old friend of Chisolm’s. And Robicheaux’s closest pal is Chinese immigrant Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), whose skill with knives makes him a welcome addition to the pack.

In similar rise-above-it fashion, renowned Indian fighter Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) gets to like his newfound Comanche comrade, Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As for Pratt’s persona, Josh Faraday, he likes to mock Mexican fugitive Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). But Vasquez gets the better of him with Spanish insults Faraday mistakes for compliments.

Amid the furious action, Fuqua’s remake of the 1960 film of the same title, which was itself, in turn, adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic “Seven Samurai,” pauses occasionally to reflect on the dividing line between justice and vengeance. It also features Christian references and imagery — the burned-out church, for instance, becomes ground zero in the climactic struggle — as well as examples of devotion ranging from the sincere to the eccentric.

Though it’s appealing to find explicit, if nondenominational, Christian faith occupying such a prominent and positive place in a contemporary Hollywood film, at least some believers may view “The Magnificent Seven” as pitting good against evil simply in order to let the bullets fly.

The film contains constant stylized violence with gunplay and explosions but very little blood, several uses of profanity, a couple of mild oaths and numerous crude and crass expressions. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.

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‘conclave’ review: ralph fiennes gives a career-best performance in edward berger’s gripping vatican-set drama.

Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow co-star in this film about the behind-the-scenes workings of choosing a new pope after the death of the previous pontiff.

By Stephen Farber

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Director Edward Berger, who made one of the best movies of 2022 with a vivid adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front , shifts gears rewardingly to a movie set almost entirely inside the Vatican. Conclave , adapted from the popular novel by Robert Harris, demonstrates Berger’s versatility and also offers one of the best roles of his career to Ralph Fiennes , who is supported by an expert ensemble.

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Screenwriter Peter Straughan ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ) keeps the story moving swiftly. A collection of intriguing characters supports Fiennes’ Cardinal Lawrence. He feels a close bond with an American cardinal, charmingly played by Stanley Tucci . Both men are suspicious of the Canadian cardinal played by John Lithgow , who is campaigning feverishly to be the next pope, but who seems motivated more by personal ambition than by any humanitarian or spiritual impulses.

A surprising contender is a cardinal from Nigeria, played by Lucian Msamati, and many in the Vatican see possibilities in the election of the first African pope. But there are other, more conservative cardinals like the Italian contender, played by Sergio Castellito, who would do almost anything to stop this upstart from dismantling the European hierarchy.

And then there is a mysterious newcomer from Kabul, played by Carlos Diehz. None of the cardinals even knew of the existence of this priest, who was apparently invited to Rome by the former pope before his death. And many of them are wary of a Catholic priest from a predominantly Muslim part of the world. Old prejudices die hard.

Fiennes gives a superb performance as a man beginning to have doubts about his faith as a result of all these scandals, and when he emerges as a top contender to be named pope, his crisis of conscience intensifies. We can see that he may be the most qualified candidate, partly as a result of these thoughtfully articulated doubts, but he may not have the stomach for the job.

Berger does a fine job controlling all of these performances, and he also creates a rich atmosphere for the production. The Sistine Chapel and other parts of the Vatican were reconstructed at Cinecitta Studios, brought to life by cinematographer Stephane Fontaine and production designer Suzie Davies. Although the elegant, cloistered world of the Vatican is invitingly captured, a more violent world intrudes when a terrorist bombing in Rome comes much too close for comfort. Editor Nick Emerson keeps the action hurtling forward. Composer Volker Bertelmann, who won an Oscar for his score for All Quiet on the Western Front , demonstrates his expertise as well as his versatility with his work here.

Even viewers who may guess the identity of the next pope will be surprised by the final twist, which is very much in keeping with the film’s ambition to bring the certainties of the past into an unpredictable, dizzying, but essential new future.

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Movie Review: Quaid looks (and sounds) the part, but ‘Reagan’ is more glowing commercial than biopic

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (Ron Batzdorff/ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Penelope Ann Miller, right, and Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (Beth Dubber/ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Penelope Ann Miller, left, and Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (Ron Batzdorff/ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Olek Krupa, left, and Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows Dennis Quaid in a scene from “Reagan.” (Noah Hamilton/ShowBiz Direct via AP)

This image released by ShowBiz Direct shows David Henrie in a scene from “Reagan.” (ShowBiz Direct via AP)

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“Is there anything worse than an actor with a cause?” asks an annoyed Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan’s first wife, early in “Reagan,” the new biopic starring Dennis Quaid.

Well, after watching two more hours of this story, an adoring look back at the man who served two terms as our 40th president, we can report that there is definitely one thing worse: An actor without a movie.

Let’s not blame the star, though. Quaid, who has played more than one president, has certainly got the charismatic grin, the pomaded hair and especially that distinctive, folksy voice down — close your eyes, and it sounds VERY familiar. If he were to appear on “Saturday Night Live” in the role, it would feel like a casting coup akin to Larry David as Bernie Sanders.

But this is not an “SNL” skit, despite the fact that Jon Voight appears throughout with a heavy Russian accent as a KGB spy, but we’ll get to that. This is a 135-minute film that demands a lot more depth. And, so, to co-opt a political phrase from Bill Clinton, whom Quaid also has played: It’s the script, stupid.

Lovingly directed by Sean McNamara with a screenplay by Howard Klausner, “Reagan” begins with a chilling event (and a parallel to a recent one): the assassination attempt on Reagan in Washington in March 1981, only two months after he became president.

There are those who say Reagan cemented his relationship with the public by surviving that attempt; he famously told wife Nancy from his bed: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” In any case, the filmmakers use the event to set up their story, and will return to it later on, chronologically.

But their early point is that Reagan came away from the scare with a divine plan. “My mother used to say that everything in life happens for a reason, even the most disheartening setbacks,” he says. And as he will tell Tip O’Neill, the House speaker, everything from then on will be part of that divine plan.

The yet broader point here is that Reagan, according to this film, was basically solely responsible for the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union, because he showed the people of the world what freedom meant. “I knew that he was the one,” says Viktor Petrovich, the retired spy played by Voight as a narrator figure throughout — meaning the one who would bring it all down. The script is based on Paul Kengor’s “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” and Kengor has said Viktor is based on a number of KGB agents and analysts who tracked Reagan for years.

That point is made early and often. The rest is a history reel, with lots of glorious, loving lighting around our star. We go back to his younger years, learning about his mother and what she taught him about faith, and then his Hollywood years as an actor, Screen Actors Guild president (and a Democrat) before fully committing to politics, and the GOP.

We also see a newly divorced Reagan meet a winsome Nancy Davis, who will become his second wife, loving partner and constant companion. Like Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller is a perfectly fine actor who has little nuance to work with here. Together, they embark on the path to political stardom, starting with the California governorship. When they arrive at a neighbor’s home to campaign, the housewife at the door hears Reagan’s “RR” initials and thinks he’s Roy Rogers.

But a decade and change later, Reagan is sworn in as president, beginning his eight years in office. “It became my obsession to understand what was beneath the facade,” says Voight’s Petrovich, explaining why Reagan was so consequential.

Maybe, then, he could let us know?

Because when this movie ends, with the president’s death in 2004 a decade after announcing he had Alzheimer’s disease, we don’t know a lot more than when we began about a figure so influential in American politics.

Sure, we get all the great hits. ”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” we see him say in 1987 in Berlin, a scene with much buildup.

And it’s fun to see the famous debate lines, like “There you go again,” to Jimmy Carter in 1980, and of course his famously deft deflection of the age issue in 1984, with Walter Mondale. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” the 73-year-old president told his questioner. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

The line, which made Mondale himself laugh, got Reagan back on track in the race. The movie, not so much.

“History is never about when, why, how — it always comes down to ‘who,’” says Voight’s Petrovich. However historians feel about that, we would have gladly taken a more incisive look at when, why, how or anything else that would give us real insight, instead of an extended and glowing commercial, into who this man really was.

“Reagan,” a Showbiz Direct release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association “for violent content and smoking.” Running time: 135 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

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Movie Review: Reagan

This past weekend saw the most anticipated release of the biopic of the 40th President of the United States. The movie tells the stories of Reagan’s humble beginnings from the point of view of a retired KGB agent Victor Petrovich (played by Jon Voight). He shares with a young member of the Kremlin the answer to why the Soviet Union collapsed. He shared that it was because of a man whom the Kremlin nicknamed The Crusader. It was Ronald Reagan.

The movie covers the life of Ronald Reagan (portrayed by Dennis Quaid) as told by the agent from his beginnings in Illinois to leading America during the 1980s as President of the United States. It also tied in his time as President of the Screen Actors Guild and Governor of California. Elements of the movie are based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 political science novel “The Crusader”.

What Makes This Movie Great?

Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of the Gipper was extraordinary. He got his manners, persona, and even delivery to a science. He is barely recognizable in this role. Quaid is no stranger to portraying famous people in history. Some of his previous historical portrayals include Jerry Lee Lewis (Great Balls of Fire), Sam Houston (The Alamo 2004), and Ben Schwartzwalder (The Express) to name a few. These past roles would boost his pedigree in this latest flick.

Overall, the cast of the movie brought an Oscar-worthy performance. The most worthy is that of Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller who portrays Nancy Davis-Reagan. Miller also captured the poignant persona as the rock of the Gipper’s life through the good, bad, and challenging times of his acting and political careers even to the end of his life.

The movie was true to the character of Reagan and was spot-on with his life. It even displayed his faith with great admiration. One scene that stands out is when he is eager to be baptized despite missing the required age by a year. Now, mind the reader of this review, Reagan was not Catholic. Rather, he was Presbyterian. Yet, through much of his political career, he surrounded himself with Catholics and even had a close friendship with one extraordinary Catholic from the Vatican, St. John Paul the Great.

The movie scored a nine out of ten (forget what Rotten Tomatoes has to say or those who despised Reagan because of his anti-Communist agenda). It captures the true sense of Reagan, his determination to defeat the Soviet Union with his peace through strength strategy, and his deep faith. One could wonder what could’ve been if he had become Catholic at some point in his life (wishful thinking).

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Catholic Millennial. I hail from Philadelphia, PA. 4th-degree member of the Knights of Columbus. I enjoy writing, traveling, ballroom dancing, meeting new people, having deep conversations over a cold beer or wine (sometimes champagne), and petting adorable dogs that come right past me.

I hope to convey more messages from our culture with a twist of faith. 

Some of my writings will range from pro-life (yes, men can have a say in the abortion issue, Karen), pop culture, history, and just some spontaneous reflections without warning

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ORDINARY ANGELS Sets A New Bar For Christian Movies | Catholic Review

I’m sure most of you didn’t even have this movie on your radar, as there’s been little to no marketing for it. This is a shame because “ Ordinary Angels ” is an absolute delight of a film and, dare I say, even sets a new bar for Christian movies as a whole. Let’s dive into it here on Should Catholics.

Hi, I’m Mata Rivera, the Cinematic Catholic, and “Ordinary Angels,” starring Hilary Swank, is the true story of a hairdresser who single-handedly rallies an entire community to help a widowed father save the life of his critically ill young daughter. Guys, I have a lot to say about this movie, so let’s just dive right into it. First of all, Hilary Swank is phenomenal. She really channels her inner Erin Brockovich for this role. When we meet Sharon, she’s just cruising through life, a functioning alcoholic stuck in the same routine until she sees a newspaper article about a family that’s had a rough time lately. She takes it upon herself to fundraise and eventually bring the entire town together in support of this sick child.

Perfection Not Required

What I love about this movie right off the bat is that it shows you don’t have to be perfect to follow God’s will. Sharon has her own issues that she struggles with, and sometimes they even get the best of her. But still, there was a reason why she was placed in these people’s lives, and when push comes to shove, she does what is needed to make sure that this kid, Michelle, and her family are well taken care of. Also, I think we’ve finally cracked the code on how to make good Christian movies. Films like “God’s Not Dead” had their time, okay, that was certainly a movie . But now, with movies like “ Father Stu ” “Fatima”, “Cabrini,” and now this, I think the best way to make good movies that show how amazing God’s love and power is, is to tell the amazing true stories of the lives that He’s touched and how He has used people like Sharon Stevens to show His love to us. Because there really are some amazing real stories out there, from the lives of the saints to just everyday ordinary people, which is why I love the title of this movie, “Ordinary Angels.”

Now, I will say this film doesn’t quite escape the after-school special vibe completely, and there are a few points where the message itself is a little on the nose. There is one scene in particular where the dad and his eldest daughter are going to bring flowers to his wife’s grave, and at a certain point, his kid just turns and looks at him and says, “Dad, are you mad at God because mom died?” And it did take me out of the movie for a second, one, because that kid probably needs to learn how to be a little more subtle, and two, people don’t really talk like that. It did feel like the film was telling me, “And this is the point where we show that it’s tough to have a relationship with God sometimes, but communication and prayer.” And yeah, I mean, I’m sure you guys get it. But honestly, besides maybe two moments like that in the film, I was very invested and pulled completely into this story.

The Acting In Ordinary Angels

The acting from the entire cast across the board was pretty solid, especially with the kids, which, you know, sometimes can be a toss-up. Alan Richson was very good in this movie, and I know that he’s known for his more action roles and stuff like “Jack Reacher,” and granted, I’ve never watched that show, but he was very good at those small, subtle moments in this film when you can tell that all he wants to do is just break down and let everything out, but he feels that he needs to be strong for his kids. He has to keep moving forward, even if it takes everything that he has and then some to even just get out of bed in the morning. And I like that the film wasn’t afraid to address some of those darker topics, like depression and addiction with Sharon’s alcoholism.

Is Ordinary Angels A True Story?

Now, I did some fact-checking about this movie after I watched it because it’s just an amazing larger-than-life story. What I found was very interesting. Basically, the parts of the movie that you think had to be done for the film, like there’s no way that happened in real life, those parts are all true. But the character elements and some of the internal struggles that they have, that’s the part that Hollywood embellished a bit for the big screen. For example, there’s an entire plotline about how Sharon has a son and they’re estranged and haven’t spoken in years. Apparently, that’s not true, and the whole reason for them not speaking is her alcoholism, which also apparently is not true. In fact, the real Sharon Stevens was extremely against alcohol because her mom was an alcoholic, and she saw how devastating that can be. But again, I think it still works for the movie because it does show that, again, you don’t have to be perfect to follow God, but also it shows how alcoholism can affect you and those closest to you, which was a big belief that Sharon herself did have. I just think it’s funny to picture the real Sharon Stevens going to her friends and family and being like, “Hey guys, they’re making a movie about my life. Please don’t pay attention to the fact that I’m an alcoholic in it, and my son hates me. But besides that, woo!”

In the end, yes, I absolutely loved this movie. All the emotional beats were there. It knew how to perfectly tug on the heartstrings. I will say, I don’t just cry at anything, but I’m also not afraid to cry if a movie really hits me in my feels, and this movie had me choked up for pretty much the entire last half of it. And I think there were some real tears that leaked out there. Also, despite the fact that this movie does kind of go into a few darker themes, I think as long as your kids have a basic understanding of what alcoholism is, what sickness and death look like, I think this actually is a good movie for the entire family to go and watch. Yes, that’s right. Congratulations, little Timmy, you finally got one. But just this one.

And of course, I highly recommend that you guys go catch this while it’s playing in theaters because, remember, if we want them to continue to make good Christian movies, then we have to support them when they make them and they’re actually good. So please, guys, go see this movie in theaters. Again, highly, highly recommend it. And for my film score, I’m going to give this a nine out of ten. I absolutely love this movie. It feels like an independent feature with great acting, and I love movies about family and the lengths that we will go to protect them.

Should Catholics See Ordinary Angels?

And for my Catholic score, I’m going to give this movie a ten out of ten. There’s no mention of the Catholic Church specifically in this movie, but Sharon Stevens really did ask, “What would Jesus do?” And then she went and did it. And I think that this movie can inspire a lot of us to do the same.

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A Catholic Guide to Watching Movies

Even the popes think movies are a worthy art form. so what makes for a good movie, and how should we be watching.

I was once nearly assaulted for passing judgment on a film.  

Years ago, I sat in a movie theater watching James Cameron’s Titanic with my brother. Silently we endured the overwrought production until, as the film ground to an end and the romantic lead froze to death in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, we thrust up our arms simultaneously with a cry of joy—joy in knowing that our torment watching this thing was soon to end. Scores of teary adolescent eyes turned on us with flames of anger.  

What’s at stake with a movie?

If Catholics think they need not reasonably discuss and evaluate movies—perhaps the most pervasive and influential part of modern culture for a century—then what can they discuss? Perhaps the reaction to hide within the subjective— “Who am I to judge?”—explains more than movies in our current moment of cultural confusion.  

But what chance do evangelization or apologetics have if Catholics are unwilling to study, evaluate, and discuss cultural phenomena such as films? Is the safe path to let people have their likes and dislikes (apart, of course, from cases in which the content of the film is graphically offensive)?   

Thornier still: what exactly are we condemning in those instances, and on what grounds? Shall we say everything goes, up to a specified few inches of flesh or number of pints of spilt blood? The issue of movies for Catholic viewers is the broader issue of culture: do we engage it, fight it, understand it, ignore it, transform it, build it, or what?  

Hey, popes care about movies

This is not a new problem. For more than a century, thoughtful Catholics have pondered the nature of film. The Catholicism of some directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese, to name a few) clearly informs their artistry, regardless of their personal consistency with respect to doctrine. The creativity and reflection of Catholic film critics and directors greatly influenced papal consideration of film.  

That’s right—the popes have written about film, movies, directors, actors, film production, distribution, and even the experience of going into movie theaters. From Vigilanti Cura , Pius XI’s 1936 encyclical on motion pictures, to various observations of Pope Benedict, the papacy has expressed its interest in filmmaking and the sociology of film viewing.  

So important was the collection and study of film that Pope Pius XII created first the Pontifical Commission for the Study and Ecclesiastical Evaluation of Films on Religious and Moral Subjects (1948) and the Pontifical Commission for Cinema (1952). No pontiff took cinema and filmmaking as seriously as did Pius XII. His meetings with producers, directors, and actors culminated in two apostolic exhortations on film (both 1955). His thoughts are penetrating and his language vivid: he speaks of the then-new art of cinema with its “almost magical power of summoning into the darkness of its halls” and wishes everyone to take seriously the technical skills and psychological depths of this visual art.  

The most famous action under the prior seven pontiffs was John Paul II’s request for a positive assessment of the first 100 years of cinema—“the masterpieces of the art of film,” as he put it. This request resulted in the Pontifical Commission’s list of forty-five “important films,” typically called the Vatican Film List (see sidebar).  

Catholics are pro-art

Art is a fundamental aspect of man’s search for and expression of meaning. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:  

Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself but is ordered and ennobled by the ultimate end of man (2501).

A principle of art in Christian culture has always been that the craftsman make good and proper use of creation. “Good and proper” means both skillful according to autonomous artistic principles and moral according to reality and natural law.  

Most U.S. dioceses have abandoned local commentary on movies, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has relegated its moral oversight to Catholic News Service (CNS). Even so, it should be clear that evaluation according to ethical norms is expected and must be guided by longstanding moral teachings, much of which is evident in classical as well as Hebrew and Christian society.   

Do parents actually read the CNS reviews? Do other Catholic publications attempt film reviews? Based on my conversations with young Catholics students throughout the country, the CNS effort, while laudable, is too little known. Perhaps it is time for individual Catholics to understand that moral evaluation of movies is a universal responsibility and not just for bishops and their delegates.  

Why are many Christian films so . . . lackluster?

Many well-intended Christians think their best strategy is to limit their movie watching to “safe and Christian.” While there are significant works among the films marketed or claimed as Christian (one thinks of the 2007 film Bella ), a more common response of those viewing “Christian” films is boredom, if not discouragement, at facing a stream of such gems as Click Clack Jack , the God’s Not Dead series, or I Am Patrick .    

Good movies may be beloved by Christians, but “Christian movies,” thoughtful Christians will admit, are frequently not very good . Why? Simple: “Christian” movies may succeed in protecting the adjective (“Christian”) but often fail in embodying the artistry of the medium.  

A movie, like any art form, has its own standards and technical aspects. “It’s safe for the kids to watch while I take a nap” may be a good strategy for taking a nap but not for cultivating in your children a love of beauty, much less for engaging the culture or gaining maturity. If Catholics fail at seeing the art and what it demands of us, we fail not only fellow Christians but the very friends and neighbors we hope to engage about the highest things. Thus, it is imperative not only to recall our moral compass but also to give some artistic guidance for film interpretation.  

Enjoying a movie thoughtfully

What technical know-how might help a viewer evaluate and discuss movies? There are libraries filled with books on the subject and film studies programs of varying quality. But for our purpose, I suggest focusing attention in two areas to develop our capacity to perceive and not merely watch.   

Watching is passive. Perception is engaged reflection. It is the leaven of conversation and a necessary ingredient in evaluation.  

So, what big ideas can you hold in your mind while watching—or better, if it’s good, rewatching—a movie? I call them composition and linking .  

Big idea one: Composition

Composition starts with the camera itself. While you’re watching a movie, ask, “Where did the director put the camera and why? What’s the position of the camera, the angle, or the focus of lens? What has he put into each shot? Are there recurring angles, images, etc.?” Each segment of action in the boxed image you see on the screen—all that is the composition. The fancy French phrase for film composition is mis en scene , which means something like “setting the scene.”   

Director Frank Capra was a master of composition. Consider any scene from his movie It’s a Wonderful Life involving a domestic moment or crowd: George Bailey having his last dinner with his father; all the scenes in Gower’s pharmacy or Mr. Potter’s bank; and, most famously, the last five minutes of the movie. Composition requires the careful selection of lenses and camera angles, the detailed blocking out of the movement of each actor, etc. The foresight and precision needed aren’t obvious, and that naturalness is a sign of art’s triumph.   

Similarly, close-up scenes are like portraits, where lighting and subtle movement are part of the director’s palate, often combined with relative silence to create dramatic effect. Consider the close-ups on Jimmy Stewart in any pivotal moment in the movie, the finest being his slow awakening to horror in front of Martini’s (now Nick’s) Bar. In this and other scenes, Capra brought in aspects of film noir (crime movies) to create visual masterpieces that rival baroque painters.  

Suggested films for studying composition : Duck Soup (1933), The Quiet Man (1952), Master and Commander (2003).  

Big idea two: Linking

The second big idea to be aware of is something I’m calling linking . Visually, one of the most powerful “linkings” goes by another French word, montage . But I think the montage is part of a deeper human desire to see patterns, make patterns, and delight in patterns. Here ask yourself, “What does the director layer upon the scene, such as background sound, especially the music? How does he move from one scene to the next? Did he edit shot to shot well? Is there continuity between scenes? Are the actors paired well?”   

Again, let’s consider It’s a Wonderful Life . In the less than seven minutes that make up the “run on the bank” scene, there are fifty-six separate shots constructed from hours of footage, filmed from carefully blocked angles under precise rehearsal conditions with at least three dozen actors, all crafted together without a flaw. The emotional impact comes from the sustained movement of the drama, combined with arresting moments of focus and the constant linking of dramatic scenes, emotions, and sounds. Watch it again.  

Suggested films for studying linking : The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), High Noon (1952), The Godfather I (1972).  

A good film needs both

Films, of course, don’t offer just one or the other “big idea” but make regular use of many techniques that address both. Our viewing skills—as with any form of experience—increase through attentive encounters with excellence. I would recommend viewing three masterworks to test your ability to see the “big ideas.”  

Masterworks that bring the two big ideas together seamlessly : Citizen Kane (1941), Singin’ in the Rain (1951), Lawrence of Arabia (1962).  

At this point, you may be thinking, “What about actors? Isn’t this a little too focused on the director?” Many of us go to or return to movies because of our favorite actors. Acting is a craft, one in which extraordinary talent and courage combine to make a great actor. For what is acting other than the willingness to be vulnerable and reveal something of the self—and therefore of the human condition—before an audience?   

But for grasping the fundamentals of perceptive film viewing, I would say the actors are secondary to the two “big ideas” listed above. Most of us when watching a movie see only the final take that the director has chosen, after potentially dozens of attempts, under highly regulated conditions. The result is masterful (or not) largely because of the director. For that reason, we are setting aside acting as a focal point in our discussion.  

Time for the talkies: discussing film

If you want to discuss the artistry of a film, you should start with either of the two “big ideas” mentioned above. Those should encourage recollection and provoke a lively conversation about the film. One can further delve into single items contained within the “big ideas.” Does the director seem to be making (good) use of symbols? Has he woven in a fitting soundtrack? How does all that compare to other movies you can remember?  

After this, an enjoyable way for serious film buffs to discuss films is by considering genre—what kind of movie is it—and then evaluating it by way of comparison. A war movie? (Does 1917 stand up to Paths of Glory ?) A western? (How do Destry Rides Again , High Noon , and One-Eyed Jacks compare on the relationship of the individual and the community?) A comedy? Which kind—romantic ( Roman Holiday ), screwball ( Bringing Up Baby ), dark ( Dr. Strangelove )? What is mystery—a film noir , such as the Maltese Falcon , or mental puzzle, such as The Prestige ? What is the attraction of mystery?   

Films can also be looked upon as cultural mirrors commenting on the concerns of the age, whether or not the film is set in a contemporary moment (e.g., Modern Times , Twelve Angry Men , Breaker Morant , Blade Runner , Fight Club ). Movies with strong social commentary typically strive to discover the enduring qualities of humans in changing or dangerous times. Genre and themes can also overlap or blend, which generates interesting questions: is Star Wars actually a western? Is Casablanca a war movie, a romance, or a “buddy movie”? Is Patton best understood as a critique of war or the glorification of a hero? Such questions elevate conversation and invite participants to have a standard for evaluation.  

After the final credits

You may ask, “But isn’t it okay just to chill out and watch a movie? All I want to do is relax. All this thinking . Does a Catholic have to do that?” I would answer robustly with Pius XII: relaxing and being diverted from ordinary burdens is a great thing and an important aspect of wholesome entertainment. Of course it’s okay to chill out and just watch.  

That said, there is an old medieval dictum, “You cannot love what you do not know.” If movies are just a tool for recreation, that is that. But if you truly enjoy movies, then you’ll want to understand them. To say otherwise is like saying you like to dress well but know only one knot for your tie; or that you like wine but don’t care if it’s a merlot or a chardonnay, let alone care about what kind of soil the grapes grew in.  

When I was growing up, my family went to the movie theater almost every week. It was when the movie was over and the credits came up that I became excited, because the popcorn was an insipid appetizer to the Chinese dinner or Italian feast that always followed. The Faheys would occupy a restaurant table for hours on end, debating the merits of every movie we saw. I own a small film library now and have heard many lectures on films, but none of them can compare to the richness of those mealtime conversations.   

Being fully human means conversing about things that matter. Without rich conversations, what are we? Movies are an inextricable part of our cultural memory and discourse. If as Catholics we avoid taking them seriously, we do so to the peril of our society—and we risk a great loss of joy in our own lives.  

Movies: Ten Principles

From the array pontifical writings, we can observe several crucial principles regarding film:  

• Catholics should recognize and study the power of film.  
• Film is an art, and like all arts, has its own integrity and rules.  
• Film as an art can be used for man’s recreation and perfection or his debasement.  
• Evaluation of film is necessary but requires that individuals be familiar with the techniques and conventions of film as well as the principles of Catholic morality and doctrine.  
• There is such a thing as a film standard, or “ideal film,” which—in the words of Pius XII—has a “lofty and positive mission.”  
• That mission is—again, in the words of Pius XII—to offer “some reflection of the true, the good, and the beautiful: in a word, a ray of God.”  
• Catholic evaluations of film should be clear on moral defects but should not be puritanical—in the words of John Paul II on art in general: “Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give way to the universal desire for redemption.”  
• Movies that may reasonably be said to lead to moral confusion, skepticism regarding the virtues or traditional social goods (such as marriage and the family), the degradation of the human person, or addiction to violence or sexual misconduct must be condemned; with “gray areas,” an audience must be forewarned with clarity of the potential danger.  
• Artistic and moral activity is both distinct and related, requiring a respectful balance.  
• The capacity both to create and to recognize beauty is part of our human nature and must be cultivated for man to fulfil his proper end, which is ordered to transcendence.  

45 for the Ages

The Vatican Film List 

Religious    

Andrei Rublev (1966)  

Babette’s Feast (1987)  

Ben-Hur (1959)  

The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)  

Francesco (1989)  

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1966)  

La Passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ (1905)  

A Man for All Seasons (1966)  

The Mission (1986)  

Monsieur Vincent (1947)  

Nazarin (1958)  

Ordet (1955)  

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)  

The Sacrifice (1986)  

Thérèse (1986)  

Au Revoir les Enfants (1988)  

Bicycle Thieves (1949)  

The Burmese Harp (1956)  

Chariots of Fire (1981)  

Dekalog (1988)  

Dersu Uzala (1975)  

Gandhi (1982)  

Intolerance (1916)  

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)  

On the Waterfront (1954)  

Rome, Open City (1945)  

Schindler’s List (1993)  

The Seventh Seal (1957)  

The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)  

Wild Strawberries (1957)  

Citizen Kane (1941)  

8½ (1963)  

Fantasia (1940)  

Grand Illusion (1937)  

La Strada (1954)  

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)  

The Leopard (1963)  

Little Women (1933)  

Metropolis (1927)  

Modern Times (1936)  

Napoleon (1927)  

Nosferatu (1922)  

Stagecoach (1939)  

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)  

The Wizard of Oz (1939)  

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The good catholic.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 3 Reviews
• Kids Say 1 Review

Common Sense Media Review

Romantic dramedy about young priest has strong language.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Good Catholic is about an idealistic young priest faced with a choice between his calling and what might be true love. It's a romantic dramedy, but it tackles faith-based questions. While there isn't any violence, and both sex and drinking are extremely minimal, there is…

Why Age 10+?

Many uses of "s--t"; also one "f---ing," plus "a--face,

Suggestive scenes that always stop short of kissing.

Brands (like Golden Corral and other fast-food companies) are mentioned but not

Adults have wine with dinner.

Any Positive Content?

Every character seems to be doing the best he or she can, despite individual lim

The movie's primary message seems to be about finding your bliss. But the pa

Many uses of "s--t"; also one "f---ing," plus "a--face," "son of a bitch," and "d--k." Some may object to the film's clergy characters using such language.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands (like Golden Corral and other fast-food companies) are mentioned but not overtly promoted.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Every character seems to be doing the best he or she can, despite individual limitations. Three of the four main characters are clergymen; all have taken that path in order to help people.

Positive Messages

The movie's primary message seems to be about finding your bliss. But the path there -- and the results for those who try -- are muddied, making it less effective. Viewers of faith may appreciate the messages in the movie's sermons and biblical references.

Parents need to know that The Good Catholic is about an idealistic young priest faced with a choice between his calling and what might be true love. It's a romantic dramedy, but it tackles faith-based questions. While there isn't any violence, and both sex and drinking are extremely minimal, there is a fair amount of language, including one "f---ing." Other words run the gamut from "s--t" to "d--k"; some viewers might find any strong language objectionable coming from priests. The movie also characterizes clergymen as real, flawed human beings, which could be an issue for some. But they're all striving to do their best and help others. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Thought provoking

Very emotional, what's the story.

In THE GOOD CATHOLIC, idealistic young priest Daniel (Zachary Spicer) falls for a troubled visitor to his confessional. Jane ( Wrenn Schmidt ) is a charming, quick-witted nonconformist musician who claims to be dying. Her repeated appearances in Daniel's booth quickly progress past a religious rite into a blossoming friendship that's clearly headed for more. When Daniel can't contain his growing feelings, he seeks help from his fellow clergymen: stern Victor ( Danny Glover ) and eccentric Ollie ( John C. McGinley ).

Is It Any Good?

This dramedy offers a gentle look at a dedicated young priest's struggle with strong romantic feelings. The Good Catholic fares well in the company of the charming Jane; Schmidt handles her character's snarky wit and impassioned singing well, while also showing Jane's growing emotions. Her dialogue sometimes smacks of eternal meet-cute, but Schmidt sells it with the right swirl of sass: "You're a priest, I'm dying; I totally get it. But under different circumstances, we're totally dating right now." Veteran McGinley, as basketball- and fast-food-loving Ollie, gets most of the laughs, while also convincingly grounding his freewheeling clergyman in humanism. Glover offers grounding as authority figure Victor. But it's Spicer's movie as Daniel, and in his first feature lead (he also co-produced), he delivers. His Daniel is likable without being overly sweet. He holds the screen alongside McGinley and Glover, and his chemistry with Schmidt works.

All of that said, the film doesn't bring the goods, either philosophically or theologically. It's structured around homilies by each of the clergymen, but their messages are muddled. The central question of why a priest as dedicated as Daniel should either be denied happiness in love or be defrocked is never addressed. Rather, it's taken as given, so the film instead tries to convey a largely internal struggle without windows into Daniel's thinking. At the climactic dinner party, you have to wonder what Daniel expected to happen -- or why he set that situation up in the first place. Perhaps the filmmakers thought that topic (questioning the discipline of celibacy) too volatile for a romantic dramedy, though it has certainly been explored before (think Keeping the Faith or The Thorn Birds ). The script, by director Shoulberg, both hits and misses with character quirks and occasionally forced dialogue, but The Good Catholic 's sins are mostly forgivable.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about who The Good Catholic is intended to appeal to. Do you think only audiences of faith will appreciate it, or does it have something to offer lay audiences as well? How do you think the intended audience affects the filmmaking process?

Does the film present the clergy in ways that surprised you? Do you think it was fair to clergy, or do you think it made light of the institution?

What was the central problem for Daniel? Why couldn't he continue to do his job and be with Jane? What choice did he seem to make at the end? Why do you think that, and what did you think of his choice?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 8, 2017
• On DVD or streaming : October 24, 2017
• Cast : Zachary Spicer , John C. McGinley , Danny Glover
• Director : Paul Shoulberg
• Inclusion Information : Black actors
• Studio : Broad Green Pictures
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 96 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : language including a sexual reference
• Last updated : June 20, 2023

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Photo Caption: Amy Adams and Henry Cavill star in a scene from the movie “Man of Steel.” The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13.

The following movie reviews are supplied by Catholic News Service in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Film and Broadcasting.

For full reviews of these films, as well as earlier releases, visit the CNS movie site here .

This list will be updated regularly, and all reviews are copyright (c) 2013 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

—–

“The Bling Ring” (A24 Films)

The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Disturbing fact-based account of a gang of high school students who targeted their favorite stars and burgled the celebrities’ homes, stealing clothing, jewelry, and cash to fill their own closets and pockets. Five teens (Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga and Claire Julien) crave the A-list lifestyle, and so decide to steal the expensive accoutrements that go along with it. They rely on tabloid reports to tell them who’s out of town — then descend on empty mansions like locusts. Writer-director Sofia Coppola withholds judgment on the youngsters’ actions and winds up glamorizing a rootless, immoral — not to mention criminal — lifestyle. A benign attitude toward stealing, pervasive drug use and underage drinking, occasional profane and crude language.

“Monsters University” (Disney)

The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted.

This 3-D animated prequel to the 2001 hit “Monsters, Inc.,” directed by Dan Scanlon, features a hilarious sendup of college life. It also reinforces familiar but important messages for young people (and their parents): Make friends, study hard, and apply your unique talents for the greater good. Two best pals (voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman) were not, it seems, always so fond of one another. Years before the action of the earlier movie, they met in college, locked horns, and were dismissed from the elite program in which they had enrolled by the institution’s stern dean (voice of Helen Mirren). Joining forces with a misfit fraternity, they must learn to work together to achieve their goal of being readmitted. The movie is preceded by a charming short film, “The Blue Umbrella,” about love among parasols. Both are clean and wholesome fun for the entire family.

“World War Z” (Paramount)

The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Zombies swarm the planet, and a United Nations troubleshooter (Brad Pitt) learns that the only defenses are guns, knives, duct tape and perhaps a vaccine. Loose adaptation of Max Brooks’ novel by director Marc Foster and screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof respectfully observes all the cliches of the zombie/pandemic genres without much gore, possibly because there are thousands upon thousands of zombies to shoot at, blow up, or hit with flamethrowers. Gun and physical violence, fleeting crude language. Possibly acceptable for older teens.

“Man of Steel” (Warner Bros.)

Action adventure recounting the life of iconic comic book hero Superman (Henry Cavill). Born on distant Krypton, as an infant his parents (Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer) send him to Earth so that he can escape his doomed home planet’s imminent destruction. His adoptive human parents (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) instill positive values and try to protect his secret. But, once grown, an investigative reporter (Amy Adams) is on the verge of disclosing his true identity when an old enemy (Michael Shannon) of his father’s arrives from space and threatens humanity with annihilation unless Superman surrenders. Director Zack Snyder’s take on the familiar narrative has the makings of an engaging drama and includes Christian themes and an anti-eugenics message that viewers of faith in particular can appreciate. But this positive potential is squandered in favor of endless scenes of high-powered brawling and the pyrotechnics of innumerable explosions. Much intense but bloodless violence, a fleeting sexual advance, occasional crude and crass language.

“”This Is the End” (Columbia)

Tedious comedy in which an ensemble of actors playing themselves (most prominently James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen — who directed, with Evan Goldberg — and Jay Baruchel) are holed up in a Los Angeles mansion during the Apocalypse. Rogen and Goldberg, who also wrote the script, celebrate altruism and loyal friendship. But no other virtue dividing those caught up in the rapture from those left behind seems comprehensible to them, certainly not moderation in the pursuit of worldly pleasures. As for their treatment of matters religious, it might best be described as frivolous affirmation. Comic treatment of sacred subjects, scenes of gruesome bloody violence, strong sexual content including a graphic glimpse of aberrant sexual activity with rear nudity, a benign view of drug use, much sexual and some scatological humor, occasional instances of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language.

“The Internship” (Fox)

The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

When two middle-aged watch salesmen (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) suddenly find themselves unemployed — and with nothing to show for their years of enthusiastic peddling — they apply to the internship program at corporate giant Google, a domain dominated by tech-savvy college-age kids. Director Shawn Levy, working from a script co-written by Vaughn, strains to wring laughs from the generational and cultural divides. But humor and inventiveness are in short supply in this predictable comedy, while a topical message concerning the virtues of adaptability and perseverance in difficult economic times is canceled out by a stream of vulgarity and off-color references. An implied nonmarital encounter, several uses of profanity, at least one rough term, frequent crude and crass language, considerable innuendo, passing approval of a same-sex relationship.

“The Purge” (Universal)

Set in a dystopian future America during the one night each year when any crime may be committed with impunity, writer-director James DeMonaco’s thriller — a potentially challenging study of the conflict between lifeboat ethics and personal decency — degenerates into an orgy of the very violence it sets out to question. When the chosen target (Edwin Hodge) of a bloodthirsty mob (led by Rhys Wakefield) manages to take refuge in the home of a security specialist (Ethan Hawke), his presence threatens to bring the wrath of the gang down on the whole family (including wife Lena Headey and kids Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane) unless they give the fugitive up to his pursuers. Inept social commentary — the victim is a homeless black veteran, the marauders are crazed preppies — and pointless religious overtones hobble the proceedings even before the gore goes off the charts. Excessive graphic violence, including torture, a scene of underage sensuality, a few uses of profanity and of rough language, a couple of crass terms.

Frances Ha” (IFC)

The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

When her best friend and roommate (Mickey Sumner) decides to move out, the eponymous heroine (Greta Gerwig) — a feckless 27-year-old New Yorker — is cast adrift, suddenly homeless with no real job and few prospects. Not that this especially bothers her, as she flits from party to party — and from drama to drama — dispensing empty commentary on her own life and unintelligible advice to others. As she waits for her life to happen, and wallows in self-absorption, the proceedings are shot by director and co-writer (with Gerwig) Noah Baumbach in black-and-white, casting Gotham in a warm and fuzzy glow. Cohabitation, frequent sex talk, many uses of profanity, much crude language.

“Now You See Me” (Summit)

A quartet of professional magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher) is caught in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse in this entertaining caper film directed by Louis Leterrier. Brought together by a mysterious capitalist (Michael Caine), the four become a world-famous act. But one outrageous stunt they manage to pull off — a long-distance and very public bank robbery — attracts the attention of an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo), his Interpol counterpart (Melanie Laurent) and a reality show host (Morgan Freeman) whose mission is to expose the secrets of the trade. Though it contains a slightly disturbing pagan element, in the end, Leterrier’s film is a harmless and witty romp for grown-ups, yet one that lingers in the memory no longer than the time required to shout, “Abracadabra!” Mild action violence, a vulgar gesture, sexual innuendo, some crude and profane language.

After Earth” (Columbia)

Grueling sci-fi adventure set 1,000 years after humans have been forced to evacuate an environmentally despoiled Earth. While on an intergalactic military mission, a general (Will Smith) and his teen son — played by Smith’s real-life son Jaden — become the sole survivors of a crash landing on the Blue Planet. With Dad temporarily disabled as a result, the lad must brave a hostile array of predators in order to reach the other part of their wrecked spacecraft — and the signal beam that represents their only hope of rescue. While the filial relationship at the heart of director and co-writer M. Night Shyamalan’s plodding coming-of-age drama is ultimately characterized by self-sacrificing love, the code by which the father lives — and which he strives to instill in his offspring — seems to have more in common with Zen Buddhism than with the values promoted in Scripture. The script’s glib portrayal of the bonds uniting veterans will also strike at least some viewers as either jingoistic or exploitative. Much action violence, some of it bloody, gory medical images, a stifled crude term, a few mildly crass expressions.

“Epic” (Fox)

The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Pleasant 3-D animated fantasy in which a 17-year-old girl (voice of Amanda Seyfried) finds herself magically transported to a miniature world within nature where the champions of growth and life (their leader voiced by Colin Farrell) battle the dark forces of decay (their commander voiced by Christoph Waltz). While becoming caught up in the conflict, she falls for a youthful warrior (voice of Josh Hutcherson) whose freewheeling ways make him an initially unreliable ally for his fellow good guys. With some of its characters drawn from William Joyce’s book “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs,” director Chris Wedge’s cheerful journey into the undergrowth sends innocuous messages about environmental stewardship, teamwork and responsibility. There’s also some familial bonding via the protagonist’s ultimately appreciative interaction with her stereotypically absent-minded professor of a dad (voiced by Jason Sudeikis). Though the impact falls well short of Wedge’s overly ambitious title, some lovely imagery compensates for various hit-or-miss attempts at humor. Potentially frightening clashes, themes involving death.

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (IFC)

The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

A thought-provoking — yet flawed — exploration of the wide-ranging impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks both on individuals and on whole cultures. In 2011 Pakistan, a journalist (Liev Schreiber) has been recruited by the CIA to interview the chief suspect (Riz Ahmed) in the kidnapping of an American professor. Things may not be as they appear, however, as the self-professedly peace-loving radical recounts his experiences in the United States — including his meteoric rise to the top within a wicked corporation (run by Kiefer Sutherland), his romance with a bohemian artist (Kate Hudson), and his fall from corporate grace as a result of post-Twin Towers discrimination. Working from the novel by Mohsin Hamid, director Mira Nair lets the audience pass judgment, for better or worse. The result is an absorbing story with a flawed conclusion — one that seems to prioritize the force of circumstance over conscience when choosing between good and evil. Fleeting action violence and gunplay, a gruesome image, brief sensuality, some profane and crass language.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” (Paramount)

Snappy follow-up to director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of — and prequel to — the long-lived sci-fi franchise that stretches back to 1960s television. In this second chronicle of their early professional lives, dynamic, impetuous Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his seemingly emotionless half-Vulcan, half-human first officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) lead their intrepid crew on a high-stakes, sometimes morally fraught crusade against an intergalactic terrorist (Benedict Cumberbatch). The fundamental message of Abrams’ spectacular adventure — a warning against employing immoral means to overcome evil — is both scripturally resonant and timely. But the parents of teen Trekkies will need to weigh the profit of that lesson against the debit of some sensual imagery and vulgar talk. Possibly acceptable for older adolescents. Much bloodless battling but also occasional harsh violence, some sexual content — including a trio glimpsed waking up together and scenes with skimpy costuming — a few uses of crude language, a half-dozen crass terms.

“Fast & Furious 6” (Universal)

Lured by the promise of pardons for their past misdeeds, a crew of law-flouting underground car racers — led by Vin Diesel and Paul Walker — reassemble to help a federal agent (Dwayne Johnson) thwart the civilization-threatening schemes of a criminal mastermind (Luke Evans) who uses hotrods to speed his heists of top-secret military equipment. The fact that the gangster’s number two (Michelle Rodriguez) is Diesel’s not-dead-after-all love interest is another draw. Director Justin Lin’s barroom brawl of a movie features well-orchestrated chases, and softens the tone of its grunting machismo with the occasional flourish of vague religiosity. But the self-determined code which its heroes substitute for civil obedience is morally dubious and certainly not for the impressionable. Murky moral values, considerable stylized violence including a scene of torture, cohabitation, partial nudity, a few uses of profanity, at least one rough term, much crude and crass language, an obscene gesture.

“The Hangover Part III” (Warner Bros.)

On its surface, this is a defanged, declawed version of the first two “Hangover” installments with no sex, no alcohol or drug abuse and almost no nudity. Director Todd Phillips, who co-wrote with Craig Mazin, focuses the plot on the long-overdue maturation of a spoiled rich boy (Zach Galifianakis), a process in which two of his friends (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms) try to assist by transporting their unstable pal to a mental health facility in Arizona. En route, the trio is waylaid by a gangster (John Goodman) who wants them to help him retrieve stolen loot purloined by an archcriminal (Ken Jeong). While the shenanigans that made the earlier entries repellent may mercifully be absent, there’s a different, deeper — and philosophically, at least, potentially more troubling — recklessness at work in this picture. In the inkiest vein of nihilistic black humor, the frequent intrusion of death — whether that of disposable animals or of equally disposable people — is presented as a cue for guffaws. Stylized gun violence, a fleeting glimpse of frontal male nudity, a brief but vulgar reference to sexual activity, some profanity, pervasive rough and crude language.

“The Great Gatsby” (Warner Bros.)

Splashy, sometimes cartoonish 3-D adaptation of the classic 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), scion of the WASP establishment, recounts his friendship with the iconic self-made man and would-be social insider Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) whose obsessive love for Nick’s alluring but married cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) leads first to adultery, then to a confrontation with Daisy’s caddish husband Tom (Joel Edgerton) and finally to tragedy. As director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann revels in the frenzied decadence of Gatsby’s Jazz Age party-giving, he creates a fable-like setting that distances viewers from Fitzgerald’s characters and lessens the impact of their downfall. His film also tends to glamorize the sinful relationship at the heart of the story, suggesting that an unpleasant spouse and the inherent superiority of the illicit lovers — who initially fell for each other before Daisy’s marriage — are reason enough to ignore the Sixth Commandment. Scenes of both lethal and nonlethal violence with minimal gore, an uncritical view of adultery, brief semi-graphic adulterous activity as well as some other sexual content, a glimpse of partial nudity, a few uses of profanity, a couple of crude terms, a religious slur.

See the full CNS review at CNS Reviews .

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“FATIMA”: a Review

The time has probably passed when films about faithful Catholics could be box-office hits, but Italian director Marco Pontecorvo has given his best to make one with Fatima .

This iteration of the story of the Marian apparitions scans almost as a remake of 1952’s The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima , except for a flash-forward device involving a purported interview of the now elderly Sister Lúcia dos Santos by a noted journalist. The two are played by Brazilian actress Sônia Braga and the American Harvey Keitel: the saint and the skeptic.

It’s not a bad idea exactly, although their periodic exchanges, happening in the “present,” tend towards didacticism and do nothing to affect our sense of events in Portugal in 1917.

Those events, on the other hand, are beautifully shown in Fatima . Mr. Pontecorvo, who began his career as a cinematographer, has here collaborated with cameraman Vincenzo Carpineta to give us a very vivid Aljustrel, Lúcia’s hometown just outside of Fátima. (The film was shot entirely in Portugal.)

The story is the story we know: the 10-year-old Lúcia (played by Stephanie Gil) sees an angel, who hints at what’s to come. Then Lúcia and her cousins Jacinta Marta (Alejandra Howard) and Francisco Marta (Jorge Lamelas), who were 7 and 9 respectively, are visited by a beautiful woman “from heaven,” who is, of course, the Blessed Virgin (Joana Ribeiro). This is wonderful.

Not wonderful are the reactions of Lúcia’s parents, her mother especially (superbly portrayed by Portuguese actress Lúcia Moniz), and of Fátima’s secular officials, leading at one point to the actual imprisonment of the children. The top local official is played with sinister efficiency by Goran Višnjić.

One aspect of this extraordinary story that may be taken as proof of its authenticity is the children’s persistence. Before the last visitation and under pressure at home and from the authorities, secular and religious, Lúcia crawls on her knees to the makeshift shrine put up by those who believe the children. Lúcia abases herself, hoping to make everything right. To be worthy of the Lady’s promises.

Mr. Pontecorvo deftly illuminates the three secrets Mary gave the children.

The first, a vision of Hell, is portrayed vividly – Hell that is, not so much the children’s reactions to witnessing it. They seem to take it pretty well. Yet Jacinta and Francisco’s father, who watched the children as they experienced the vision, recalled “that Lúcia gasped in sudden horror, that her face was white as death, and that all who were there heard her cry in terror to the Virgin Mother.”

The second secret, the consecration of Russia to the Virgin’s Immaculate Heart is mentioned. To be fair, there’s not much to show about that.

The third secret, the shooting of a pope and the persecution of clergy, is as dazzling and disturbing as it was prophetic. Questions about the third secret that have arisen since are briefly addressed in one of those flash-forwards to the fictional meeting between Sister Lúcia and the journalist.

Finally, there’s the Miracle of the Sun.

Paul wrote (1COR 15:14) that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” With regard to the Fatima apparitions, one might paraphrase that by saying that if the sun does not dance, Our Lady’s presence cannot be believed. After all, until the Miracle of the Sun the only actual witnesses to the apparitions were the three children.

The stratagem of the conversations between Mr. Keitel and Ms. Braga is interesting. Among the film’s actors, they are the biggest stars, and to an extent they’re wasted in such a static presentation: two individuals seated on opposite sides of a convent screen engaging in a restrained Q&A. There’s simply no tension: no chance that Sister Lúcia will suddenly burst into tears and admit that she and her cousins made up the whole thing. The writer’s questions to the nun are about what one might expect from a high schooler who won the “Ask Lúcia 20 Questions” contest.

The writer might have asked: “Is it possible that the crowd that day saw the sun dance simply because they stared at it too long?”

Mr. Pontecorvo has the sun seem to descend towards earth, and the crowd reacts with understandable alarm. Actual reports from that day (Saturday, October 13, 1917) indicate that some saw the sun spinning (“in a mad whirl”) or zig-zagging; others saw multicolored lights; a few said they saw nothing unusual.

One fascinating detail not in the film: According to Cardinal Federico Tedeschini, Bishop Eugenio Pacelli – the future Pope Pius XII – actually witnessed the Miracle more than 2,000 miles away in the Vatican Gardens. He’d been consecrated on the very day of Our Lady’s first appearance to the children, and – full circle – he would be buried on the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima in 1958.

One understands why there are skeptics. Still, as Fr. John De Marchi has written (in The True Story of Fátima , which is based on hundreds of interviews of those who were there): “Reports do vary; impressions are in minor details confused, but none to our knowledge has directly denied the visible prodigy of the sun.”

The setup for Mary’s final visit and the Miracle of the Sun is cleverly handled by Mr. Pontecorvo (or screenwriters Valerio D’Annunzio and Barbara Nicolosi). As the children have experienced the apparitions, crowds of onlookers have gathered. growing larger and larger with time. Of course, they only “see” Our Lady through the expressions on the children’s faces and by hearing what the one or another of the kids reports our Lady to have said.

Hawkers of trinkets also appear, one of whom is a boy who sells rosaries for a nickel. In this last visitation, Lúcia has told the Virgin that the people want to know who she is, and she answers that she’s the “Lady of the Rosary.” Jacinta turns to the crowd and repeats the answer, just as that young rosary seller walks by. Now he calls out, “Rosaries, ten cents!”

The inflation of Our Lady of Fátima was just beginning. Now it is priceless.

Because of COVID-19 , the film, which is rated PG-13, has had a tough road to its premiere. The website for the film offers numerous ways to watch at home. It opened “in theaters” on Friday (8/28), although I’m not sure what that means in the midst of the pandemic. In any case, if you click on this link you’ll be able to rent the film at Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube, and a number of other streaming services.

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Brad Miner is the Senior Editor of The Catholic Thing and a Senior Fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute. He is a former Literary Editor of National Review . His most recent book, Sons of St. Patrick , written with George J. Marlin, is now on sale. His The Compleat Gentleman is now available in a third, revised edition from Regnery Gateway and is also available in an Audible audio edition (read by Bob Souer). Mr. Miner has served as a board member of Aid to the Church In Need USA and also on the Selective Service System draft board in Westchester County, NY.

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‘The Rings of Power’ stays true to Tolkien’s Catholic vision

When J. R. R. Tolkien first set out to write The Lord of the Rings , he did so without intending for it to be seen in any way as a Catholic or religious book. As revealed in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien , he noted to a close confidant, the British Jesuit Robert Murray, that he purposefully “cut out practically all references to anything like ‘religion’” during the construction of his Lord of the Rings universe. Tolkien wanted any “religious element [to be] absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

Indeed, his objection to such elements extended beyond his own work. In response to a 1971 letter from a fan concerning his friend C .S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia , Tolkien stated, “I do not like ‘allegory,’ and least of all religious allegory of this kind. But that is a difference of taste which we both recognized and did not interfere with our friendship.”

Still, Tolkien admitted to Father Murray that ultimately The Lord of the Rings is a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” Catholic themes abound in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: The importance of free will, a striving for humility and caring for the common home are important core concepts within The Lord of the Rings and in Tolkien’s own life. And, of course, a battle between good and evil rages at the very center of the LOTR universe.

But as important as all that might have been to Tolkien, one wonders how adaptations of his work fare when it comes to the implicit Catholicism of the world that he created.

“ The Rings of Power ,” whose second season is out now on Amazon Prime Video, is the latest adaptation of Tolkien’s world. Set many thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , during Middle-earth’s Second Age, the series focuses on a time notably different from the novels’ Third Age. For one, there are as yet no Hobbits as we know them; they are Harfoots, small nomadic tribes instead of the hearty farmers of The Shire whom we meet in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Neither Mordor nor Gondor exist, and the elves and dwarves are allies and not yet enemies. All of this begins to change by the end of the first season, as groundwork is laid for the Second Age to transform into the Third.

It is amid this time of change that the show starts to take a darker turn, and the second season plunges the show’s characters into harsher trials and temptations.

“Season Two is dealing with a lot of really dark themes. Not everybody makes it out of Season Two alive,” said showrunner Patrick McKay in an interview with America . “There’s a lot of twists and turns and betrayals and temptation.”

The show juggles quite a few plotlines, but one in particular deeply explores the dark themes that McKay referenced: Sauron's. The first season featured a weakened Sauron (Charlie Vickers), the eventual “Lord of the Rings,” taking on human form and attempting to seduce the elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) so that they can rule Middle-earth together. Though Galadriel refuses him, it is too late; Sauron has already convinced the legendary elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) to craft for him three rings that will make their wearer more powerful. Galadriel and the other elves are tempted by the power of these rings and swear to use Sauron’s own weapons against him, though the addictive nature of the rings is thus far unknown to them.

This newest season features Sauron’s temptation of Celebrimbor through his guise as Annatar, the Elven Lord of Gifts, as he manipulates the smith to create for him a Master-ring, the “One Ring to rule them all.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Vickers noted that he auditioned for the role by reading from “Richard III” and “Paradise Lost.” He said he felt as if he was “literally auditioning as Satan.”

Interestingly, we very much see Sauron at a low point at the beginning of this new season. Still weak after his orc lieutenant Adar (Sam Hazeldine) staged a coup that resulted in the loss of much of his power, Sauron has been reduced to slinking in the shadows. This season, he plots to take over the newly-formed Mordor and wrest control from Adar in order to properly turn it into a country of vile orcs.

The Milton influence is apparent from the start. McKay and co-showrunner J. D. Payne described it explicitly in a press statement: “Tolkien’s work rightfully finds its peers among the strongest voices in all the English canon—Milton in its scope, Wordsworth in its beauty and Shakespeare in its depth.” That respect for Tolkien’s place in the English literary tradition is paramount to the show’s success; the dialogue in the show is beautiful and is often inspired by a variety of sources.

“If you pulled on any thread in any part of the show, I might throw out a bunch of references [to classical literature],” McKay told America . “It all goes into the stew.”

Dark themes—even if mixed with hope and optimism—abound in the new season, showing McKay’s and Payne’s appreciation for Tolkien’s subtle Catholic allusions in depicting Middle-earth as involved in a cosmic battle between good and evil, damnation and salvation. There is an Atlantis-esque foreboding that faces the island nation of Númenor as it faces mounting pressures against its isolationism. We begin to see greed overtake the dwarves of Khazad-dûm, which will later become known as the Mines of Moria, precipitated by overmining of the precious mineral mithril that threatens to unleash the wrath of a demonic balrog buried deep underground.

Even the most lighthearted of the storylines, featuring Nori the Harfoot (Markella Kavenagh), has its share of dark tidings. After Nori befriends The Stranger, a mysterious wizard (Daniel Weyman) with hazy memories (who will almost certainly turn out to be Gandalf), the pair leaves the safety of the nomadic Harfoots to find out more about his past. Their journey takes them to Rhûn, a harsh desert land that holds ancient secrets that may help in unraveling the mystery of The Stranger. There, they face a struggle to survive the elements.

“They are in a stressed situation,” Weyman said in an interview with America . “They’ve gone around and around in circles. They’ve found the same tree time and time again. They’re running out of food.”

However, it was important to both Weyman and Kavenagh that joy be injected into the proceedings. “Markella and I, and The Stranger and Nori, were on the same wavelength,” Weyman said. “You know, we might have no water but what an amazing situation… it might be the ninth hour of the day [of filming] but how brilliant is it to be out here?”

More than any other of the various plotlines in the show, the Harfoot plot connects the most to Tolkien’s original work set in Middle-earth, his 1937 novel The Hobbit . Much like that book, it features little-folk traveling with a wizard on an adventure, though they often get diverted along the way.

“The focus was on telling a really truthful story,” Kavenagh told America . “Sometimes, in really dark moments in the story, then normally on set we have a lot of fun… we try to keep the atmosphere really light and really joyful.”

This view of the world of The Lord of the Rings certainly comes out in the tone of the series. Unlike other fantasy shows like the “Game of Thrones” prequel “The House of the Dragon,” which is mired in darkness and epic levels of tragedy, “The Rings of Power” genuinely feels like it spans the whole breadth of Middle-earth. It can be fearful and full of despair, but it is always coupled with hope, optimism and momentum toward justice.

“We agree with [Tolkien] as readers and viewers that morality in a universe that has good and evil isn’t just ‘might makes right,’” McKay said. “It’s really apparent in every page of the book and we try to have it in every scene in the show… good and evil is always in the room and we try to keep it that way.”

Tolkien’s Catholicism might not be explicit in the pages of his books, but the themes of his faith most certainly are. It is a testament to the relative accuracy of the showrunners’ dedication to Tolkien’s ethos that these same themes live within “The Rings of Power.”

The first three episodes of the second season of “ The Rings of Power ” are out now on Amazon Prime Video. The fourth premieres Thursday, Sept. 5.

Kevin Christopher Robles is the studio production associate at America . He was previously an O'Hare Fellow and intern.

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'The Room Next Door' Review: Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton Face Death Together | Venice 2024

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After experimenting with short form in 2020’s The Human Voice and 2023’s Strange Way of Life , Pedro Almodóvar has finally delivered the first English-language feature in his illustrious career, The Room Next Door . The film might provide answers to what long-time Stateside devotees may have been wondering since the ’80s. Does Almodóvar translate well? These are valid questions considering how some arthouse favorites, like Wong Kar-wai , have faltered in directing English scripts. Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore , The Room Next Door should perform well in the usual festival and arthouse circuits. Given Almodóvar’s established penchant for melodrama and that the subject is euthanasia, the film is strangely aloof. It never reduces the proceedings to Lifetime territory or patronizes moviegoers in the process. It does, however, leave you to wonder a bit about the indifference you might ultimately come away with yourself.

What Is 'The Room Next Door' About?

Martha (Swinton) has stage three cervical cancer. At a book signing, Ingrid (Moore) first learns of Martha’s diagnosis through a mutual friend. They apparently have known each other for quite a while and once worked at the same magazine, but had fallen out of touch when Martha worked overseas as a war correspondent. Ingrid promptly visits Martha in the hospital where she undergoes experimental treatment. The script by Almodóvar is deeply knowledgeable about cancer symptoms and treatments , surely a welcome surprise for those who have lived through the complications. But Swinton’s acting rarely matches her sickly makeup or verbal descriptions of the ailments.

Anyway, Ingrid vows to visit Martha regularly. At some point, the treatment proves ineffectual and the pain intolerable , prompting Martha to quit altogether. She plans an upstate getaway – and her own suicide using a pill purchased on the Dark Web – and requests Ingrid’s presence. Since everyone else Martha has approached has seemingly declined, Ingrid agrees, but only after much deliberation as one would expect. Yet when they briefly return to the city to look for Martha’s deadly tablet, Ingrid doesn’t hesitate to hand it over as soon as she finds it. The film doesn’t tell us whether Ingrid wishes to end Martha’s suffering or has simply resigned herself to the inevitable.

Has Almodóvar Always Been Like He Is in 'The Room Next Door'?

Based on Sigrid Nunez ’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through , The Room Next Door seems unusually verbose for Almodóvar . Scene after scene, it feels as if it’s an adaptation of a play instead. Another thing that sticks out here is how much he relies on the pretty pedestrian shot-reverse shot. This may spur curious fans to revisit part of his filmography just to see whether his Spanish-language work has always been like this and we’re just now noticing. The only scene where the direction gets really interesting is during Ingrid’s session with a personal trainer, in which snippets of her feet jumping on and off a step stool have been spliced in.

This time Almodóvar has set his sights on New York City . Thankfully, that part feels authentic and lived-in . Locals will recognize from the opening frames cultural landmarks like Rizzoli in Flatiron and of course Film at Lincoln Center, where most every single movie of his has passed through the projection booths. New York cinephiles will love him for that hat-tipping alone.

That said, The Room Next Door is still unmistakably Almodóvar . The production design by Inbal Weinberg is insane. It’s only a matter of time before blogs like Curbed and Apartment Therapy start buzzing about how to acquire Martha’s turquoise sofa and emerald green cabinetry, because those interior décor inspirations are frankly life-changing, and even good money will probably not get them for you from Design Within Reach or ABC Carpet & Home. As with many New York-set pop-cultural staples like Friends and Sex and the City , though, The Room Next Door grossly underestimates the ridiculous cost of local real estate. It matters in the sense that New Yorkers – who likely make up the vast majority of Almodóvar’s core audience in the U.S. – will reflexively jump to the conclusion that these characters are all loaded, what with their million-dollar apartments. Don’t even get me started on the upstate vacation rental.

Almodóvar is loved for his unforgettable characters and magnificent leading ladies . That won’t be the case here, despite employing such celebrated actresses as Swinton and Moore. A spoiler – albeit an inconsequential one – is that Swinton shows up much later as Martha’s estranged daughter, Michelle. Despite sporting a radically different ’do, Swinton’s physical performance isn’t discernibly different. Perhaps unintendedly, though, the lack of duality in Swinton only helps bolster Moore’s otherwise understated turn.

The Room Next Door

The Room Next Door might not be as unforgettable as Pedro Almodóvar's prior work, but it still benefits from a great performance by Julianne Moore.

• The film is unmistakably Almodóvar with excellent production design by Inbal Weinberg.
• It authentically captures New York City, ensuring the setting feels lived-in and live.
• Moore gives an understated performance, proving to be the best part of the whole experience.
• The film is often oddly verbose and ends up feeling more like a play with a lack of visual imagination.
• Tilda Swinton gives a dual perfromance that rarely feels distinct or specific to the respective character she's taking on.

The Room Next Door had its World Premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

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Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore debate love and death in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door — review

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Movie Review: ‘Wildcat’

NEW YORK (OSV News) – A blending of historical facts and Southern gothic fiction proves unstable in the biographical and literary drama “Wildcat” (Oscilloscope). As a result, director and co-writer Ethan Hawke achieves only mixed results as he seeks to introduce viewers to the life and works of Catholic author Flannery O’Connor.

Given the high rank she enjoys among 20th-century American writers, especially on the basis of her masterful short stories, O’Connor’s career is certainly deserving of attention. Nor does the primary fault for the unsatisfying nature of “Wildcat” lie with Hawke’s daughter Maya’s portrayal of the scribe, whose intriguing persona the actress succeeds in capturing.

Instead the original aesthetic sin detectable here is one of strategy. In crafting their screenplay, the elder Hawke and his script collaborator Shelby Gaines ill-advisedly attempt to interweave scenes from O’Connor’s real experiences with dramatizations of the tales she penned. The reality-based elements mostly work, the fictitious ones, by contrast, fall flat.

Thus audiences will likely be engaged by the movie’s recounting of O’Connor’s struggle to publish her first novel as well as the narrative of her battle with lupus, the disease to which she would succumb in 1964, aged only 39. The illness made O’Connor dependent on her mother, Regina (Laura Linney), with whom she enjoyed a close yet conflicted relationship.

Like many others, Regina seems to have been somewhat bewildered by her daughter’s vibrant but eccentric creative vision. A studious reader of both scripture and the “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas, O’Connor was at once fascinated and repelled by the do-it-yourself approach to Christianity she observed in the then-overwhelmingly Protestant South.

Drawing on O’Connor’s “A Prayer Journal,” published in 2013, Hawke manages to convey the seriousness with which she regarded her heartfelt beliefs. In fact, one of the picture’s most compelling exchanges takes place between a gravely ailing O’Connor and local clergyman Father Flynn (Liam Neeson).

Sequences adapted from O’Connor’s writings, on the other hand, are generally ineffectual. In some cases, this is because they are too heavily narrated, leaving them stranded between page and screen.

Still, for all its flaws, “Wildcat” does have some educational value, especially for those unfamiliar with O’Connor’s spiritual striving, physical suffering and impressive legacy. Given that problematic elements are relatively few, moreover, it’s possibly an acceptable choice for mature adolescents.

The film contains scenes of sensuality, several uses of profanity and a few milder oaths. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association.

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10 best movies to watch if you miss shogun.

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This $100M Sci-Fi Thriller That's Streaming On Netflix Is Perfect To Watch If You Miss Shogun

Shogun already faces the 1 problem that killed game of thrones, but i'm not worried, how shogun's story can continue in seasons 2 & 3 (based on real life history).

Shōgun was one of the best new series of 2024, so good that Disney and FX extended its original run as a limited series and currently has at least two more seasons in development. Released back in February 2024, Shōgun follows the improbable story of one man's cunning and tactful rise to become shōgun, the supreme military ruler in feudal Japan. The series is based on the real-life establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate , established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the year 1600. Many Shōgun characters, such as Cosmo Jarvis's John Blackthorne , were inspired by real-life historical figures and timelines.

Shōgun was previously adapted into a limited series back in 1980. Like the 2024 critically acclaimed series, 1980's Shōgun received outstanding reviews and was widely considered one of the best series of the year in which it was released. 1980's Shōgun went on to win a total of 3 Emmys in 1981 after receiving an impressive 14 nominations, including Outstanding Costume Design for a Series, Outstanding Graphic Design and Title Sequences, and Outstanding Limited Series. More than four decades later, Shōgun leads the 2024 Emmy Awards with a remarkable 25 nominations for its first season .

With Shōgun season 2 still many months away, fans still have quite a while until they get to see how Lord Toranaga's rise to power continues to play out. While some characters will certainly not be returning due to their deaths in season 1, both Toranaga and Blackthorne will likely continue their unlikely alliance as Toranaga faces opposition from the Mother of the Heir, Ochiba-no-kata. No official timeline has been confirmed for Shōgun season 2, Toranaga actor Hiroyuki Sanada has publicly said " there will be new characters coming in, and we’re going to basically follow the real history in seasons two and three ." Until that day comes, there are several movies with similar themes and settings as Shōgun to check out.

10 Seven Samurai (1954)

Directed by akira kurosawa.

Seven Samurai is often considered one of the greatest movies ever made and a visual & narrative masterpiece. Not only should it be seen by all movie lovers, but it is a great and classic option for fans of the 2024 Shōgun series as well. Both Shōgun and Seven Samurai share a similar scale and degree of immersion that makes them both exceptional in their own right. Seven Samurai takes place in the sixteenth century in Japan, not far from the events of the Shōgun series. The film follows a group of farmers from a small village who hire veteran samurai to protect them from bandits. Seven Samurai is currently available to stream on Max .

9 Dune: Part Two (2024)

Directed by denis villeneuve.

Dune: Part Two may be set in a completely different genre as Shōgun but both celebrated 2024 projects share themes of power struggles, betrayal, and cunning strategy. They also are both made with a sense of epic scale, making them two of the most immersive and largest fictional worlds brought to the screen in 2024. The core narrative of how Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atrides rises to the rank of Emperor in Dune: Part Two is similar to Lord Toranaga's chesslike strategy to become shōgun by the first season's end. Both Dune: Part Two and Shōgun follow the steep ascension process of their protagonists and leave audiences somewhat questioning their motives despite being the heroes in their respective stories.

8 Silence (2016)

Directed by martin scorsese.

Silence is an excellent and underrated film by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Silence takes place during the 17th century in Japan and follows two Portuguese Jesuit priests, played by Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield, who go on a religious crusade to rescue their Catholic mentor who has gone missing. The film is seen through the eyes of the Portuguese Christian priests who are similar to the Father Martin Alvito and Father Dell'Aqua characters portrayed in Shōgun. Silence takes a more gruesome look at the extreme levels of religious persecution and sacrifice of the era and is one of the great modern examples of feudal Japan as depicted in a film. The 2016 film received a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 83%.

Fans of Shogun will enjoy seeing Hiroyuki Sanada in an underrated space sci-fi horror movie from 2017 along with three other A-list talents.

7 Mortal Kombat (2021)

Directed by simon mcquoid.

Before appearing onscreen together in Shōgun as Lord Toranaga and his disloyal daimyo Yabushige, Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano previously worked together on the 2021 film adaptation of Mortal Kombat . Both Sanada and Asano will reprise their roles as Scorpion and Lord Raiden in Mortal Kombat 2 , which does not currently have an established release date but could arrive sometime in 2025. For fans of Shōgun who specifically miss the hot and cold connection between Yabushige and Toranaga, Mortal Kombat may be worth checking out for the fact that they appear onscreen together in the same film. Mortal Kombat is based on the popular fighting video game of the same name and received a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 86%.

6 The Northman (2022)

Directed by robert eggers.

The Northman is one of the most gruesome and visceral action movies in recent years, one area which Disney/FX's Shōgun did not dive too deeply into. The Northman shares many similar narrative themes to Shōgun as Alexander Skarsgård's protagonist goes on a full-throttle decade-spanning path for vengeance after his father, a king, is betrayed and murdered for his crown. Once Skarsgård's Amleth grows up, he comes up with a vicious and violent scheme to avenge his father's death and take back the throne that was taken from him, which is not too far from Lord Toranaga's motivations and character trajectory in Shōgun. Directed by one of the best horror directors of our time, Robert Eggers, The Northman is an epic tale on the same level of prestige as Shōgun.

5 The Last Samurai (2003)

Directed by edward zwick.

The Last Samurai has been coming up in Google searches for "best samurai movies" since its 2003 release, with good reason. Starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai isn't just a great movie about samurai culture but one of the best films to come out of the early 2000s, earning four Oscar nominations including Best Supporting Actor for Watanabe. The Last Samurai takes place in 19th century Japan as Nathan Algren, a U.S. army captain, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in modern warfare techniques. Algren finds himself split between two different eras and worlds in this action-packed movie full of battle scenes. Fans of Shōgun who were waiting for Crimson Sky and the Battle of Sekigahara can get their action fix from The Last Samurai .

Shogun season 2 faces some stark challenges without any source material to back it up, but it does have one major advantage over Game of Thrones.

4 The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Directed by joel cohen.

The Tragedy of Macbeth also chronicles the strategic and tragic rise to power of one of Shakespeare's most iconic figures. Joel Coen of the iconic Coen Brothers directing duo ( The Big Lebowski , No Country for Old Men , Fargo ) directed 2021's The Tragedy of Macbeth , a visually stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth . While there have been many renditions of Macbeth over the years, the directorial mastery of Joel Coen makes his The Tragedy of Macbeth one of the very best especially in the area of cinematography. With Shōgun being one of, if not the, most visually stunning series of 2024, fans who appreciated the aesthetics and compositions of the series will certainly find substance in the visual style of The Tragedy of Macbeth.

3 The Twilight Samurai (2002)

Directed by yōji yamada.

For fans of Hiroyuki Sanada specifically, don't miss his performance in 2002's The Twilight Samurai in what is arguably his best role before appearing in Shōgun . While the tone of The Twilight Samurai is very different from Shōgun since it is considered a romantic drama, there are still enough action and suspenseful elements to make it entertaining throughout for fans of the acclaimed 2024 series.

A younger Sanada is featured in The Twilight Samurai as Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai at the end of the feudal era of Japan . It's incredibly ironic that The Twilight Samurai takes place at the end of feudal Japan with Sanada playing a low-ranking samurai, while Shōgun takes place at the start of the longest shogunate in Japan's history and Sanada plays the most powerful person of that time.

2 13 Assassins (2010)

Directed by takashi miike.

13 Assassins is one of the highest-rated and critically acclaimed samurai movies of the 21st century. The film takes place in feudal Japan in 1844, which is still in the thick of the real-life Tokugawa shogunate. 13 Assassins features a fictional feudal lord named Naritsugu Matsudaira, who is an evil half-brother of the Japanese shogun. In order to prevent his rise to power, a group of thirteen samurai band together to set a trap and end the tyrannical reign of the feudal lord. The film is directed by renowned Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike and is widely considered to be his masterpiece. 13 Assassins is currently streaming on Hulu .

1 Yojimbo (1961)

Apart from Seven Samura i, Yojimbo is arguably Akiro Kurosawa's greatest film. The film stars Toshirō Mifune, who notably starred as Lord Toranaga in the 1980s version of Shōgun . Yojimbo is a one-person army action epic that follows Mifune's crafty ronin character Sanjuro Kuwabatake who decides to take down both sides of a rival gang in a small Japanese town. Sanjuro has a similar degree of strategy and cunning antics as Toranaga, which makes Yojimbo a thought-provoking and thoroughly compelling watch. Yojimbo is also streaming on Max and is one of the best possible movies to watch while waiting for Shōgun season 2.

Shōgun is guaranteed to have at least 2 more seasons and should continue to chronicle the legendary historical conflicts of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

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Shogun is an FX original mini-series set in 17th Century Japan. Shogun follows John Blackthorne, who becomes a samurai warrior but is unknowingly a pawn in Yoshii Toranaga's plan to become Shogun. The series stars Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne and Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga, along with Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, and Yûki Kedôin.

‘September 5’ Review: Taut Media-Critical Control-Room Drama Reveals How a Hostage Crisis Forever Changed TV News

Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro play members of an American TV crew covering the 1972 Olympic Games who rose to the challenge of a real-world terrorist attack.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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On Sept. 5, 1972, millions watched a tense international hostage situation unfold live on ABC television, as members of a militant Palestinian faction calling itself Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich and held the Israeli team hostage. In “ September 5 ,” we watch the sports crew of an American TV network step up to the challenge of covering such a monumental event. For better or worse (be assured, the movie leaves room for debate), their decisions made history, as the incident fed on media attention, and ABC became the first network to broadcast an act of terrorism on live TV.

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The seasoned shot-caller here is Roone Arledge ( Peter Sarsgaard ), who springs into action the moment gunshots are fired off-screen, insisting, “We’re not giving this story to News. … Sports is keeping it.” Thirty years later, in its obituary, The New York Times described Arledge as “the most important behind-the-scenes figure in the television coverage of the major events of the last half century, from the Olympics to the boxing matches of Muhammad Ali in the 1960’s to the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80.”

“September 5” takes us behind the scenes of the 17-hour ordeal to see why that is true, beginning shortly before the attack and cataloging key decisions until just after the tragic finale, when “Wide World of Sports” host Jim McKay famously confirmed the chilling news, “They’re all gone,” on air. Still, as an in-the-trenches account of how ABC Sports approached the story, the film focuses primarily on a young, ambitious producer (played by a period-appropriate-looking John Magaro), based on veteran sports broadcaster Geoffrey Mason’s memory of events.

The ABC Sports team is tiny and entirely male, with the exception of a German-speaking crew member named Marianne (“The Teacher’s Lounge” star Leonie Benesch) who plays an important role throughout. The way she’s treated — and underestimated — on account of her gender brings yet another layer of critique to the movie’s complex power dynamics, which reach upward to the more cautious corporate players, like operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin).

ABC Sports may have gotten the story, but it also got it wrong, prematurely repeating an unconfirmed report that the hostages were recovered safely. Moritz and Fehlbaum’s matter-of-fact script lacks the punchy pressure-cooker sparring quality of inside-baseball series such as “The Morning Show” or Aaron Sorkin’s “Sports Night,” which can leave one feeling like the real story is happening elsewhere — and it is, since there’s only so much that news crews can extrapolate from telephoto lenses trained on a faraway balcony.

When shocking incidents happen live, our imaginations tend to fill in what can’t be seen with the worst. In this case, revisiting it half a century later, knowing what happened doesn’t preclude us from wanting to get a better understanding of the specifics. But this movie’s insights are limited to the newsroom, focusing on such minutiae as TV hosts using the words “as we’re hearing,” versus the reality of what transpired during the climactic disaster at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base.

“This isn’t a competition,” the higher-ups remind, but it’s hard to convince the Sports division of it. This is the Olympics, after all, where everyone’s bent on winning and the rules are being written as they go.

Reviewed at Paramount executive screening room, Los Angeles, Aug. 12, 2024. In Venice, Telluride, Zurich film festivals. Running time: 94 MIN.

• Production: (Germany) A Berghauswöbke Film, Projected Picture Works production, in co-production with Constantin Film, ERF Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion, with the support of Filmfernsehfonds Bayern, Bayerischer Bankenfonds, Hessen Film & Medien, German Federal Film Board (FFA), Federal Government Commisioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). (World sales: Republic Pictures, Los Angeles.) Producers: Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Tim Fehlbaum, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth.
• Crew: Director Tim Fehlbaum. Screenplay: Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum. Camera: Markus Förderer. Editor: Hansjörg Weißbrich. Music: Lorenz Dangel.
• With: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch. (English, German dialogue)

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SDG Reviews ‘Silence’

At long last Martin Scorsese brings Japanese Catholic novelist Shusaku Endo’s masterpiece about the persecution of Japanese Christians to the screen. It was worth the wait.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) tells the magistrate and grand inquisitor Inoue (Issey Ogata) in Martin Scorsese’s shattering adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s Silence .

Rodrigues is quoting, of course, the famous boast of the early Christian writer Tertullian, which epitomizes the Christian idealization of martyrdom, so near the center of Christian self-understanding.

This sensibility — often blending piety and defiance, inspiration and bravado, even self-sacrificing devotion and self-promoting PR — was rooted in pre-Christian Jewish memory as well as Christian experience of persecution, first under Jewish authorities and especially under pagan Rome. Above all, of course, it was rooted in the passion and crucifixion of Jesus.

The Christian cultus of martyrdom served Christianity well, not only during the sporadic persecutions of the early centuries, but throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern age. Stories of the early martyrs’ heroic example were both a source of comfort and hope for medieval Catholics and Orthodox living under Islamic rule and a point of pride for the faithful in Christendom.

Then Christianity went to Japan — and in Japan it encountered something new, for which even the rigors of the Diocletian persecution were no true preparation. When 17th-century Japanese authorities in the time of the Tokugawa shogunate found it necessary to send the colonial powers of Europe packing and their European Jesus with them, they didn’t just shatter the missionaries’ bodies. They shattered their narrative.

Endo, one of Japan’s greatest novelists and a Catholic (he has been called a “Japanese Graham Greene,” which is about as useful, and as inexact, as most such analogies), explored this painful history in his 1966 novel Silence , generally regarded as his masterpiece. Scorsese read the book in Japan over a quarter century ago, shortly after finishing The Last Temptation of Christ , and wanted to film it ever since.

While I am (to put it mildly) no fan of Last Temptation , I did note, writing about it 15 years ago, that it was a film I could only imagine a Catholic director making. Now Scorsese has made another intensely Catholic film — one that I find almost as difficult as Last Temptation , but which draws me in as powerfully as Last Temptation repels me.

In a way it draws me in like a sore tooth one can’t stop probing with one’s tongue, like a painful memory that rises unbidden in one’s mind, stubbornly unresolved. Like Of Gods and Men , but much more so, Silence tells no one exactly what they want to hear, except those who can hear nothing else.

It poses a challenge for viewers of any faith or of none, or of any culture or ethnicity, even if the challenge is not the same for everyone. A friend who is an atheist has said that Silence made him want to believe in God. For my part, Silence presses my Christian ethos to the breaking point.

It’s worth remembering that Silence has outraged many Japanese Catholics with its empathic portrayal of persecuted Christians who avoided martyrdom by trampling on fumi‑e (literally “stepping-on picture”) — images of Christ or the Blessed Virgin that suspected Christians were required to step on to express apostasy or repudiation of Christ. Over time the images are worn smooth by countless feet: mute testimony to each believer put to the test of countless past failures. How much difference would one more failure make?

For the Jesuits, the Church’s “shock troops” or special forces, such failure is not an option. When word reaches Father Rodrigues and Father Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) in Portugal that their mentor in Japan, Father Christovao Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has apostatized under torture, they find it inconceivable and set out for Japan to learn the truth.

Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto paints Japan as a world shrouded in mist and shadow, overgrown with dense forests. The score by husband-and-wife composers Kim Allen Kluge and Kathryn Kluge is a daring ambient skein of breaking waves, insect and bird songs and other natural sounds blended with subtle instrumental effects.

More than once Japan is described as a “swamp,” an environment inhospitable to Roman Catholicism — a plant native to European soil that cannot be successfully transplanted to Japan, where its roots rot.

Rodrigues contests this: Christianity in Japan flourished for generations, he says, before the soil was poisoned by persecution. But what does Rodrigues know about Japanese Christianity? Silence hangs us on the horns of an unsettling dilemma: On the one hand, can a Christianity that is culturally European have meaning in Japan? On the other, if Christianity has changed in Japan, is it still the same faith proclaimed by the missionaries?

The missionaries teach, an interpreter (Tadanobu Asano) dismissively remarks, but will not learn. Their attitude — exemplified by Rodrigues — is that they have the Truth, and the Truth applies everywhere. Rodrigues doesn’t appreciate (as did St. Francis Xavier, who was deeply impressed with Japanese culture) that only a culture not one’s own can teach one to appreciate how profoundly one’s apprehension of truth is shaped and colored by culture, and thus to begin to fathom how differently the same truth would be appropriated by another culture.

Do the Japanese Kirishitans worship the Christian God? How would Rodrigues know? His zeal and piety are earnest and admirable, but his vision is clouded by complacency and arrogance. Perhaps Silence is a true tragedy in the classical sense, in which a virtuous man is undone by a fatal flaw.

Notably, Rodrigues seems initially stronger and more disciplined in his faith than Garupe (Garrpe in the novel), who struggles more with misgivings and failings. “You’re a bad Jesuit,” Rodrigues chides Garupe with a smile. Sometimes, though, weakness proves stronger than strength.

The themes of weakness and betrayal are embodied in the figure of Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), an unhappy wretch whom the priests hire as a guide en route to Japan. A drunk, a coward, a quisling, Kichijiro earns the priests’ mistrust from the outset; he evokes both Judas and Graham Greene’s mestizo in The Power and the Glory , though, unlike both, he repents over and over again.

In time Rodrigues comes to be haunted by Kichijiro’s plight: Had he been born to a Japanese Christian community prior to the current persecution, Kichijiro might have lived out his life a happy, decent Christian. Is it his fault that he was born too late, in an era of unprecedented persecution?

Tertullian’s boast about the blood of martyrs was penned in an era of bread and circuses, in which believers willing to suffer and die for the faith could show the crowds what they were made of. In Japan, by contrast, authorities quickly learned that trying to make dramatic public examples of individual believers backfired. Now they made them suffer ignominiously, away from the public gaze.

“Smite the shepherd,” wrote the prophet Zechariah, “and the sheep will be scattered.” Not only have the Japanese inquisitors learned this lesson, they’ve also learned an insidious inverse principle: To break the shepherd, smite the sheep.

Some are willing to trample the fumi-e to live. Painful as it is, their neighbors understand, and even the authorities seem at times to regard the whole business lightly, as a mere “formality.” But what if trampling the fumi-e is not enough? Rodrigues might be willing to suffer any torture for his faith, but what happens when the cost of his fidelity is the suffering of others?

The climactic moment is much debated, and rightly so. Is it an act of betrayal? An act of self-abnegating love? Both at the same time? Less debatable is what follows. In the end, the question is not whether one has betrayed God, but whether in doing so one has abandoned him entirely, or whether there is still hope of forgiveness.

Like Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal , the title suggests the silence of heaven in the face of suffering and evil. This is an important theme, though it’s worth noting that Silence was not Endo’s preferred title, and he later regretted agreeing to the publisher’s suggestion on this point.

What makes the cross-examination of West and East vital onscreen is the depth and complexity of the performances on both sides.

Garfield and Driver both underwent substantial preparation in Ignatian spirituality under the direction of Jesuit Father James Martin, including making a silent retreat, and it pays off. Garfield channels his aura of wholesome sincerity in a direction quite different from his last long-suffering man of faith, Hacksaw Ridge ’s Desmond Doss: intellectual, reflective, sophisticated enough not to realize his limitations.

Next to him, Driver is an ascetic presence (he lost 50 pounds for the role), his sepulchral voice conveying authority and long discipline. Neeson makes the most of what is almost a glorified cameo, particularly in the unbearable reunion scene.

The Japanese actors are possibly even better. As the inquisitor Inoue, Ogata (a comedian as well as an actor) is unnervingly mercurial, a mask of courtliness giving way at times to unexpectedly humorous flamboyance and menacing contempt. Asano’s translator is a friendly, even jovial, sadist. (He’s a less familiar face to Americans than Ken Watanabe, whom he replaced thanks to what now appears to be a happy conflict.)

One of the most haunting scenes belongs to Shinya Tsukamoto as Mokichi, one of the villagers to whom the priests minister in the tense but edifying early going.

Humbled by the villagers’ devotion in extremis , Rodrigues tells Mokichi that their faith gives him strength. “My love for God is strong,” Mokichi haltingly replies. “Could that be the same as faith?” Yes, Rodrigues replies thoughtfully, it must be.

Not long after, Mokichi refuses an apostasy test and is sentenced to a ghastly crucifixion in the surf, slowly overwhelmed by the incoming tide. Toward the end, as villagers and executioners keep a mute vigil, Mokichi raises his voice and sings a plaintive Tantum Ergo (the last two verses of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua ).

In a story of a long defeat, here is a privileged moment of grace. Here, for all with ears to hear, God is not silent.

See also Apostasy and Ambiguity: Silence Asks Hard Questions About Faith and Persecution

Steven D. Greydanus is the Register’s film critic and creator of Decent Films . He is a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter .

Caveat Spectator: Intense scenes of torture and menace, including graphic violence; ambiguous religious themes. Might be fine for mature teens.

• andrew garfield
• japanese martyrs
• liam neeson
• martin scorsese
• persecution of christians
• sdg reviews

Deacon Steven D. Greydanus Deacon Steven D. Greydanus is film critic for the National Catholic Register, creator of Decent Films, a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Newark, and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. For 10 years he co-hosted the Gabriel Award–winning cable TV show “Reel Faith” for New Evangelization Television. Steven has degrees in media arts and religious studies, and has contributed several entries to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, including “The Church and Film” and a number of filmmaker biographies. He has also written about film for the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy. He has a BFA in Media Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York, an MA in Religious Studies from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, PA, and an MA in Theology from Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. Steven’s writing for the Register has been recognized many times by the Catholic Press Association Awards, with first-place wins in 2017 and 2016 and second-place wins in 2019 and 2015. Steven and his wife Suzanne have seven children.

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One

Reviewed by: Keith Rowe CONTRIBUTOR

Potential dangers of high-powered Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer systems

The ethics of AI

Threat of desperate nations fighting over dwindling resources like food and water

Bravery / courage / self-sacrifice

Y our mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine if this movie is worth its $290 million dollar price tag or the 10+ dollars (national average) you’ll have to shell out to see it.

The movie opens somewhere in the Bering Sea, where the Russian submarine, Sevastopol, is scuttled by its own active learning (artificial intelligence) system. Meanwhile, in the middle of the Arabian Desert, IMF agent Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) is engaged in a shootout with bounty hunters during a sandstorm. After dispatching his less-skilled attackers, Ethan is reunited with Ilsa Faust ( Rebecca Ferguson ), who has one half of a cruciform key. The other half must be found soon, because only the assembled key can prevent the planet from being annihilated by a rogue AI called The Entity. Cue the ticking time bomb story device.

Ethan encounters Grace ( Hayley Atwell ), an interested party in the key, at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. While hiding out from Jasper Briggs ( Shea Whigham ) and his team of paramilitary goons, Ethan catches a glimpse of his old nemesis Gabriel ( Esai Morales ), another seeker of the key. And, just because an action film requires lots of moving parts to conceal its tenuous story, the ironically named White Widow ( Vanessa Kirby ) is also in pursuit of the movie’s MacGuffin. As usual, Ethan is assisted by his loyal companions, Luther Stickell ( Ving Rhames ) and Benji Dunn ( Simon Pegg ).

“Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One” is the seventh film in the series and is the first part of a two-part story—a first for the franchise—which will culminate with Cruise’s final appearance as Ethan Hunt, a character he first portrayed 27 years ago. This film is also the longest “Mission Impossible” movie yet, clocking in at a bladder-taxing 2 hours and 43 minutes.

Also of note, this is the third “Mission Impossible” movie to pair Cruise with director Christopher McQuarrie , who also worked with the star as a writer or director on “Valkyrie” (2008), “Jack Reacher” (2012), “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014), “The Mummy” (2017) and a little film that came out last year called, “Top Gun: Maverick.” It’s clear from the quality of their past collaborations that the actor and director work well together.

Cruise, 61, is still on his A game—he still does his own stunts and still sprints for minutes at a time without breaking a sweat. Recently, the actor publicly expressed his admiration for Harrison Ford and said he’d also like to star in action movies when he’s 80. At this rate, Cruise will be doing his own stunts when he’s 100… and making it look easy.

But the movie’s stunts weren’t easy, especially since most of them were done practically. Though well conceived and executed, the film’s action set pieces fail to deliver a knockout punch—that one heart-stopping, death-defying stunt we’ve come to expect from these movies, like the exhilarating skydiving sequence in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018), which puts this movie’s parachute and speed-flying scenes to shame. Sad to say, but the action here doesn’t feel elevated. It does feel derivative, though.

Spoiler Alert: The opening submarine sequence feels like it was borrowed wholesale from “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), most notably the scene where the sub is struck by its own torpedo. (Sidebar: I counted two instances of “impossible” in the sub crew’s conversation… more on the movie’s dialog in a bit).

The pulse-pounding car chase in Rome starts off in a fresh vein, with Grace stealing a police car and Ethan driving a really dorky-looking police motorcycle. But then we drift into standard car chase territory when Ethan and Grace upgrade to a Bond-like, hi-tech yellow Fiat (funny how Ethan doesn’t balk at the car’s bright color when he knows every police car in the city is pursuing them). Though thrilling at times, the entire sequence comes off like one of the Mini Cooper chases in “The Italian Job” (2003) or similar high-octane chase scenes in one of the “Bourne” movies. What makes the sequence pop is its handcuff hijinks; Ethan and Grace are forced to take turns driving with one hand. It’s a fun scene, beautifully played by Cruise and Atwell.

As Ethan prepares to go Evel Knievel off the side of a mountain, Benji melts down, shouting at Ethan that he has no idea the kind of pressure he’s under. This comedic bit is a virtual remake of the scene in “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) when Benji has an anxiety attack while Ethan ascends the Burj Khalifa skyscraper with fickle suction gloves. Someone should’ve told screenwriters McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen that it was funny the first time…

The series has come full circle with respect to its high-speed train sequences (and whose idea was it to name the train the Orient Express?). Though the knife fight involving Ethan and Gabriel is occasionally riveting, it isn’t nearly as daring or dazzling as the helicopter explosion that violently propels Ethan onto the back of the train in the first “Mission Impossible” (1996). Where’s the originality? Have these “Mission Impossible” movies run out of new ideas?

I’ve probably spent too much time talking about action sequences, but, at the end of the day, that’s why people turn out to see these movies. Those who only care about the action probably won’t be dissuaded by my comments, but those looking for something else, like a plot, may find the movie wanting. The story is a style over substance spectacle that builds its structure around a series of action sequences. Worse still, when the origin of the key is revealed as something that’s been obvious from the start, we realize the entire story has been one giant red herring. Yawn!

Also disappointing is that there’s very little character development in the movie. At this point in the series, shouldn’t we see more growth in Ethan and the other recurring characters?

For instance, what does Ethan learn in the movie? That women who fall into his orbit tend to meet untimely demises? Old hat! That he still has a tendency to go rogue? It’s in his DNA. That he can’t trust or outsmart a computer? Can anyone? That confronting ghosts from the past can be dangerous? Granted. That even if you don’t smoke, carrying around a cigarette lighter can come in handy?

I realize these movies will never be mistaken as high art, but adding a little meat to these bare-bone characters might’ve gone a long way toward making the material a little less campy and more adult.

Now, as promised, here’s my diatribe on the film’s dialog. In short, it’s maddeningly inconsistent. I can’t remember a time when a movie’s dialog was so bad I started squirming in my seat, but such was the case here when influential leaders from around the globe discuss the existential threat posed by The Entity. Instead of communicating with each other, the characters spout scripted sound bites to fill in expository details the audience has already guessed.

It takes nearly five minutes for the characters to say what I can sum up in six words: find the key, save the world (with apologies to “Heroes”). This is easily one of the most agonizingly tedious data dumps ever committed to film. What makes the sequence even more tragic is that these are really good actors ( Cary Elwes , Henry Czerny , Charles Parnell and Mark Gatiss , among others), whose talents are wasted on dialog any middle schooler could craft. The actors try their best to lend weight to their flimsy lines, but to no avail.

The ponderous conference mercifully ends when green gas knocks out everyone but a disguised Ethan (way too many mask gimmicks in this movie) and Eugene Kittridge (Czerny). Kittridge delivers a superb monologue that touches on some of the most salient issues in the movie, including the dangers of AI and the threat of desperate nations fighting over dwindling resources like food and water. He also predicts that the present mission will cost Ethan dearly.

Sadly, such meaningful dialog is one of the only bright spots in a film riddled with such pedestrian lines as, “There’s a bug in the system. A ghost in the machine.” Yeah, we get the point. And then there’s this revelatory statement, “Whoever controls The Entity controls the truth.” Or Ethan’s insightful newsflash, “People are chasing us!”

The movie is bookended with voice-over narrations by Kittridge, who sets the tone with an overly earnest soliloquy and wraps things up with a sermonizing summary of the stakes for the next film. These painfully prosaic stretches of dialog would’ve gone down easier with a comedic chaser, but the film only has a few funny lines. Even the reliably witty Pegg only lands a couple jokes in the movie.

So, aside from derivative action sequences and horrendous dialog, what is there to recommend the film? Well, the cinematography is quite good, and McQuarrie makes the most of his locations, particularly the golden hour cityscape in Rome, Italy, the shot of Ethan running along the ruffled roof of the Abu Dhabi airport, and the forested region in Norway where Ethan attempts his high-altitude motorcycle jump.

The movie’s acting is also an asset. Many audience members will enjoy the fervid friendship that forms between Ethan and Grace (Cruise and Atwell have tremendous onscreen chemistry). Though their witty banter is enjoyable, the romantic tension between the couple feels rushed, and inappropriate, since Ethan’s girlfriend just recently died. As a thief with a penchant for leaving Ethan in the lurch, Grace comes off as a spy movie version of Catwoman; with Ethan in the role of Batman, since he has a similar fighting style and does his fair share of flying in the movie.

A silly analogy? Probably. That means it’s time to examine some weightier topics.

Themes and Spiritual Content

As with most action flicks, this movie’s plot takes a backseat to sensational stunts and heart-pounding chases. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave us with much to evaluate on the story front. Still, the movie has a few meaningful aspects, so let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Although the movie foregrounds the potential dangers of AI, it eschews a broader conversation on the ethics of AI. At the heart of the AI debate is the obvious fact that humans created the problem by playing God. Though the topic has been broached many times before—such as the compelling “fire sale” cyber attack storyline in “Live Free or Die Hard” (2007) or Skynet in the “Terminator” movies, the quintessential, post-singularity AI invasion cautionary tale—this movie could’ve shown some new threat to humanity, based on the latest AI research. Unfortunately, The Entity only focuses on Ethan and his team, so the movie stays surface level and fails to consider the global implications of an AI running amok—a major whiff by McQuarrie.

Rather than being a menacing presence in the film, like Ultron in Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), The Entity barely factors into the action—only the agents doing its bidding remind us of the looming threat it poses. This is a major problem from a story standpoint, since a hero can’t shine unless he’s pitted against a really strong villain. Here, the villain (The Entity) is only seen or heard in a few scenes.

Gabriel ( Esai Morales ) isn’t onscreen enough to qualify as the movie’s main villain either. He’s characterized as a dark messiah—The Entity’s chosen one. He even speaks as if he’s a divine being, “As it is written.” Aside from these delusions of grandeur, Gabriel violates the 1st Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3) because he believes he is a god.

In Gabriel’s demented philosophy, death is a gift. Ethan says Gabriel doesn’t enjoy the killing, but the suffering. This reveals Gabriel’s bent toward sadomasochism.

The movie presents an interesting twist on the 6th Commandment, “You shall not murder ,” (Exodus 20:13). Since The Entity anticipates that Ethan will kill Gabriel, Ethan’s teammates emphatically say, “Do not kill Gabriel.” This is a refreshing alternative to the standard action movie climax, where the hero often vanquishes the villain by resorting to violence.

One of the movie’s recurring themes is the nature of truth . Ilsa says, “The world is changing. The truth is vanishing.” This assumes that lies will eventually force the truth into extinction. But the one objective truth, which originates with our Creator , will always expose lies and triumph over them. “Then you will know the truth , and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Kittridge has a different take on the truth, “This is our chance to control the truth. The concepts of right and wrong for everyone for centuries to come.” Despite Kittridge’s egomaniacal wish, the truth is immutable and cannot be altered by the whims of humans (or AIs).

The last part of his statement is the most troubling, since we can see an erosion of decency and decorum in every strata of our society today. In a world of moral relativism, where there’s no right or wrong, anything goes. The prophet Isaiah saw this trend coming centuries ago,

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” — Isaiah 5:20

Those who seek to redefine good and evil will be met with frustration and failure. From the start, God instilled an awareness of the oppositional forces at work in the world in the human heart—there’s a reason why one of the trees at the center of the Garden of Eden was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9).

The most disturbing dialog in the movie comes from Denlinger (Elwes), who calls out another character for his outdated ideas of patriotism. He refers to it as “old think.” Denlinger is in support of a super-state that will rule the entire world (Xi Jinping, Putin and a long list of other tyrants are licking their chops at such a proposition—as long as they’re the one in charge).

Let’s unpack Denlinger’s remarks.

Does true patriotism (not vigilantism, terrorism, or anarchism) ever go out of style?

What’s the opposite of “old think?” “New think?” “Woke think?” No thanks.

And how would a super-state operate? It certainly wouldn’t be democratic. Probably something like the One World government that’s described in the book of Revelation .

If there’s one area of the movie that’s relevant, that’s clear-eyed about our impending slide into dystopia, it’s these frightening statements made by a career politician swept up in the false promises of global equity.

Objectionable Material

Offensive Language/Vulgarities: Surprisingly, this “Mission” only has a few curse words, including: h*ll (1) and d*mn /d*mm*t (2). It’s a shame that the bulk of the movie’s swearing is irreverent in nature: g*d-d*m/g*d-d*mm*t (4). One character mouths a f-word, but we can’t hear it above the din of a party.

Alcohol/Drugs: Drinks are shown at a night club, but there’s very little imbibing in the scene.

Nudity and Sexual Content: When a man pats down a woman for weapons, he squeezes the undersides of her breasts. Then he slaps her on the butt.

At a nightclub, female dancers appear naked in silhouette, but are actually wearing tight bodysuits. In one scene, male dancers are glimpsed in nothing but their underwear.

Violence and Graphic Content: A couple scenes show dead bodies trapped under the ice. Though the tableau is unsettling, it isn’t gory.

There are too many gun battles and knife fights to list here, but the body count is exceedingly high in the film. The gunfights are filmed quickly and are largely bloodless.

The knife fights are more offensive, since we see a man stab a woman in the chest with a switchblade. Later, the same man slices another man’s throat with a knife, and we see a pool of blood forming underneath his body. One man is stabbed through the back of his hand. Another woman is stabbed near the end of the film. There’s a drawn-out knife fight atop a speeding train, but both men escape with their lives.

A man uses a Taser gun to knock out two other men. The movie has a few fistfights and high-speed car chases, which might be too intense for some viewers.

Mission Wrap-up

In the end, “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One” is overstuffed with decent (but certainly not amazing) action sequences, and is severely hamstrung by a derivative story filled with unsophisticated dialog. Still, other than standard action violence and a handful of expletives, the movie is pretty clean.

Most two-part movies start off with a slower first film which sets up an explosive climax in the second film. If that pattern holds true, I’m hopeful that the franchise will end on a bigger bang than what we get in this film.

Still, with the recent slate of glum, humdrum movies, “Dead Reckoning Part One” seems poised to be the top grossing film of the summer.

Anything’s possible, I reckon.

• Violence: Heavy
• Profane language: Moderate
• Vulgar/Crude language: Mild
• Nudity: Mild
• Drugs/Alcohol: Minor
• Wokeism: Mild
• Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

• Non-viewer comments

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

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“If you don’t believe in the devil, declare war on him and find out what happens.”

Writer/director Cary Solomon and priest/theological advisor Fr. Darrin Merlino talk about the making of the film Nefarious.

April 27, 2023 Jim Graves The Dispatch 14 Print

The writing and directing team of Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon ( God’s Not Dead, Do You Believe?, Unplanned ) released their new movie Nefarious  on April 14.  It tells the story of a mass-murdering inmate (Sean Patrick Flanery) who is slated to die for his crimes in the electric chair but not before a visiting psychiatrist (Jordan Belfi) determines if he is sane.  The inmate is possessed by a demon, Nefarious, who tells the psychiatrist that he is going to commit three murders of his own.

CWR spoke with Cary Solomon and Fr. Darrin Merlino, CMF, who was priest-theological advisor to the film (and also played a prison guard in the movie) about the challenges faced in the making of Nefarious , the reality of demonic activity, and what they learned through the experience.

CWR: How did you get the idea to do the film Nefarious ?

Cary Solomon: Chris Jones, a friend who had produced a movie for us, showed us A Nefarious Plot by Steve Deace.  In it, a demon talks about how he destroyed America.  We knew Steve, and we knew the book would make a good movie.  Steve’s story had no story or structure, but just a demon ranting, so we contacted Steve and asked his permission to write a story with a beginning, middle and end, and a couple of twists along the way.  He agreed, and we got started.

CWR: Much of the movie centers around the dialogue between Nefarious and the psychiatrist.  How did you develop it?

Cary Solomon: Chuck and I can take no credit for that.  We’re just a couple of guys from New Jersey; we don’t talk like that.  We watch the movie and hear the dialogue and are shocked.  Did that come from us?  We believe it came from the Holy Spirit.  We did our research, talked to Fr. Darrin Merlino and Fr. Carlos Martins, one of the world’s premiere exorcists.

We’re also devout Catholics, fanatical Catholics.  We love Jesus and the Virgin Mary.  Chuck is a cradle Catholic, and I’m a convert.  We do what we do because Jesus tells us to do it.  We also know how to tell a story and figure out what a character might say in a scene.

In this movie, we also wanted to take on certain issues of the day, like with the abortion sequence.  It was a tremendous opportunity to make a statement there. … We also wanted to make a movie that was entertaining.  No one wants to watch a movie that is a sermon.

CWR: Sean Patrick Flanery as Nefarious, the demon, really made the movie.

Cary Solomon: We had worked with Sean about twenty years ago, making a secular movie.  He is a phenomenal actor, the greatest I’ve ever seen.  He’s probably best known for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and The Boondock Saints .  We called him up to be in the movie, and he replied, “If you write it, I’m in.”

Our psychiatrist, Jordan Belfi, was a last minute find.  He’s smart, good-looking, and looks like a psychiatrist.  The Holy Spirit told us, “That’s your guy.”

CWR: And Glenn Beck?

Cary Solomon: Mr. Beck helped us on our movie Unplanned .  He showed us he had courage, which I admired.  He’s the man he says he is, which impresses me.  We wanted a media personality, like a Glenn Beck or a Ben Shapiro, to interview our psychiatrist.  We didn’t think anyone on the liberal side would want to do it, and we knew Steve Deace works at TheBlaze , so Steve asked Mr. Beck and he said yes.  Glenn Beck was amazing; he did his scene in one or two takes.

CWR: Fr. Merlino, how did you get involved with this film?

Fr. Darrin Merlino: I’ve been friends with Chuck and Cary for more than a decade now.  In fact, they were the first people I interviewed for my program, Hound of Heaven .  I had a Mass at my mother’s home in Huntington Beach for family and friends, and they came by and told me they were working on the script for Nefarious .  I told them I’d like to read it and serve as the theological consultant.

When it came time to film the movie I asked to play the part of the priest, Fr. Louis, but they told me I didn’t look the part.  They offered me the role of an extra instead.  I would also be on hand to celebrate Mass, bless the set, and pray with people.

CWR: You experienced demonic harassment while making the film?

Cary Solomon: Yes.  Ever since Unplanned , it’s been a battle.  This movie pulls the devil out of the darkness into the light; he works best when no one believes in him. We had eight or nine car crashes in about 13 days.  The cars were destroyed, but the drivers and passengers unhurt.  The building in which we shot our scenes about the devil groaned due to one of the worst wind storms in Oklahoma history.  But, whenever we paused filming the scene, the wind eased.  When we started filming again, it came back.  Our equipment often seemed not to work.

We had our premiere with many big names in attendance, such as Glenn Beck and Senator Ted Cruz, and the lights in the room started flickering.  The video we shot got corrupted.  Fr. Carlos Martins was there, and he said, “I know what this is.”  He gets his holy water and starts doing the rite of exorcism for a place that is possessed, praying his prayers in Latin.  Behind him he can hear the demonic chanting of a female voice.  He gets to the part of the prayer that commands the demon to bow down to the great and terrible name of Jesus, and the chanting stops, the lights start working, and the video is no longer corrupted.

There’s a lot more. Steve Deace got an infection and almost died.  Chris Jones is putting his little boy in a car seat and an SUV drives by going 45 mph and hits the car, narrowly missing Chris and his son.  John Sullivan, our marketing guy, gets out of his car and a woman driving by had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into the car.  He was okay, but the car was destroyed.

Newsweek calls to interview us about the film and 45 minutes into the interview our interviewer apologizes and says, “I’m sorry, but my battery is dead.  Can we re-do the interview?”  He re-tapes the interview, but calls back later and says, “I’m sorry, but the tape is blank.”  He emails us some questions to which we respond in writing.  We try to email back our responses, but the email won’t work.  We can email other people, but not Newsweek .  We got smart, though, and prayed to Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. Michael and suddenly the email went through.

At one point, nine of our 15 key personnel come down with COVID; I was in the hospital for eight days.  Then three days into filming we were struck by a union strike, no strike vote taken or grievances listed, just a strike.  They then tried to get the federal government to shut down our production with an injunction.  We went to court, and won on 29 of 30 counts.  We’re appealing the final charge.

I could go on for an hour about all the demonic harassment we’ve had.  When we do the DVD release of the movie, in the bonus materials, we’ll be talking about this.  We experienced demonic interference on Unplanned , but it was nothing like this.  If you don’t believe in the devil, declare war on him and find out what happens.  But the Lord told us to put on his armor and he is with us; I want you to do this.

Fr. Darrin Merlino: The devil tried to take me out!  I had appendicitis during the filming in Oklahoma, and when I went in for the operation, my appendix burst.  The doctor said had I waited another hour I could have died.  God really protected me; it happened on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so I also think the Blessed Mother had my back.

Also, when we were filming the scene in which the devil shares his dark gospel, Oklahoma had it most sustained wind storm in history.  Every time the director would yell action, the wind would blow so hard it caused the metal on the roof to bend.  It sounded like the Titanic ripping in half.  Then the director would yell “cut”, and the wind would die down.  It was like that all day for 12 hours.

But the most startling thing to me happened one night when I said Mass at an Airbnb in which we stayed.  First off, it was December, and the house was decorated for Christmas.  When we came into the home in the evening, all the religious-themed decorations had been thrown down and damaged.  The secular decorations were untouched.

I set up a table with an altar cloth and corporal for mass.  I left the room and came back, and discovered an entity had urinated on the upper right and lower left of the corporal, and defecated on the exact spot where I would have put the host.  It was as if the devil had marked the spot … There was no person or animal in the room that could have done it.  It was the craziest day of the whole shoot, and the most demonically attacked I have ever been.

CWR: What impact did participating in this movie have on your faith?

Fr. Darrin Merlino: I had never seen God and the devil “play tennis” like this before.  The devil didn’t want this movie to happen.  The amount of supernatural energy he spent trying to stop the movie was quite remarkable.

CWR: What reaction has the film had?

Cary Solomon: We’ve have a very small marketing budget, so it has been hard to get the film out there.  We’ve worked with the Catholic media, we’ve reached out to Evangelicals and conservative personalities, such as Glenn Beck.

Of those who have seen the film, 99 out of 100 are flattened, stunned.  They are aware of the devil in their lives and want to be free of him.  Women who have had abortions are regretting their decision and coming to the Lord.  People are coming back to see the film two and three times, and are bringing their family and friends.  Priests are telling me the film is spectacular, and the Evangelicals are saying the same thing.  And, this is in a film in which there is no spectacle.  Much of it depicts two guys talking in a room.

A 16-year-old kid told me it was the greatest movie he’s ever seen.  He’s fired up with his faith, and said it made him believe in God even more.  This is the generation we need to reach—we did the poster as we did to bring in non-believers age 15 to 25—which is obsessed with the occult.  This is why the devil is trying so many things to stop this movie.

You have to admit that there is something dark going on in the world like never before.  Evil is running amok.  But there is a merciful, caring, compassionate God who wants us to turn away from evil.

Fr. Darrin Merlino: We priests are really critical of religious films, but I can say that my fellow priests who I’ve spoken to, as well as exorcists, have been shocked how good it is.

You can watch this film two or three times and not pick up on everything.  It is a classic that you can watch over and over, and use it as a basis for discussion about moral and societal evils.  It is a great catechetical tool.  Despite its intense moments, I very much enjoyed the experience.

CWR: What is the best way to see the film, and how can people follow your work?

Cary Solomon: Check and see where it is playing in a movie theater in your area and go.  If you want more movies like this, please patronize it.  It will be available for streaming, and we’ll be coming out on DVD as well. To follow our work, you can look us up online, or visit www.believeentertainment.com .

( Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

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• Cary Solomon
• Chuck Konzelman
• Fr. Darrin Merlino
• Jordan Belfi
• Sean Patrick Flanery

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11 Comments

I just saw it in a theater this past Monday. Yes the main actor is incredibly awesome, my gosh. Thank you for making it!!

I bet you Hollywood will completely ignore this movie and the two terrific actors in the leading roles.

Thanks a lot!

If there is a Rite for the exorcism of a place, could we get a priest authorized to do exorcisms to Washington D.C.? He can start with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That place has been possessed for a long long time. When that’s done, he can move on over to the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building, then the CIA at Langley, then the Justice Dept Building, then the CDC, and then to Foggy Bottom and the State Dept.

If no priest is available, any layman would do. After all, if lay men and women can cast votes at the Synod of Bishops, then they certainly can do exorcisms.

Maybe we can get a team of lay exorcists over to the Vatican and start some exorcisms there. God knows the place is possessed.

While the exorcists are at it, they might as well include the United Nations on their list. I cannot believe that this day would come, that we can no longer trust the UN.

Nefarious is very truly an inspired movie. The Demonology is so very accurate. The Father of Lies would never explain himself as the Demon in this movie does…. Very insightful writing. The Demon rant on murder in the womb is the most laudable and terrific condemnation of that barbaric practice ever made. I wanted to stand up and shout. Audience at 4:10 pm on a weekday was less than 10 people. Another friend said she was the only one at her showing. In talking to fellow Catholics it seems hardly anyone is aware of this courageous film. I am personally aware that the demon can implant images in your mind… and persistently especially if you are depressed. Also the demon can alter what you see….for some reason… for instance; he can make someone appear to be extremely beautiful in order to tempt you into unchastity. “Hostage to the Devil” a book by Malachi Martin is an invaluable resource for getting a grip on how the evil one inveigles to destroy. It details 5 modern day U.S. exorcisms. If you have trouble believing his existence and hatred of mankind, screw up your courage and read that book.

I intend to see this film. I recently saw The Pope’s Exorcist and was underwhelmed. Having read Fr. Amorths books I was expecting more realism and reliance.

I now live in FL, having moved from CA in Oct. 2022. We attended a very large Catholic Church in Santa Clara. My wife took me to see the film and I was stunned. The devil was definitely present. I told my priest friends in Santa Clara about the movie and they researched it and ‘talked it up’ with the Parish. I’m told the movie was packed by parishioners. I’ll follow up at to their impressions. One of the priests who went, who is a personal friend, can’t stop talking or thinking about it.

The greatest seal of authenticity and supreme quality, and the loudest applause to the movie “Nefarious” comes from Satan himself, after he raised such a big circus of intimidation against it. We all need to be the promoting agency for this masterpiece, so the world can really wake up to God and follow him. We are living in a demonized drug fantasy world and this movie is medicine from God.

All of us, Catholic or not, and even the saintliest Catholic, need to watch it, recommend it, stream it and see it several times a year by buying the DVD. Pope Francis talks about the Church as a hospital. Well, it is but not a hospital that leaves the sick as sick as when they came in. The Mass, the Rosary, the Bible, etc. are essential and now this movie is part of our absolutely essential toolkit for fulfilling God’s calling for each of us and our more direct path to Heaven. Make it your Spiritual Victory Movie Rosary!! Praise be to Christ the King! Viva Cristo Rey!

At first read the impression was exaggeration of the bizarre in film and in actual events affecting the players. Then, there’s reality in which we may experience the unexplained bizarre. Unexplained doesn’t mean unexplained theologically. At times they’re occurrences that defy the natural order, at least appear to question coincidence. Although, the movie, perhaps a great sales job. Then I tend to trust priests’ who put their rep on the line publicly like Fr Darrin Merlino. An author’s commentary that panned another movie on the demonic seems relevant, “I thought of how the demonic and grave sins of some priests against the Sixth Commandment have led to a weakening of the faith around the world” (Filip Mazurczak). When these absurdities occur there’s usually some good which seems to elicit them. That may well be in relation to Fr Merlino’s witness. Witness that’s wanting.

I probably haven’t been to a movie in ten years, but trusted friends told me that I had to see Nefarious and it was worth my time. The theology is excellent and the dialogue is compelling enough to carry two talking heads for an hour and a half. I didn’t find the movie preachy even though it clearly had something important to say. If you can see it early on a Saturday afternoon, that would be ideal because it leaves a faithful Catholic wanting to go to confession afteward.

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

• “If you don’t believe in the devil, declare war on him and find out what happens.” – Via Nova
• FRIDAY AFTERNOON EDITION – Big Pulpit
• The Age of Nefarious - Catholic Stand

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