Cinema Faith

The ninth film from Quentin Tarantino is now playing, and it's filled to the brim with everything you love or hate about his movies. When Once Upon a Time In Hollywood was first announced, we admittedly feared the worst. A Tarantino film about the Manson murders? Gulp. But the end result is guaranteed to surprise you. Hollywood is the collision of two different stories and two different eras. The...

Eleven years ago, Iron Man changed comic book movies forever. Not only was the movie great, it was the beginning of a journey through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with each film offering something new while also being connected to one large story. Avengers: Endgame is the culmination of that 22-film saga. From this point forward, the MCU will never be the same. In many ways, Endgame is the pinna...

April is too early to be talking about the Oscars, but sometimes a gem comes along that's worthy of the discussion. Director Sebastián Lelio isn't well-known to American audiences. His only English-language feature prior to this year was 2017's Disobedience. But Gloria Bell could be the film that changes all of that for good. Bell is a remake of Lelio's own Spanish-language movie Gloria. Julianne...

We're back! After taking February off for all things Oscars, Jon and Tim are ready to turn the page on 2018…by talking about a really old movie. Yes, that's right — 2019 will have to wait. It's a dumpster fire in movie theaters right now, so we thought we'd travel back in time to 1950 and visit the work of a master. There are few directors as influential and legendary as Akira Kurosawa, and Rashom...

Barry Jenkins and Damien Chazelle both directed Oscar-nominated movies this year. The last time that happened was in 2017 when Chazelle's La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner only to be supplanted by the true Best Picture winner — Jenkins' Moonlight. The debacle was a distraction from what should have been Jenkins' sole moment in the spotlight. Moonlight was indeed the be...

It's that time of the year again. Lights are glowing. Music is going. Food is flowing. That's right — it's Oscar season! The festive holiday where we live in movie theaters because all the best films of the year appear over the course of three months. However, Netflix might be changing that. The platform that redefined TV as we know it just released their primary Oscar contender in theaters and st...

Our audio equipment failed us in October, but we're back and better than ever. Welcome to our first double feature podcast! That's right, this month you get two movies for the price of one. Starting things off is First Man. After launching two masterpieces into the universe with Whiplash and La La Land, director Damien Chazelle is back with a film about Neil Armstrong's infamous walk on the moon....

Who is Nicolas Cage? Oscar-winning actor? Charming leading man? The king of rage? The answer of course is all of the above. His nearly four decade career has run the gamut. He's been acclaimed and panned. He's made hits and straight-to-DVD misses. But through it all, Cage is still making movies and we're still talking about him. Cage's latest is the strangest film of the year so far. Writer/Direct...

Anyone who says they loved eighth grade is lying. It's the perfect storm. Bullies, hormones, rejection, fear, doubt, and self-loathing. Rinse, repeat. But what was hell on earth is cinema heaven. Enter stand-up comedian Bo Burnham. Eighth Grade is Burnham's feature film debut, and he couldn't have picked a time in our lives more rife with tension and conflict. You could almost call Eighth Grade a...

Could there be a movie more needed in 2018 than Won't You Be My Neighbor? As fear and tribalism reach fever pitch, we desperately need a mirror held up to our humanity. Fred Rogers was that mirror, not by pointing a finger, but by living a life of selfless love that still resonates today. The beauty of Morgan Neville's Neighbor is that he takes a man we thought we knew and reveals so much more. Ma...

Paul Schrader is better known for his writing than directing. Though he's directed over 20 films, it's his screenwriting collaborations with Martin Scorsese that have stood the test of time. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Bringing Out the Dead highlight Schrader's proclivities as a writer. All three feature a tortured protagonist walking against the current of life toward a fateful end. In First Re...

In 2008, Marvel Studios took the gamble of the century. They released Iron Man, featuring a virtually unknown character outside the comic book world and starring an actor with a checkered past and little box office success in Robert Downey Jr. Raising the stakes even further, prior to the release of Iron Man, Marvel committed themselves to a handful of additional movies and an eventual team-up eve...

We know what you're thinking. Another Spielberg movie? Really? Yes, two podcasts after The Post we're back for another discussion on the legendary filmmaker. But his latest entry couldn't be more different. Ready Player One, based on the novel by the same name, takes place in the year 2045. The world has devolved into a cramped, dirty mess and everyone is looking for an escape. And that's exactly...

Our podcast this month was originally on A Wrinkle in Time. Then we saw the movie… Tune in to the beginning for Jon’s epic rant, and then stay for a discussion of a movie that’s actually worth talking about: Annhilation. Alex Garland is a prolific writer, ranging from novels (The Beach) to screenplays (28 Days Later), but in 2014 he began a new trajectory as both writer and director for Ex Machina...

Is there any director with a more impressive filmography than Steven Spielberg? He defined our childhood, explored every genre, invented the blockbuster, and delivered masterpieces worthy of any top ten list. His work is legendary, and he's not done yet. The Post is Spielberg's 31st time behind the director's chair. And this time, he's got politics on the brain. In 1971, a government employee leak...

You'd be forgiven for writing off Guillermo del Toro as just another genre director. Entries like Hellboy, Blade Runner II, Pacific Rim, and Crimson Peak fit neatly in that vein. But if you really want to uncover del Toro's heart, look no further than 2006's Pan's Labyrinth. The film has been described as an "adult fairy tale" — a child-like fantasy set in a grown-up world. It was nominated for fi...

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Oscar season. After a dismal year at the movies, studios have saved their best for last. December boasts the most hopefuls, but November has a trick up its sleeve: a little indie called Lady Bird. Greta Gerwig isn't a household name, but you've seen her before. She's acted in roles both big and small for a decade (most recently as Jackie Kennedy's assistant in Jack...

Blade Runner is a classic. That's undisputed. The 1982 film, directed by Ridley Scott, is a breathtaking blend of noir and science-fiction that offers us a glimpse of the future we desire and dread. Harrison Ford shines as Rick Deckard, a "Blade Runner" tasked with hunting down and killing a group of rogue replicants. Replicants are bio-engineered androids designed to function as slaves, but with...

Stephen King doesn't typically make the "must read" list for Christians. On the surface, his tales appear dark and deranged, but a deeper look reveals a different story. Regardless of whether King is a practicing Christian (he declared himself one on his website, but has since pushed back on the label), his work speaks for itself. King writes with a clear biblical center — a world where the weak o...

2010 was the year of Kathryn Bigelow. She became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director and her breakout indie The Hurt Locker scored a surprise win for Best Picture. The film, about a bomb defusing team in Iraq, is a master-class in tension and a gripping character study to boot. Bigelow had proven her talent and the future was suddenly limitless. But even Academy Award-winning directo...

As Hollywood obsesses over superhero movies, power has shifted from directors to producers. Just ask Edgar Wright and Patty Jenkins — two veteran directors who dropped blockbuster projects after learning Marvel Studios was in charge, not them. But there is one director who continues to buck the trend and maintain his legacy as a true auteur: Christopher Nolan. Nolan's claim to fame was the 2000 in...

We first crossed paths with Edgar Wright in the 2004 sleeper hit Shaun of the Dead. The film put Wright on the map, along with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Two sequels rounded out the "Blood and Ice Cream" trilogy, Hot Fuzz and The World's End, continuing Wright's style of paying homage to genre films with a unique blend of satire and comedy. Wright broke new ground with 2010's Scott Pilgrim...

No one makes superhero movies like Marvel Studios. They've earned their big-screen domination with quality films, and Guardians of the Galaxy is at the top of the list. Released in 2014 after three Iron Mans, two Thors, two Captain Americas, and an Avengers team-up, Guardians was the breath of fresh air Marvel needed. The movie eschewed the seriousness of the genre and delivered an experience that...

Chances are high that you haven't seen Terrence Malick's new film Song to Song. Few people have. It's only grossed $421,856 since opening in limited release a month ago. The critical reception has been equally poor. Things weren't always this way for Malick. Six years ago, he released The Tree of Life to universal acclaim and a domestic gross of $54 million. What happened between now and then? Tha...

Jordan Peele is best known for his comedy work on Mad TV and Key and Peele, but for his feature film debut he chose a decidedly different path. Get Out is not only a horror film, it's a horror film about racism. The opening scene sets the tone: a black man walks nervously along the side of the road, his eyes darting wildly at his surroundings. Where is he? The suburbs. The scene is reminiscent of...