Catholic Film Club

HBO has released the first image of young Harry Potter in costume. It's a disappointing image, to be sure. And it hammers home, for several reasons, why this show should have been animated. The Catholic Film Club is a podcast about Craft & Conscience at the movies. INSTAGRAM: @media.benedictine EMAIL: filmclub@benedictine.edu Media & Culture at Benedictine College https://media.benedictine...

Jaws turns 50 this year. Tom Hoopes (The Extraordinary Story) shares 7 lessons every Catholic can take from Jaws. The Catholic Film Club is a podcast about Craft & Conscience in the movies.   INSTAGRAM: @media.benedictine EMAIL: filmclub@benedictine.edu Media & Culture at Benedictine College https://media.benedictine.edu/ Giving Page https://media.benedictine.edu/give Benedictine College h...

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is more than a movie. It is an expression of love by the film's creators Joshua and Rebekah Weigel. As the parents of adopted children, Joshua and Rebekah bring an unmatched honesty to the true story of Possum Trot. The film has been endorsed by Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann, and this interview features a representative of the Archdiocese of Kansas City...

We're talking There Will Be Blood on the solemnity of Corpus Christi. And, no, it's not just because both are about "blood." We're analyzing two famous scenes from this film about a misanthropic oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, played in Oscar-Winning fashion by Daniel-Day Lewis. In the first, he is baptised by his rival, a craven young preacher named Eli Sunday. In the second scene... well it's...

No Fate. All Providence. On Holy Trinity Sunday 2025, you will hear a reading from the Wisdom narratives in the Book of Proverbs. Skynet, the evil AI of the Terminator Franchise, is like a photo-negative of Wisdom. Wisdom comes from God, and she tells us that at the time of Creation she, "found delight in the human race." On the other hand, Skynet comes from man, but hates humanity and seeks to de...

Is God in the movie? Brother Maximilian Mary Anderson from St. Benedict's Abbey joins Michael Coy on the podcast to answer this question and many others in their discussion on the Coen Brothers film "Hail, Caesar!"   The Catholic Film Club is a podcast about Craft & Conscience at the movies. Brought to you by Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.   INSTAGRAM: @media.benedictine EMAIL: filmc...

The passing of Pope Francis inspired us to watch his favorite movies. ROME OPEN CITY directed by Roberto Rossellini LA STRADA directed by Federico Fellini BABETTE'S FEAST directed by Gabriel Axel   The Catholic Film Club is a podcast about Craft & Conscience at the movies. Brought to you by Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.   What CONCLAVE gets right and VERY wrong https://youtu.be/RmhB...

SINNERS reaches for greatness... then has second thoughts. Michael B. Jordan and Michael B. Jordan star in this big-budget original movie written & directed by Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed, Fruitvale Station). It tells the story of the Smoketstack Twins, they are named, Smoke and... Stack. They've returned home after a stint with the mafia, and they're gathering old friends to open Club...

It's Carlo Collodi vs. Guillermo Del Toro. John and Jessica Beyer of Oasis Studio 7 join Michael Coy to discuss the classic book by Carlo Collodi and how its message is transformed or subverted by Guillermo Del Toro. Together we talk about the beauty and craft of Stop-Motion, the religious symbolism in the film, and our differing approaches to children's entertainment. The Catholic Film Club is ab...

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is a masterful retelling of the timeless tale by Carlo Collodi. He updates the story in many ways, adding his preoccupation with fascism, a tragic backstory to Geppetto, his classic theme of disobedience... but the most foundational and brilliant innovation is to tell the story using stop-motion animation. This art form adds a third-dimension to the themes of Pinocch...

Dr. Richard White (Professor of Theology at Benedictine College) joins Michael Coy (guy) for a conversation about The Conversation, the paranoid thriller starring Gene Hackman, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Watch our Introductory Essay to The Conversation    • Coppola's CONVERSATION with God   The Catholic Film Club is about Craft & Conscience in the movies. One Film a Month Introductory E...

This month on the Catholic Film Club we're covering The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola's paranoid thriller about Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) a surveillance man who leads a very private life. Join us in two weeks for an hour-long discussion about the film. The Catholic Film Club covers one movie a month. Our main subject is the marriage between craft & conscience in the movies. This podcast i...

We're happy to be joined by Rob Kaczmark, the President and CEO of Spirit Juice Studios. Spirit Juice is the premiere Catholic production company, based on Chicago, IL. They have created top flight films for any number of organizations, including Word on Fire and The Knights of Columbus. Rob is the co-director of Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story, a feature length documentary about the...

Conclave has been nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The most annoying of these nominations is Best Adapted Screenplay by Peter Straughn, based on the novel by Robert Harris, because neither the screenplay or the novel has a clue about the Catholic Church. Even though they have a LOT of opinions on how to fix it. Case in point, a scene where its hero breaks the Confessio...

WATCH VIDEO ESSAY ON YOUTUBE To pay tribute to the late David Lynch, Michael Coy recommends his least celebrated film, THE STRAIGHT STORY, which was a G-Rated family film distributed by Disney. The movie tells the true story of Alvin Straight, who took his riding lawnmower over hundreds of miles to visit his dying brother. THE STRAIGHT STORY is available to stream on Disney+ The 4K Remaster Blu-Ra...

Michael Coy and Tom Hoopes sit down to talk A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic musician, Bob Dylan. Tom Hoopes asserts that the speech given by Kansas City Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker, at Benedictine College gave us permission to speak freely, the same way Bob Dylan's electric set at the Newport Folk Festival gave us permission to be who we wanted to be. The Catholic F...

Michael and Patrick sit down with Dr. Nathan Bowman to discuss Robert Eggers latest horror film which is a retelling of the 1922 version, Nosferatu. Dr. Bowman recognized the physicality of Lily-Rose Depp's performance and her use of Butoh dance, a Japanese dance-theater art form that originated in the 1950's and translates as "dance of darkness."                                                   ...

The best Christmas movies in history came from times of great national unity following times of international stress. One thinks of the devastation of WW2 followed by WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954), the great tension of the Cold War followed by HOME ALONE (1990), and the terror of 9/11 followed by ELF (2003). But COVID has been a unique example of an international crisis that did not the bring us together...

Is Mary the original Yas Queen? Or is she so much more? MARY is the latest biblical epic distributed by Netflix. It stars Israeli actress Noa Cohen as The Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ alongside Anthony Hopkins as the mad King Herod. Directed by practicing Catholic, DJ Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye), it purports to tell the real story of Mary using Catholic and Orthodox tradition to trace her root...

WILDCAT is a meditative journey into the spiritual and creative life of Flannery O'Connor. Ethan Hawke directs his daughter Maya Hawke as the great Catholic writer. Together they tell story of a crucial moment in O'Connor's life when her artistic ambition converged against her diagnosis with lupus. The film's Executive Producer, Eric Groth (Full of Grace and Paul, Apostle of Christ) gives us a beh...

Many have talked about the failures of GLADIATOR 2, but in this episode we throw our hat in the ring and arrogantly try to fix an ultimately uninspired retread of Ridley Scott's classic film, GLADIATOR. Luckily we're joined by Great Books professor and Director of the Center for Catholic Media, Dr. Jared Zimmerer. The Catholic Film Club is about Catholic Filmmakers discussing craft and conscience...

Over the past decade, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has gained a swell of appreciation, from the grandeur of its production, to the stunning complexity of its central villain, Judge Frollo. But this is a film so steeped in Catholicism that you can only fully understand it through a religious lens. In this episode of The Catholic Film Club, Michael Coy and Patrick Bautista dive deep into the biblical...

Hugh Grant lures two Mormon missionaries into a sinister psychological game to test their religious beliefs. He and the writers of HERETIC ask one of the ultimate questions, "What is the one true religion?" (It's Catholicism). The Catholic Film Club is a podcast about Craft & Conscience in the movies. This show is brought to you by The Center for Catholic Media at Benedictine College in Atchis...

"Conclave" is a masterfully directed but ultimately bone-headed thriller about the election of a new pope. Tom Hoopes ( The Extraordinary Story Podcast ) joins the Catholic Film Club to bring some light to what the film gets wrong about the Catholic faith, including its approach to certain physical disorders, priestly ordination, and the sacraments. Michael Coy argues that these flaws are so found...

Michael Coy proposes that analog film is the only real form of making movies. Patrick Bautista provides a more moderate view. What do you think? Is film dead and buried or is there still value in using it? What is the value of using digital cameras? The Catholic Film Club is brought to you by The Center for Catholic Media at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. It is hosted by Michael Coy and...