DecentFilms.com

Review: Salt (2010)

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:13:35 EST

Salt is tasty in moderation, though you wouldn’t want to make it a big part of your diet.

Review: Ramona and Beezus (2010)

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:35:20 EST

Faithful to the spirit if not the letter of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books, Ramona and Beezus borrows eclectically from multiple books rather than sticking to one, but gets right what most matters, above all Ramona herself.

Post: Reel Faith (7/22)

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:25:58 EST

Tune in Friday, July 22 at 8:30pm EDT for another episode of “Reel Faith.” Reviewed this week: Salt, Predators and Ramona and Beezus, plus Rossellini’s Open City and comments about Creation.

Post: Reel Faith: 7/16 episode available online

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:40:57 EST

Just a quick note that Friday’s episode of “Reel Faith” is now available at the show’s website. This is our sixth episode, and I think we’ve started to hit our stride. If you missed the broadcast on Friday, check it out online!

Review: Night Train to Munich (1940)

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:15:02 EST

If the two British twits on the titular train in Carol Reed’s overlooked, entertaining Night Train to Munich seem to have wandered in from another movie, it’s because they have.

Review: Inception (2010)

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:34:55 EST

Inception is the most audacious and multifaceted Hollywood entertainment for grown-ups I’ve seen in years: a brainy, bravura achievement inviting comparison to the most inspired work of Hollywood visionaries from Michael Mann and Charlie Kaufman to Ridley Scott and the Wachowskis.

Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010)

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:59:22 EST

The first good thing about The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is that it isn’t called The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Oath of the Dragon Ring or The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Nesting Dolls of Doom.

Post: On the Air: Catholic Answers Live & Reel Faith!

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:42:22 EST

This Friday I’ll be doing an hour of “Catholic Answers Live” with Patrick Coffin and co-hosting the latest episode of “Reel Faith” with David DiCerto! In both venues we’ll be discussing the latest movies: Inception, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Despicable Me.

Post: Quick notes

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:57:57 EST

A few quick notes: After a week back in the States, I’m just about back in the swing of things. (Hope you’ve been enjoying my pilgrimage blogging!)

Post: Update #4: Catacombs of St. Callixtus!

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:13:17 EST

Tuesday afternoon after the papal Pallium Mass, the itinerary includes the catacombs of St. Callixtus and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. I missed the catacombs on my first trip to Rome, so I’m really looking forward to this.

Post: Update #3: Pallium Mass at St. Peter’s!

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:10:25 EST

It isn’t until I actually see the procession of 38 new metropolitan archbishops walking up the center aisle at Saint Peter’s Basilica at the start of the Pallium Mass a little after 9:30 Tuesday morning, and hear the cheers from pilgrims of the 26 countries represented—Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe—followed by the Bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI, that it really hits me: This is the greatest visible display of the Church’s catholicity that I have ever seen, and perhaps may ever see.

Review: Despicable Me (2010)

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:04:49 EST

To his suburban neighbors, Gru is a grumpy bald guy whose house looks like the Haunted Mansion and whose ride makes the Dark Knight’s Batmobile look like a Prius. He’s the one who makes tasteless “jokes” about killing your dog if it goes on his lawn again and pretends not to be home when girls come around selling cookies. You know the type.

Post: Update #2: From Assisi to Rome

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:55:58 EST

In my first update I mentioned someone comparing Assisi to Minas Tirith, Tolkien’s imaginary tiered city on a hill. What I didn’t know at the time is that unlike Minas Tirith, where the lowest level is the widest circle and the royal house is at the crown, Assisi’s crown is at the bottom: beneath the lower Basilica of St. Francis, in the crypt where Francis’s tomb is situated in the midst of four of his famous followers.

Post: Update #1: Romeward Bound!

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:30:28 EST

It’s 5am Monday morning in Italy. I’m sitting on a rooftop veranda outside my hotel room in Assisi overlooking the sleeping countryside. The moon is high. Later today we’ll be in Rome.

Post: Romeward Bound!

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:43 EST

In a few hours, my daughter Sarah (age 15) and I will be on a plane headed to Rome. Our archdiocese is leading a pilgrimage, and we’re on it.

Post: “Reel Faith” Update

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:16:00 EST

Yesterday I taped the fourth episode of Reel Faith with David DiCerto. We discussed Knight and Day, Grown Ups, and Jonah Hex, as well as the documentary Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders. It airs tomorrow, Friday, June 24 at 8:30pm. As usual, you can watch it online at the show’s website, either when it airs or anytime over the next week.

Post: UPDATE: Hollywood admits its originality problem!

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:13:41 EST

UPDATE: Hat tip to Ross Douthat for highlighting an intriguing recent NYMag.com piece on Hollywood’s originality problem.

Review: Knight and Day (2010)

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:11:06 EST

Little things like plot holes and leaps in logic shouldn’t matter that much when a movie like this is working. Watching Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade is a lot of fun even if you’re not completely sure afterward exactly what happened. If True Lies works for you, it’s because of how Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis sell it, not because the story makes so much sense. When you find yourself nit-picking plot points and character motivations, it’s a sign the movie isn’t working.

Post: The Secret of Kells: A Conversation with Jeffrey Overstreet

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:51:50 EST

UPDATE: Over at Image Journal, Jeffrey Overstreet and I are talking about The Secret of Kells. Part 1 and Part 2 are now both available. (Note: Some spoilers!)

Article: Fatherhood and Hollywood: Dads in the Movies

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:26:31 EST

Hollywood’s ambivalence about fatherhood is deeply entrenched. Ambivalence, though, is not mere hostility; often it is rooted in a real awareness of the irreplaceable importance of fatherhood, and in melancholy or anger over paternal failure in a fallen, broken world.