Watch What You Want (We Need Junk Food Stories)
After a few years of relative quietude from the highbrows, becalmed by the pandemic’s rocky release schedule, the elitist film critics began speaking up again last summer. They have a lot to say about movie quality.
The Binding and Loosing of Mickey Mouse
The Walt Disney Company‘s long road to becoming one of the most powerful, celebrated, and litigious entertainment companies on Earth actually began, not with a mouse, but with a rabbit. Inspired by the personality of silent film luminary Douglas Fairbanks…
Editorial: My Part in The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
I don’t think I’ve heard this much buzz around a podcast since Serial came out in late 2014. Remember that show? For a few tantalizing months that year, we were all wrapped up in the story of a young man…
How to Ruin a Movie in 45 Minutes
I talked in my last article about the bedrock principle behind what Reel World Theology does: figuring out the core of a story, and pointing out the resonance (or the dissonance) with God’s story. But what is the core of…
The MCU is Trying to Kill Reel World Theology
Marvel is trying to put Reel World Theology out of a job with phase four of their cinematic universe. In our little corner of the multiverse, it’s not exactly news that every story is about something; but over the past…
A Statement on Racial Justice
The staff at Reel World Theology mourn the unjust killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the many who came before because we believe that #BlackLivesMatter. We affirm the Imago Dei inherent in all human life. In this,…
Editorial: I’m Learning about Racism
I grew up outside a small, rural town that’s so ordinary and homogenous that there’s actually a documentary about it. I stole a joke from somewhere that “I was twelve before I learned that the name of my town wasn’t…
Starting 2020 Right: 21 Midnight Moments
A new year is coming. Maybe a new decade too, but at least a new year. We can all agree on that, right? If you use a different calendar consider this extreme pre-planning, or bookmark this article and read it…
Editorial: Martin Scorsese and the Marvel-Go-Round
Around the middle of the decade, Harper’s critic Charles E. Whittaker gave a scathing film review. Art is supposed to be expressive, he said; but the idea of “art” is far from the movie… …not merely in absence, but in…