New Year’s Eve is a time to gather, reflect, celebrate, and look towards the future.   When I reflect I think back to a simpler time - growing up in Spotswood, New Jersey.   My parents would invite friends over on New Year’s Eve - lots of food, beverages, and laughter.   As the night would draw on the kids (myself included) would retreat to the family room to watch the movie:   It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World .   The movie had a large ensemble cast of famous actors and actresses of the day.   The premise?   A group of motorists witness a car crash in the California desert.   They all hear the dying man’s words about a stash of hidden money.   The motorists turn against each other in a race across the state to find it first.   What makes the movie so funny is how each person turns against the others.   It’s all about the individual…it’s all about greed.   Each character likable and lovable.   But each character filled with obsessive greed. But what if everyone decided to work toge

 After much pushing and prodding by my associate Michael, I finally gave in and said we could do a podcast on the movie, The Polar Express.  Maybe the tipping point was when he presented to me a plea from a former member who now lives closer to the North Pole - somewhere in the wilderness of Alaska - than any other person I know.  I have to admit that the the process used to create the movie is intriguing; however, it’s also a little creepy.  The film features human characters animated using live-action and motion capture CGI animation.  This allows one actor - in this case, Tom Hanks - to play several characters in the story.  And to put it simply, that’s just weird.  Based on a beloved children’s book, I was willing to forge through the “creep-factor” of the movie too see what could be gleaned.   In watching this movie my heart was warmed and my theological barometer activated.  The story is fairly simple:  A boy is beginning to falter in his faith about Santa Claus.  In the thick of

 Every Christmas season on my podcast, my associate Michael and I consider a movie that may - or may not - be a Christmas movie.  We considered Die Hard and came to the conclusion that it IS a Christmas movie.  Next, we considered Lethal Weapon.  When you have a car chase through a Christmas Tree lot it has to be a Christmas movie!  Which brings us to our movie of choice this year:  Batman Returns.  This 1992 superhero movie has the backdrop of Christmas in Gotham City - decorations, Christmas trees, and even snow for good measure.  Surely this MUST be a Christmas movie…but alas, after a thorough consideration of this film, we can only conclude that it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.  BUT…that isn’t to say this movie doesn’t have an important message for you and me to consider. The director, Tim Burton, has a habit of making movies that challenges the viewer to consider with softer and gentler lenses the odd, the misfit, the freak of society and how they exactly fit in to

 So how is your December going?  Has your schedule filled up, your bank account and credit cards been challenged, decorations out and tree decorated?  Are your presents purchased and wrapped and Christmas cards mailed?  Just thinking about the answers to these questions make my heart race a little faster and my head start to hurt!  The vision of the prefect Christmas preparations and celebrations looms large in the American lenses of holiday cheer.  And why not - it is attainable if we work hard enough to make it so!   However, there is a warning beacon flashing in our faces every December.  Well, maybe not a beacon but a character…and not just any character - it’s none other than Chevy Chase reprising his role as the fumbling and bumbling father, Clark Griswold.  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is filled with stunts and bumps, excessive home decor and a burning Christmas Tree, family and neighbors, and even an RV illegally parked out in front of the chaos that is the Griswold ho

 I started this journey in October 2019 and it began rather harmlessly.  I went to the theater to see the movie Joker starring JoaquinPhoenix.  But something happened during that movie experience.  I saw something different than most of the people sitting in the theater that night.  Most, I suspect, saw a villainous DC comic book movie.  I, on the other hand, saw an indictment on the mental health system.  The movie caused me to have an emotional response to the character, the situation he found himself in, and alas, the violence that poured out.  I processed my feelings and put fingers to keyboard and wrote a Facebook post.  A post that would be shared, and shared, and…well, shared again.  My suspicion was that people wanted to “see” what I “saw.”  People wanted to experience what I experienced in the theater. Fast forward three years, my associate (and friend) Michael and I have been doing a weekly podcast, called “Christ, Culture, and Cinema,” where we try to figure out how our life