How do you define “blockbuster?”  I suspect that in Hollywood the simple answer is determined by the box office - how much money did the movie make?  In the case of Top Gun Maverick there are $1.493 Billion reasons to consider it a blockbuster.  This long awaited sequel (35 years) that endured release delays (thanks to Covid) finally made it the big screen on May 27, 2022 and it did not disappoint.  It is everything we have grown to know and love about movies - big stars, excellent cinematography, an easy story to follow, and in some quirky way…relatable.  That’s right, relatable.  I suspect most of you reading this have not been a naval fighter jet aviator who had the privilege of participating in the Top Gun school.   Burt maybe you have found yourself coming up against the curb of expectations, rules and regulations, not to mention societal and familial norms that may have rubbed you the wrong way. And when you consider all of this you find a ...

  Every so often I have the good fortune of being asked to preview a movie for a Hollywood Studio - call it a perk of having a weekly podcast called “Christ, Culture, and Cinema.”  The Hollywood studios don’t typically come knocking on my door for the next horror movie or thriller…but, when it brushes up against the Christian faith, they must figure a podcast that starts with the word “Christ” might have something to say about the movie.  Now to be honest, my partner Michael Popp and I are typically open to every genre of movie and usually avoid the Christian themed movies - maybe we don’t want to be accused of picking “low hanging fruit” for our podcast.  But when asked to watch a movie in advance, Michael and I are all in!  Well, maybe Michael and I need to start paying more attention to movies like Praise This .   Set in the backdrop of Atlanta and the large non-denominational African American churches - as well as the hip hop and rap music scene, this m...

  There are moments in life when all of the puzzle pieces come together and you have a complete picture.  At that moment everything makes sense - you understand why certain things happened the way they did and the reason why certain people were involved.  The problem is that most of the time we don’t really see the big picture.  Call it what you will - we are wearing the “lenses of the moment.”  We tend to only see what is going on right in front of us - through our unique and specific lenses.  We are not acutely attuned to the happenings and circumstances of others that may be sitting in the seat across from us on a plane or train, living in the house next door, or working at the desk across the sea of cubicles in our office.  We see what we see because that is what we are experiencing.  We fail to realize that what others are doing and experiencing may have a critical intersection point with our own life.   Enter the movie Bullet Train (dir...

  Life is messy - not a little messy - it’s very messy.  Families aren’t all they are supposed to be.  Parents let down their children; children fail their parents.  Hopeful and bright futures can become clouded and darkened by poor choices and ever-changing circumstances.  What we expect is not necessarily what we get in the end.  And then to compound matters the unreasonable expectations and beatific images that those around us expect cause us to be crushed under the weight of unrealistic expectations.   Maybe this is why the movie Father Stu resonated so much with me.  His life is messy - divorced parents, a mother who is co-dependent with her son, a father who is an absentee hardened alcoholic; a family trying to cope with the loss of a child in every inappropriate way possible.  Everyone seemingly is on their own left to their own devices to cope and manage their way through life.  Stuart Long (played by Mark Wahlberg) is at b...

  Let’s face it - life isn’t easy.  In fact, it can be downright hard.  Health, education, work, family - not to mention making ends meet and navigating the waters of the community and culture that we find ourselves.  Add in the layers of politics, crime, and environmental challenges and all of a sudden we are exhausted.  For many the Covid-19 pandemic also caused withdrawal and isolation from other people - so much so that they now are challenged to simply reconnect with co-workers, family, and friends who they once depended upon to do life together.   So, what if you experienced something so traumatic that it caused you to withdraw completely from your community?  Something that caused you to flee from everyone and everything?  To loose trust in the moral and social constructs that held your world together?  This is the story of Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne.  His parents murdered in front of him, this lone chil...

Life is filled with highs and lows, up and downs, good moments and challenging decisions.  As hard as we might try, staying in the lane of righteous and “holy” living is much easier said than done.  Within my Lutheran ethos we take confess and absolution seriously - it is hard for us to imagine a worship service without some form of corporate confession and absolution.  We use words like:  “I, a poor, miserable sinner…” and “we confess that we are sinful and unclean…”. We use these words because we have taken the time to examine our lives through the God’s holy and righteous Law, as expressed in the Ten Commandments and further explained through Luther’s Small Catechism.  We confess sins that we know we have done as well as those unknown to us but clearly known by our Lord who knows all, sees all…and is willing to forgive all.   Our Roman Catholic brethren are of like mind when it comes to the priority of confession - so much so that the “private” confessio...

What binds people together in friendship?   Is it common interests, education, or shared love of local sport teams?   Is it simple proximity to one another in a neighborhood or shared experiences in school?   I really want you to think long and hard about that question.   Is the friendship a consequence of mutual goals working together to achieve those goals?   I am sure that if you looked across the spectrum of your life you would discover people you considered “friends” that drifted in - and out - of your life.   There are some that have been there through thick and thin while others drifted away - so much so that one day you realized…they are gone.   So what happens when a movie challenges the notion of why you call somebody “friend” - you end up with a murder mystery called The Glass Onion:  A Knives Out Mystery.  A group of friends are summoned by a clue box to attend a murder mystery dinner on a private island owned by - you guessed i...