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"You can't measure the success of a [film] on how many tickets it sells. You can only measure it in how many hearts it changes." Hayao Miyazaki …more »»  
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is about loving film and finding life. We find films old and new worth talking about. Then, we turn things around: We spend less time critiquing a film and more time seeing if the film can critique us. With any film, we:

  • Focus first on how a film embodies the best in life — good, true, beautiful things — even if its filmcraft falls short.
  • Tone down (but don’t ignore) our critique of a film’s failings.
  • Allow a film to show ugly sides of life if, by doing so, it might help us see a better path to the best in life.

Why? Because life is better when the world’s a better place, and that starts with us. Whether on DVD or the big screen, we have a good time and we want movies to help us get better. Other bits on the site:




A angle on film is about how we change from the inside out and how film can help us do that. It works like this:

Change from the inside out

  • Heart. On the inside, in our hearts, is who we really are. A film can show us the best things in life and move us toward loving them.
  • Beauty. Our hearts move with Beauty — good, true, pleasing things. A film can help us feel the joy of real Beauty or the pain of Beauty’s absence.
  • Love. As a film moves us toward Beauty, we can find and live love and relationship with those around us.

Be thoughtful about film

  • Find a film’s heart. Seeing a film, we want more than the fun of the moment. We also want the film’s heart to move us toward the best in life.
  • Take care with content. We see films that dive deep into ugly issues of this life, and thus show ugly things, but we don’t want to enjoy ugly content for its own sake.
  • Consider what to watch. We see a broad range of films, yet we aim to choose better films that enrich our lives with Beauty in the moment and that also help us get better.

I hope you’ll join us.

Randy Heffner
organizer


Talk about great films: Once (2007)

Before viewing talk
Both the music and the story are excellent, and the way they are intertwined notably raises the impact and resonance of the film's exploration of ...more »»
After viewing talk
Once strengthened for me the Beauty of relationships and commitment. For a time, Guy and Girl have a wonderful thing going in the music they share and … more »»
 
…more »»  

Reviews and stuff on other interesting film sites



Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Like the boy that shares its name, the Harry Potter series stumbled from the gate, saddled not entirely unexpectedly with inexperience…

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
It is no secret that I disliked the first two Transformers films. In fact, I employ no hyperbole whatsoever in admitting that…

Larry Crowne
Several years ago, one of my dearest friends starred in a national CitiCard commercial in which a woman Feng shuis her house (the…

Cars 2
It was bound to happen. No one can keep a winning streak like that going forever. A 25-year perfect game isn’t exactly shabby.…

The Green Lantern
When I was young, I accidentally punched a hole in the side of our garage wall with a wayward snow shovel. Terrified at the implications…

Super 8
Nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy…

X-Men: First Class
In a summer unfortunately glutted with superhero movies, every one an origins story, X-Men: First Class not only eclipses its…

The Tree of Life
Author’s Note: The following is less a standard film review and more a lengthy, deeply personal and impressionistic filmic examination. When…

Kung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu Panda 2 is disappointing only because it is not the original Kung Fu Panda, a rare animated action-packed adventure that…

The Hangover: Part II
To dispense with a lengthy plot synopsis for The Hangover: Part II would be a profound waste of the time it would take me to write…

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Fan fiction is an awkward literary subset written not by the original creator of a given work, but rather by fans. Nearly always…

Bridesmaids
It is both artistically dishonest and embarrassingly naive to grant the status of “classic” to something only newly born.…

Priest
Priest is the sort of movie you walk into knowing full well its IQ is significantly less than the bucket of popcorn balanced in…

Thor
The problem with the current crop of superhero movies is that once you’ve exhausted the A-list (Superman, Spider-Man, Batman),…

Fast Five
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states roughly that there is a universal tendency for all things to progress from order to disorder.…

Updated: 27 Jan 2012, 22:00 UTC

 


Hallmark hits a home run with ‘A Smile as Big as the Moon’
My review in the National Catholic Reporter: Hallmark hits a home run with ‘A Smile as Big as the Moon’.…

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen opens March 9
I’ve seen this and will be reviewing it soon. I must say, I really liked it. It’s a dream that imagines faith and…

Tree of Life screening in 35mm + panel Jan. 14, 2012, UCLA


War Horse review
Among the many themes that emerge or converge in the films of director, producer, writer Steven Spielberg are lonely children…

On Faith and Media Film Reviews
    For my recent reviews on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Young Adult My Week with Marilyn The Descendants and more ……

New movie review site at RCL Benziger for Catechesis & Religious Education
  Click here to access site http://sisterrosemovies.com…

Have a Little Faith to air Sunday, November 27 (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
Have a Little Faith (Sunday, November 27, ABC, 9/8) is Mitch Albom‘s fourth book into a made-for-TV movie and the Hallmark…

The Way with Martin Sheen – don’t miss it!
The panel for the special screening of THE WAY last Saturday night in Los Angeles; photo by Frederic Charpentier On Nov. 5, Catholics…

The Mighty Macs
The St. Anthony Messenger November 2011 issue has a feature about the story that inspired the film. Check it out!  Here’s…

The Cinema of Adoption
  To go along with National Adoption Month in the US, here is a link to my column On Faith and Media in St. Anthony Messenger…

Updated: 27 Jan 2012, 22:00 UTC