1917
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
When Schofield and Blake receive the grim orders from the general, they respond with a firm salute. This resolute gesture, made with unmistakable dread in their eyes, captures the beauty of duty and simple obedience, of saying “yes” to something costly and hard, simply because an authority above you gives the order. In a “follow your heart” world where “do as you’re told” deference to authority is tantamount to blasphemy, the moment feels radical and refreshing—and the rest of the film only builds on it.
See also: Jared C. Wilson’s “Some Men Just Like the Fight.”
Ford v Ferrari
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
The film beautifully captures some of the tensions of fatherhood. How do you teach your child safety and prudence without raising them to be too safe and risk-averse? How do you shield them from danger without being overprotective? How do you model ambition and risk-taking without recklessly setting them (or you) up for disaster? What’s the value of modeling diligence toward some hard-won achievement, if it means more time away from home?
The Irishman
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
The sadness and emptiness of [Sheeran’s] life—for all its grand underworld exploits and made-for-the-movies drama—stands as a bracing warning to the viewer. Your earthly life is a vapor, a quickly forgotten whisper. All you do in the name of your fleshly fortune and glory will fade into oblivion. But your eternal soul will live on forever—in heaven or in hell. And death, as Scorsese so rightly reminds us, is coming for us all. What are you doing to prepare yourself, and others, for that day?
Jojo Rabbit
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
For all its insights and laudable efforts to show the stupidity of hate, Jojo Rabbit at times falls into the same trap Joker does. Both films frame bad behavior around situational factors to such an extent that they nearly absolve their central characters of any guilt. Are Jojo and Arthur Fleck powerless victims, on dark paths because of external circumstances? That these films open the door for such an explanation shows how much today’s world struggles to acknowledge the reality of original sin.
Joker
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
We’re desperate to find containable causes for evil behavior, because the alternative—that our fallen nature means any of us could become a villain too—is for some too unsettling. There are a lot of mirrors in Joker—many shots of Fleck looking at himself, his clown makeup smeared by blood and tears. But the ghastly images of Fleck are less disturbing than what the film reflects back to us: a society strangely intoxicated by macabre spectacles but oddly resistant to confronting the realities of evil, least of all in our own hearts.
Little Women
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
The novel seems at times to be warring betwee two contrasting worldviews. This is a strength, not a flaw. Inferior art advocates; good art wrestles. Little Women wrestles. It wrestles with various aspects of the human condition—and of being a woman in particular—that transcend its characters and its time. In recognizing the novel’s timelessness, Gerwig’s re-reading remains faithful to the spirit and sense of the original.
Marriage Story
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
It’s fascinating that both popular culture and also biblical wisdom identify the significance of marriage and the pitfalls of divorce. Marriage is no minor thing; it’s sacred and metaphysical, something that mysteriously points beyond itself, to God himself (Eph. 5:32). There is no casual way to “uncouple” a marriage, just as there is no way to cut off part of your body and expect it to be bloodless. Trying to undo “what God has joined together” (Mark 10:9) is like cutting out a chunk of reinforced concrete and trying to refashion it for some other purpose.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
In celebrating cinema’s “eternity-glimpsing” power, Once Upon a Time ultimately only stokes the fires of our desire for a better ending. The satisfaction of its ending is powerful, but provisional. We leave the theater pleased with the catharsis we’ve just witnessed—but then we remember it is fiction. Still, insofar as it inflames our longing for injustice to be addressed and death to be reversed, it’s a refreshing meaningful film.
Parasite
Excerpt from TGC’s review:
Whether on top or on bottom (literally in the film, which accents the motif of upstairs and downstairs status), the parasites of desire—wanting more, better, or different—are still lurking, ravenous as ever. Achievements and status, it turns out, do not solve the central problem—the central parasite—of our sinful nature. And the more we ascend, the more we spiral into sin. Depravity is universal, as Parasite understands. It’s a bleak message, but one that sets up the glorious hope of the gospel. For just as depravity touches all rungs on the ladder, so too does the salvation offered to us in Christ.