Over Zoom, my young-adult counseling client smiled when I noticed her new poster hanging on the wall behind her. The active-duty military service member said, “It’s Huntrix — the musical group from the movie KPop Demon Hunters.” Later I saw…
Rated “J” for Jesus: A box office blasphemy
In the global capitals of cinema — Hollywood in the United States, Bollywood in India, and Nollywood in Nigeria — one name crosses genres, crosses cultures and crosses continents. It’s not the name of a starlet, a mogul, or a…
‘The Ritual’ A Refreshingly Earnest (If Unoriginal) Return To The Exorcism Genre
Americans — and Hollywood studios — never seem to get tired of exorcism movies, whether it’s two starring Russell Crowe within a year of each other (“The Pope’s Exorcist” and “The Exorcism”), another “The Exorcist” sequel (“The Exorcist: Believer”), a…
Kevin Smith’s Dogma is back in theaters
One of the most famous religious satires of the past few decades will be back in theaters June 6 as part of a limited release for its 25th anniversary restoration. When Kevin Smith’s Dogma was released in November 1999, it…
Banned Together documentary challenges ‘book burnings’
Amid a plethora of culture war issues dividing America today, book bans are among the most visible and controversial. From Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth banning books at the U.S. Naval Academy to parents attempting to ban books in public…
This Studio Turns to Viewers of Faith to Greenlight Movies
When “Sound of Freedom,” a $14.5 million indie film about child trafficking based on the life of a Homeland Security agent, stormed the box office to become an unlikely $250 million hit, practically nobody saw its runaway success coming.
New film resurrects an old question: What kind of Christian was Reagan?
In an election year in which Ronald Reagan could not be elected by his own Republican Party, some evangelicals have made a movie portraying America’s 40th president as a Christian saint. Prior to the cultic adulation of the Trump era,…
A year in review: An informal survey of 2022 pop-culture highlights for BNG readers
It’s that time of year once again when everyone makes lists of their favorite things from the past year. But the year 2022 has been long. With the world gradually attempting to return to a somewhat-normal, somewhat-forever-changed state after the…
Lessons from Birth of a Nation (the second one)
A few years ago a controversial movie with an even more controversial title was released about the life of Nat Turner, a 19th century Black preacher who led a slave revolt in Virginia. Birth of a Nation was an ironic…
Greg Garrett, Baylor prof and BNG columnist, awarded Baugh grant for research on race and media
BNG columnist and Baylor University professor Greg Garrett has received a three-year, $488,000 grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation to further his research on how film and other media shape attitudes about race and racism. “I’m so…
When COVID shut down this church’s 26-year theatrical run, they made a movie instead
For 25 years, a Baptist congregation in Brooklyn, N.Y., staged a theatrical production exposing the trans-Atlantic slave trade in all-too tragic and graphic detail. When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the annual production of “The MAAFA: A Healing Journey,” St. Paul…
Films on race can help us have hard conversations
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the country and across the globe, HBO Max announced earlier this summer that it was pulling the historical epic Gone with the Wind (1939) from the streaming lineup. Then it…