The movie's premise may be debatable, but the people who made it are notorious for their controversial work. Kip Andersen, the director, co-produced successful documentaries like "Seaspiracy," "Cowspiracy," and "What the Health," which exposed the fishing, dairy, and meat industries. These films gained much attention, views, and backlash but undoubtedly made a significant impact.

Seven years in the making, the film tracks Andersen, a self-described "quasi-spiritual Buddhist yogi," and his fellow film-maker Kameron Waters, a one-time Southern Baptist and gospel musician, as they seek new insights about the compatibility of religion and meat eating. The pair go from investigating a Kosher farm in Israel to tracking a cow-smuggling truck in New Delhi, examining people's spiritual frameworks while eating, farming, selling and slaughtering animals. Read more

"Kler" ("Clergy") revolves around the lives of three fictional Catholic priests who swill vodka and mock the church. One of them sexually abuses a blind orphan boy. Read more

In the end, you feel uneasy at such a hagiography and the personality cult it exudes, to which the Catholic Church lends itself so easily, even if one guesses that this pope is fundamentally opposed to it…

A word to hear

And yet, this film is a must-see, especially since the Church is today wounded to the core by the sex abuse crisis and one can sometimes doubt its capacity to emerge from it.

You must see this film because it says how much Jorge Bergoglio, an old man born more than 80 years ago in Argentina, a Jesuit, priest and pope, is an extraordinary personality, doubtless one of the most extraordinary ones of our era, the early 21st century.

And since, precisely, he is the pope of the Catholics, it is indispensable, as a Catholic, to go and listen to him at least once.

Continue reading

Image: Catholic Family News

Taking to Twitter Salesian Sister "B" said it would be a lot of fun to go to the movie and during a creepy part just slowly stand up from a front row seat and turn around and kinda hissed at everyone." Read more

The movie only has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Novitiate" takes place just before the Second Vatican Council. Read more

In a soon-to-be-made Netflix movie version of the play, Jonathan Pryce, who played the role of the High Sparrow in season 6 of The Game of Thrones, will play the part of Pope Francis.

The movie tells the story of Pope Benedict's election and his subsequent resignation from the papacy which opened the door for Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be elected Pope.

The drama conveys Bergoglio's reluctance to take the papacy in 2013. It shows his humility and devotion to the poor, and how he has become a galvanising force for tolerance and change.

McCarten was born and raised in New Plymouth, and attended Francis Douglas Memorial College.

He worked as a reporter on The Taranaki Herald, did an Arts degree at Massey University then at Victoria University where he studied creative writing with Bill Manhire.

While on holiday in Rome, McCarten was in St Peter's Square when Pope Francis was speaking to the public, his face up on the screen.

"I became aware that not too far behind him, in a small convent, there is another living pope, Pope Benedict, and I thought, 'how unusual is it to have two living popes'," McCarten said.

"These two popes couldn't be more unlike one another: one is sort of a closed-off intellectual and Francis a man of the people. In terms of their basic theology, they're almost polar opposites as well, so I could just imagine a cardinal and a pope having a sort of papal smackdown on stage."

McCarten, who wrote the five-time Oscar-nominated movie The Theory of Everything (about Stephen Hawking), will also write the script for the upcoming film Darkest Hour (about Winston Churchill).

Source

• Deadline
• Stuff
• Image Business Insider / Crux

The movie, which its director says is a contemporary take on Ignatius's life, is important.

"There is a need for this new material on St. Ignatius of Loyola, especially because the young people now are very visual." Read more

The movie also won best original screenplay.

"This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican," said producer Michael Sugar.

"Pope Francis: it's time to protect the children and restore the faith," added Sugar.

Matt Carroll, one of the reporters of The Boston Globe, expressed hope that the movie will continue "to help victims for a long time to come."

"Spotlight" had been praised as the most influential and critically acclaimed movie about journalism since "All The President's Men" in 1976.

The movie dramatized the 2001-2002 The Boston Globe investigation that spurred some abuse survivors to come forward for the first time.

In 2001, Marty Baron, editor The Boston Globe, assigned a team of journalists to investigate allegations against John Geoghan, an unfrocked priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys.

Led by editor Walter "Robby" Robinson, reporters Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll, and Sacha Pfeiffer interviewed victims and tried to unseal sensitive documents.

The reporters made it their mission to provide proof of a cover-up of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

In October 2015, Vatican Radio praised "Spotlight" for demonstrating "the inexhaustible and uncontainable force of the truth."

Luca Pellegrini, an art and culture commentator for Vatican Radio, wrote that the movie director "never gives in to personal interpretation or falls into the trap of scandal." He also hailed the "extraordinary performances" by actors Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton.

Pellegrini wrote that the Catholic Church should not be wary of a film about its past failures.

Sources

CNN
Crux
The Hollywood Reporter
The Guardian
Reuters
Image: AP/NPR

Was it biblical? Was it the least biblical Bible movie ever made?

These questions flare up in what is frankly a flat and over-rehearsed debate about the Bible in [Western] life.

Honestly, does it matter whether a movie is biblical? Do the spiritual-but-not-religious care?

Do those evangelicals who grow tired of the stereotype made of them in the media care? Do secular liberals who have no use for the Bible really care about these questions?

We can ask a better question, a more crucial and more meaningful question, "Why does The Flood continue to work as a powerful cultural story?"

Indeed, The Flood is one of the most ancient and oft recycled stories in world cultures.

In looking at The Flood today, we participate in thousands of years of meaning-making.

We connect ourselves to world literature, to ancient civilisations, and to a perennial story about a cataclysm that changed the world. Continue reading.

Source: Religion Dispatches

Image: Reading Cinemas

Responding to a review in the New York Post that called the film "hateful and boring," the letter published by Deadline replied directly to the Post's critic, Kyle Smith.

The Guardian quoted the letter: "Your review of the movie paints its story as being a condemnation of Catholicism and conservative views. It states that the relationship depicted between Mr Martin Sixsmith and myself comes across as contrived and trite, and funny for all the wrong reasons. Forgive me for saying so, Kyle, but you are incorrect."

"Philomena," based on Martin Sixsmith's book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee," tells the story of Lee and Sixsmith's attempt to contact Lee's son, removed from her by the nuns with whom she has taken refuge in 1950s Ireland. Judi Dench plays Lee, and Steve Coogan the journalist and former spin doctor Sixsmith.

Lee's letter then goes on to paint her as a staunch Catholic, despite her experiences.
"The story it tells has resonated with people not because it's some mockery of ideas or institutions that they're in disagreement with. This is not a rally cry against the church or politics. In fact, despite some of the troubles that befell me as a young girl, I have always maintained a very strong hold on my faith."

Sources

NewsTalk
Deadline
The Guardian
Image: NewsTalk