Author Archives: davetcourt

Reading Journal 2024: ThistlefootAuthor: GennaRose Nethercott Full credit to this book for introducing me to the legend of Baba Yaga, an enigmatic and popular figure in Slavic folklore (full points too for the Ukrainian backdrop for this most recent adaptation of the famed story). This also helped me to make sense of its reference inContinue reading “Reading Journal 2024: Thistlefoot”

Film Journal 2024: Back to Black Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson It’s a flawed film, to be sure. The way they shoot the film is very flat, and it definitely could have used some cinematic flourishes to give the thing some layers. It throws us straight into her personal struggles, leaving very little room for anContinue reading “Film Journal 2024: Back to Black”

Reading Journal 2024: Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and CompellingAuthor: Nijay K Gupta In Ann Jarvis’ Paul and Time, she makes a persuasive argument against familiar conceptions of either the overlap of the ages (old and new creation), or views that see the new age as future occurrence. Indeed, Jesus didContinue reading “Reading Journal 2024: Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling”

Reading Journal 2024: Shady HollowAuthor: Juneau Black I noticed a descriptive that cited this as Wind in the Willows meets Agatha Christie. Not sure that totally works, but it’s fun to imagine and gets you thinking in the right direction in terms of the vibe of this book. I’m not typically a big fan ofContinue reading “Reading Journal 2024: Shady Hollow”

If you know those places of wrestling with and walking through periods of disenchantment when it comes to faith and God and church, this (Will Carlisle’s The Crocus) is an album for those honest questions and those honest places to be layed bare and given validation. Raw. Poignant. Healing. Liberating. The opening track begins aContinue reading “Where is my Hallelujah”

Reading Journal 2024: Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s DeathAuthor: Andrew Remington Rillera Lamb of the Free provides the perfect compliment to a preexisting body of work that is revisiting and reexaminjng some commonly held beliefs about the Atonement, the cross, and our understanding of salvation, including David M. Moffitt’sContinue reading “Reading Journal 2024: Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death”

Film Journal 2024: IFDirected by John Krasinski I recognize there is probably room for sone level of critique here, but I really resonated with the spirit and themes of this film. It’s a specific audience, gearing older then I expected, not in terms of content but in terms of theme and target. It’s a familyContinue reading “Film Journal 2024: IF”

Film Journal 2024: About Dry GrassesDirected by Nuri Bilge Ceylan You could say a nearly 3 and half hour run time documenting a gradual spiral into an existential crisis using a script made up primarily of dialigue/conversation doesn’t sound like riveting cinema. Rest assured it is. The fact that it never really resolves its inateContinue reading “Film Journal 2024: About Dry Grasses”

Film Journal 2024: Dreamin WildDirected by Bill Pohlad I’m a big fan of Casey Affleck, and this story about a middle aged man coming to realize his dream to make music and be successful later in life hits at my own once upon a time ambitions and dreams as a musician. Which is to say,Continue reading “Film Journal 2024: Dreamin Wild”

Film Journal 2024: Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaDirected by George Miller A different kind of movie than Fury Road in the way the story is structured and in the way the film is shot. However, these differences exist as the perfect compliment to a more complete experience and fleshed out narrative. The fever pitch natureContinue reading “Film Journal 2024: Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaDirected by George Miller”