Author Archives: davetcourt

Film Journal 2023: The CovenantDirected by Guy Ritchie It took a little bit for me to wrap my head around Guy Ritchie taking on something this serious and this studied and dark. The first half of this film, which is where it really shines, goes a long ways in proving this marriage can work. ItsContinue reading “Film Journal 2023: The Covenant”

Film Journal 2023: ElementalDirected by Peter Sohn The Good Dinosaur is not among my highest rated Pixar films, but to this day it remains one of my favorites. It trades the typical complexities of Pixars more legendary titles for simple storytelling, drawing out themes not through conceptual designs and intricate storytelling devices but through employjngContinue reading “The Elementals of the Parent-Child Relationship: Finding Fatherhood in Pixar”

I am a school bus driver by trade. I drive for a private Christian school which has its name printed I bold, advertised letters on the side of my bus. The other day while I was fueling, a trucker beside me at the pumps decided to engage me in conversation. It started with noting theContinue reading “Pride: The Meaning of Words And Symbols And The People Who Share Them”

Film Journal 2023: Flamin HotDirected by Eva Longitis Maybe this will be a hot take, appropriately so, but those crying foul over the news reports demonstrating that Montanez, the real life character behind the Memoir this film is based on, did not actually invent flamin hot cheetos are making a mountain out of a molehill.Continue reading “Film Journal 2023: Flamin Hot”

Film Journal 2023: The Wrath of BeckyDirected by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote Loses a bit of the magic of the first absent a scene stealing turn from Kevin James as the central antagonist. Seann William Scott is capable, but we don’t get enough time here, nor enough of a story for him to occupyContinue reading “Film Journal 2023: The Wrath of Becky”

Reading Journal 2023: Life On The Mississippi: An Epic American AdventureAuthor: Rinker Buck “American children have been raised for more than two hundred years on the cherished rubrics of the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal” and the inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But the founders who gaveContinue reading “Reading Journal 2023: Life On The Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure”

Reading Journal 2023: It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are And How To End The CycleAuthor: Mark Wolynn First off, let me address the apparent elephant in the room when it comes to this book. I had some suspicions in the early pages that the author might fall inContinue reading “Reading Journal 2023: It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are And How To End The Cycle”

Film Journal 2023: Transformers: Rise of the BeastsDirected by Steven Caple Jr. Positioned somewhere between Bumblebee’s not so subtle rewriting of the timeline when it came to Bay’s ever growing mythology, and Bay’s original Transformers, the jury’s out on whether to call this a sequel, a prequel or a reboot. And while it shares certainContinue reading “Film Journal 2023: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”

I’ve been thinking about these two interconnected pieces on Across the Spiderverse by Think Christian all day today. One a podcast episode, the other an article located here https://thinkchristian.net/spider-verses-great-commission and here https://thinkchristian.net/podcast/spider-verse-spirituality I had some similar thoughts floating around in my head, but I couldn’t quite place it or make sense of this. The elementContinue reading “Spiderverse And The Importance of Grand Narratives”

You can access this podcast episode on any platform you use for your podcasts through onscript. This is a dialouge with a scholar named David Moffitt about his new book Rethinking the Atonement. He specializes in the letter to the Hebrews, and this latest book is sort of summation of his interest in the subjectContinue reading “Rethinking the Atonement: A Different Way of Thinking About Life and Death”