Author Archives: davetcourt

Checking in at the halfway point to see how things are shaping up for my working list of top films of the year. Best, favorite, I know there is a distinction. But for me those lines get blurred fairly quickly when I’m sitting down and looking through which titles must be represented. Perhaps a betterContinue reading “Top 12 Films at the Halfway Point: Film Journal 2023 (And The Best of the Rest)”

This is two posts in one: Post #1 I know this is a lot verses, but I wanted to outline the flow of the early chapters of Genesis in terms of it being a story about God’s promise. Note how each of the stories is marked by an act that leads to something contrary toContinue reading “The Genesis of Creation, The Problem of Violence, and God’s Revealing Work of Goodness”

Here is a philosophical idea I have been playing with lately. Mostly in response to questions I have been grappling with and which others have posed to me. It has to do with how we measure or lay claim to the value of a life. Or perhaps more specifically, the question of a meaningful life.Continue reading “The Measure of a Life: The Philosophical Quandry of Meaning”

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”