Finding Good News in Film

Dear SFBC family,

I watch a lot of movies. No, really. I mean A LOT of movies.

The reason has mostly to do with my husband Scotty. He’s a massive film lover whose education is in film production. He’s worked in the film industry for 15 years, and watches hundreds of movies a year. I always like to joke that in the nine years we’ve been together I’ve seen more movies than in the first 25 years of my life combined…but it’s not a joke.

Most of the movies I watch are not explicitly about religious or Christian themes, which I honestly love for two reasons: first, because I am immersed in the world of faith all the time, and second, because often movies that deal with Christianity (or at least USAmerican Christianity) are either overtly flattering in a way that lacks intentionality or just use The Church, ministers, and churchgoers as punching bags, relegating Christian faith and its followers to be painted by a broad brush of anti-intellectualism, hateful bigotry against LGBTQIA+ people, and deadly misogyny.

But recently I’ve found myself enthralled by three particular movies where faith is in focus with intentionality, honesty, compassion and a depth of thought that is sorely missing in many movies. They are Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, and (for something completely different) Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 The Gospel According to St. Matthew. I highly recommend each of these to you!

Sinners is an incredible movie that is nominated for 16 Oscars this year, setting the record for the highest number of nominations for a film ever (previously the record was 14, held by Titanic, All About Eve, and La La Land). This is a horror film, a genre that I usually do not enjoy, but here the horror is not as much the vampires as the horrors of systemic racism in the Jim Crow South. The history of the African diaspora and European colonization in North America is told through music and engagement with Christianity, Hoodoo, indigenous spirituality and cross-cultural legends. Questions abound about good and evil, grace and forgiveness, and the nature of belief.

Wake Up Dead Man is the latest in the Knives Out series featuring Daniel Craig as the premier detective Benoit Blanc. It takes place in a fictional town in upstate New York where a fierce and fiery priest abuses his ordination by manipulating his flock. He meets an unfortunate end and the new priest, full of Christ’s love as a shepherd, pairs up with Blanc to solve an unsolvable mystery. The backdrop is Holy Week and all the conversational trappings of sin, forgiveness, grace, pastoral care, resurrection, and the nature of faith itself that you’d expect from the holiest week of the year. And there is a scene which I think is the best depiction of what it is like to be a pastor that I’ve ever seen in pop culture.

And finally, Italian filmmaker Pasolini’s journey through the gospel of Matthew (I viewed it at The Beacon Cinema in Columbia City, one of the great independent theaters of our city). All the words are spoken are directly from the Italian translation of the gospel, and all of the actors are non-professional, lending a disarming realism and humanity to everyone, Jesus included. The music ranges from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion to Odetta’s “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” as the music was selected based on what Pasolini felt was the most spiritual. The Vatican called this film the best film on Jesus ever made, and I think that may be true. The film is incredibly faithful to the gospel of Matthew and its viewpoint, locating Jesus somewhere between itinerant teacher and vibrant union organizer. And Pasolini’s resolve to capture unpolished images of human beings is a reminder for those who would see it that the Good News is for all.

In keeping with our Lenten theme, there is Good News in each film, though it may be different than what you expect. If you watch any of these films, please let me know what you think and where you find Good News. Perhaps the gospel can be revealed in a Mississippi juke joint, in a thrilling Christ-like mystery, and in the faithful depiction of Jesus from a self-described atheist. I believe I’ve witnessed it.

I love you and I love being your pastor.

Rev. Anita